STEMcast is a McGill iGEM podcast that serves to highlight the connections between the largely varying subfields of STEM. We interview guest speakers from a diverse range of fields, bringing listeners into the loop on STEM research in biotech, AI, medicine, environment, math and much more!
Contact us at: igem@mcgilleus.ca (mailto:igem@mcgilleus.ca)
STEMCast Ep. 43 | The Science of the Small: Exploring nanoscale capillaries and their applications with Prof. Radha Boya
Have you ever heard of graphene, the world's thinnest material made of a single-layer of carbon atoms? Early in her career, Prof. Radha Boya asked herself, “if we can create a material that is a single-atom thin, can we create an empty space that is also a single-atom thin?” In today’s episode, we discuss the (now very established) results of this thought experiment - nanoscale channels - with Prof. Boya, a Professor of Nanoscience at the University of Manchester who was recently recognized as a Finalist in the 2026 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK. She co-developped these atomic-scale capillaries, which have opened up a diversity of research opportunities, from modelling neuronal synapse formation to enabling alternative forms of reservoir computing. Join us in this exciting conversation about the science of the small!
In this episode, we cover:
(1:11) Introduction to Prof. Boya’s research
(7:57) Discovering science as a career option
(11:20) Stepping stones towards her professional career: creating one-atom-thin empty spaces
(15:46) Interesting applications of nanoscale capillaries: replicating biological learning processes
(21:27) On the ingredients for cellular memory…
(25:09) Future directions of the field
(28:09) Mimicking whole-neuron signatures with nanoscale capillaries
Further reading (mostly papers in this episode)
Prof. Boyda Radha’s group (https://radhaboya.weebly.com/)
Long-term memory and synapse-like dynamics in two-dimensional nanofluidic channels (https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adc9931)
Molecular transport through capillaries made with atomic-scale precision (https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19363)
Direct imaging elucidates ionic memory in two-dimensional nanochannels (https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.11637) with Prof. Aleksandra Radenovic
Episode host and producer: Sabrina Du (mailto:sabrina.du@mail.mcgill.ca)
Contact: igem@mcgill.ca (mailto:igem@mcgill.ca)
19 Jul 2026
STEMcast Episode 42 | Learning to Learn: Exploring how Artificial and Biological Systems Learn with Prof. Andrew Saxe
What does it really mean to understand how something learns, whether it's a child, a brain, or a neural network? In today’s episode, we sit down with Prof. Andrew Saxe, Professor of Theoretical Neuroscience & Machine Learning at University College London, to explore how mathematics can help us understand learning processes in all kinds of networks. We dive into the two-way street between how and what we learn, examining the way learnable content and the learning process shape each other. Our conversation anchors itself in Prof. Saxe’s early projects on language development in infants, current interests in knowledge generalization, and future aims for experimentalist-theorist collaborations, and we can’t wait for you to give it a listen!
In this episode, we cover:
(1:13) Motivations behind studying the learning process
(5:24) When did neuroscience and psychology come into the picture?
(8:06) Projects and people that defined his trajectory
(12:33) Simple mathematical models give rise to complex dynamics. Why focus on simplicity?
(15:16) Current and future focus points of the lab? (in the era of LLMs…)
(20:27) Sparse reward problems in learning processes
(21:46) How hierarchy helps us learn
(24:12) How our experience shapes our language structure
(29:02) Lab’s Three Axes of Learning
(34: 35) Invariant manifolds and network initialization schemes
(36:50) The manifold hypothesis
(39:50): Cross talk between theorist and experimentalist
(41:26) The NeuroAI research program
Further reading (papers, books and more)
Read more about Prof. Andrew Saxe (https://www.saxelab.org/people/andrewsaxe/), his Theory of Learning Lab (https://www.saxelab.org/) and his 2025 Blavatnik Finalist Award (https://blavatnikawards.org/honorees/profile/andrew-m-saxe/)
A mathematical theory of semantic development in deep neural networks (2019) (https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1820226116)
What makes language learnable? Dive into Noam Chomsky (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Noam-Chomsky)’s work to learn more.
How Deep Neural Networks Learn Compositional Data: The Random Hierarchy Model (2023) (https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.02129)
The Story of Your Life (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life) (mistakenly called “The Story of You” during the episode)
Simon Kirby (https://www.simonkirby.net/home/language-evolution) and how our learning capabilities are crucial for structuring our language
Saddle-to-Saddle Dynamics Explains A Simplicity Bias Across Neural Network Architectures (https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.20607) (20250)
Scaling Learning Towards AI (http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/publis/pdf/bengio-lecun-07.pdf) (introduces LeCun and Bengio’s AI Set)
Episode host and producer: Sabrina Du (mailto:sabrina.du@mail.mcgill.ca)
Contact: igem@mcgill.ca (mailto:igem@mcgill.ca)
2 Jun 2026
STEMcast Episode 41 | "From Controller to Contributor": How gaming is contributing to cutting-edge research with Profs. Jerome Waldispuhl and Attila Szantner
What if playing a video game could help advance scientific discovery?
Welcome back to STEMcast: Beyond the Lab! Today we invited Professors Attila Szantner (Department of Computer Science at McGill and CEO and co-founder of Massively Multiplayer Online Science) and Jerome Waldispuhl (Department of Computer Science at McGill University and Canada Research Chair (CIHR Tier 1) in Biomedical Citizen Science (https://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/chairholders-titulaires/profile-eng.aspx?profileId=6204)) to explore how video games are being used to advance scientific research.
From improving microbial phylogenies through Borderlands Science to uncovering the unique problem-solving strategies of expert players, we discuss the growing role of citizen science, the strengths of humans and computers in tackling complex challenges, and how millions of gamers are contributing to discoveries in biology and beyond. Join us as we examine the future of research powered by play!
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