October 2021 - news - Mailing lists@ IFISC

IFISC News - Voces, CSIC Balears: Artificial Intelligence, laser and Reservoir Computing
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 20 Oct '21

20 Oct '21

Voces, CSIC Balears: Artificial Intelligence, laser and Reservoir Computing IFISC (UIB-CSIC) and the Institutional Representation of CSIC in the Balearic Islands join forces and create "Voces, CSIC Balears", a bimonthly podcast for the dissemination of science. Through interviews with scientists working at CSIC's centres in the Balearic Islands (IMEDEA CSIC-UIB, IFISC UIB-CSIC and ICTS SOCIB), it aims to increase the visibility of the science carried out in the region. The 13th episode of "Voices, CSIC Balears" features Irene Estébanez, PhD student at IFISC within the María de Maeztu project. Throughout the episode, the interviewee will explain her research, focusing on photonics, semiconductor lasers and the dynamics they generate, in particular on the hardware implementation of the Reservoir Computing technique. INTELIGENCIAARTIFICIAL, LÁSER Y RESERVOIR COMPUTING | VOCES, CSIC BALEARS #13 http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/voces-csic-balears-artificial-intelligence…

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IFISC News - Disease outbreak simulations reveal influence of “seeding” by multiple infected people
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

Disease outbreak simulations reveal influence of “seeding” by multiple infected people A new computational analysis suggests that, beyond the initial effect of one infected person arriving and spreading disease to a previously uninfected population, the continuous arrival of more infected individuals has a significant influence on the evolution and severity of the local outbreak. IFISC researchers’ Mattia Mazzoli, Jose Javier Ramasco, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, much research has investigated the dynamics of local outbreaks caused by the first detected cases in a population, which are linked to travel. However, few studies have explored whether and how the arrival of multiple infected individuals might impact the development of a local outbreak—a situation termed “multi-seeding.” To examine the impact of multi-seeding, they first simulated local outbreaks in Europe using a computational modeling approach. To capture travel and seeding events, the simulations incorporated real-world location data from mobile phones during March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began. These simulations suggested that there is indeed an association between the number of “seed” arrivals per local population and the speed of spread, the final number of people infected, and the peak incidence rate experienced by the population. This relationship appears to be complex and non-linear, and it depends on the details of the social contact network within the affected population, including the effects of lockdowns. To test whether the simulations accurately reflect real-world outbreaks, the researchers looked for similar associations between mobility data and COVID-19 incidence and mortality during the first wave of COVID-19 infection in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This analysis revealed strong signs of real-world multi-seeding effects similar to those observed in the simulations. Based on these findings, the researchers propose a method to understand and reconstruct the spatial spreading patterns of the main outbreak-producing events in every country. Researchers claim that, since the relevance of multi-seeding is now understood, it is crucial to develop containment measures that take it into account. Next, the researchers hope to incorporate the effects of vaccinations and antibodies acquired through infection into their simulations. Mazzoli M, Pepe E, Mateo D, Cattuto C, Gauvin L, Bajardi P, et al. (2021) Interplay between mobility, multi-seeding and lockdowns shapes COVID-19 local impact. PLoS Comput Biol 17(10): e1009326. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009326Science MagazineEl Diari de la UIB http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/disease-outbreak-simulations-reveal-influe…

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IFISC News - IFISC participates in the development of the CSIC's White Book on Scientific Challenges 2030
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 11 Oct '21

11 Oct '21

IFISC participates in the development of the CSIC's White Book on Scientific Challenges 2030 The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is launching 14 strategic themes to coordinate cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research teams to expand the frontiers of knowledge in areas such as the origin of life, the composition of matter, space exploration, the functioning of the brain, the energy transition, global society and the impact of global change, among others. The 14 themes are designed to serve as a reference framework for the development of the institution's scientific strategy, providing an insight into the research currently being carried out at CSIC and, at the same time, building a global vision of what the main scientific challenges will be in the coming decade. They are published together in the White Paper Scientific Challenges CSIC 2030, available on the CSIC website. As a centre at the forefront of research in Complex Systems, IFISC researchers have participated in the preparation of these documents. Importantly, Roberta Zambrini has coordinated the theme 10 Digital & Complex Information together with Gemma Rius (IMB-CNM). In the same theme, Miguel C. Soriano co-coordinates the chapter Advanced Photonics. In the theme 11 Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Data Science, Jose J. Ramasco co-coordinates the chapter Machine Learning and Data Science . IFISC researchers have also contributed to the themes of Challenges in Biomedicine and Health (vol. 4), Brain, Mind & Behaviour (vol. 5), and Ocean Science Challenges for 2030 (vol. 13). Nearly 1.100 researchers from more than 100 CSIC centres and other institutions (public research bodies, universities, etc.) have participated in the preparation of these documents. http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/ifisc-participates-development-csics-white…

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IFISC News - Nobel Prize in Physics for Complex Systems Research
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 05 Oct '21

05 Oct '21

Nobel Prize in Physics for Complex Systems Research The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 to Giorgio Parisi, Syukuro Manabe and Klauss Hasselmann “for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems”.First half of the prize was was awarded to Syukuro Manabe (Princeton University), originally from Japan, and Klaus Hasselmann (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Germany) “the physical modeling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.”The second half of the prize was awarded to Giorgio Parisi (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) of Italy for “the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales”. “The discoveries being recognised this year demonstrate that our knowledge about the climate rests on a solid scientific foundation, based on a rigorous analysis of observations. This year’s Laureates have all contributed to us gaining deeper insight into the properties and evolution of complex physical systems” states Thors Hans Hansson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.Parisi´s discoveries are among the most important contributions to the theory of complex systems. They make it possible to understand and describe many different and apparently entirely random materials and phenomena, not only in physics but also in other, very different areas, such as mathematics, biology, neuroscience and machine learning. Parisi has said that most of his research has dealt with how simple behaviours give rise to complex collective behaviours, and this applies to both spin glasses and starlings.As a research centre in cross-disciplinary physics and complex systems, IFISC congratulates the three award winners and takes this opportunity to highlight the value of research in Complex Systems transgressing the boundaries that separate scientific disciplines. http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/nobel-prize-physics-complex-systems-resear…

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IFISC News - A new world down there, finalist in the 2nd UIB Science Communication Competition
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 04 Oct '21

04 Oct '21

A new world down there, finalist in the 2nd UIB Science Communication Competition David Sánchez, researcher at IFISC (UIB-CSIC), has been selected as a finalist in the 2nd Science Popularisation Competition organised by the Vice-Rectorate for Innovation and Institutional Relations and the Unit for Scientific Culture and Innovation of the University of the Balearic Islands. His article, entitled Un mundo nuevo allí abajo, tells the story of the physicist Richard Feynmann and the beginnings of the field of nanoscience. The article is published on the science news and popular science website The Conversation. http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/new-world-down-there-finalist-2nd-uib-scie…

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