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Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

bbc.com

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Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#281

Post by QuotedForTruth »

stilley2 wrote: post #276
QuotedForTruth wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: this is based on watching the talk and some basic machine learning knowledge. Im no expert. They have a sparse set of data that is part of an image. They have trained a model to look at the sparse set and make an educated guess about what the full image looks like. They do this by feeding it full images. The full images you feed into the model thus have an effect on the final image generated. In order to…

Hmm I skimmed the paper on the algorithm this morning and didn't get the impression they trained the model on other images. I thought they jointly estimated patches that make up the image and penalized deviations from these patches (i.e. estimated a sparse basis). I haven't watched the Ted talk yet though

They may have changed approaches since this two year old TED talk was made.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#282

Post by okmokmz »

raphman wrote: post #134
bubblewrap wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What prevents you from taking a man as a role model?

A 'role model' is someone who shares your background and is successful in an area of interest where you would like to participate/contribute (science, art, sports, politics, ...) . It's someone who demonstrates that 'someone like you' can be successful, too. Therefore, the closer this role model is to your inherent and unchangeable properties (age, sex/gender, origin, social class), the more it can inspire you. Surel…

>A 'role model' is someone who shares your background and is successful in an area of interest where you would like to participate/contribute

That may be your personal definition, but that is not the actual denotation of "role model". Some definitions I found are:

"a person whose behavior, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people. "

and

"a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others"

There is no mention or qualifier of it needing to be someone who shares one's background

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#283

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

realradicalwash wrote: post #265

Her story is trully inspiring! She seems like a really likable person, has been hard working, with great results, making a major contribution. The photo with her and the hard drives is amazing and I am sure she will inspire many to enter science. However, I think to call her "the woman behind the first black hole image" is a hyperbole. It makes it sound as if she was _the one person_ responsible that all this came ab…

> This is what makes me somewhat feel that this focus on her is not quite fair.

Thought experiment: if you saw an article titled "Jony Ive: The Man Behind The iPhone" would you be commenting on how unfair it is to single him out? After all, he just designed the thing, a huge team of people built the software and the hardware that actually made it possible.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#284

Post by patrickg_zill »

The Chinese military used a similar method to find US spy planes - they used background signals from e.g. cell phone towers and looked for the area where there was a "blank spot" - which was the spy plane's absorption of the spectrum.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#285

Post by [deleted] »

yeahitslikethat wrote: post #277
realradicalwash wrote: post #265

Her story is trully inspiring! She seems like a really likable person, has been hard working, with great results, making a major contribution. The photo with her and the hard drives is amazing and I am sure she will inspire many to enter science. However, I think to call her "the woman behind the first black hole image" is a hyperbole. It makes it sound as if she was _the one person_ responsible that all this came ab…

No one would read that story. No one knows Katie Bouman. Everyone knows the blackhole. You're thinking like a programmer. Think not like a programmer and then explain why the original headline is better. Why was the article written?

[deleted]

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#286

Post by jimbokun »

dvtrn wrote: post #261
CydeWeys wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neil deGrasse Tyson has a PhD in astrophysics and isn't typically referred to as "Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson" in headlines either. Same for Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and many others. Titles simply tend to be dropped in headlines and casual conversations; they certainly aren't universally used, or even close to it.

Are you at all, in any way willing to entertain a viewpoint that suggests that those gentlemen have their titles dropped possibly because they have become synonymous with their crafts and a lifetime of achievement that-at least in the case of Dr. Sagan has spanned generations (Dr. deGrasse-Tyson's work and personality on the cusp of enjoying the exact same), and their names closely associated with a deep personal con…

"Are you at all, in any way willing to entertain a viewpoint that suggests that those gentlemen have their titles dropped possibly because they have become synonymous with their crafts and a lifetime of achievement that-at least in the case of Dr. Sagan has spanned generations (Dr. deGrasse-Tyson's work and personality on the cusp of enjoying the exact same), and their names closely associated with a deep personal connection to the dissemination of science as a form of consumable entertainment (that also happens to inform) and that this maybe serves as an important distinction between someone who is appreciating their first bit of notoriety for their scientific accomplishments?"

Nope.

I think you are now beating a dead horse with this argument.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#287

Post by dvtrn »

jimbokun wrote: post #286
dvtrn wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you at all, in any way willing to entertain a viewpoint that suggests that those gentlemen have their titles dropped possibly because they have become synonymous with their crafts and a lifetime of achievement that-at least in the case of Dr. Sagan has spanned generations (Dr. deGrasse-Tyson's work and personality on the cusp of enjoying the exact same), and their names closely associated with a deep personal con…

"Are you at all, in any way willing to entertain a viewpoint that suggests that those gentlemen have their titles dropped possibly because they have become synonymous with their crafts and a lifetime of achievement that-at least in the case of Dr. Sagan has spanned generations (Dr. deGrasse-Tyson's work and personality on the cusp of enjoying the exact same), and their names closely associated with a deep personal co…

May I take it with me to the grave. I think someone who is, in fact, a doctor ought to be addressed as such. Regardless of their gender.

Apparently that is a problem for some in this community which is a damn shame.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#288

Post by gasbikesracecar »

govg wrote: post #274
gonational wrote: post #262

Is this the correct repo? https://github.com/achael/eht-imaging/graphs/contributors I didn't realize this was public code. It looks like one "achael" is the author of this, though.

I don't think she was a large part of the implementation effort, especially with her background. Andrew Chael seems to have been the programmer on this project, or at least handled a lot of it. (Note a significant fraction of his code commits content are models)

Chael did all the work and Katies janitor cleanup code gets all the credit. Woman vs LGBT face off, woman wins this time!

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#289

Post by frostburg »

dunslandsboo wrote: post #280
juliendorra wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You misunderstood. We want any person, women and young girls included, to be able to pursue a career path, if they have even the faintest desire of it, without self-censorship, negative remarks, feeling out of place, their vocation and/or skills being continuously challenged randomly, or having to cope with various forms of harassment. If you build an environment that allow that, women presence in the field surge. An…

Maybe you can help me understand. So how do you explain why there are fewer women in STEM fields in Scandinavia and more in Turkey, Tunesia and United Arab Emirates? Well at least according to the paper "The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Gijsbert Stoet, David C. Geary" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095679761774171...

Do you realize that women aren't a monolithic group? Various effects can be at play at the same time - women preferring on average other kinds of work isn't an argument in favour of discriminating against those that do not.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#290

Post by CydeWeys »

dvtrn wrote: post #287
jimbokun wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Are you at all, in any way willing to entertain a viewpoint that suggests that those gentlemen have their titles dropped possibly because they have become synonymous with their crafts and a lifetime of achievement that-at least in the case of Dr. Sagan has spanned generations (Dr. deGrasse-Tyson's work and personality on the cusp of enjoying the exact same), and their names closely associated with a deep personal co…

May I take it with me to the grave. I think someone who is, in fact, a doctor ought to be addressed as such. Regardless of their gender. Apparently that is a problem for some in this community which is a damn shame.

Eh, I think it's kind of pretentious to demand using a special title when referring to people like this. It's just a degree. I don't demand people refer to me by using my work title in front of my name and I've been doing this for a lot longer than 5-7 years. The people I've met who correct you on how to address them by their title invariably come off as (and usually are) arrogant assholes.

Titles in general seem quaint and obsolete to me (and to many others). Seems like a relic from centuries ago, like from monarchies. I don't see why not participating in this is a "problem" or a "damn shame".

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