News & EventsDepartment Events & Announcements
Events
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Oct1
EVENT DETAILS
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New this quarter
Lunch will be served at 11:30. We warmly encourage you to arrive then and enjoy the food and conversation with colleagues before the talk.---
Wednesday / CS Seminar
October 1st / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
Lane Gunderman, University of Illinois at ChicagoTalk Title
Designing Quantum Codes using Physics ConstraintsAbstract
Quantum computers are widely believed to enable massive computational speedups for certain tasks. The downside to quantum computers, due to their very nature, is that they require having reliable information that is extremely susceptible to noise. For this reason quantum error-correction is expected to be needed to perform reliable computations. In this talk I will discuss my work in improving the quality of error-correction through two different approaches. Firstly designing around different platform's qubit characteristics, such as mobility. Secondly, as many qubit devices are a simplification of the physics underlying these systems, I have developed methods for generating quantum error-correcting codes which are perhaps more suitable for these systems and can better leverage the true dynamics of the system.Biography
Lane is originally from Chicago (or Evanston depending on the year). He obtained Bachelor degrees in physics and math from MIT, then obtained his PhD from the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo in Canada in the Fall of 2022. He then worked at Xanadu Quantum Technologies for about a year, then joined HRL for half a year, before joining UIC's ECE department, in the Fall of 2024.TIME Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Jul30
EVENT DETAILS
lessModern inference problems often involve randomly generated data with structure that is not directly observed. In network data, the structure may take the form of hidden communities or unknown correspondences between vertices across correlated observations of the same underlying network. In statistical models, a low-dimensional parameter of interest may be obscured by an unknown and potentially high-dimensional component of the data distribution. Ignoring this structure can lead to overly pessimistic conclusions, while modeling every unknown component explicitly may be infeasible. A central challenge is therefore to identify structural properties that enable inference without requiring complete knowledge of the data-generating process.
This thesis develops algorithmic and statistical methods for inference in various structured probabilistic models. One direction concerns the recovery of latent combinatorial structure in random graphs, including graph matching and community detection in correlated and growing network models such as correlated stochastic block models and the preferential attachment block model. We establish recovery guarantees, including guarantees without computational constraints, and develop efficient algorithms. A second direction concerns inference under structured distributional uncertainty, including the construction of optimal adaptive confidence intervals in the Gaussian mean-shift contamination model and the estimation of watermark proportions in language-model-generated text. Together, these results show how structures under random observations help design provable algorithms for recovering hidden objects and estimating parameters.TIME Thursday, July 30, 2026 at 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION 3501, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Jensen Smith jensen.smith@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Aug20
EVENT DETAILS
lessThe component-by-component migration of a program from untyped to typed can trigger unintended performance degradations. When such a degradation occurs, typing well-chosen components can lessen the cost of type enforcement, while typing poorly chosen components can exacerbate it. In this talk, I examine whether off-the-shelf profiling tools deliver information that helps programmers navigate these migration choices effectively in Typed Racket.
TIME Thursday, August 20, 2026 at 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
LOCATION Mudd 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Jensen Smith jensen.smith@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Sep14
EVENT DETAILS
lessEnjoy a welcome from Dean Christopher A. Schuh and other McCormick leaders, and receive a Northwestern Engineering T-shirt. A free breakfast on the Tech East Plaza will follow.
TIME Monday, September 14, 2026 at 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
LOCATION LR2, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andi Joppie andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
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Sep22
EVENT DETAILS
lessEnjoy a welcome from Dean Christopher A. Schuh and other McCormick leaders, and receive a Northwestern Engineering T-shirt. A free lunch on the Tech East Plaza will follow.
TIME Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
LOCATION Ryan Family Auditorium, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andi Joppie andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
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Sep24
EVENT DETAILS
lesstba
TIME Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Sep28
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
September 28 / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBA---
Zoom Link
Panopto LinkTIME Monday, September 28, 2026 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Oct5
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
October 5 / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
Brian Suchy, Software Engineer Google DeepMindTalk Title
Formal Relational Equivalence for SQL, GenAI, and BeyondAbstract
Verifying that complex query rewrites from database optimizers or AI-driven generators preserve exact bag semantics under three-valued logic is an NP-hard challenge. To address this, we present an MLIR-native compiler framework that formally reasons about relational algebra. By decoupling query semantics from specific execution engines and lowering queries into a unified Relational Algebra Intermediate Representation, our language-agnostic methodology definitively proves semantic equivalence across all possible database states.The core of the presentation will deep-dive into our multi-tiered proving architecture, which synthesizes several advanced academic methodologies. First, we utilize E-Graphs and Equality Saturation to rapidly explore the equivalence space and detect structural congruence between query abstract syntax trees using fast, algebraic rewrite rules. Second, we employ Semiring Arithmetic, treating relational algebra as expressions over K-relations to leverage algebraic simplification and canonical forms under semiring laws. Finally, we implement a First-Order Logic and SMT translation path, lowering Relational Algebra into Relational Calculus and then into First-Order Logic to evaluate constraints and domain-specific axioms using parallel solvers like Z3 and CVC5, which either formally proves equivalence or synthesizes concrete counter-examples.
Finally, we will discuss the practical implications of combining these formal mathematical methods with modern compiler design. Attendees will leave with a comprehensive understanding of how bridging database theory, equality saturation, and SMT solving can create robust solutions for verifying query optimizers, enforcing semantic correctness, and validating automated SQL generation at scale.
Biography
Brian Suchy is a Software Engineer within Google DeepMind.
In his time at Google he has worked on F1 Query (Google's internal SQL query engine), hardware development, and (of course) AI.
Prior to joining Google, Brian received his PhD student at Northwestern University, advised by Peter Dinda, with a focus on hardware/software codesign and memory management.Research Interests: Artificial Intelligence, Query Processing and Formal Logic
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Zoom Link
Panopto LinkTIME Monday, October 5, 2026 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Oct29
EVENT DETAILS
lesstba
TIME Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Nov19
EVENT DETAILS
lesstba
TIME Thursday, November 19, 2026 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)