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SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for the 2nd week of July
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PhD Dissertation Defense - Jun Yan
Mon, Jul 08, 2024 @ 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
Title: Identifying and Mitigating Safety Risks in Language Models Abstract: Recent advancements in language models have revolutionized the field of Natural Language Processing, reshaping human-technology interactions. As these models become increasingly integrated in our daily lives, concerns about their safety risks have also escalated. In this thesis defense, I will present my work on identifying and mitigating safety risks in language models that could lead to system malfunctions and undermine user trust. My research addresses three key questions: (1) What threats can adversaries induce by poisoning the training data of language model classifiers? (2) Can practitioners reliably detect compromised language model classifiers before deployment? (3) What novel threats does data poisoning pose with the emergence of generative large language models? In conclusion, I will discuss future directions for the development of safer language models.
Committee Members: Prof. Xiang Ren (Chair), Prof. Robin Jia, and Prof. Morteza Dehghani
Date: Monday, July 8th, 2024
Time: 12pm – 2pm
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 306
Zoom Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/6633659669Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 306
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ellecia Williams
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DEN@Viterbi - 'Limited Status: How to Get Started' Virtual Info Session
Tue, Jul 09, 2024 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Join USC Viterbi for our upcoming Limited Status: How to Get Started Virtual Information Session via WebEx to learn about the Limited Status enrollment option. The Limited Status enrollment option allows individuals with an undergraduate degree in engineering or related field, with a 3.0 GPA or above to take courses before applying for formal admission into a Viterbi graduate degree program. USC Viterbi representatives will provide a step-by-step guide for how to get started as a Limited Status student and enroll in courses online via DEN@Viterbi as early as the Summer 2024 semester.
WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/r96b9f29a2a18e98200138a31c4447043
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
Event Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/r96b9f29a2a18e98200138a31c4447043
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PhD Dissertation Defense - Shihan Lu
Thu, Jul 11, 2024 @ 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
University Calendar
Defense title: Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception of Multisensory Feedback in Touch
Committee: Heather Culbertson (Chair), Jernej Barbic, Daniel Seita, Feifei Qian
Date: Thursday, July 11, 2 pm - 4 pm PST
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 306
Zoom Meeting Details: https://usc.zoom.us/j/92142744465?pwd=4N5dBtpYtJ7C80X3pmkFMO1vwWyRjy.1
Meeting ID: 921 4274 4465 Passcode: 160570
Abstract:
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Multisensory feedback, including haptic and auditory feedback, is often overlooked in interactive and contact-rich scenarios in the studies with both humans and robots, such as writing on the back of an envelope with a pen or grasping a block in a Jenga game. In this work, I focus on three perspectives related to the multisensory feedback in touch interactions: (1) Analysis – how to extract useful and interpretable features from multisensory feedback; (2) Synthesis – how to simulate realistic virtual feedback; and (3) Perception – how humans and robots respond to the feedback. I explore these perspectives through tasks of texture sound modeling, haptic texture design, large-scale texture classification, and state-aware robot sensing and manipulation. With these tasks, the objective is to enhance the interactive experience in virtual reality, improve the understanding of crossmodal relationships, and complement visual and tactile sensing in challenging robot manipulation tasks.
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Audiences: Everyone Is InvitedLocation: 306
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Ellecia Williams
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DEN@Viterbi - Online Graduate Engineering Virtual Information Session
Thu, Jul 11, 2024 @ 05:00 PM - 06:00 PM
DEN@Viterbi, Viterbi School of Engineering Graduate Admission
Workshops & Infosessions
Join USC Viterbi School of Engineering for a virtual information session via WebEx, providing an introduction to DEN@Viterbi, our top-ranked online delivery system. Discover the 40+ graduate engineering and computer science programs available entirely online. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect directly with USC Viterbi representatives during the session to discuss the admission process, program details, and the benefits of online delivery.
WebCast Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/rec92d64442e845079ee1749c9d277250
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Corporate & Professional Programs
Event Link: https://uscviterbi.webex.com/weblink/register/rec92d64442e845079ee1749c9d277250
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CS Seminar: Michael Pradel (University of Stuttgart) - Neuro-Symbolic Developer Tools for Analyzing, Executing, and Repairing Code
Fri, Jul 12, 2024 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Michael Pradel, University of Stuttgart
Talk Title: Neuro-Symbolic Developer Tools for Analyzing, Executing, and Repairing Code
Abstract: Developer productivity and software quality critically depend on effective software development tools. Traditional, symbolic program analysis tools are often limited in their ability to understand developer intention and rely on various hand-crafted heuristics. Neural software analysis addresses these limitations, but remains unaware of the formal semantics of a program and hence easily misses facts and rules that are actually well known. This talk argues that carefully combining neural and symbolic reasoning provides an effective means to address various challenging software development problems. To illustrate this point, I will describe our 8-year long journey of creating neuro-symbolic developer tools, ranging from learning-based bug detectors and type predictors, to our most recent work on learning-guided execution and program repair based on an autonomous LLM-based agent. I will discuss lessons learned on this journey and conclude with an outline of open challenges waiting to be addressed in order to close the gap between symbolic and neural software developer tools.The talk is based (mostly) on these papers:https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.02343 https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.17134
Biography: Michael Pradel is a full professor at the University of Stuttgart, which he joined after a PhD at ETH Zurich, a post-doc at UC Berkeley, an assistant professorship at TU Darmstadt, and a sabbatical at Facebook. His research interests span software engineering, programming languages, security, and machine learning, with a focus on tools and techniques for building reliable, efficient, and secure software. In particular, he is interested in neural software analysis, analyzing web applications, dynamic analysis, and test generation. Michael has been recognized through the Ernst-Denert Software Engineering Award, an Emmy Noether grant by the German Research Foundation (DFG), an ERC Starting Grant, best/distinguished paper awards at FSE (3x), ISSTA, ASE, and ASPLOS, and by being named an ACM Distinguished Member.
Host: Chao Wang
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 115
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: CS Faculty Affairs
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AI Seminar- Nexa AI – Functional Tokens for On-device Multimodal Models
Fri, Jul 12, 2024 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Information Sciences Institute
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Alex Chen, CEO + Founder of Nexa AI and Zack Li, CTO + Co-Founder of Nexa AI, Nexa AI
Talk Title: Nexa AI -“ Functional Tokens for On-device Multimodal Models
Abstract: Zoom meeting ID: 944 0958 4905Passcode: 822247 Tokenizing corpora into semantic tokens has proven effective for large language models. However, this approach encounters challenges when applied to function calls, leading to inaccuracies and hallucinations. To address this issue, we have pioneered a new training methodology using functional tokens, transforming complex function calling tasks into language completion tasks. We also released Octopus-series models using functional tokens and achieved GPT4 level function calling accuracy with 2B parameter size. Our Octopus-V2 model achieved 35 times faster inference speed up and 70 times more energy efficiency compared to the RAG plus Llama3 solution, and is four times faster than OpenAI’s GPT-4O. The functional token is then applied to Octopus-V3, a sub-billion multimodal model, adept at both text and images, and fluent in English and Mandarin. Furthermore, Octopus-V4 extends these capabilities into a graph network structure, with Octopus-V2 as the master node and integration with other open-source models as worker nodes, Octopus-V4 achieved 74.8 MMLU and outperforms GPT3.5, and applied for cloud and edge collaboration. Nexa’s Octopus-V2 models ranked 2nd place among half a million models on HuggingFace between Apr 2 and Apr 15, surpassing XAI grok and Databrick DBRX model during that period, and was mentioned by Google Gemma team during the 2024 Google IO. Nexa’s Octopus models have also attracted industrial collaboration interest from AWS, Google, Volkswagen US, Qualcomm, ByteDance, Stellantis, Zoom, and more.
Biography: Alex Chen is the CEO and founder of Nexa AI, with PhD in Mechanics and Computation from Stanford University. His research interests lie in AI agent development empowered by large language models. He is a serial entrepreneur and served as President of the Chinese Entrepreneur Organization before. He is also a gold medalist in the Mathematics Olympiad. Zack Li is the CTO and co-founder of Nexa AI. Before this, he accumulated four years of industrial experience in on-device AI at Google and Amazon Lab126, focusing on model deployment, performance optimization, and edge-cloud collaboration. He received an MS in Operation Research from Stanford University. Alex and Zack are founders of Nexa AI and have authored Octopus series models. Nexa AI builds lightweight but powerful multimodal models for AI agents and provides on-device SDK infra to make models run fast and energy-efficiently. For more information, visit https://www.nexa4ai.com/ If speaker approves to be recorded for this AI 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: Abel Salinas and Justina Gilleland
More Info: https://www.isi.edu/events/5009/nexa-ai-functional-tokens-for-on-device-multimodal-models/
Webcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxAiFHSRrwQLocation: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Virtual Only
WebCast Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxAiFHSRrwQ
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Pete Zamar
Event Link: https://www.isi.edu/events/5009/nexa-ai-functional-tokens-for-on-device-multimodal-models/
