

Data Skeptic
Kyle Polich
The Data Skeptic Podcast features interviews and discussion of topics related to data science, statistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and the like, all from the perspective of applying critical thinking and the scientific method to evaluate the veracity of claims and efficacy of approaches.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 13, 2020 • 32min
Sybil Attacks on Federated Learning
Clement Fung, a Societal Computing PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University, discusses his research in security of machine learning systems and a defense against targeted sybil-based poisoning called FoolsGold. Works Mentioned: The Limitations of Federated Learning in Sybil Settings Twitter: @clemfung Website: https://clementfung.github.io/ Thanks to our sponsors: Brilliant - Online learning platform. Check out Geometry Fundamentals! Visit Brilliant.org/dataskeptic for 20% off Brilliant Premium! BetterHelp - Convenient, professional, and affordable online counseling. Take 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/dataskeptic

Nov 6, 2020 • 30min
Differential Privacy at the US Census
Simson Garfinkel, Senior Computer Scientist for Confidentiality and Data Access at the US Census Bureau, discusses his work modernizing the Census Bureau disclosure avoidance system from private to public disclosure avoidance techniques using differential privacy. Some of the discussion revolves around the topics in the paper Randomness Concerns When Deploying Differential Privacy. WORKS MENTIONED: "Calibrating Noise to Sensitivity in Private Data Analysis" by Cynthia Dwork, Frank McSherry, Kobbi Nissim, Adam Smith "Issues Encountered Deploying Differential Privacy" by Simson L Garfinkel, John M Abowd, and Sarah Powazek "Randomness Concerns When Deploying Differential Privacy" by Simson L. Garfinkel and Philip Leclerc Check out: https://simson.net/page/Differential_privacy Thank you to our sponsor, BetterHelp. Professional and confidential in-app counseling for everyone. Save 10% on your first month of services with www.betterhelp.com/dataskeptic

Oct 30, 2020 • 28min
Distributed Consensus
Computer Science research fellow of Cambridge University, Heidi Howard discusses Paxos, Raft, and distributed consensus in distributed systems alongside with her work "Paxos vs. Raft: Have we reached consensus on distributed consensus?" She goes into detail about the leaders in Paxos and Raft and how The Raft Consensus Algorithm actually inspired her to pursue her PhD. Paxos vs Raft paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.05074 Leslie Lamport paper "part-time Parliament" https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf Leslie Lamport paper "Paxos Made Simple" https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf Twitter : @heidiann360 Thank you to our sponsor Monday.com! Their apps challenge is still accepting submissions! find more information at monday.com/dataskeptic

Oct 23, 2020 • 24min
ACID Compliance
The podcast discusses A.C.I.D. Compliance and its importance in database transactions. They illustrate transactional consistency with examples like Google Sheets and bank transactions. The hosts also explore ACID compliance in board games and databases, and discuss durability and scalability in database design. Additionally, they touch on accuracy and precision in data, introduce the Monday Apps Challenge, and delve into the relationship between ACID compliance, consistency, and consensus in databases.

Oct 16, 2020 • 31min
National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
Patrick Rosenstiel joins us to discuss the The National Popular Vote.

Oct 12, 2020 • 30min
Defending the p-value
Yudi Pawitan joins us to discuss his paper Defending the P-value.

Oct 5, 2020 • 32min
Retraction Watch
Ivan Oransky joins us to discuss his work documenting the scientific peer-review process at retractionwatch.com.

Sep 21, 2020 • 28min
Crowdsourced Expertise
Derek Lim joins us to discuss the paper Expertise and Dynamics within Crowdsourced Musical Knowledge Curation: A Case Study of the Genius Platform.

Sep 14, 2020 • 36min
The Spread of Misinformation Online
Neil Johnson joins us to discuss the paper The online competition between pro- and anti-vaccination views.

Sep 7, 2020 • 23min
Consensus Voting
Mashbat Suzuki joins us to discuss the paper How Many Freemasons Are There? The Consensus Voting Mechanism in Metric Spaces. Check out Mashbat's and many other great talks at the 13th Symposium on Algorithmic Game Theory (SAGT 2020)


