Title: AI-Driven Target Selection Methods for Touch and Gaze Input

Abstract: Accurately selecting targets is an essential aspect of  Human-Computer Interaction. Erroneous selections can cause tedious undo and redo actions. Additionally, some selection errors are non-reversible and can lead to undesirable consequences. However, high-accuracy target selection remains a challenge on touchscreen devices due to the small target size and imprecise touch inputs, and in gaze interaction because of the gaze tracking noise and no easy-to-use selection action. We first propose ReLM, a Reinforcement Learning-based Method for touchscreen target selection. ReLM can automatically show suggestions and require a second touch if the input is ambiguous, and can directly select a target candidate when the input is certain. Our empirical evaluation shows that ReLM reduces the error rate from 6.92% to 1.63%, and the selection time from 2.23s to 1.59s over Shift, an existing suggestion-based method. Compared to BayesianCommand, a direct selection-based method, our ReLM reduces the error rate from 3.64% to 0.89%, while increasing the selection time by only 200 ms. Secondly, we investigate how to improve target selection performance for gaze interaction. We propose BayesGaze, an eye-gaze based target selection method. It accumulates the signal of each gaze point for selecting a target calculated by Bayes Theorem, and uses a threshold mechanism to determine the target selection. Our investigation shows that BayesGaze improves target selection accuracy and speed over a dwell-based selection method, and the Center of Gravity Mapping method.

All are welcome. Here  is the zoom meeting link:
https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/93130953411?pwd=Rm5IRlVPQ3M0cHJsTXpCVFljUlFGUT09Meeting ID: 931 3095 3411Passcode: 999413


The International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) is the premier gathering of professionals dedicated to the advancement of the branch of artificial intelligence called representation learning, but generally referred to as deep learning.



ICLR is globally renowned for presenting and publishing cutting-edge research on all aspects of deep learning used in the fields of artificial intelligence, statistics and data science, as well as important application areas such as machine vision, computational biology, speech recognition, text understanding, gaming, and robotics.

ICLR is one of the fastest growing artificial intelligence conferences in the world. Participants at ICLR span a wide range of backgrounds, from academic and industrial researchers, to entrepreneurs and engineers, to graduate students and postdocs.

The rapidly developing field of deep learning is concerned with questions surrounding how we can best learn meaningful and useful representations of data. ICLR takes a broad view of the field and includes topics such as feature learning, metric learning, compositional modeling, structured prediction, reinforcement learning, and issues regarding large-scale learning and non-convex optimization.

A non-exhaustive list of relevant topics explored at the conference include:



  • Unsupervised, Semi-supervised, and Supervised Representation Learning
  • Representation Learning for Planning and Reinforcement Learning
  • Metric Learning and Kernel Learning
  • Sparse Coding and Dimensionality Expansion
  • Hierarchical Models

  • Optimization for Representation Learning
  • Learning Representations of Outputs or States
  • Implementation Issues, Parallelization, Software Platforms, Hardware
  • Applications in Vision, Audio, Speech, Natural Language Processing, Robotics, Neuroscience, or Any Other Field


For more information or registration, please visit the official website.

Talk Title: Knowledge-enhanced LLMs and Human-AI Collaboration Frameworks for Creativity Support


Abstract:

Large language models (LLMs) constitute a paradigm shift in Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence. To build AI systems that are human-centered, I propose we need knowledge-aware models and human-AI collaboration frameworks to help them solve tasks ultimately aligning these models better with human values. In this talk, I will discuss my research agenda for human-centered AI with a case study on creativity that focuses on how to augment LMs with external knowledge, build effective human-AI collaboration frameworks as well as theoretically grounded robust evaluation protocols for measuring capabilities of NLG systems. I will begin by describing knowledge-enhanced methods for creative text generation such as metaphors. Next, I will describe how content creators can collaborate and benefit from the creative capabilities of text-to-image-based AI models. Finally, I will focus on the design and development of theoretically grounded evaluation protocols to benchmark the creative capabilities of Large Language Models in both producing as well as assessing creative text. I will end this talk by highlighting the current limitations of existing models and future directions toward building better models that will enable efficient and trustworthy human-AI collaboration systems.


Bio:

Tuhin Chakrabarty is a final-year Ph.D. candidate in the Natural Language Processing group within the Computer Science department at Columbia University. His research is supported by the Columbia Center of Artificial Intelligence & Technology (CAIT) & an Amazon Science Ph.D. Fellowship. He was also a Computational Journalism fellow at NYTimes R&D and an intern at the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Salesforce Research, and Deepmind. His research interests are broadly in Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, and Human-Computer Interaction with a special focus on Human-Centered Methods for Understanding, Generation, and Evaluation of Creativity. His work has been recognized at top natural language processing and human-computer interaction conferences and journals such as ACL, NAACL, EMNLP, TACL, and CHI. He has been involved in organizing several workshops and tutorials at NLP conferences such Figurative Language Processing workshop at EMNLP 2022, NAACL 2024, and the tutorial on Creative Text Generation at EMNLP 2023. His work on AI and creativity has been mentioned in mainstream news media such as The Hollywood Reporter and more recently The Washington Post.

Join Zoom Meeting https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/97103601583?pwd=TnpGMXdpeEd1N0hZcXppS1BLNFJhZz09 (ID: 97103601583, passcode: 004031) Join by phone (US) +1 646-931-3860 (passcode: 004031) Joining instructions: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://applications.zoom.us/addon/invitation/detail?meetingUuid%3DILacj94mRvSXgTYt0Cqs1w%253D%253D%26signature%3D9f2f1e7e603bbcb9034724d084eea8846c19a38b7436180170dfc3f1d718b425%26v%3D1&sa=D&source=calendar&usg=AOvVaw3MsNgLSPMRl8L5i6BosYrB Meeting host: H.Andrew.Schwartz@stonybrook.edu

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/97103601583?pwd=TnpGMXdpeEd1N0hZcXppS1BLNFJhZz09
The talk will be exclusively on zoom https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/7851507944 Speaker: Sooyeon Lee, Rochester Institute of Technology Title: Design and Evaluation of Accessible AI Technologies for Users with Disabilities Abstract: Over one billion people in the world live with some type of disability. Many of them experience barriers in accessing information or using technologies, which can limit social interactions in both physical and digital spaces. In my research, I focus on investigating and designing nonvisual interaction for the community of blind users and non-audio and non-speech interaction for the community of deaf and hard of hearing users. In this talk, I will first present my research investigating nonvisual interaction prototypes for supporting shopping activities for blind users, with an exploration of one-way instructional and two-way conversational interactions and with a variety of form factors and communication modalities through the use of human-computer interaction research methodologies. I will also discuss incorporation of AI technology and its impact on the nonvisual guidance experiences, and further meanings of independence and new ways for designing independence for people with visual impairments. This collaborative work included AI researchers, the community of the blind, and an industry research partner. Additionally, I will discuss my findings and further exciting research opportunities. Secondly, I will overview research projects investigating AI-based applications and tools that support deaf and hard of hearing people's equitable information access and societal participation. This work addresses engagement in online social media spaces, workplace communication, participation in gig work, and interaction with mainstream technology through American Sign Language (ASL) interaction. I will focus on a recent project on users' experiences with AI deep-fake face-transformation technologies to support anonymous participation of deaf and hard of hearing signers in online social media. Lastly, I will discuss my future research directions informed and inspired by this prior and current research. Bio: Sooyeon Lee is a postdoctoral research associate in the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D., advised by Dr. John M. Carroll, in Information Sciences and Technology from the College of Information Sciences and Technology at The Pennsylvania State University, and she also conducted design research at Google and Uber. Her research is in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Human-AI Interaction with focus on accessibility. She designs, builds, and evaluates new systems and applications that address accessibility barriers. Her work investigates the diversity of users, explores and leverages emerging technologies, and adopts human-centered design and inclusive design approaches in an interdisciplinary research framework. She has multiple publications in top-tier human-computer interaction and computing accessibility journals and conferences, including ACM CHI, CSCW, ASSETS, and TACCESS, and she has received a Best Paper Award Nomination at ASSETS 2021. She has served on Associate Chair for the ACM CHI conference and will serve on Program Committee for ASSETS 2022.
Abstract: Modern decision-making increasingly relies on complex data, imperfect models, and limited domain expertise--yet decisions must still be made with confidence and accountability. This talk presents a research perspective on visual analytics as a bridge between data, models, and human judgment. Through three case studies spanning public-health risk analysis, multivariate scientific visualization, and causal model auditing with large language models, I will show how interactive visualization can reveal structure in high-dimensional data, support reasoning under uncertainty, and help humans critically assess both statistical and AI-generated explanations. Together, these examples illustrate how visual analytics enables users not only to explore data, but to form, challenge, and refine beliefs that underpin scientific and societal decisions.

Bio: Klaus Mueller received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from The Ohio State University in 1998. He is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University and a Senior Scientist at the Computational Science Initiative at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He currently serves as the Acting Chair of the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook. From 2012 to 2015, he was the Founding Chair of the Computer Science Department at SUNY Korea, where he also served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Finance for two years.
His research interests span visual analytics, explainable AI, machine learning and data science, human-centered responsible AI, fairness, belief modeling and personalized communication, virtual and augmented reality, and computational and medical imaging. Dr. Mueller received the U.S. National Science Foundation Early Career Award in 2001, the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity in 2011, and the Meritorious Service Certificate and Golden Core Award of the IEEE Computer Society in 2016. In 2018, he was inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Inventors.
To date, he has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, which have been cited over 15,000 times. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences, has organized or participated in 18 tutorials, chaired the IEEE Visualization Conference in 2009, served as elected Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VGTC) from 2012-2015, and was Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics from 2019-2022. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Location: NCS 120
How do you get the most out of generative AI? Stop by the library Galleria outside of the Central Reading Room to learn more! Librarians Chris Kretz and Ahmad Pratama, along with David Ecker of DoIT, will be demonstrating tools and tips for writing prompts that make the most of what AI can do. And they'll be hosting Explore AI demos this Monday - Wednesday (March 3rd-5th) 12:30 - 1:30. Whether you're new to AI or a current user, they'd love to talk to you about it.

Location: Melville Library Galleria