- nlplab - mailman.cs.vt.edu

Reading Discussion on Monday Feb. 27th
by Barry Yao 25 Feb '23

25 Feb '23

Hi everyone, In next week's reading discussion, we will talk about: Transformer Memory as a Differentiable Search Index <https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.06991> We will hold the discussion on Monday 4-5 pm in Torgersen 3160A. You may also join via Zoom https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/5961845863. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy reading! Best regards, Barry Menglong Yao Ph.D. student in Computer Science Virginia Tech Homepage <https://barry-yao.netlify.app/>

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next week meeting schedule
by Lifu Huang 19 Feb '23

19 Feb '23

I will be traveling from Wednesday to Friday next week, so I will cancel most of the 1:1 meetings. Everyone please summarize your progress and updates into slides and send them to me by Wednesday. Monday: 4-5pm: Reading discussion Tuesday: 2-3pm: SicialBot/Simbot. Minqian and Ying pls organize a meeting to discuss the problems of SimBot and SocialBot and send me the slides. I will skip it due to a medical appointment. --------------------------------- Lifu Huang Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech

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[nlp_reading_group] Reading Discussion on Monday Feb 20
by Jingyuan Qi 17 Feb '23

17 Feb '23

Hi everyone, In next week's reading discussion, we will discuss the paper Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools <https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.04761.pdf>. The meeting will be held in Torg 3160A, and you can also use Zoom for online participation. The Zoom link for the meeting is https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/5961845863. Thank you for your time! Best regards, ======================================== Jingyuan Qi Ph.D. student, Department of Computer Science Natural Language Processing Lab Virginia Tech (0710) Blacksburg, VA 24061

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next week meeting schedule
by Lifu Huang 16 Feb '23

16 Feb '23

Monday: 2-3pm: Sijia, Pritika with Intuit (Pls prepare a few slides to discuss our progress) 4-5pm: Reading discussion Tuesday: 1:30-2pm: Zoe 2-3pm: SimBot/SocialBot 3-3:30pm: Pritika, Sijia Wednesday (on Zoom): 11-12pm: Ying 1:30-2:30pm: Barry 2:30-3:15pm: Zhiyang 3:15-4pm: Minqian 4-4:45pm: Jingyuan, Ying, Minqian, Zhiyang 4:45-5:15pm: Sijia 5:15-5:45pm: Jeet Thursday: 10:30-11:30am: Group meeting, Zhiyang talk about your new research ideas Friday: 5-6pm: meeting with UCSB --------------------------------- Lifu Huang Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech

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Reading Discussion on Monday Feb 13
by Ying Shen 10 Feb '23

10 Feb '23

Hello everyone, In next week's reading discussion, we will talk about: Uni-Perceiver-MoE: Learning Sparse Generalist Models with Conditional MoEs <https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.04674.pdf> We will hold the discussion on Monday 4-5 pm in Torgersen 3160A. You may also join via Zoom https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/5961845863. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy reading! Best, Ying

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next week meeting schedule
by Lifu Huang 05 Feb '23

05 Feb '23

Monday: 4-5pm: Reading discussion Tuesday: 2-3pm: SimBot/SocialBot 3-3:30pm: Pritika, Sijia Wednesday (on Zoom): 11-12pm: Ying 1:30-2:30pm: Barry with Meta (Pls send me your slides before 9pm Tuesday) 2:30-3:15pm: Zhiyang 3:15-4pm: Minqian 4-4:45pm: Jingyuan, Ying, Minqian, Zhiyang 4:45-5:15pm: Sijia 5:15-5:45pm: Jeet Thursday: 10:30-11:30am: Group meeting, Minqian pls talk about the feature separation idea for continual learning Friday: 5-6pm: meeting with UCSB --------------------------------- Lifu Huang Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech

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Reading Discussion on Monday Feb 6
by Zhiyang Xu 04 Feb '23

04 Feb '23

Hi guys, Next week I will discuss an interesting paper about the application of reinforcement learning in selecting the best discrete prompt: RLPROMPT: Optimizing Discrete Text Prompts with Reinforcement Learning <https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.12548> Plz read the paper beforehand. We will hold the discussion meeting in Torgersen 3160A, 4-5 pm on Jan 30. Zoom discussion is also accessible through the link https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/5961845863. Best, Zhiyang Xu

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Fwd: Re: 3160 Torgersen
by Lifu Huang 31 Jan '23

31 Jan '23

If any of you are using the fridge or printer, please help clean it or the surrounding area. --------------------------------- Lifu Huang Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Hoda Eldardiry <hdardiry(a)vt.edu> Date: Jan 31, 2023, 11:46 AM -0500 To: Melanie Darden <mdarden(a)cs.vt.edu> Cc: Lifu Huang <lifuh(a)vt.edu>, Joan Watson <jmwatson(a)vt.edu>, Dawei Zhou <zhoud(a)vt.edu>, Brian Mayer <mayer2(a)vt.edu>, Ismini Lourentzou <ilourentzou(a)vt.edu> Subject: Re: 3160 Torgersen > I totally agree. I shared this sheet with you all, please share it with your students. > > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zd1K5PFM2TZDs78AOMfyGdanBieOZxJNOMz… > > Thank you, > Hoda > > > Hoda Eldardiry > Director | Machine Learning Lab > Associate Professor | Computer Science | College of Engineering > Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics | Virginia Tech > > > > On Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 11:35 AM Melanie Darden <mdarden(a)cs.vt.edu> wrote: > > > The fridge was provided by the department but it will be up to the students and faculty there to maintain it. If it can't be cleaned and used properly, we can remove it. I would encourage the students to take some ownership of that area in general. > > > > > > Melanie > > > > > > > > > On 1/31/2023 11:31 AM, Hoda Eldardiry wrote: > > > > Any chance we can get the usage of the fridge in area M be coordinated such that old things get tossed out and the fridge gets cleaned up? It is currently disgusting. > > > > > > > > The lab can still be organized more. The printer area continues to be a constant mess. > > > > > > > > Any ideas? > > > > > > > > Thank you, > > > > Hoda > > > > > > > > Hoda Eldardiry > > > > Director | Machine Learning Lab > > > > Associate Professor | Computer Science | College of Engineering > > > > Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics | Virginia Tech > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, Jan 3, 2023 at 3:09 PM Hoda Eldardiry <hdardiry(a)vt.edu> wrote: > > > > > > Thank you so much! Happy New Year :-). > > > > > > > > > > > > Hoda > > > > > > > > > > > > Hoda Eldardiry > > > > > > Director | Machine Learning Lab > > > > > > Associate Professor | Computer Science > > > > > > Discovery Analytics Center | College of Engineering | Virginia Tech > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, Jan 3, 2023 at 2:58 PM Melanie Darden <mdarden(a)cs.vt.edu> wrote: > > > > > > > > Hello Hoda, > > > > > > > > I have put in a facilities request for the burned out light bulbs to be replaced. I will have to check out the other items tomorrow or Friday. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks! > > > > > > > > Melanie > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 12/31/2022 4:46 PM, Hoda Eldardiry wrote: > > > > > > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I have a couple of facility requests for my lab. Can you advise on who to contact? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 1) Replacing non-working light bulbs in the 3160B area > > > > > > > > > 2) Place T6 cupboard on top of T21 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Also, I took two bookshelves out of my office. We can find office homes for them or we can find a nice spot for them in the lab and start putting books to be shared by everyone. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thank you, > > > > > > > > > Hoda > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hoda Eldardiry > > > > > > > > > Director | Machine Learning Lab > > > > > > > > > Associate Professor | Computer Science > > > > > > > > > Discovery Analytics Center | College of Engineering | Virginia Tech > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Oct 20, 2022 at 11:23 AM Melanie Darden <mdarden(a)cs.vt.edu> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > Our facilities manager for Torgersen is going to place some larger bins in the 3160 area for the extra trash. The housekeepers will check these every couple of days and empty them. I would advise each faculty member to instruct their students to have their papers and personal belongings in their desk space. If there are miscellaneous papers and "stuff" around in a week or so, we will put it out for trash. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Please have the area as organized as possible by the 28th. That will give us time to make a walk thru and purge anything left in general areas and prepare for the new people. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thank you! > > > > > > > > > > > Melanie > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 10/19/2022 4:14 PM, Lifu Huang wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > Hi Joan, Melanie, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thank you so much for initializing this effort. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > We have noticed the mass, especially around the printer and water leaking area, even before I moved in. I have asked my students to help clean that area before but we don’t know if the books/papers/personal stuffs are still belonging to someone in the lab space or not. It will be great if you can prepare a few paper boxes so we can arrange the stuffs into boxes. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Best wishes, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------- > > > > > > > > > > > > Lifu Huang > > > > > > > > > > > > Assistant Professor > > > > > > > > > > > > Department of Computer Science > > > > > > > > > > > > Virginia Tech > > > > > > > > > > > > On Oct 18, 2022, 11:36 AM -0400, Melanie Darden <mdarden(a)cs.vt.edu>, wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > One more note, the housekeepers do not go into individual offices unless you are there when they come through. If you want your trash removed, please leave the can outside of your office so the housekeepers have access to it. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 10/18/2022 11:31 AM, Hoda Eldardiry wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hi Joan and all, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I requested that from my students. I also wrote a note on the lab whiteboard for everyone to see as I could not reach all the students. I agree with your concern. I kept organizing and leaving notes in the printer area. My office trash does not get picked up for days. I end up removing it myself. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I am responsible for one thing. I recently took two black bookshelves outside my office to clean my carpet. I will be sure to put them back asap and will coordinate with Melanie. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I am happy with this initiative and would love to support you in every way possible. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thank you, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hoda > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hoda Eldardiry > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Director | Machine Learning Lab > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Associate Professor | Computer Science > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Discovery Analytics Center | College of Engineering | Virginia Tech > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, Oct 18, 2022 at 10:55 AM Joan Watson <jmwatson(a)vt.edu> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Good morning, 3160 Colleagues! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I'm writing with news and a request: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > News: 3160Q and 3160S will soon be inhabited by new hires to the CS Department. Our new Alumni Relations Manager and our new Communications & Marketing Manager will be populating those offices over the next several weeks. We are very excited about these new hires and the expertise and energy they will bring to the department! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > This news leads to a request: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > The 3160 suite is in a state of disarray. Would you all mind asking your students to take a moment to clean up around their work areas? If there is a need for larger trash cans and/or recycling bins, please let me or Melanie (cc'd here) know. Certainly, we are struggling with water issues in the area, but eliminating extra trash and recycling random paper will go a long way toward making the area hospitable to new folks. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I appreciate your support as our department continues to expand and grow! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > All the best, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Joan > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > *************** > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Joan Monahan Watson, Ph.D. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Director of Administrative Operations > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Department of Computer Science > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Virginia Tech > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 1180F Torgersen Hall (0106) > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 620 Drillfield Drive > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Blacksburg, VA 24061 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > jmwatson(a)vt.edu > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > (540) 231-8874 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > > > > > > Melanie L. Darden , Financial Specialist > > > > > > > > > > > > > Virginia Tech | Computer Science I > > > > > > > > > > > > > 1180F Torgersen Hall; M/C 0106 > > > > > > > > > > > > > 620 Drillfield Drive > > > > > > > > > > > > > Blacksburg, VA 24061 > > > > > > > > > > > > > PH: 540-231-2068 | mdarden(a)vt.edu > > > > > > > > > > > > > ZOOM: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/my/mdarden > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > In Office: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday > > > > > > > > > > > > > Telework: Monday and Thursday > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > > > > Melanie L. Darden , Financial Specialist > > > > > > > > > > > Virginia Tech | Computer Science I > > > > > > > > > > > 1180F Torgersen Hall; M/C 0106 > > > > > > > > > > > 620 Drillfield Drive > > > > > > > > > > > Blacksburg, VA 24061 > > > > > > > > > > > PH: 540-231-2068 | mdarden(a)vt.edu > > > > > > > > > > > ZOOM: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/my/mdarden > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > In Office: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday > > > > > > > > > > > Telework: Monday and Thursday > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > Melanie L. Darden , Financial Specialist > > > > > > > > Virginia Tech | Computer Science I > > > > > > > > 1180F Torgersen Hall; M/C 0106 > > > > > > > > 620 Drillfield Drive > > > > > > > > Blacksburg, VA 24061 > > > > > > > > PH: 540-231-2068 | mdarden(a)vt.edu > > > > > > > > ZOOM: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/my/mdarden > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > In Office: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday > > > > > > > > Telework: Monday and Thursday > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Melanie L. Darden , Financial Specialist > > > Virginia Tech | Computer Science I > > > 1180F Torgersen Hall; M/C 0106 > > > 620 Drillfield Drive > > > Blacksburg, VA 24061 > > > PH: 540-231-2068 | mdarden(a)vt.edu > > > ZOOM: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/my/mdarden > > > > > > In Office: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday > > > Telework: Monday and Thursday > > >

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Fwd: MASC-SLL 2023 Call for Paper
by Lifu Huang 31 Jan '23

31 Jan '23

Please feel free to submit any papers to this event. --------------------------------- Lifu Huang Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ziyu Yao <ziyuyao(a)gmu.edu> Date: Jan 30, 2023, 10:56 PM -0500 To: lifuh(a)vt.edu <lifuh(a)vt.edu> Subject: MASC-SLL 2023 Call for Paper > Hi Lifu, > > Happy Lunar New Year! > > This is Ziyu Yao from George Mason. It was nice meeting you at NAACL last year! I’m writing to advertise an upcoming NLP event in the Mid-Atlantic area called MASC-SLL (https://www.mascsll.org/). This is an annual event which has been hosted by UMD/JHU/Penn/GWU/Temple/etc. In 2023, it will be held in the Arlington campus of George Mason University, Virginia, on April 22nd. > > The call for paper information is attached in the end or can be found here (https://www.mascsll.org/cfp/). We sincerely invite students and researchers from VT to join us! Would you please help us spread the news in your department? > > I look forward to meeting you in the event! > > Thanks, > --Ziyu > > ******************************************** > Ziyu Yao, Ph.D. (she; her; hers) > Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science > George Mason University > Nguyen Engineering Building > 4400 University Drive > Fairfax, VA 22030 > ziyuyao(a)gmu.edu > https://ziyuyao.org/ | https://nlp.cs.gmu.edu/ > > ---------------- > Dear NLP folks, > > The 10th annual Mid-Atlantic Student Colloquium on Speech, Language, and Learning (MASC-SLL) will be hosted at George Mason University (Arlington campus), Virginia on April 22nd, 2023. The student colloquium is intended to bring together students taking computational approaches to speech, language, and learning, so that they can introduce their research to the local student community, give and receive feedback, and engage each other in collaborative discussion. > > Students are encouraged to submit a one-page summary describing ongoing, planned, or completed research projects, including previously published results and negative results. Student research in any field applying computational methods to any aspect of human language, including speech and learning, from all areas of computer science, linguistics, engineering, neuroscience, information science, and related fields, is welcome. Submissions and presentations must be made by students or postdocs. Accepted submissions will be presented as either posters or talks. > > There will be no registration fee. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. > > Confirmed invited speakers: Mona Diab (Meta & GWU), Graham Neubig (CMU), Nazli Goharian (Georgetown). > > **Check out the event website https://www.mascsll.org/ and stay tuned!** > > Submission > Submit your one-page summary online via the site: https://openreview.net/group?id=MASC-SLL/2023/Colloquium > > Summaries should be no more than one page, not including references. If an under-review or published paper has more than one page, the authors need to submit a one-page version of the paper and specify as a footnote the name of the conference at which the original work is published or under review. You should summarize the motivation, contributions, methods, and evaluation schemes of the research conducted by the authors. > > Summaries should conform to ACL style guidelines. LaTeX style files, along with a style guide, are available at https://github.com/acl-org/acl-style-files. Authors may NOT need a separate "abstract" section in your submission. Please include all names and affiliations in the summary. > > Summaries reviewing will NOT be blind. All accepted summaries will be non-archival; authors can submit them to subsequent conferences. > > Cross-Submission Policy: MASC-SLL 2023 welcomes submissions that are under review or have been published at recent scientific conferences. Please double-check the policies of those conferences to make sure that submitting to non-archival venues is allowed. At the time of submission, we will ask the authors to indicate whether the submission is unpublished, or is a short version of an under-review or published paper. > > Important Dates > Submission opens: February 17 > Submission deadline: March 17 > Notification: March 31 > Registration opens: March 17 > Registration closes: April 7 > Event: April 22 > > All deadlines are at 11:59 pm EST. > > Organizing Committee > Murong Yue (George Mason University) > Saurabh Srivastava (George Mason University) > Milind Agarwal (George Mason University) > > Faculty Committee > Hal Daumé III (UMD) > Mark Dredze (JHU) > Ziyu Yao (George Mason University) > Antonios Anastasopoulos (George Mason University) > Marcos Zampieri (George Mason University) > Kevin Lybarger (George Mason University) > Özlem Uzuner (George Mason University) > > For any questions relevant to the event, please reach out to mascsll2023(a)gmail.com. > > Best Regards, > MASC-SLL 2023 Committee

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next week meeting schedule
by Lifu Huang 29 Jan '23

29 Jan '23

Monday: 2-3pm: Pritika, Sijia, meeting with Intuit 4-5pm: Reading discussion Tuesday: 2-3pm: SimBot/SocialBot (I will join on Zoom but the meeting room 3160A has been reserved for this meeting) 3-3:30pm: Pritika, Sijia Wednesday (on Zoom): 11-12pm: Ying 1:30-2:30pm: Barry with Meta 2:30-3:15pm: Zhiyang 3:15-4pm: Minqian 4-4:45pm: Jingyuan, Ying, Minqian, Zhiyang 4:45-5:15pm: Sijia 5:15-5:45pm: Jeet Thursday: 10:30-11:30am: Group meeting, Ying pls talk about your progress and questions on Script LM pre-training. Friday: 5-6pm: meeting with UCSB I will try to put in my comments for Mingchen and Xiaochu’s submissions within today. --------------------------------- Lifu Huang Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech

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