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  • Feb
    13

    CS Seminar: Reading to Learn: Improving Generalization by Learning From Language (Victor Zhong)

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

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

    EVENT DETAILS

    Wednesday / CS Seminar
    February 13th / 12:00 PM
    Mudd 3514

    Title: Reading to Learn: Improving Generalization by Learning From Language
    Speaker: Victor Zhong

    Abstract:
    Traditional machine learning systems are trained on vast quantities of annotated data or experience. These systems often do not generalize to new, related problems that emerge after training, such as conversing about new topics or interacting with new environments. In this talk, I present Reading to Learn, a new class of algorithms that improve generalization by learning to read language specifications, without requiring any actual experience or labeled examples. This includes, for example, reading FAQ documents to learn to answer questions about new topics and reading manuals to learn to play new games. I will discuss new algorithms and data for Reading to Learn applied to a broad range of tasks, including policy learning in grounded environments and data synthesis for code generation, while also highlighting open challenges for this line of work. Ultimately, the goal of Reading to Learn is to democratize AI by making it accessible for low-resource problems where the practitioner cannot obtain annotated data at scale, but can instead write language specifications that models read to generalize.

    Biography:
    Victor Zhong is a PhD student at the University of Washington Natural Language Processing group. His research is at the intersection of natural language processing and machine learning, with an emphasis on how to use language understanding to learn more generally and more efficiently. His research covers a range of topics, including dialogue, code generation, question answering, and grounded reinforcement learning. Victor has been awarded the Apple AI/ML Fellowship as well as an EMNLP Outstanding Paper award. His work has been featured in Wired, MIT Technology Review, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Fast Company, and Quanta Magazine. He was a founding member of Salesforce Research, and has previously worked at Meta AI Research and Google Brain. He obtained a Masters in Computer Science from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto.

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    TIME Monday, February 13, 2023 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)

  • Mar
    24

    Winter Degrees Conferred

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Friday, March 24, 2023

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

  • Mar
    27

    Spring Break Ends

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Monday, March 27, 2023

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

  • Mar
    27

    CS Seminar: Designing Formally Correct Intermittent Systems (Milijana Surbatovich)

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

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

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Monday, March 27, 2023 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)

  • Mar
    28

    Spring Classes begin 8 a.m. (Northwestern Monday: Classes scheduled to meet on Mondays meet on this day)

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Tuesday, March 28, 2023

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

  • Apr
    3

    CS Seminar: AI for Scientists: Accelerating Discovery through Knowledge, Data & Learning (Jennifer J. Sun)

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

    10:00 AM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Monday, April 3, 2023 at 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

    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)

  • Apr
    21

    How ChatGPT and Generative AI Will Change Legal Services

    McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

    9:00 AM Levy Mayer Hall

    EVENT DETAILSmore info

    TIME Friday, April 21, 2023 at 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM

    LOCATION Levy Mayer Hall    map it

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    CONTACT Daniel W. Linna Jr.    daniel.linna@law.northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  • Apr
    28

    Bagel Friday

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

    9:30 AM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Friday, April 28, 2023 at 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

    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
    29

    No classes - Memorial Day

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Monday, May 29, 2023

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

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  • Jun
    1

    CS End of Year Ice Cream Social

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

    1:00 PM

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Thursday, June 1, 2023 at 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

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

    CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

  • Jun
    3

    Spring classes end

    University Academic Calendar

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    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Saturday, June 3, 2023

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

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