[Theory] TODAY: [TTIC Talks] 2/16 Research at TTIC: Robert Nowak, University of Wisconsin-Madison

[Brandie Jones]

*When:*         Friday, February 16th* at 12:30pm CT  *


*Where:*        Talk will be given *live, in-person* at

                       TTIC, 6045 S. Kenwood Avenue

                        5th Floor, Room 530


*Virtually:*    via Panopto (Livestream
<https://uchicago.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=7d099c9f-b232-4dc6-8e42-b067015b6275>
)



*Who:*           Robert Nowak, University of Wisconsin-Madison



*Title*:          What Kinds of Functions do Neural Networks Learn?  Theory
and Practical Applications


*Abstract:*  This talk presents a theory that characterizes the types of
functions neural networks learn from data, detailing the properties of
these functions, solution uniqueness, and bounds on network widths. It
highlights the impact of skip connections, low-rank weight matrices, and
sparsity in learned representations. Additionally, the theory provides new
insights on multi-task learning, underscoring the regularization benefits
of incorporating multiple tasks. The theory also has several practical
applications. First it suggests a novel proximal gradient algorithm that
can accelerate regularized training compared to conventional weight decay.
Second, it leads to a simple and theoretically backed method for network
compression. Finally, the theory has implications for improving implicit
neural representations, where multi-layer neural networks are used to
represent a continuous signal, image or 3D scene. This exploration connects
theoretical insights with practical advancements, offering a new view of
neural network capabilities and future research directions.



***********************************************************************************************

*Masks are optional in all common areas. **Full visitor guidance is
available at ttic.edu/visitors <http://ttic.edu/visitors>.*

***********************************************************************************************

*Research at TTIC Seminar Series*



TTIC is hosting a weekly seminar series presenting the research currently
underway at the Institute. Every week a different TTIC faculty member will
present their research.  The lectures are intended for students
seeking research topics and advisors and for the general TTIC and
University of Chicago communities interested in hearing what their
colleagues are up to.

-- 
*Brandie Jones *
*Executive **Administrative Assistant*
Toyota Technological Institute
6045 S. Kenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL  60637
www.ttic.edu
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