Mon 03 Nov 19:00: Benefits of data openness in a digital world
We are at a moment of extreme pessimism about data with news stories implicating social media and mobile phones in cyberespionage. To many this is a worrying state of affairs but are we worrying too much? In this talk I will argue that data openness and data-drive advertising are good things and are misunderstood. In particular data-driven advertising is not about controlling behaviour but involves targeting groups of people which brings economic benefits. Internet search data has been used to meet public health challenges such as providing insights into Zika and Ebola. I will argue we should be targeting the distribution of digital power rather than concerning ourselves with business models of particular companies.
- Speaker: Sam Gilbert, Bennett Institute for Public Policy
- Monday 03 November 2025, 19:00-21:00
- Venue: The Statistical Laboratory,Centre for Mathematical Sciences,Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WB.
- Series: Cambridge Statistics Discussion Group (CSDG); organiser: Peter Watson.
Wed 26 Nov 19:15: 100 years of educational trials – no significant difference?
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in education research have been carried out for over 100 years. Over the last 15 of these years their use has increased significantly. In this talk we examine the field of education research to address the key challenges faced by education trials today and possible solutions. Despite their growing use they have been subject to sustained and rather trenchant criticism from significant sections of the education research community. There are key areas in which RCTs require focus and improvement: in particular in recruitment and retention, implementation and outcome measures.
- Speaker: Riikka Hofmann, Faculty of Education
- Wednesday 26 November 2025, 19:15-21:00
- Venue: City House, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1RY.
- Series: Cambridge Statistics Discussion Group (CSDG); organiser: Peter Watson.
Tue 03 Feb 19:15: Connecting the False Discovery Rate to shrunk estimates
Science is currently facing a ‘replication crisis’ – a concern that many scientific findings reported are difficult or impossible to reproduce. A major cause of this is the availability of technology that permits the exploration and testing of very large numbers of hypotheses, some of which will almost certainly show large or significant effects by chance, even when no real effects are present: this is the ‘multiplicity’ or ‘multiple testing’ problem. The tools available to address this problem include: shrunk estimates, which reduce the estimated effect in relation to each hypothesis from the observed value towards the null value, and the False Discovery Rate (FDR), which relates to the subset of the hypotheses tested for which the discovery of an effect is announced, and states the proportion of these ‘discoveries’ that is expected to be false. This talk will first examine the conceptual basis for each of these tools, then consider how they are connected. Though shrunk estimates and the FDR are both conventionally presented in the frequentist statistical framework, they can both also be presented in empirical-Bayesian terms, with the prior distribution being provided by: the distribution of effect sizes over the full set of hypotheses (in the case of shrunk estimates), and the distribution of significance-test p-values over the subset of hypotheses giving ‘discoveries’ (in the case of the FDR ). Based on this connection, a formal relationship between shrunk estimates and FDR values, for a normally-distributed response variable, will be illustrated. The talk will conclude by considering which of the two tools is the more appropriate in different practical circumstances.
- Speaker: Nick W Galwey (Former Statistics Leader, Research Statistics, at GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development (Retired))
- Tuesday 03 February 2026, 19:15-21:00
- Venue: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 7EF.
- Series: Cambridge Statistics Discussion Group (CSDG); organiser: Peter Watson.
Mon 15 Sep 11:00: LMB Seminar - The structures and mechanisms that maintain ciliary proteostasis - In person only
Cilia are cell-surface organelles essential for sensory perception, intercellular signaling, cell locomotion, and fluid flow generation. Proper maintenance of the ciliary proteome, including removal of damaged or mislocalized proteins as well as achieving the correct stoichiometry of signaling components, is fundamental for these processes. Imbalances in this maintenance are associated with a range of human ciliopathies including polycystic kidney disease, retinal degeneration, and developmental disorders such as Bardet-Biedl and Joubert syndromes. The temporospatial distribution of proteins within cilia is regulated by intraflagellar transport (IFT), wherein molecular trains shuttle between the cell body and cilium. I will describe our efforts to structurally characterize the components of IFT trains using single-particle cryo-EM. I will also describe a newly identified coincidence detection mechanism that allows ubiquitinated proteins to be recognized and removed from cilia. These findings advance our understanding of ubiquitin-mediated protein transport and ciliary proteostasis, and demonstrate how structural changes in IFT trains achieve cargo selectivity.
- Speaker: Alan Brown, Harvard Medical School
- Monday 15 September 2025, 11:00-12:00
- Venue: In person in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre (CB2 0QH) .
- Series: MRC LMB Seminar Series; organiser: Scientific Meetings Co-ordinator.
Wed 17 Sep 11:00: LMB Seminar - Ribosome Upside Down: Co-translational Protein Biogenesis at the Tunnel Exit - In person only
Our group aims to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying the production of functional proteins. This complex process requires an intricate interplay between the ribosome and a growing number of cellular factors that regulate translation and co-translational protein biogenesis. One of the key topics of our research, which combines structural, biochemical, and biophysical approaches, is the biogenesis of cytosolic and membrane proteins controlled by the nascent polypeptide–associated complex (NAC). I will present recent results that reveal how NAC coordinates the activity of a network of factors and enzymes at translating ribosomes to facilitate virtually all aspects of protein biogenesis, including nascent chain processing, modification, folding, and cellular localization such as targeting to the ER.
- Speaker: Nenad Ban - ETH Zürich
- Wednesday 17 September 2025, 11:00-12:00
- Venue: In person in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre (CB2 0QH) .
- Series: MRC LMB Seminar Series; organiser: Scientific Meetings Co-ordinator.
Fri 05 Dec 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Friday 05 December 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Engineering - Dynamics and Vibration Tea Time Talks; organiser: div-c.
Fri 28 Nov 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Matt Bryan, PhD student, CUED
- Friday 28 November 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Engineering - Dynamics and Vibration Tea Time Talks; organiser: div-c.
Fri 21 Nov 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Friday 21 November 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Engineering - Dynamics and Vibration Tea Time Talks; organiser: div-c.
Fri 14 Nov 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Friday 14 November 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Engineering - Dynamics and Vibration Tea Time Talks; organiser: div-c.
Fri 07 Nov 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Olga Fink, EPFL, Switzerland
- Friday 07 November 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Engineering - Dynamics and Vibration Tea Time Talks; organiser: div-c.
Fri 31 Oct 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Andy Jenkins, PhD student, CUED
- Friday 31 October 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Engineering - Dynamics and Vibration Tea Time Talks; organiser: div-c.
Fri 24 Oct 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Matteo Broggi, Leibniz Universität Hannover
- Friday 24 October 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Engineering - Dynamics and Vibration Tea Time Talks; organiser: div-c.
Fri 17 Oct 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Friday 17 October 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, CUED.
- Series: Engineering - Dynamics and Vibration Tea Time Talks; organiser: div-c.
Thu 28 Aug 14:15: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Hyeonjun Park, KIAS
- Thursday 28 August 2025, 14:15-15:15
- Venue: CMS MR13.
- Series: Algebraic Geometry Seminar; organiser: Dhruv Ranganathan.
Fri 14 Nov 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dr Mohand Saed, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University
- Friday 14 November 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Oatley 1 Meeting Room, Department of Engineering.
- Series: Engineering - Mechanics and Materials Seminar Series; organiser: div-c.
Mon 02 Mar 18:00: What is Digital Identity all about?
We have many forms of identity, whether socially constructed (kinship, personas, relationships), or issued via organisations (employers, banks, clubs, government). These identities can be partly stored as a digital twin (e.g. by recording biometric information plus some identifier/number, and then possibly linked to other information credentials or entitlements – e.g. citizenship, age, health, finance, educational records and so on).
These digital ecosystems can be designed to allow us to control (access to) such data, or they can be part of state and commercial surveillance. The trustworthiness of such ecosystems is highly questionable. I’ll walk through alternative designs and give examples of benefits and disadvantages, including threats (fake id, denial of service etc).
In this talk, I’ll also outline challenges, including future problems like the mutability of allegedly unique and persistent biometrics like iris or even DNA , and speculate about the possibility of reflecting social structures properly in designs to create more fair and resilient systems that might be more acceptable than many deployed or proposed today.
- Speaker: Professor Jon Crowcroft. Computer Lab, at the University of Cambridge
- Monday 02 March 2026, 18:00-19:00
- Venue: Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Cambridge Philosophical Society; organiser: Beverley Larner.
Mon 16 Mar 18:00: Evaluating scientific papers, and their authors, at the Royal Society of London, c.1780-1980
Refereeing is a form of peer review that is now familiar at many points in academic life: the opinions of referees are sought on articles submitted for publication, on grant proposals, and on tenure and promotion applications, among other things. But refereeing has not always been so central to academic reputations; nor has it always functioned the way it does now. This paper will drawing upon my team’s research in the archives of the Royal Society of London to explore how the practices of evaluating papers and their authors have changed over the last two centuries. The Royal Society was one of the first institutions to develop written refereeing processes, which have been used at its journal (the Philosophical Transactions) since the 1830s. The Society’s unrivalled archives include referee reports, correspondence and committee minutes that shed light on the way decisions were made, and by whom. The story told here must be set against the backdrop of the increasing professionalisation of academic life in the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which a list of published papers came to acquire great significance. The growth and changing social composition of the scientific community has also posed challenges for an evaluation practice that developed in the context of a closed, gentlemanly community.
- Speaker: Professor Aileen Fyfe, University of St Andrews
- Monday 16 March 2026, 18:00-19:00
- Venue: Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Cambridge Philosophical Society; organiser: Beverley Larner.
Mon 16 Feb 18:00: What insect-watching can tell us about the evolution of animal behaviour
Behavioural Ecology, the study of the adaptive significance of animal behaviour, has empowered zoologists to tackle some of the fundamental issues of evolutionary biology. Insects, although not always easy to study as individuals in the field, have provided excellent model systems for this area of research.
In this talk, I will outline some of the research done by myself and colleagues on the behavioural ecology of insects. I will discuss what marine water-striders can tell us about selfish group behaviour; what the mating behaviour of tiny aphids on poplar bark tells us about the evolution of the sex ratio; what the behaviour of gall-living aphids reveals about the altruism of housework, house-maintenance, and the slaughter of intruders; and how extended parental care by solitary digger wasps shows us the first faltering steps along the route to highly complex social behaviour. Along the way we will visit a saltmarsh in North Norfolk, a mangrove swamp in the Galapagos, the playing fields of Cambridge, a Hill Station in Malaya, and a heathland near Godalming. And we will learn about The Trafalgar Effect, The Constant Male Hypothesis, and the menopausal aphid glue-bomb.
- Speaker: Dr William Foster
- Monday 16 February 2026, 18:00-19:00
- Venue: Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Cambridge Philosophical Society; organiser: Beverley Larner.
Wed 21 Jan 14:30: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Professor Thomas E. Markland, Stanford University
- Wednesday 21 January 2026, 14:30-15:30
- Venue: Unilever Lecture Theatre, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Theory - Chemistry Research Interest Group; organiser: Lisa Masters.
Mon 01 Sep 14:00: Adaptive Resource Allocation for Low-Latency LLM Serving in Dynamic Environments
Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) face significant challenges in achieving low-latency inference. Techniques such as speculative decoding and chunked prefill can help reduce latency, but their effectiveness depends heavily on algorithmic parameters that are sensitive to fluctuating system conditions. As a result, static parameter settings often lead to suboptimal performance under dynamic workloads. To address this issue, we propose dynamic parameter optimization methods that adapt to evolving environments to maximize performance. In this talk, we present the technical details of these methods along with initial evaluation results.
Bio: Masayuki Usui received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree at the University of Tokyo. His research interests include LLM inference serving and computer architecture.
Shinya Takamaeda-Yamazaki received his B.E., M.E., and D.E. degrees from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 2009, 2011, and 2014, respectively. Since 2019, he has been an Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan. In 2025, he also became a Team Leader at RIKEN AIP , Japan. His research interests include computer architecture, hardware design technologies, and machine learning systems.
- Speaker: Masayuki Usui and Shinya Takamaeda-Yamazaki (University of Tokyo)
- Monday 01 September 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Computer Lab, SS03.
- Series: Computer Laboratory Systems Research Group Seminar; organiser: Eiko Yoneki.