SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for April 04, 2025
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AI Seminar-Experiments in Scaling Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards
Fri, Apr 04, 2025 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nathan Lambert, Allen Institure
Talk Title: Experiments in Scaling Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards
Series: AI Seminar
Abstract: With the release of DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model, interest in reinforcement learning may be at an all time high. Academics are pouring energy into the space, trying to replicate DeepSeek’s results and establish clear trade-offs and capabilities of this new era of reinforcement learning on language models. This talk discusses these new results with language models trained with Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR), our efforts at scaling them for Ai2’s OLMo and Tülu language models, hints that we may have missed indicating that RL is more effective than people give credit for, and some history from my background in model-based RL/robotics. The goal of the talk is to present a mix of (recent) historical context on language modeling and cutting edge research with RL to forecast how the rapidly expanding industry of language models may change in the near future.
Biography: Nathan Lambert is a Senior Research Scientist and post-training lead at the Allen Institute for AI focusing on building open language models. At the same time he founded and operates Interconnects.ai to increase transparency and understanding of current AI models and systems.
Previously, he helped build an RLHF research team at HuggingFace. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley working at the intersection of machine learning and robotics. He was advised by Professor Kristofer Pister in the Berkeley Autonomous Microsystems Lab and Roberto Calandra at Meta AI Research. He was lucky to intern at Facebook AI and DeepMind during his Ph.D. Nathan was was awarded the UC Berkeley EECS Demetri Angelakos Memorial Achievement Award for Altruism for his efforts to better community norms.
If speaker approves to be recorded for this seminar it will be posted on the USC/ISI YouTube page within 1-2 business days: https://www.youtube.com/user/USCISI.
Subscribe here to learn more about upcoming seminars: https://www.isi.edu/events/ .
Host: Eric Boxer and Justina Gilleland
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5553/experiments-in-scaling-reinforcement-learning-with-verifiable-rewards/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94409584905?pwd=Sm5LVkd0bndUdEluM3piK0NWTUQrUT09Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual Only
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/94409584905?pwd=Sm5LVkd0bndUdEluM3piK0NWTUQrUT09
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://www.isi.edu/events/5553/experiments-in-scaling-reinforcement-learning-with-verifiable-rewards/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor. -
CA DREAMS - Technical Seminar Series
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Fri, Apr 04, 2025 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Shaya Fainman, Professor, University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: Foundry Enabled Chip-scale Photonics Technology and Applications
Abstract: Dense photonic integration requires miniaturization of materials, devices, circuits and systems, including passive components (e.g., engineered composite metamaterials, filters, etc.), active components (e.g., modulators and nonlinear wave mixers) and integrated circuits (Fourier transform spectrometer, programmable phase modulator of free space modes, linear algebra processors, etc.). In this talk we will discuss recent progress in developing CMOS compatible nonlinear optical materials as well as examples of foundry enabled silicon photonic circuits and systems. Specifically, we will review silicon photonics-based Fourier transform spectrometer (Si-FTS) that can bring broadband operation and fine resolution to the chip scale. Here we will present the modeling and experimental demonstration of a thermally tuned Si-FTS accounting for dispersion, thermo-optic non-linearity, and thermal expansion. We show how these effects modify the relation between the spectrum and interferogram of a light source and we develop a quantitative correction procedure through calibration with a tunable laser. Providing design flexibility and robustness, the Si-FTS is poised to become a fundamental building block for on-chip spectroscopy. Moreover, taking advantage of nanofabrication we will discuss on-chip spectrometers using stratified waveguide filters and machine learning. Moving forward, we will discuss chip-scale integrated circuit/system that will allow to realize linear algebra accelerators with superior performance in speed, energy consumption and size compared to its electronic counterpart. Such system can be manufactured using monolithic CMOS process and impact such applications as 5G/6G and beyond wireless MIMO systems as well as deep learning and artificial intelligence.
Biography: Yeshaiahu (Shaya) Fainman is an inaugural ASML/Cymer Chair of Advanced Optical Technologies and Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He received the M. Sc and Ph. D degrees from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 1979 and 1983, respectively. He is directing research of the Ultrafast and Nanoscale Optics group at UCSD and made significant contributions to near field optical phenomena, nanoscale science and engineering of ultra-small, sub-micrometer semiconductor light emitters and nanolasers, inhomogeneous and meta-materials, nanophotonics and plasmonics, non-conventional imaging and silicon photonics. His current research interests are in near field optical science and optical technology with applications targeting information technologies and biomedical sensing. He contributed over 360 manuscripts in peer review journals and over 560 conference presentations and conference proceedings. During his career he has led as Director and Deputy Director of numerous large size interdisciplinary projects and centers supported by BMDO, DARPA, NSF-ERC, and ONR. He is a Fellow of the OSA, IEEE, SPIE, and a recipient of the Miriam and Aharon Gutvirt Prize, Lady Davis Fellowship, Brown Award, SPIE Gabor Award, OSA Emmett N. Leith Medal, OSA Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize and OPTICA (former OSA) Nick Holonyak Jr Award.
Host: Dr. Steve Crago
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5445/foundry-enabled-chip-scale-photonics-technology-and-applications/
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97017422125?pwd=Dbrt8MNMrmBV3xalKQJcAiNsggFJjJ.1&from=addonWebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/97017422125?pwd=Dbrt8MNMrmBV3xalKQJcAiNsggFJjJ.1&from=addon
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amy Kasmir
Event Link: https://www.isi.edu/events/5445/foundry-enabled-chip-scale-photonics-technology-and-applications/
This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.
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