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Events

• Nov

  8

  Northwestern Junior PL Day

  Department of Computer Science

  10:30 AM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  Join us on Nov 8th, 2019 for a day of programming languages led by the speakers below.

  10:30am

  Stefan Muller, Carnegie Mellon University
  "Cost Models for Parallel Programs"

  If a program takes time T to run on one processor, how long will it take to run on P processors? This is a fundamental question when designing parallel algorithms, programs and languages, and answering it has been the subject of decades of work. The idea of "bounded implementations" pioneered by Blelloch and Greiner in the 1990s gives a framework for relating parallel programs to abstract dependency graphs, using existing results about such graphs to give reasonable bounds on time and space cost, and then showing that an implementation of the program or language can realize these bounds.

  In this talk, I propose that the idea of bounded implementations be used as a blueprint for exploring new problems in parallel computing and for designing new parallel languages. As a running example, I use the design of PriML, a language developed for my PhD dissertation. PriML enables the construction of an important class of parallel programs: interactive programs for which a suitable notion of cost must account for responsiveness and not just throughput. Reasoning about this extended notion of cost has required extending the dependency graph-based cost models to account for responsiveness. In turn, these models have influenced the development of PriML by helping us reason about and eliminate performance pitfalls, such as priority inversions, that arise in this new setting.

  11:15am

  Taisa Sima Kushner - University of Colorado at Boulder
  "Data-driven Modeling and Verification for Artificial Pancreas Systems"

  Artificial Pancreas (AP) systems refer to a set of increasingly closed-loop biomedical devices which seek to automate blood glucose regulation in individuals with type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). While incredibly promising for the treatment of T1DM, these systems present a one-sided control problem, able to dose insulin to decrease blood glucose levels, but unable to counteract the effects of too high a dose. In addition, these systems are safety critical, with too high a dose leading to long-term organ damage, coma, and potentially death to an individual. Thus, the need to test and formally guarantee the safety of such systems is critical. In order to test such systems prior to patient trials, in-silico modeling of patient physiology along with the closed-loop interactions between the control algorithms and human physiology is utilized. Historically, nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODE) models have been used as the patient models. However, such models are deterministic and general, which has resulted in a mismatch between testing for general use of AP systems, and the translation of a system to a specific individual. In this work, we present two types of nondeterministic models which we have developed to model human glucose-insulin physiology on a patient-specific level: linear ARMAX models and neural networks. We demonstrate how these models are learned from data AP systems are already collecting, requiring no additional intrusive measurements, and present three methods for quantifying uncertainty/error in the models which can lead to more exhaustive verification both in model conformance and closed-loop safety verification. Finally, we utilize these models within two tasks (1) performing analysis and patient-specific tuning of a PID control system from literature, and (2) real-time learning of a model predictive control system with safety guarantees, with results shown for both in-silico and real patient data.

  12:00pm

  Lunch

  1:00pm

  Arthur Azevedo de Amorim - Carnegie Mellon University
  "Reconciling Noninterference and Gradual Typing"

  One of the standard correctness criteria for gradual typing is the dynamic gradual guarantee, which ensures that loosening type annotations in a program does not affect its behavior in arbitrary ways. Though natural, prior work has pointed out that the guarantee does not hold of any gradual type system for information-flow control. Toro et al.’s GSL Ref language, for example, had to abandon it to validate noninterference.

  We argue that this issue is a consequence of using type ascription to classify data in the presence of no-sensitive-upgrade checks for avoiding information leakage. We propose a solution that changes the semantics of type ascription so that it never raises a value’s dynamic label, but merely checks that it is below the ascribed level. We demonstrate this idea with GLD, a gradually typed language inspired by the LIO Haskell library that enforces both the gradual guarantee and noninterference, featuring higher-order functions, general references, coarse-grained information-flow control, security subtyping and first-class labels.

  1:45pm

  Yuepeng Wang - University of Texas at Austin
  "Formal Methods for Database Schema Refactoring"

  Many database applications need to undergo schema refactoring several times during their life cycle. Since schema refactoring requires making significant changes to the database program, it is often a non-trivial and error-prone task. In this talk, I will present verification and synthesis techniques to help developers correctly and easily evolve database applications during schema refactoring. First, we address the problem of verifying equivalence between a pair of database programs that operate over different schemas. In particular, we formalize the notion of equivalence for database programs and propose a proof methodology based on bisimulation invariants. This technique is helpful for ensuring that the program change during schema refactoring does not introduce any additional bugs. As a further step, we propose a novel technique that automatically synthesizes a new version of a database program given its original version and the source and target schemas. This method does not require manual user guidance and ensures that the synthesized program is equivalent to the original one.

  2:30pm

  Michael Coblenz - Carnegie Mellon University
  "Obsidian: A Safer Smart Contract Language"

  Blockchains are intended to support safe computation on untrusted machines. Unfortunately, this safety has been violated by bugs in smart contracts, which are programs that run on blockchains. In this talk, I will describe Obsidian, our new smart contract language, whose type system uses typestate and linearity to prevent and detect bugs that have plagued programs written in previous languages. In addition, I will talk about our unique language design process, which integrates user studies in order to make the language more usable by programmers.

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  TIME Friday, November 8, 2019 at 10:30 AM - 3:30 PM

  LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

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  CONTACT Brianna White    brianna.mello@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science

• Apr

  29

  CS Seminar: Data-Efficient Graph Learning (Kaize Ding)

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  12:00 PM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILS

  

  Monday / CS Seminar
  April 29th / 12:00 PM
  Hybrid / Mudd 3514

  Speaker
  Kaize Ding, Northwestern University

  Talk Title
  Data-Efficient Graph Learning
  
  Abstract
  The world around us -- and our understanding of it -- is rich in relational structure: from atoms and their interactions to objects and entities in our environments. Graphs, with nodes representing entities and edges representing relationships between entities, serve as a common language to model complex, relational, and heterogeneous systems. Despite the success of recent deep graph learning, the efficacy of existing efforts heavily depends on the ideal data quality of the observed graphs and the sufficiency of the supervision signals provided by the human-annotated labels, leading to the fact that those carefully designed models easily fail in resource-constrained scenarios.

  In this talk, I will present my recent research contributions centered around data-efficient learning for relational and heterogeneous graph-structured data. First, I will introduce what data-efficient graph learning is and my contributions to different research problems under its umbrella, including graph few-shot learning, graph weakly-supervised learning, and graph self-supervised learning. Based on my work, I will elucidate how to push forward the performance boundary of graph learning models especially graph neural networks with low-cost human supervision signals. I will also touch upon the real-world applications of data-efficient graph learning to different domains and finally conclude my talk with a brief overview of my future research agenda.

  Biography
  Kaize Ding is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Northwestern University. Before joining Northwestern, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at Arizona State University in 2023 under the supervision of Prof. Huan Liu. His research interests are generally in data mining, machine learning, and natural language processing, with a particular focus on graph machine learning, data-efficient learning, and reliable AI. His work has been published in top-tier conferences and journals (e.g., AAAI, EMNLP, IJCAI, KDD, NeurIPS, TheWebConf, and TNNLS), and has been recognized with several prestigious awards and honors, including the AAAI New Faculty Highlights, SDM Best Posters Award, Best Paper Award at the Trustworthy Learning on Graphs workshop, etc.

  Research Area/Interests
  Data Mining; Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing

  Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/99555833103?pwd=TEtaakVGL2xUYytDa2Nvbk14Z3VhUT09

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  TIME Monday, April 29, 2024 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

  LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

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  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• May

  1

  CS Distinguished Lecture: Tong Zhang

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  12:00 PM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILS

  Wednesday / CS Distinguished Lecture
  May 1st / 12:00 PM
  Hybrid / Mudd 3514

  Speaker
  Tong Zhang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  Talk Title
  TBA

  Abstract
  TBA

  Biography
  TBA

  Research Area/Interests
  TBA

  Zoom: TBA

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  TIME Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

  LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

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  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• May

  8

  CS Distinguished Lecture: Monica Lam

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  12:00 PM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILS

  Wednesday / CS Distinguished Lecture
  May 8th / 12:00 PM
  Hybrid / Mudd 3514

  Speaker
  Monica Lam, Stanford University

  Talk Title
  TBA

  Abstract
  TBA

  Biography
  TBA

  Research Area/Interests
  TBA

  Zoom
  TBA

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  TIME Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

  LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• May

  8

  Extending Care: A Conversation about Conservation and Futurity

  Block Museum of Art

  6:00 PM Block Museum of Art, Mary and Leigh

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  The Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts is a collaboration between the Art Institute of Chicago and materials science-related departments at Northwestern University to pursue objects-based and objects-inspired scientific research. Materials research benefits ongoing work in conservation, archaeology, art history, and curatorial scholarship.

  Learn how the Center uses materials research to care for art objects in sustainable, innovative ways with Maria Kokkori, Senior Scientist in the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts. She will be in conversation with Corey Byrnes, Northwestern Associate Professor of Chinese Culture and co-founder/co-director of the Environmental Humanities Workshop in Kaplan Humanities Center.

  This event is presented by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science in conjunction with exhibition Actions for the Earth: Art, Care & Ecology.

  Register Now

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  TIME Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

  LOCATION Block Museum of Art, Mary and Leigh    map it

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  CONTACT Block Museum of Art    block-museum@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Block Museum of Art

• May

  10

  CS Distinguished Lecture: Trust, Backdoor Vulnerabilities and Possible Mitigations (Shafi Goldwasser)

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  12:00 PM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILS

  Friday / CS Distinguished Lecture
  May 10th / 12:00 PM
  Hybrid / Mudd 3514

  Speaker
  Shafi Goldwasser; Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, University of California Berkeley

  Talk Title
  Trust, Backdoor Vulnerabilities and Possible Mitigations

  Abstract
  Cryptographic tools and models enable to trust the use of technology platforms controlled by worst case computationally bounded adversaries. In this talk I will use cryptographic modeling and tools to view trust dilemmas in various phases of the machine learning pipelines. We will touch on privacy in the training stage, verification of properties of
  machine learning models, and the possibility of achieving robustness in presence of backdoors.

  Biography

  Shafi Goldwasser is Director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California Berkeley. Goldwasser is also the RSA Professor (post tenure) of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Goldwasser holds a B.S. Applied Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University (1979), and M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California Berkeley (1984).

  Goldwasser's contributions include the introduction of probabilistic encryption, interactive zero knowledge protocols, elliptic curve primality testings, hardness of approximation proofs for combinatorial problems, combinatorial property testing, and pseudo deterministic algorithms.

  Goldwasser was the recipient of the ACM Turing Award in 2012, the Gödel Prize in 1993 and in 2001, the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1996, the RSA Award in Mathematics in 1998, the ACM Athena Award for Women in Computer Science in 2008, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2010, the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award in 2011, the Simons Foundation Investigator Award in 2012, and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in 2018. Goldwasser is a member of the NAS, NAE, AAAS, the Russian Academy of Science, the Israeli Academy of Science, the London Royal Mathematical Society and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. Goldwasser holds honorary degrees from Ben Gurion University, Bar Ilan University, Carnegie Mellon University, Haifa University, University of Oxford, and the University of Waterloo, and has received the UC Berkeley Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Barnard College Medal of Distinction.

  Research Area/Interests
  Cryptography, Complexity, Probabilistic Algorithms

  Zoom: TBA

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  TIME Friday, May 10, 2024 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

  LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• May

  30

  TGI Bagel Thursday

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  9:00 AM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILS

  TBA

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  TIME Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

  LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

  ADD TO CALENDAR

  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• May

  30

  End of Year Awards

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  3:00 PM TBA, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILS

  TBA

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  TIME Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

  LOCATION TBA, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

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  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• Jun

  10

  Northwestern Engineering PhD Hooding and Master's Degree Recognition Ceremony

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  9:00 AM Welsh-Ryan Arena

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  McCormick School of Engineering PhD Hooding and Master’s Degree Recognition Ceremony

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  TIME Monday, June 10, 2024 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

  LOCATION Welsh-Ryan Arena   

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  CONTACT Amy Pokrass    amy.pokrass@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

• Jun

  10

  Northwestern Engineering Undergraduate Convocation

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  2:00 PM Welsh-Ryan Arena

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  McCormick School of Engineering Undergraduate Convocation

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  TIME Monday, June 10, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

  LOCATION Welsh-Ryan Arena   

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  CONTACT Amy Pokrass    amy.pokrass@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

• Aug

  14

  Undergraduate Quantum Summer School

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  All Day Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  Innovation in Quantum Pedagogy, Application, and its Relation to Culture (IQ-PARC), funded by the Department of Defense — National Defense Education Program, is extending an invitation to underrepresented students nationwide (including military-connected students) to participate in a summer school focused on quantum technologies, to be held at Northwestern University. Join us for presentations by faculty and industry partners introducing quantum technologies, cutting-edge research areas, and related job opportunities particularly in the areas of national security.

  This effort aims to foster an inclusive environment that encourages participation from all corners of the academic community. Successful applicants will receive up to $1,000 USD to cover travel and lodging expenses in Evanston, IL.

  Priority application deadline: May 15, 2024.

  Decisions will be sent by June 15, 2024.

  Register Now

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  TIME Wednesday, August 14, 2024

  LOCATION Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center    map it

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  CONTACT Dongyang Li    lidongyang@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science