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Events for February 22, 2024
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Center of Autonomy and AI, Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things, and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical & Computer Engineering Joint Seminar Series: Dengwang Tang (USC)
Thu, Feb 22, 2024 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dengwang Tang, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Informed Posterior Sampling Based Algorithms for Markov Decision Processes
Series: Center of Autonomy and AI, Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things, and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical & Computer Engineering Joint Seminar Series
Abstract: The traditional paradigm of RL often features an agent who learns to control the system only through interaction. However, such a paradigm can be impractical since
learning can be very slow. In many engineering applications, there's often an offline dataset available before the application of the online learning algorithm. We proposed
the informed posterior sampling-based reinforcement learning (iPSRL) to use offline datasets to bootstrap online RL algorithms in both episodic and continuing MDP
learning problems. In this algorithm, the learning agent forms an informed prior with the offline data along with the knowledge about the offline policy that generated the data.
This informed prior is then used to initiate the posterior sampling procedure. Through a novel prior-dependent regret analysis of the posterior sampling procedure, we showed
that when the offline data is informative enough, the iPSRL algorithm can significantly reduce the learning regret compared to the baseline. Based on iPSRL, we then
proposed the more practical iRLSVI algorithm and we showed that in episodic MDP learning problems, it can significantly reduce regret via empirical results.
Biography: Dengwang Tang is currently a postdoctoral researcher at University of Southern California. He obtained his B.S.E in Computer Engineering from University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor in 2016. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2021), M.S. in Mathematics (2021), and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2018) all
from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Before joining USC, he was a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Berkeley. His research interests involve control
and learning algorithms in stochastic dynamic systems, multi-agent systems, queuing theory, and dynamic games.
Host: Pierluigi Nuzzo
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Events
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NL Seminar -Red Teaming Language Model Detectors with Language Models
Thu, Feb 22, 2024 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Yihan Wang, UCLA
Talk Title: Red Teaming Language Model Detectors with Language Models
Series: NL Seminar
Abstract: REMINDER: This talk will be a live presentation only, it will not be recorded. Meeting hosts only admit guests that they know to the Zoom meeting. Hence, you’re highly encouraged to use your USC account to sign into Zoom. If you’re an outside visitor, please provide your: Full Name, Title and Name of Workplace to (nlg-seminar-host(at)isi.edu) beforehand so we’ll be aware of your attendance. Also, let us know if you plan to attend in-person or virtually. More Info for NL Seminars can be found at: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/ The prevalence and strong capability of large language models (LLMs) present significant safety and ethical risks if exploited by malicious users. To prevent the potentially deceptive usage of LLMs, recent works have proposed algorithms to detect LLM-generated text and protect LLMs. In this paper, we investigate the robustness and reliability of these LLM detectors under adversarial attacks. We study two types of attack strategies: 1) replacing certain words in an LLM's output with their synonyms given the context; 2) automatically searching for an instructional prompt to alter the writing style of the generation. In both strategies, we leverage an auxiliary LLM to generate the word replacements or the instructional prompt. Different from previous works, we consider a challenging setting where the auxiliary LLM can also be protected by a detector. Experiments reveal that our attacks effectively compromise the performance of all detectors in the study with plausible generations, underscoring the urgent need to improve the robustness of LLM-generated text detection systems. This talk may also introduce some of our other recent works on trustworthy and ethical LLMs.
Biography: Yihan is Ph.D. student at UCLA in Computer Science. She received her B.Eng. degree in Computer Science and Technology from Tsinghua University in June 2020. Ms. Wang's research interest is machine learning, especially improving trustworthiness and generalization of machine learning models. Yihan is currently working with Prof. Cho-Jui Hsieh at UCLA. If speaker approves to be recorded for this NL Seminar talk, it will be posted on our 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: Jon May and Justin Cho
More Info: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
Webcast: https://youtu.be/Fx1T9lyNDh0?si=qEL0QipveladKDwPLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual and ISI-Conf Rm#689
WebCast Link: https://youtu.be/Fx1T9lyNDh0?si=qEL0QipveladKDwP
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/
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Get To Know Apple Virtual Event
Thu, Feb 22, 2024 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Get To Know Apple Virtual Event
Thursday, February 22, 2024
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PST
Virtual - RSVP Required - RSVP HERE: https://joinapple.avature.net/GetToKnowAppleVirtualEvent
Description:
There’s a place at Apple for every kind of brilliant. Our differences are our greatest strengths, leading to the collaboration and innovation that allow you to do the best work of your life.
During this event, you’ll learn more about Apple, employment opportunities for students, and hear firsthand from recruiters what it takes to stand out during the selection and interview process. Apple has invited a select group of universities across the nation to attend this event.
You must RSVP if you’re planning to attend. The link to join will be sent out 24 hours before the event.Location: Virtual Event
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
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Leveraging LinkedIn to Network Virtually
Thu, Feb 22, 2024 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
THIS EVENT WILL BE HOSTED HYBRID: IN-PERSON & ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY
This event is designed to help you learn how to network virtually on LinkedIn. You will learn how to draft an introductory message, how to find and research industry professionals, and how to convert your contacts into potential mentee/mentor relationships.
Zoom link: https://usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAtf-2trTwiG9L-XKIegqBHKtaTYQUH3eZ7
For more information about all workshops, please visit viterbicareers.usc.edu/workshops.Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: All Viterbi
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAtf-2trTwiG9L-XKIegqBHKtaTYQUH3eZ7
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Boeing Freshman Design Challenge
Thu, Feb 22, 2024 @ 06:30 PM - 07:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Attend this information session to learn about the Boeing Freshman Design Challenge!
During the Info Session: Learn about the Challenge, the agenda, and teams, and receive a signup link to Create or join a team.
Date: 02/22/2024
Time: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Register for this virtual info session on Zoom HERE.
Target student audience: Freshman, any Viterbi Major is invited!
About the freshman Design Challenge: During this unique, resume-building experience, students will also have the opportunity to network with Boeing engineers and executives, who will be available to act as mentors and judges. Also, Representatives from Boeing’s campus team will share upcoming recruitment opportunitiesLocation: Virtual Event
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Connections
