<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><b><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit">When:    </font></font></b><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"> Wednesday, March 26th at <b><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)">11 AM CT</font></b></font></font></font></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"> </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><b>Where:    </b><span class="gmail_default"><b></b></span><span class="gmail_default">T</span></font></font>alk will be given <font style="font-weight:bold"><u style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)">live, in-person</u></font><font style="font-weight:bold"> </font>at</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif">                     TTIC, 6045 S. Kenwood Avenue</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif">                     5th Floor, Room 530<b> </b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif"><b><br></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><span class="gmail_default"><b>Virtually:  </b>via Panopto<b> </b>(<a href="https://uchicago.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=6ca90811-1c40-45a3-99e5-b0820141ea88" target="_blank">Livestream</a>) </span><b><br></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"> </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><b><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit">Who:      <span class="gmail_default"></span>   </font></font></b><span class="gmail_default"></span>Lenka Zdeborova, EPFL</font></p></div><div><b><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br></font></b></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><b>Title:        </b><span class="gmail_default"></span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></span>Statistical Physics Perspective on Understanding Learning with Neural Networks</font></div><div><p></p><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><b>Abstract:  </b><span class="gmail_default"></span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></span>For over four decades, statistical physics has studied exactly solvable models of artificial neural networks. In this talk, we will explore how these models offer insights into deep learning and large language models. Specifically, we will examine a research strategy that trades distributional assumptions about data for precise control over learning behavior in high-dimensional settings. We will discuss several types of phase transitions that emerge in this limit, particularly as a function of data quantity. In particular, we will highlight how discontinuous phase transitions are linked to algorithmic hardness, impacting the behavior of gradient-based learning algorithms. Finally, we will review recent progress in learning from sequences and advances in understanding generalization in modern architectures, including the role of dot-product attention layers in transformers.</font></div></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br></font><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><b><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:small"></span>Bio:</b> Lenka Zdeborová is a professor of physics and of computer science in École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, where she leads the Statistical Physics of Computation Laboratory. Her expertise is in applications of concepts from statistical physics, such as advanced mean field methods, replica method and related message-passing algorithms, to problems in machine learning, signal processing, inference and optimization. She has said that she “enjoys erasing the boundaries between theoretical physics, mathematics and computer science.”</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br><font color="#000000">Zdeborová received a Ph.D. in physics from University Paris-Sud and from Charles University in Prague in 2008. She spent two years in the Los Alamos National Laboratory as the Director's Postdoctoral Fellow; she then spent ten years as a researcher at Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) working in the Institute of Theoretical Physics in CEA Saclay, France. She served as an editorial board member for Journal of Physics A, Physical Review E, Physical Review X, SIMODS, Machine Learning: Science and Technology, and Information and Inference. Her honors include the CNRS bronze medal in 2014; the Philippe Meyer prize in theoretical physics in 2016; the Irène Joliot-Curie prize in 2018; and the Gibbs lectureship of AMS and the Neuron Fund award in 2021.</font></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.32;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br></font></span></p></div><div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;border-radius:0px;margin:0px 0px 10px"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;border-radius:0px;font-weight:700">Hos</span><b><span style="box-sizing:border-box;border-radius:0px">t:<u><a href="mailto:avrim@ttic.edu" target="_blank"> </a><span class="gmail_default"><a href="mailto:nati@ttic.edu" target="_blank">Nati Srebro</a></span></u></span></b></font></p></div></div></div>
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