Wisconsin Institute for Discovery

Crossroads of Ideas:
2025-12-09 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | 3rd Floor Orchard View Room, Discovery Building
Quantum Frontiers. Quantum science might sound like it belongs in the lab or a science fiction novel, but its impact is already woven into our daily lives—from the technology in our phones to the future of computing and medicine. Join the Wisconsin Quantum Institute’s Aws Albarghouthi (Computer Science) and Matthew Otten (Physics) for a moderated discussion with Katerina Moloni, exploring the fascinating science of the quantum world and why understanding it matters for all of us.
URL: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/crossroads-of-ideas-quantum-frontiers-tickets-1797490003989

Crossroads of Ideas: Quantum Frontiers
2025-12-09 19:00 - 20:00 | Discovery Building, 330 North Orchard Street, Orchard View Room, Madison, WI, 53715, United States
Presented in celebration of 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

Quantum science might sound like it belongs in the lab or a science fiction novel, but its impact is already woven into our daily lives—from the technology in our phones to the future of computing and medicine. Join the Wisconsin Quantum Institute’s Aws Albarghouthi (Computer Science) and Matthew Otten (Physics) for a moderated discussion with Katerina Moloni, exploring the fascinating science of the quantum world and why understanding it matters for all of us. This Crossroads of Ideas conversation will pull back the curtain on quantum science, revealing its surprising role in shaping the present, and the future, we all share. Presented in celebration of 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

Indigenous Language Table
2025-12-03 13:00 - 14:15, 2025-11-20 13:00 - 14:15, 2025-11-19 13:00 - 14:15, 2025-11-13 13:00 - 14:15, 2025-11-12 13:00 - 14:15, 2025-11-06 13:00 - 14:15, 2025-10-29 13:00 - 14:15, 2025-10-22 13:00 - 14:15 | 1145 Discovery Building
A safe place to practice indigneous languages. An Indigenous Language Table supports learners in developing spoken skills beyond the classroom, building community, strengthening purpose, and normalizing Indigenous languages through representation. It welcomes former students and ongoing learners, community members from classes or self study, and anyone interested in Indigenous languages and people.
CONTACT: 316-4325, lredeagle@wisc.edu
URL: https://illuminatingdiscovery.wisc.edu/indigenous-language-table/

Thanksgiving Recess
2025-11-27
*Note: actual end time may vary.*
University offices closed.
CONTACT: admin@secfac.wisc.edu

WID Seminar Series:
2025-11-21 10:00 - 11:15 | Orchard View Room 3280, Discovery Building (Also offered online)
Bilge Mutlu. Designing for Integration: Bringing Embodied AI into the Real World
CONTACT: media@wid.wisc.edu
URL: https://wid.wisc.edu/all-events/wid-seminar-series/
ONLINE: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/98293855424

SoundWaves: Micro Scale
2025-11-14 19:30 - 21:00 | Hamel Music Center, 740 University Avenue, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
This academic year, SoundWaves is exploring scales. In this second edition, we will be zooming in on the micro scale!

Our second SoundWaves event of the season explores the Micro Scale, looking at things that are very small in size. What is a microbiome? What’s going on in the Earth’s water? What is microeconomics? What happens when you look at rhythm and pitch on a micro scale? Find out at SoundWaves.

SoundWaves
2025-11-14 | Collins Recital Hall, Hamel Music Center
*Note: actual end time may vary.*
The Micro Scale. SoundWaves combines scientific lectures about the world with live classical music performances. Each event revolves around a theme, exploring it first from many scientific angles and then through the lens of music. The program concludes with a live performance of music related to the evening’s theme.
The science lectures are delivered using language that the curious layman can understand, with a minimum of jargon and formulas.
CONTACT: media@wid.wisc.edu
URL: https://illuminatingdiscovery.wisc.edu/soundwaves/

Crossroads of Ideas: Living and Learning with Animals
2025-11-12 19:00 - 20:00 | Discovery Building, 330 North Orchard Street, Orchard View Room, Madison, WI, 53715, United States
From the mellowest Labrador to the wiliest coyote, experts in animal behavior & wildlife management discuss human interactions with canines.

Join UW–Madison’s Dr. David Drake and Carroll University’s Dr. Mindy Waite for an engaging Crossroads of Ideas conversation exploring the dynamic relationship between humans and animals, both wild and domestic. From what we can teach animals to what they can teach us, how retrofitting animals into the human world has changed our relationships, and discovering new insights into behavior, adaptation, and the possibilities for living together in a changing world. Hosted by Director of the WID – Illuminating Discovery Hub.

ML+Coffee: How Can I Apply ML/AI To My Data?
2025-11-05 09:00 - 11:00 | 1145 Discovery Building
ML+X Networking & Coworking.
CONTACT: endemann@wisc.edu
URL: https://forms.gle/Qrku5Dza6N3ZT3yAA

Efficient KV-Cache Compression for Long-Context and Reasoning Models
2025-11-04 13:00 - 14:00 | Orchard View Room, Discovery Building (Also offered online)
ML+X Forum.
CONTACT: endemann@wisc.edu
URL: https://forms.gle/LhYFVzZvykmRAUeh8
ONLINE: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/92639425571?pwd=[REDACTED]

Interactive Data Visualizations in Python and Streamlit
2025-10-29 09:00 - 13:00
Learn Skills for Research Software Engineering. This workshop lesson is an introduction to making interactive data visualizations in Python. Learners will create a new environment using conda, wrangle data into the proper format using pandas library, create visualizations using the Plotly Python library, and display these visualizations and create widgets using Streamlit.
CONTACT: facilitator@datascience.wisc.edu
URL: https://uw-madison-datascience.github.io/2025-10-01-uwmadison-mini/

SoundWaves: Atomic Scale
2025-10-25 19:30 - 21:00 | Hamel Music Center, 740 University Avenue, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
This academic year, SoundWaves is exploring scales. Join us for this first edition diving into the atomic scale – and Klezmer scales!

Gaze into the world of the unimaginably small with an evening exploring the atomic scale. What is quantum computing and how does it work? How do atoms in metals organize themselves into hierarchies? As part of Klez Fest Midwest, this special SoundWaves event will feature more live music than ever, with the duo of Krakauer & Tagg, featuring brilliant klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg, performing and explaining what gives klezmer music its characteristic style and sound (it’s all in the scales!).

WID Seminar Series
2025-10-24 10:00 - 11:15 | Discovery Building, 330 North Orchard Street, Orchard View Room, Madison, WI, 53715, United States
Connecting natural and artificial intelligence in cognition and neuroscience

Collaborative Complex Systems: The Year of Discovery Fellows
Rob Nowak, WID Discovery Fellow and professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering introduces Tim Rogers, WID Discovery Fellow, professor of Psychology.

WID Seminar Series: Tim Rogers
2025-10-24 10:00 - 11:00 | 3rd Floor Orchard View Room, Discovery Building (Also offered online)
Connecting Natural and Artificial Intelligence in Cognition and Neuroscience. WID Seminar Series: Collaborative Complex Systems: The Year of Discovery Fellows
Connecting Natural and Artificial Intelligence in Cognition and Neuroscience
Tim Rogers
WID Discovery Fellow
Psychology
With introduction by Rob Nowak, WID Faculty, Electrical & Computer Engineering
CONTACT: 316-4325, lredeagle@wisc.edu
URL: https://wid.wisc.edu/
ONLINE: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/98293855424

Michelle Thaller: Cosmic Treasures
2025-10-23 19:00 - 20:00 | Discovery Building, 330 North Orchard Street, Orchard View Room, Madison, WI, 53715, United States
Chasing Asteroids for Clues to the Origins of Life

Join Michelle Thaller, former NASA science communicator, for an evening exploring the origins of life. Thaller, in conversation with Eric Wilcots, Dean of the College of Letters & Sciences and Professor in the Dept of Astronomy, will talk about the OSIRIS-REx mission – an audacious project to return a sample from an asteroid. No problem, right? Just chase down a small rock 200 million miles away, traveling literally faster than a speeding bullet, vacuum up a sample of its surface, and shoot it back to Earth. The story turned out to be more difficult, dramatic, and rewarding than anyone expected. Join us to find out why we went to so much trouble to bring back an ancient sample of our solar system and what was waiting inside that absolutely blew our minds. This event will take place in the DeLuca Forum in the Discovery Building.

Intro to Docker/Podman
2025-10-23 09:00 - 13:00, 2025-10-22 09:00 - 13:00
Learn Skills for Research Software Engineering. This session aims to introduce the use of Docker containers with the goal of using them to effect reproducible computational environments. Such environments are useful for ensuring reproducible research outputs.
CONTACT: facilitator@datascience.wisc.edu
URL: https://uw-madison-datascience.github.io/2025-10-01-uwmadison-mini/

COMBINE 2025
2025-10-23 00:00 - 2025-10-24 00:00, 2025-10-22 00:00 - 2025-10-23 00:00, 2025-10-21 00:00 - 2025-10-22 00:00 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Computational Modeling in Biology (COMBINE) 2025 will be a workshop-style event hosted by the University of Wisconsin- Madison, USA.

Crossroads of Ideas: Threading the Story of Earth's Oldest Rocks
2025-10-22 19:00 - 20:00 | Discovery Building, 330 North Orchard Street, Orchard View Room, Madison, WI, 53715, United States
Ancient geology meets modern creativity! Scientists studying the Earth’s oldest rocks collab with a textile artist to bring them to life!

Join us for a very special Wisconsin Science Festival edition of Crossroads of Ideas, where ancient geology meets modern creativity. This engaging evening features scientists Tyler Blum, Annie Bauer, and Emily Mixon, who have been studying the Earth’s oldest rocks – Acasta Gneiss (that’s pronounced “nice”) – and collaborating with local textile artist, Leah Evans, to bring 4-billion-year-old stories to life.
In conversation with UW-Madison Geology Museum Associate Director, Brooke Norsted, learn how these researchers and artist have explored deep time, planetary processes, and creative interpretation. Be among the first to experience the unveiling of Leah’s final artwork – an awe-inspiring textile piece created for the Geology Museum. Learn how curiosity, conversation, and collaboration turned billion-year-old rocks into an artistic and scientific celebration of deep time and deeper connections.
This event will take place in the DeLuca Forum in the UW-Madison Discovery Building.
Registration requested

The WhySci Variety Show
2025-10-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Majestic Theatre, 115 King Street, Madison, WI, 53703, United States
The most science-inspired variety show in town! Produced by the Wisconsin Science Festival and the UW-Madison Division of the Arts.

Get ready to rock your curiosity at the Why Sci Variety Show—a high-energy mashup of science talks, artful performances, and live music! This year’s theme is Rock and Roll, so expect brainy beats, geology jokes, and scientific showmanship that will have you thinking and tapping your toes.
Hosted by the always-entertaining Ben Rush and featuring tunes from our live house band: David Hecht & The Who Dat, this is edu-tainment at its finest. From ancient rocks to musical molecules, science and art collide in unexpected ways during this one-of-a-kind show.
Doors and bar open at 6:30pm – show starts at 7pm.
Register for your free tickets now!
Produced in partnership with the UW-Madison Division of the Arts and with support from The Anonymous Fund.

Finding Your Place in Science: Writing Workshop to Explore Scientific Identity
2025-10-20 15:00 - 17:00 | 1145 Discovery Building
Part of the Wisconsin Science Festival, hosted by WID. Michelle Wildgen—editor, teacher, and author—will lead a Wisconsin Science Festival writing workshop on scientific identity. Aimed at students but open to all, the session explores what it means to “belong in science.” Through discussion and writing, participants will examine assumptions about who fits in STEM, broaden ideas of identity, and reflect on how belonging (or not) shapes persistence in science. Registration required, limited space.
CONTACT: 316-4325, lredeagle@wisc.edu
URL: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/finding-your-place-in-science-tickets-1641129435319?aff=oddtdtcreator
