The Data Science Institute at Bar-Ilan University

Dataset of ~29K coronavirus related research papers

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AI2 released a large dataset of ~29k coronavirus related research papers, in a somewhat-convenient-to-process json format. The data is hosted on Kaggle, with an accompanying list of research questions (provided by the white house and NIH) including information they want to get extracted out of the data.
These are the questions:https://www.kaggle.com/allen-institute-for-ai/CORD-19-research-challenge/tasks

This can be an interesting opportunity for some relevant and hands-on NLP work, especially those of you who already are into relation extraction / health / biomed. Any approach goes, clustering, ML, sci-BERT, hand-built heuristics… happy to brainstorm about this.
Moreover, some of you may remember that i briefly presented a tool that allows querying of syntax-based patterns over wikipedia data. We (at AI2 Israel) indexed this coronavirus corpus with the tool, to allow syntactic queries over it. This can also be an interesting avenue for exploring the data. While the tool is not yet ready for public release, and is a bit rough around the edges, I will be happy to share it with the lab if there is interest. If anyone wants, I will present the tool to you again in a zoom meeting tomorrow (if there is interest, probably around 15:00, email me if interested).
Following are two papers that we submitted to the ACL demo track: one of them describing the search tool (reading sections 6 and 7), and another about Aryeh’s work (joint with Reut) on BART: an extended syntactic representation that exposes many relation-extraction related relations in a more unified way (it is relevant, as the tool is indexing syntactic graphs after Aryeh’s enhancements. + it is also a really cool paper, imo).

Yet_another_Enhanced_UD_Representation (2)

SyntacticSearchACL2020Demo-5

DSI 2020 call for Research Grants – List of Accepted Grants

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Full Grants

Prof. Yanay Ofran, Life Sciences
Prof. Ron Unger, Life Sciences
Prof. Yoav Goldberg, Computer Science
What makes a sequence of amino acids a protein? Data Driven Approach
75,000 ₪

Dr. Anat Tchetchik, Geography and Environment
Dr. Nir Cohen, Geography and Environment
Prof. Orly Benjamin, Sociology
Constructing a comparative database: cash and in-kind urban welfare payments
72,000 ₪

Prof. Yoram Louzoun, Math
Dr. Omry Koren, Medicine
Predicting the effect of the perturbation on the human microbiome for therapeutic intervention
86,000 ₪

Dr. Vadim Axelrod, Brain
Dr. Baruch Barzel, Math
Network analysis of vegetative state functional MRI data to understand mechanisms of consciousness
86,000 ₪

Prof. Gal Chechik, Brain
Prof. Sharon Gannot, Engineering
Audio-visual referring expressions
86,000 ₪

Dr. Baruch Barzel, Math
Dr. Simi Haber, Math
Dr. Amir Bashan, Physics
Nonlinear to linear Spectral theory for nonlinear network dynamics
86,000 ₪

Dr. Yogev Kivity, Psychology
Prof. Reut Tsarfaty, Computer Science
Learning to Automatically Assess the Capacity for Mentalizing in Clinical Interviews via Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning Techniques
86,000 ₪

Prof. Oren Perez, Law
Prof. Reuven Cohen, Math
Networked Compliance: Exploration of Regulatory Inter-linkages in a Multifaceted Regulatory Setting Using Network Analysis
60,000 ₪

Dr. Jonathan Rubin, Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology
Burchard of Mount Sion’s Descriptio Terre Sancte: Application of Machine Learning Technologies to the Study of Its Transmission and Reception
77,000 ₪

Small Grants

Prof. Roy Gelbard, Business Administration
Dr. Alon Raviv, Business Administration
Prof. Daniel Levy, Economics
Trends and Events in Business and Economics: A Text-Mining Approach
40,000 ₪

Prof. Oren Perez, Law
Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern, Medicine
Optimizing the Realization of Legal Rights by Alzheimer’s and Dementia Patients Using AI
25,000 ₪

Dr. Rose Stamp, English Literature and Linguistics
Israeli Sign Language (ISL) Corpus
40,000 ₪

Dr. Amiyaal Ilany, Life Sciences
Building an integrative relational database for a long-term animal study
36,000 ₪

Dr. Itamar Lensky, Geography and Environment
Dr. Anat Tchetchik, Geography and Environment
Dr. Keren Agay-Shay, Medicine
Prof. Eyal Yaniv, Business Administration
GREEN SMART CITY: USING PRECISION AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGIES ON GREEN HIGH-RISE BUILDING WALLS
25,000 ₪

Dr. Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov, Law
Dr. Ayelet Sela, Law
A Thematic Analysis and Typology of Ethical Risks in Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Agreements of Mobile Applications
40,000 ₪

Prof. Reuven Cohen, Math
Dr. Simi Haber, Math
Prof. Yoav Goldberg, Computer Science
The Network Properties of Word Embeddings
30,000 ₪

New Online Networks Course

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An new online course on networks – Starting March 25!

https://lnkd.in/eb-S_Ns

The Online school is a theoretical and practical introduction to Network science. Students will learn the basic concepts and methods to analyze and understand complex networks, starting with the fundamentals of network science, and culminating with the latest applications in infrastructure resilience, physiological networks and the microbiome. The school brings together some of the current leaders in the field, all part of the Bar-Ilan Network Science Center team. Students will learn about the universal language describing social, biological and technological systems: Basic applications of graph theory to modern scientific challenges. What makes networks robust and resilient. How to model interdependencies between networks. How do information (and epidemics) spread in complex networks. State-of-the-art applications from brain to power systems.

Parliamentary Activity and Legislative Oversight during the Coronavirus Pandemic -A Comparative Overview

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Recent report written by Dr. Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov on “Parliamentary Activity and Legislative Oversight during the Coronavirus Pandemic -A Comparative Overview” See – https://lnkd.in/eQuEmvH

Abstract:

The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is extremely contagious and currently incurable. Hence, much of the efforts to contain the pandemic have focused on social distancing, prohibiting gatherings and even curfews. The Coronavirus poses a new dual challenge for legislatures. First, the Coronavirus, and the measures taken to contain its spread, make it difficult and even dangerous for parliaments to operate, given that legislatures are by their very nature large multi-member bodies whose operation requires assembling a large group of people together to deliberate and vote. Second, the Coronavirus pandemic creates a sense of emergency that empowers the executive branch and emboldens it to assert greater authority at the expenses of the legislature.

Despite these challenges, the continued operation of legislatures throughout the Coronavirus crisis, and particularly the maintenance of legislative oversight of the executive, has never been more vital. Legislatures have a crucial role in checking the executive and ensuring that countries will not lose their constitutional and democratic values in the process of managing the Coronavirus crisis.

This report begins by explicating the novel dual challenge the Coronavirus pandemic poses for legislatures. It than focuses on elaborating on the unique challenge currently faced by the Israeli Parliament. It explains how the unique combination between the Coronavirus pandemic and the complex political situation in Israel, has made the issue of parliamentary operation during the Coronavirus pandemic particularly acute and urgent.  

Against this background, this report examines whether and how parliaments in other democracies are operating during this crucial period of the evolving Coronavirus pandemic. Drawing on a combination of two main types of sources – a network of expert academics and a network of parliamentary research centers – it presents a novel and timely comparative overview about current parliamentary activity during the Coronavirus pandemic. The report covers 26 democratic parliaments from Europe, North America, Asia, Israel and Australia. It finds that most parliaments continue to operate during the Coronavirus crisis (including in countries in which the pandemic is quite substantial and in countries where legislators themselves were among those diagnosed with the coronavirus). It also finds that even though some parliaments continue with business as usual, many parliaments are beginning to modify their operation, and generally show an ability to adapt to meet the Coronavirus challenge.

מענקי מחקר בנושא וירוס הקורונה

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לחוקרים הישראלים שלום,
ה BSF קיבל פניה מה NSF לברור האפשרות של הגשת תוכניות משותפות בנושא וירוס הקורונה. להלן תמצית העניין של ה NSF:
…”NSF’s interest in accepting proposals to conduct non-medical, non-clinical-care research that can be used immediately to better understand how to model and understand the spread of COVID-19; to inform and educate about the science of virus transmission and prevention; and to encourage the development of processes and actions to address this global challenge.”
העדיפות לפעילות בהקשר זה היא בכל יחידות ה NSF, אך תוכנית מיוחדת קיימת בחטיבת המחשבים, הרלבנטית בעיקר לחוקרים במחשבים וביואינפורמטיקה.המענקים המוצעים עתה לאמריקאים הם לשנה, בהליך שיפוט מזורז. גם הרחבה בהקשר של וירוס הקורונה, של תוכנית NSF-BSF פעילה, עשויה לזכות במימון נוסף.

השתתפות החוקרים הישראלים  צריכה לעבור אישורים בארץ וNSF, ואנו נקדם את הנושא במהירות במידה וימצא בכך עניין.

אנא קיראו  את הקולות הקוראים שפירסם ה NSF לחוקרים האמריקאים וכתבו לנו מייל קצר באם יש לכם עניין לקחת חלק בפעילות זאת.

COVID-19 DCL (002)

COVID-19 Cyber DCL

בברכה

יאיר רוטשטיין

Yair Rotstein, PhD
Executive Director
U.S. – Israel Binational Science Foundation
8 Hamarpeh St.
P.O.B. 45086
Jerusalem, 91450
Israel
Tel: 972-2-5828239 ext. 105
Cellular: 972-52-6020454
Fax: 972-2-5828306
www.bsf.org.il

DSI Updates: March 2020

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Vatat Call for Phd and post-doc scholarships:

Upcoming Talks and Events:

Other Calls:

DSI Call for Research Grants:

  • We had 57 proposals submitted (41 regular, 16 small) by 74 PIs from 23 departments.  
  • List of accepted grants expected to be published March 4, 2020. 

Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern: DSI Member Spotlight

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Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern

DSI Member Spotlight:

Recent Media coverage

Post-doc position at BIU LawData Lab

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The BIU LawData Lab at Bar Ilan-University Faculty of Law is now accepting applications for a post-doctoral fellowship, starting Spring 2020.

Full details below.

The BIU LawData Lab (BIU Innovation Lab for Law, Data-Science and Digital Ethics at Bar Ilan-University Faculty of Law) is seeking candidates for a new post-doctoral fellowship.

Eligibility:

–          PhD/JSD graduates or candidates who have submitted their doctoral dissertation.

–          Candidates should have a JSD or PhD in law OR an LL.B/J.D + PhD in a related field (e.g., public policy, regulation, computer science, data science)

–          Candidates should have a background in at least one of the Lab’s areas of work: law and technology, law and data science, law and artificial intelligence, ethics and technology, data governance.

Fellowship Terms:

–          Duration: Flexible start date during March or April 2020. End: October 2020, but suitable candidates may be offered the option to extend the position until September 2021.

–          Funding: A fellowship of 8,000 NIS per month.

–          Responsibilities: the fellow will take part in the lab’s research projects and activities (including conferences and seminars) and will assist in the administration of the lab. In addition, the fellow is encouraged to lead independent research on topics related to the Lab’s work and to collaborate with affiliated faculty members.

How to apply:

–          Please send a CV (including a list of publications), 2-3 recommendation letters, and a short statement of interest and research agenda to ravit.engelsman@biu.ac.il. Relevant candidates will be invited for an interview.

–          Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the fellowship position is filled.

About the BIU LawData Lab:

The BIU Innovation Lab for Law, Data-Science and Digital Ethics at Bar Ilan-University Faculty of Law focuses on two primary tracks: (1) data-driven legal research using various data-science methods (e.g., ML, NLP, social network analysis); (2) normative and ethical analysis, focusing on legal and regulatory aspects of big data, data analytics and AI, and on ensuring proper data governance. The lab is based on an interdisciplinary collaboration between legal researchers from the BIU Faculty of Law and data scientists from the BIU Data Science Institute and other affiliated BIU departments. It is also based on an international collaboration as part of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Digital Governance (DIGOV)