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Events for February 13, 2023
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CS Colloquium: Nicole Immorlica (Microsoft Research New England) - Data, the Fundamental Particle of Interaction
Mon, Feb 13, 2023 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nicole Immorlica, Microsoft Research New England
Talk Title: Data, the Fundamental Particle of Interaction
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Most economic models of interaction assume that agents hold beliefs in the form of priors, or probability distributions over a state of the world, which guide their behavior. In this talk, I consider a model in which beliefs are built off data or anecdotes that are drawn from a distribution parameterized by the state of the world and study how this impacts outcomes. I first discuss a model where agents communicate by sharing anecdotes. This mode of communication results in higher noise and bias when agents have differing preferences, giving rise to informational homophily and polarization. The results have implications for content regulation in social networks. Next, I discuss a model where a principal selectively discloses anecdotes to facilitate social learning. Here I will show that an appropriate information structure, chosen ex ante, can incentivize exploration and thus avoid the herding problems common in such social learning settings. The results have implications for the selection of reviews in online recommendation systems.
Based on joint work with Nika Haghtalab, Brendan Lucier, Jieming Mao, Markus Mobius, Divya Mohan, Alex Slivkins, and Steven Wu.
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium
Biography: Nicole Immorlica is a senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research New England (MSR NE) where she leads the economics and computation group. She is also chair of SIGecom, the ACM Special Interest Group on Economics and Computation, which fosters world-class research in this interdisciplinary field through conferences, awards, and mentorship programs. She received her BS in 2000, MEng in 2001 and PhD in 2005 in theoretical computer science from MIT in Cambridge, MA. She joined MSR NE in 2012 after completing postdocs at Microsoft in Redmond, WA and Centruum vor Wiskunde en Informatics (CWI) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and a professorship in computer science at Northwestern University. Nicole's research interest is in the design and operation of sociotechnical systems. Using tools and modeling concepts from both theoretical computer science and economics, Nicole hopes to explain, predict, and shape behavioral patterns in various online and offline systems, markets, and games. She is known for her work on social networks, matching markets, and mechanism design. She is the recipient of a number of fellowships and awards including the Sloan Fellowship, the Microsoft Faculty Fellowship and the NSF CAREER Award. She has been on several boards including SIGACT, the Game Theory Society, and INFORMS Auction and Market Design Section; is an associate editor of Operations Research and Games and Economic Behavior, and was program committee member and chair for several ACM, IEEE and INFORMS conferences in her area.
Host: David Kempe
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 115
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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ECE Seminar: Interpreting Brain Activity Through Connectivity Using Graph Signal Processing
Mon, Feb 13, 2023 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Nicolas Farrugia, Department of Mathematical and Electrical Engineering, Better Representations for Artificial INtelligence (BRAIn), IMT Atlantique
Talk Title: Interpreting Brain Activity Through Connectivity Using Graph Signal Processing
Abstract: The application of graph theory to model the complex structure and function of the brain has shed new light on its organization, prompting the emergence of network neuroscience. Despite the tremendous progress that has been achieved in this field, still relatively few methods exploit the topology of brain networks to analyze brain activity. Recent attempts in this direction have leveraged on the one hand graph spectral analysis (to decompose brain connectivity into eigenmodes or gradients) and graph signal processing (to decompose brain activity "coupled to" an underlying network in graph Fourier modes). In this talk, we will describe two ongoing works that attempt at integrating knowledge from brain connectivity in order to decode and interpret brain activity. In the first contribution, we use functional connectivity graphs to define spectral convolution operators in a deep residual network trained on task decoding. We show how parameter pruning can be used to select the most important connectivity gradients for the task. In the second study, we analyze brain measured using high-density EEG during video watching, and perform an analysis using graph signal processing to estimate coupling and decoupling of source-localized electrophysiological activity on a functional connectivity graph. We discuss relationships between inter-subject correlation during video watching and structure-function decoupling at the individual level, and as a function of the underlying graph. The overarching goal of this line of work is to explore whether connectivity-informed analysis of brain activity can contribute to a better understanding of brain complexity as multimodal signals over networks.
Biography: Nicolas Farrugia (NF) obtained an electrical engineering degree at ENSEA, Cergy-Pontoise, in France, as well as a M.Sc. in Signal and Image processing, both in 2005. In 2008, he obtained a PhD at the Universite de Bourgogne and Orange Labs, Grenoble, working on hardware implementation of deep neural networks. In 2010, NF moved to the field of cognitive neurosciences as a postdoctoral researcher, with a focus on the neurosciences of music. As a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, he studied the effect of rhythm in the rehabilitation of Parkinson's Disease, as well as brain oscillations. He also did postdoctoral work on musical performance in drumming at the Music Performance and Brain Lab in Warsaw, and involuntary musical imagery in the Psychology Departement of Goldsmiths, University of London. NF published work in prestigious neuroscience and cognition journals such as "NeuroImage", "Network Neuroscience", "Memory & Cognition", and "Neuropsychologia". NF uses a wide range of cognitive neuroscience methods such as EEG, functional MRI, as well as behavioral psychology methods and motion capture. Since 2015, NF joined IMT Atlantique (previously known as Telecom Bretagne) to engage into a transdisciplinary effort, combining methods from Auditory Cognition, Neuroscience, Deep Learning, and Graph signal processing. Since 2016, he is part of the BRAIn team (Better Representations for Artificial Intelligence), together with Giulia Lioi, Bastien Pasdeloup, Vincent Gripon and Mathieu Leonardon.
Host: Dr. Karim Jerbi, karim.jerbi.udem@gmail.com and Dr. Richard M. Leahy, leahy@sipi.usc.edu
Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93962625457?pwd=TlVOV0xzeHkzaUN2cjV3blY4K3JDQT09More Information: ECE Seminar Announcement-Farrugia-021323.pdf
WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93962625457?pwd=TlVOV0xzeHkzaUN2cjV3blY4K3JDQT09
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
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CEE Seminar Series
Mon, Feb 13, 2023 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Avantika Gori, Princeton University
Talk Title: Quantifying evolving coastal multi-hazard risk: from regional projections to local-scale impacts
Abstract: See attachment
Host: CEE
More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95242807214
More Information: Gori_Announcement.docx
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Salina Palacios
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/95242807214
