{"593469":{"#nid":"593469","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Dynamic Duos: Algorithm Aces Dana Randall and Sarah Cannon","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAlgorithms rule Dana Randall\u0026rsquo;s professional life, but not in the way that many people might expect. Instead of dealing with the nuts-and-bolts of traditional data mining and analytics, she instead looks beyond the tactics to tackle more theoretical issues. \u0026ldquo;My work and research involves the background, foundational science behind developing algorithms and using data,\u0026rdquo; Randall says. \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s often about being able to ask the right questions and making sure we\u0026rsquo;re collecting the right data.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs an example, she posits that efforts to optimize a given outcome\u0026mdash;like a business decision\u0026mdash;may involve a tremendous amount of data. \u0026ldquo;It might be prohibitively slow to collect, sort and analyze all that data,\u0026rdquo; she says. \u0026ldquo;But there might be an approximation to that process\u0026mdash;a shortcut of some sort\u0026mdash;that could get you close enough to what you\u0026rsquo;re attempting to do that would be many-fold more efficient. And in this case it could make sense to relax your parameters and not look at every granular bit of data to arrive at your conclusion.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat\u0026rsquo;s a lot to digest, but she\u0026rsquo;s not alone. In fact, in doctorate student Sarah Cannon, Randall has found a kindred spirit and fellow theoretical computer science geek. After earning her bachelor\u0026rsquo;s degree at Tufts and master\u0026rsquo;s degree at the University of Oxford, Cannon came to Tech specifically to study in the Institute\u0026rsquo;s Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization program.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECannon works with Randall on a number of research projects. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Right now we\u0026rsquo;re collaborating with some physicists to help them build robotics systems that change shape in a coordinated fashion to achieve a greater, global behavior,\u0026rdquo; Cannon says. \u0026ldquo;Using tools from theoretical computer science, we can help them model or predict the behavior of the entire system and understand what will emerge.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECannon also serves as a teaching assistant for Honors Discrete Math, a freshman course. \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s great to see these new students getting really excited about a topic that most people don\u0026rsquo;t get excited about,\u0026rdquo; she says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHer goal is to stay in academia for her career, and she\u0026rsquo;s watched Randall closely to pick up on her teaching and research leadership techniques. \u0026ldquo;I want to excel as a teacher,\u0026rdquo; Cannon says. \u0026ldquo;The way Dana teaches, interacting with students and getting them engaged and excited about the material, is what I hope to learn to do. \u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELast summer, Randall says Cannon took her teaching to a higher level. \u0026ldquo;We had a very strong undergraduate student and Sarah took it upon herself to mentor her and train her,\u0026rdquo; Randall says. \u0026ldquo;We just submitted a joint paper and because of Sarah\u0026rsquo;s influence, this student got her first taste of being a published academic herself.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ERandall\u0026rsquo;s praise doesn\u0026rsquo;t stop there. \u0026ldquo;Basically, I dream up things to do and Sarah does it all,\u0026rdquo; she says. \u0026ldquo;I hit the jackpot\u0026mdash;she\u0026rsquo;s just fearless about research. She\u0026rsquo;s already earned some of the most prestigious awards in the theoretical computer science field, as well as some for her efforts to promote women in computing, something that\u0026rsquo;s very important to me.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ERandall serves as the ADVANCE Professor of Computing, and as part of the ADVANCE program, she helps sustain a network of top faculty members at Tech who support the advancement of women and minorities in higher education. \u0026ldquo;There\u0026rsquo;s one ADVANCE professor in every college,\u0026rdquo; Randall says. \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s really a privilege to get to work with and learn from this group of women, especially when we\u0026rsquo;re able to turn ideas into policies that will attract more women to campus.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAlready loaded with a full plate as a teacher and researcher, Randall was named the co-executive director of Tech\u0026rsquo;s Institute for Data Engineering and Science last year. In this role, she\u0026rsquo;s helping to harness all the data expertise that resides on campus. \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s a huge advantage for us in that we\u0026rsquo;re able to put all the pieces together from different areas\u0026mdash;our resources and people are really coming together,\u0026rdquo; she says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Ph.D. student Sarah Cannon and her advisor, Professor Dana Randall, look beyond nuts-and-bolts of traditional data to deal with more theoretical issues."}],"uid":"33939","created_gmt":"2017-07-12 15:17:25","changed_gmt":"2017-07-12 15:17:25","author":"David Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2017-07-12T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2017-07-12T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"593465":{"id":"593465","type":"image","title":"Sarah Cannon and Dana Randall","body":null,"created":"1499871744","gmt_created":"2017-07-12 15:02:24","changed":"1499871744","gmt_changed":"2017-07-12 15:02:24","alt":"PhD student Sarah Cannon poses with advisor Professor Dana Randall.","file":{"fid":"226227","name":"Cannon and Randall.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Cannon%20and%20Randall.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Cannon%20and%20Randall.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":77769,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Cannon%20and%20Randall.jpg?itok=yiwxhOjd"}}},"media_ids":["593465"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"}],"keywords":[{"id":"10467","name":"Dana Randall"},{"id":"174913","name":"Sarah Cannon"},{"id":"170447","name":"Institute for Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"5660","name":"algorithms"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERoger Slavens\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Alumni Magazine\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}