ESE Spring Seminar – “Solving Inverse Problems with Generative Priors: From Low-rank to Diffusion Models”

Towne 337

: Generative priors are effective countermeasures to combat the curse of dimensionality, and enable efficient learning and inversion that otherwise are ill-posed, in data science. This talk begins with the classical low-rank prior, and introduces scaled gradient descent (ScaledGD), a simple iterative approach to directly recover the low-rank factors for a wide range of matrix […]

BE Seminar: “Using Computers to Derive Protein Structure from Sparse Data – A Case Study for Mass Spectrometry” (Steffen Lindert, Ohio State)

Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Mass spectrometry-based methods such as covalent labeling, surface induced dissociation (SID) or ion mobility (IM) are increasingly used to obtain information about protein structure. However, in contrast to other high-resolution structure determination methods, this information is not sufficient to deduce all atom coordinates and can only inform on certain elements of structure, such as solvent […]

IDEAS Seminar: “Equivariant Neural Inertial Odometry”

Room 401B, 3401 Walnut 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Abstract:  In this talk, we introduce a new class of problems related to integrating inertial measurements obtained from an IMU that play a significant role in navigation combined with visual data. While there have been tremendous technological advances in the precision of instrumentation, integrating acceleration and angular velocity still suffers from drift in the displacement […]

IDEAS/STAT Optimization Seminar

Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States

Zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98843354016

ESE Spring Seminar – “Machine Learning: Algorithmic and Economic Perspectives”

Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Algorithms are increasingly integrated into various societal applications, often directly interacting with people and communities. This highlights the importance of understanding the interplay between algorithmic decisions and economic incentives when designing machine learning algorithms. In this talk, I will explore two examples of this dynamic through the lens of privacy in data markets and fairness […]

IDEAS/STAT Optimization Seminar: “Foundations of Deep Learning: Optimization and Representation Learning”

Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States

Deep learning's success stems from the ability of neural networks to automatically discover meaningful representations from raw data. In this talk, I will describe some recent insights into how optimization enables this learning process. First, I will show how optimization algorithms exhibit surprisingly rich dynamics when training neural networks, and how these complex dynamics are […]

ESE Spring Seminar – “AI as a Lens: Expanding Vision for Scientific Discovery”

Raisler Lounge (Room 225), Towne Building 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Conventional approaches to scientific discovery often prioritize building larger sensors, gathering more data, and scaling up computational power. In this talk, I will present a complementary perspective: extracting insights hidden in the data we already have. The key lies in using AI not as a black-box predictor, but as a tool for interpreting data through […]

IDEAS/STAT Optimization Seminar: “Theoretical foundations for multi-agent learning”

Amy Gutmann Hall, Room 414 3333 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, United States

As learning algorithms become increasingly capable of acting autonomously, it is important to better understand the behavior that results from their interactions. For example, a pervasive challenge in multi-agent learning settings, which spans both theory and practice and dates back decades, has been the failure of convergence for iterative algorithms such as gradient descent. Accordingly, […]

MEAM Seminar: “Neural Operator for Scientific Computing”

Wu and Chen Auditorium (Room 101), Levine Hall 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Accurate simulations of physical phenomena governed by partial differential equations (PDEs) are foundational to scientific computing. While traditional numerical methods have proven effective, they remain computationally intensive, particularly for complex, large-scale systems. This talk introduces the neural operator, a machine learning framework that approximates solution operators in infinite-dimensional spaces, enabling efficient and scalable PDE simulations […]