Professor Bruce Basset, AIMS, SAAO, SKA and UCT, will present the Department of Statistical Science seminar with a talk entitled, "Rise of the Machines". 

Professor Bruce Bassett holds joint positions at AIMS, SAAO, SKA and UCT. Most recently he is has joined the SKA to head up the Data Science and machine learning group.  

Abstract: Machine learning and computational science are rapidly becoming indispensable as we enter an era of astronomy in which no human beings can look at all the data. This will culminate in the SKA which will deliver about an exabyte a day, comparable to the amount of data produced by humanity in its entirety before the year 2000.  What will science in general look like in 25 years? In this talk we will review the machine learning algorithms, as well as their successes and challenges, that have been developed to do science in this new era of big data and discuss the light they shed on what it means to do good science.  Finally we will address the question: will machines ever do research?