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Releasing insights from data: quarrying vs. sculpting
When Michelangelo surveyed a block of marble, he saw a figure trapped inside; his goal was to release the figure that in his mind was already there. Research involves not only “quarrying” (obtaining) blocks of experimental, computational, or theoretical data but more importantly releasing the insights trapped within. For example, every student of physics learns about the H atom spectrum and every student of combustion learns about the 3 explosion limits of the H2-O2 system - but why these blocks of data? Because, trapped within the spectrum and the wiggly curve are critical, unequivocal insights - that energy levels of matter are quantized and that H2-O2 combustion proceeds through two entirely different sets of intermediates depending on temperature and pressure.
In those two famous examples the insights and their significance are “obvious” given the benefit of years of hindsight - what important insights are trapped inside freshly quarried data? The focus of this interactive seminar is on examples of and methods for sculpting data into works of insight. Starting with the aforementioned case studies the audience’s sculpting skill will be challenged with case studies from both the presenter’s own work (some not yet published) and elsewhere within combustion research community, with an emphasis on examples where the insights were both difficult to sculpt and led to counterintuitive insights.
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