Join Klaus Mueller, professor of computer science and interim chair of the Department of Technology and Society, as he hosts Sucheta Lahiri.

Lahiri leads the AI Ethics and Risk Management function at Oxy, where she is responsible for ensuring that the company's AI solutions are developed and deployed in a manner that is ethical, efficient, trustworthy, safe, sustainable, and human-centered. She holds a doctorate from Syracuse University, along with two master's degrees in Applied Statistics and Information Science earned in India.

Zoom: https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/7851507944?omn=98268154363#success

Qualitative data can be challenging to analyze and interpret effectively. In this workshop, SBU Libraries' Data Literacies Lead, Ahmad Pratama will show you how to extract meaningful insights from textual data, including understanding sentiment trends. Learn to explore qualitative data with Python using word clouds, basic natural language processing (NLP) techniques, and lexicon-based sentiment analysis with VADER.
RSVP via link: https://t.e2ma.net/click/t70ivh/5wwlu4oe/hy5q96
Join librarian Christine Fena for an interactive workshop that invites you to explore AI tools firsthand, not just as users, but as critical investigators. Through playful experimentation and collaborative discovery, you'll uncover inherent biases, probe algorithmic flaws, and gain a deeper understanding of AI's limitations and societal impacts.

Register for the Zoom workshop here.
What comes after today's large language models and deep neural networks? Join the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) for a virtual 30-min community chat led by David Jensen, CCC Council Member and lead author of the new CCC whitepaper, Envisioning Possible Futures for AI Research. Jensen will explore paradigm-shifting AI Research Futures like Neuro-Symbolic, Embodied, Multi-Agent, and Quantum AI, and then open the floor to the audience for an engaging Q&A discussion.

Register here.
CG Group member (and SBU faculty) Chao Chen will speak on Fri, March 12, about the use of topological data analysis in machine learning for image analysis.
Chao has shared some of his research with the CG Group previously, and this will be a great opportunity to learn more about this exciting research area related to computational geometry/topology!

Time: Friday, March 12, 2pm-3pm
Place: Zoom
https://stonybrook.zoom.us/my/profweizhu?pwd=RjVIVXg3YUhudzZZQ3pheHUydTJBUT09



Title: Learning with Topological Information - Image Analysis and Label Noise
Speaker: Prof. Chao Chen (SBU)

Abstract: Modern machine learning faces new challenges. We are
analyzing highly complex data with unknown noise. Topology provides
novel structural information to model such data and noise. In this
talk, we discuss two directions in which we are using topological
information in the learning context. In image analysis, we propose a
topological loss to segment and to generate images with not only
per-pixel accuracy, but also topological accuracy. This is necessary
in analysis of images of fine-scale biomedical structures such as
neurons, vessels, etc.  Extracting these structures with correct
topology is essential for the success of downstream
analysis. Meanwhile, we discuss how to use topological information to
train classifiers robust to label noise. This is important in practice
especially when we are using deep neural networks which tend to
overfit noise. These results have been published in NeurIPS, ECCV,
ICML and ICLR.
Making sense of Twitter @ Bloomberg presented by Daniel Preotiuc-Pietro

ABSTRACT: The Bloomberg Terminal has provided ways for investors and journalists to sift through and understand the immense volume of tweets and discover financially-relevant content ever since the SEC approved the use of Twitter for company disclosures back in 2013.

In the first part of the talk, I will showcase how tweets impact financial markets and how Bloomberg is using Natural Language Processing methods to identify financially relevant tweets that move the markets. Our processing pipeline feeds directly to clients, journalists in the newsroom and powers several news analytic products offered by the company including trending companies and consumer sentiment for publicly traded equities.

However, understanding user pragmatic intent in individual tweets would allow us to gain deeper insights and enable new applications. I will present several recent research studies focused on understanding intent including identifying complaints and the roles with which vulgarity is used in social media and how these can help improve applications such as sentiment analysis and hate speech detection.

BIO: Daniel Preotiuc-Pietro is a Senior Research Engineer and Team Lead at Bloomberg LP, where he works on analyzing and building models for real-world large scale social media and news mining and information extraction. His research interests are focused on understanding the social and temporal aspects of text, especially from social media, with applications in domains such as Social Psychology, Law, Political Science and Journalism. Several of his research studies were featured in popular press including the Washington Post, BBC, New Scientist, Scientific American or FiveThirtyEight. He is a co-organizer of the Natural Legal Language Processing workshop series. Prior to joining Bloomberg LP, Daniel was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania with the interdisciplinary World Well Being Project and obtained his PhD in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Join CELT on Tuesday, March 31 for a focused, one-hour overview on how to redesign and future-proof assessments in the age of AI! This session will cover three key areas: leveraging AI as a co-pilot for developing effective exam questions, designing authentic assessments, and exploring how AI can strategically support active learning structures like Team-Based Learning (TBL), Project-Based Learning (PBL), and Scenario-Based Learning (SBL).

Register here.

Abstract: Computational pathology has revolutionized cancer diagnosis and research through the analysis of digitized whole slide images (WSIs). However, the giga-pixel size of these images presents profound technical challenges, creating two intertwined bottlenecks: computational inefficiency and label inefficiency. The immense data scale makes standard end-to-end (E2E) training of deep neural networks infeasible due to prohibitive GPU memory requirements, while the reliance on expert pathologists for annotations makes obtaining high-quality labeled data a tedious and expensive process. This proposal confronts these dual challenges by developing a series of novel model architectures, training paradigms, and self-supervised learning methods designed to create a more efficient and effective framework for WSI analysis.

To improve computational efficiency, this proposal first introduces a locally supervised learning paradigm that enables E2E training on entire WSIs by partitioning a network into gradient-isolated modules, circumventing the memory bottleneck of backpropagation. Second, it presents Prompt-MIL, a parameter-efficient fine-tuning framework that reduces the number of trainable parameters, memory consumption, and training time by fine-tuning only few prompts to guide large pre-trained models. Third, this work advances the efficient architecture on WSIs by developing novel State-Space Models (SSMs). It proposes 2DMamba, the first intrinsic Mamba architecture that preserves the crucial 2D spatial structure of images, overcoming the spatial discrepancy inherent in 1D models. Fourth, to address the inefficiency of multi-directional scans in Mamba models, including 2DMamba, it presents Locally Bi-directional Mamba (LBMamba), which introduces a novel, hardware-aware local backward scan that integrates bi-directional scan into a single forward pass, significantly improving throughput performance trade-off. Lastly, it proposes an extension to the LBMamba, warp-level Bi-directional Mamba (WLBMamba) that extends the thread-level bidirectional scan to warp-level bidirectional scan that further improves the throughput performance trade-off.

To improve label efficiency, this proposal proposes a Precise Location-based Matching strategy for self-supervised dense contrastive learning. By allowing a local patch in one augmented view to match multiple overlapping patches in another, creates a more accurate correspondence, leading to superior feature representations for dense prediction tasks like segmentation and detection.

In summary, this proposal presents a holistic investigation into the efficiency bottlenecks in computational pathology. Through these combined contributions in model architecture, training paradigms, and self-supervised learning, this work establishes a more scalable, efficient, and powerful computational framework for analyzing giga-pixel pathology images.

Speaker: Jingwei Zhang

Location: Old Computer Science Room 2114

Zoom: https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/95187903649?pwd=tV0CNxLu1QKqw7hGmcE1h0rJ2C6n1b.1
Meeting ID: 951 8790 3649 | Passcode: 488916
Abstract: As computing and society become increasingly inseparable, we confront a fundamental design challenge: creating AI systems where human-machine interactions authentically embody our diverse values while thoughtfully evolving our social relationships. The recursive nature of these interactions--where human behavior shapes technology design and technological affordances influence human behavior--presents both profound risks and transformative opportunities as we reimagine our collective digital future. What interaction patterns emerge when algorithmic systems become active participants in societal decision-making? How can we design human-AI collaboration that ensures algorithmic systems align with diverse community values while serving the public interest? Through Public Interest AI, we explore a Pluralistic Design Language that creates interaction models for value-sensitive algorithmic ecosystems, strengthening AI-society alignment in both technology design and policy development. Through collaborative interaction with communities, we create systems that augment human capabilities while embedding ethical principles into the sociotechnical design of AI itself--ultimately redefining possibilities at the intersection of technology, policy, and society. This talk will examine the challenges of designing meaningful human-AI systems within social contexts through real-world applications that combine value-sensitive interaction design, human-inspired computing, and societal development to create technologies that advance our shared commitment to the public good.

Bio: Neil Gaikwad is an Assistant Professor of Data Science and Computer Science at UNC Chapel Hill. Additionally, he serves on the Faculty Advisory Council of the UNC Parr Center for Ethics and is a Fellow at the MIT Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values. Neil holds a Ph.D. in Society-Centered AI from MIT and is an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. Neil's scholarship, published in prominent AI and HCI conferences, has been recognized with several prestigious honors, including the Facebook Research Fellowship, UIST Best Paper Honorable Mention, MIT Engineering Fellowship, Human Rights & Technology Fellowship, Graduate Teaching Award, and the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, MIT's highest student honor. He has been recognized as a Rising Star by both Stanford University and the University of Chicago. Translating research into real-world impact, Neil is a dedicated educator and mentor who has taught over 500 students throughout his career. He has guided more than 30 students to publish influential papers on AI fairness, secure prestigious fellowships, and contribute to shaping AI policy through public interest research. Neil is also the founder of the AI Policy Global Initiative, which has successfully brought together academia, industry, government, and communities to address critical challenges in AI governance and develop collaborative approaches to responsible AI.

Location: Old Computer Science, room 1310