Description Ranking Runners Who Never Raced What do cross-country rankings and computational biology have in common? A competitive distance runner himself, Assistant Professor Bijan Mazaheri built LACCTiC to compare runners who never race each other — a problem that turned out to require mathematics, engineering, and a hard look at the humans who would read the results. In his postdoc at the Broad Institute, the same problem surfaced again in transcriptomic batch correction. Both are counterfactual questions, answered by a mode of reasoning that today's AI handles poorly. Along the way, Bijan will share his thoughts on engineering within the liberal arts, and why he thinks it may matter more in the age of AI. This lecture is part of the “Back to Class” lecture series, a program for Dartmouth alumni, family, friends, and community members to learn from Dartmouth’s faculty and hear about research happening at Dartmouth facilities. Produced by Rick Russell