A blog about algorithms, combinatorics, and optimization applications in global health informatics.
There are lovely libraries near my house. Three, all in different directions. I have spent hours in each, especially before my kids were in school. This is a story is about the one called the Douglass-Truth Library, the surprising way Continue reading
A hands-on guide to catching simulations bugs with automated tests TL;DR What you ll learn: Write rigorous tests for randomized algorithms without arbitrary thresholds. What you ll get: A failing test that catches a subtle directional bias bug with Bayes factor = Continue reading
The Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality has managed to get one more edition published this year: https://journalprivacyconfidentiality.org/index.php/jpc/issue/view/123 Happy new year to the editors!
I m back on social media https://bsky.app/profile/healthyalgo.bsky.social It is fun to get a social feed again, but I ve got some curating to do I ve got a lot of interesting people to follow, but not a lot of science peers Continue reading
Coding and testing when you know what you want the computer to do Reminder of Intro and Debugging 1 2: AI is BS, but not useless; You can prompt it with an error message and get suggestions, you can Continue reading
Debugging 2: When the code does not fail, but still is wrong Reminder of Intro and Debugging 1: AI is BS, but not useless; Prompt with error, get suggestions, keep asking, if necessary. This time, what if there is no Continue reading
Following up on the general guidance I offered Epi 554 last week, this week I tried to get specific about how to use AI assistance in debugging. I think there is room for improvement, but I m going to get it Continue reading
I offered students in Introduction To Epidemic Modeling For Infectious Diseases some general guidance on using AI this week, and I thought I d share it more broadly. We are going to get into specifics for AI-assisted coding over the next Continue reading
For the last year, I have been a faculty advisor for the START Center at UW, which gives students an opportunity to do consulting projects, mostly in global health, mostly for the Gates Foundation. Since I have also been obsessed Continue reading
When I was preparing to teach my Fall course, I was concerned about AI cheaters, and whether my lazy approach to getting students to do the reading would be totally outdated. I came up with a “AI statement” for my Continue reading