Previous Conferences & Workshops

Jul
09
2020

Theoretical Machine Learning Seminar

Role of Interaction in Competitive Optimization
Anima Anandkumar
3:00pm|Remote Access Only - see link below

Competitive optimization is needed for many ML problems such as training GANs, robust reinforcement learning, and adversarial learning. Standard approaches to competitive optimization involve each agent independently optimizing their objective...

Jul
08
2020

Mathematical Conversations

Weyl laws and dense periodic orbits
5:30pm|Remote Access Only

We review a "Weyl law" in embedded contact homology, relating periods of orbits of the Reeb vector field on a contact three-manifold to volume. (This was also mentioned in the talk by Dan Cristofaro-Gardiner.) We explain a clever argument by Kei...

Jul
07
2020

Theoretical Machine Learning Seminar

Machine learning-based design (of proteins, small molecules and beyond)
Jennifer Listgarten
12:30pm|Remote Access Only - see link below

Data-driven design is making headway into a number of application areas, including protein, small-molecule, and materials engineering. The design goal is to construct an object with desired properties, such as a protein that binds to a target more...

Jul
03
2020

Joint IAS/Princeton/Montreal/Paris/Tel-Aviv Symplectic Geometry Zoominar

Infinite staircases and reflexive polygons
Ana Rita Pires
9:15am|Remote Access - see Zoom link below

A classic result, due to McDuff and Schlenk, asserts that the function that encodes when a four-dimensional symplectic ellipsoid can be embedded into a four-dimensional ball has a remarkable structure: the function has infinitely many corners...

Jul
01
2020

Mathematical Conversations

The reversibility paradox: 130 years after Loschmidt and Zermelo
Laure Saint-Reymond
5:30pm|Remote Access Only

The reversibility paradox is the objection that it should not be possible to deduce an irreversible process from time-symmetric dynamics. A first result reconciling the fundamental microscopic physical processes (with time reversal symmetry) and...

Jun
26
2020

Joint IAS/Princeton/Montreal/Paris/Tel-Aviv Symplectic Geometry Zoominar

Distinguishing monotone Lagrangians via holomorphic annuli
9:15am|Remote Access - see Zoom link below

We present techniques for constructing families of compact, monotone (including exact) Lagrangians in certain affine varieties, starting with Brieskorn-Pham hypersurfaces. We will focus on dimensions 2 and 3. In particular, we'll explain how to set...

Jun
25
2020

Theoretical Machine Learning Seminar

Instance-Hiding Schemes for Private Distributed Learning
3:00pm|Remote Access Only - see link below

An important problem today is how to allow multiple distributed entities to train a shared neural network on their private data while protecting data privacy. Federated learning is a standard framework for distributed deep learning Federated...

Jun
24
2020

Mathematical Conversations

Knot concordance and 4-manifolds
Lisa Piccirillo
5:30pm|Remote Access Only

There is a rich interplay between the fields of knot theory and 3- and 4-manifold topology. In this talk, I will describe a weak notion of equivalence for knots called concordance, and highlight some historical and recent connections between knot...

Jun
23
2020

Theoretical Machine Learning Seminar

Generalizable Adversarial Robustness to Unforeseen Attacks
Soheil Feizi
12:30pm|Remote Access Only - see link below

In the last couple of years, a lot of progress has been made to enhance robustness of models against adversarial attacks. However, two major shortcomings still remain: (i) practical defenses are often vulnerable against strong “adaptive” attack...

Jun
19
2020

Joint IAS/Princeton/Montreal/Paris/Tel-Aviv Symplectic Geometry Zoominar

Exotic symplectomorphisms and contact circle action
Igor Uljarevic
9:15am|Remote Access - see Zoom link below

An exotic symplectomorphism is a symplectomorphism that is not isotopic to the identity through compactly supported symplectomorphisms.Using Floer-theoretic methods, we prove that the non-existence of an exotic symplectomorphism on the standard...