November 2023 - Sanghani-faculty

Sanghani Center Faculty Meeting - Dec. 1st at 12:00 - 1:30 pm
by Shalaby, Wanawsha 01 Dec '23

01 Dec '23

Hello, Our next Sanghani Center Faculty meeting is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 1 at 12:00 - 1:30 pm. As usual, if you have any recent news or updates since our last faculty meeting, please send them my way so that I may add them to our meeting slides. Updates include awards, proposals, grants, conference presentations, events, etc. Please send all updates by Wednesday, Nov. 29th. Additionally, below are the four google forms for the upcoming conferences in Dec. to capture conference participation among our faculty and students. Please be sure to fill out each one if you or any of your students will be participating. IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (IDCM) in Shanghai, China, December 1-4 https://tinyurl.com/4xphpweu Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP) in Singapore, December 6-10 https://tinyurl.com/mrcsphs2 EEE International Conference on Big Data in Sorrento, Italy, December 15-18 https://tinyurl.com/yc77ycda Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) in New Orleans, Louisiana, December 10-16 https://tinyurl.com/35vwwbs6 Please note that those of you in Blacksburg will be meeting in D&DS 337, the DC area folks will be connecting virtually. Below is the Zoom information. Join Zoom Meeting https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/86755300718 Meeting ID: 867 5530 0718 --- One tap mobile +16469313860,,86755300718# US +19294362866,,86755300718# US (New York) --- Dial by your location • +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) Thanks, Wanawsha Wanawsha Shalaby Manager of Operations UrbComp Program Coordinator Sanghani Center for AI and Data Analytics - Virginia Tech 900 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22203 Phone: (571) 858-3361 E-Mail: wanah92(a)vt.edu<mailto:wanah92@vt.edu>

1 2

Guest lecture: Rahul Mangharam, U Penn (1st Dec 2023)
by Abhijit Sarkar 01 Dec '23

01 Dec '23

Hello All, Dr. Rahul Mangharam from University of Pennsylvania will deliver a guest lecture for our class "ECE 4524: Artificial Intelligence and Engineering Applications" on 1st December, 2023 via Zoom. You are cordially invited if you find the topic interesting. More details below: Date: Friday Dec, 1st Time: 1:25 pm - 2:15 pm Platform: Zoom (Details below) Join Zoom Meeting https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/84578041777?from=addon<https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fvirginiatech.zoom.us%2Fj%2F84578…> Meeting ID: 845 7804 1777 Title: MAD Games - Multi-Agent Dynamic Games: What can you learn from Autonomous Racing? Abstract: Balancing performance and safety are crucial to deploying autonomous vehicles in multi-agent environments. In particular, autonomous racing is a domain that penalizes safe but conservative policies, highlighting the need for robust, adaptive strategies. Current approaches either make simplifying assumptions about other agents or lack robust mechanisms for online adaptation. In this talk we will explore research themes on perception, planning and control at the limits of performance. We explore:(1) How to generate the most competitive agents who dynamically balance safety and assertiveness by using distributionally robust online adaptation and Game-theoretic planning (2) How to be better-than-the-best using imitation learning with multiple imperfect experts (3) Using invertible neural networks to solve inverse problems in localization and SLAM (4) How to build the most efficient autonomous racecar with Multi-domain optimization across vehicle design, planning and control; We realize all our research in the https://f1tenth.org autonomous racecar platform that is 10th the size, but 10x the fun! The main takeaway from this talk is how you can get involved in very exciting research on safe autonomous systems. I will also present projects on AV Gokart that we are doing in the Autoware Center of Excellence for Autonomous Driving. Bio: Rahul builds safe autonomous systems at the intersection of formal methods, machine learning and controls. He applies his work to safety-critical autonomous vehicles, urban air mobility, life-critical medical devices, and AI Co-designers for complex systems. He is the Penn Director for the Department of Transportation's $20MM Safety21 National UTC [2023-2028] both of which focus on technologies for safe and efficient movement of people and goods. Rahul is the Director of the Autoware Center of Excellence for Autonomous Driving, a consortium of 70+ companies and universities focused on open-source AV software for open-standards EV platforms. Rahul received the 2016 US Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) from President Obama for his work on Life-Critical Systems. He also received the 2016 Department of Energy’s CleanTech Prize (Regional), the 2014 IEEE Benjamin Franklin Key Award, 2013 NSF CAREER Award, 2012 Intel Early Faculty Career Award and was selected by the National Academy of Engineering for the 2012 and 2017 US Frontiers of Engineering. He has won several ACM and IEEE best paper awards in Cyber-Physical Systems, controls, machine learning, and education. Thanks, Abhijit Sarkar, PhD (He/His/Him) Senior Research Associate Team Leader, Computer Vision and Machine Learning Division of Data and Analytics Virginia Tech Transportation Institute E-mail: asarkar(a)vtti.vt.edu, asarkar1(a)vt.edu Work: (540) 231-1528 Fax: (540) 231-1555

1 1

Information Requested on Participation at IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (IDCM)
by blmicale＠vt.edu 07 Nov '23

07 Nov '23

I've invited you to fill out the following form: IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (IDCM) To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc2gTVwQIr4kCHulB4USUuhgNU4c0F1Uiz… If you are participating in this conference, please fill out the Google Form below or respond through this link: https://tinyurl.com/4xphpweu Any questions, please contact blmicale(a)vt.edu Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

1 0

Information Requested on Participation at IEEE International Conference on Big Data
by blmicale＠vt.edu 07 Nov '23

07 Nov '23

I've invited you to fill out the following form: IEEE International Conference on Big Data To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd96_NggMhPHQD3rssPsVcZtAE63Z7SleY… If you are participating in this conference, please fill out the Google Form below or respond through this link: https://tinyurl.com/yc77ycda Any questions, please contact blmicale(a)vt.edu Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

1 0

Information Requested on Participation at Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)
by blmicale＠vt.edu 07 Nov '23

07 Nov '23

I've invited you to fill out the following form: Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc6sI-oh1sPuXAOfF8J2u2tF_zYUJjJS16… If you are participating in this conference, please fill out the Google Form below or respond through this link: https://tinyurl.com/35vwwbs6 Any questions, please contact blmicale(a)vt.edu Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

1 0

Information Requested on Participation at Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP)
by blmicale＠vt.edu 07 Nov '23

07 Nov '23

I've invited you to fill out the following form: Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP) To fill it out, visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-8o5UudeSmGpJ2IvJJJmab_8kvIWHVmi… If you are participating in this conference, please fill out the Google Form below or respond through this link: https://tinyurl.com/mrcsphs2 Any questions, please contact blmicale(a)vt.edu Google Forms: Create and analyze surveys.

1 0

IARPA BENGAL Interest Form
by Brian Mayer 06 Nov '23

06 Nov '23

As I promised during the faculty meeting on Friday here is a spreadsheet for expressing interest in the IARPA BENGAL program. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1S5ZXtwQRlNfO0eUM_PV5hn93r5DzlYugqkZ… If you've been talking with other organizations please do that on here as well. Also, feel free to enter your name on multiple lines (once for each technical area or collaborator) if that makes filling it out easier. Here is a link to the program website: https://www.iarpa.gov/research-programs/bengal Thanks, Brian -- Brian Mayer bmayer(a)cs.vt.edu 540-231-5907 Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics <https://sanghani.cs.vt.edu/> - Virginia Tech <https://vt.edu/>

1 0

FOLLOWUP on Conferences Discussion at today's faculty meeting
by Barbara Micale 03 Nov '23

03 Nov '23

Dear Faculty, For those who attended today's faculty meeting and for everyone else, just wanted to confirm that we would like you to let us know about any conferences that you or your students are participating in so that we can promote them on Sanghani Center social media. We have started using the Google Forms that we have been sending out recently as a means of getting such information about conferences we know (from past stories and social media) that a significant number of our faculty and students have attended in the past. Lack of a Google Form for a particular conference you or your students are participating in does not mean that we don't want to know about it or promote it. Sorry for any miscommunication on that point. Regarding the Google Forms, with the Spring conferences -- as suggested by some -- we will aim to send out the Forms soon after the Notification date rather than the month that the conferences are being held which we hope will bring better response. Many thanks for your help with this effort! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. Best, blm Barbara L. Micale Public Relations Specialist <https://sanghani.cs.vt.edu/> Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics <https://sanghani.cs.vt.edu> Virginia Tech blmicale(a)vt.edu Twitter: @SanghaniCtrVT

1 0

VT-Children's National Hospital Collaborative Funding Opportunity
by Naren Ramakrishnan 02 Nov '23

02 Nov '23

Sanghani Colleagues, Following the VT-CNH symposium on AI in pediatric health organized over the summer ( https://news.vt.edu/articles/2023/07/children-s-national--virginia-tech-uni…) the Sanghani Center is happy to announce a collaborative proposal opportunity between VT and CNH researchers with anticipated funding beginning Jan 2024. Pl see attached for details and we will cover it in tomorrow's meeting as well. Best, Naren

1 0

Fwd: Amazon Research Awards: Deadline Extension November 13, 2023
by Naren Ramakrishnan 01 Nov '23

01 Nov '23

CS/Sanghani Colleagues, Pl see below a broad call for research proposals from different divisions within Amazon. (This is separate from our Amazon-VT initiative and is thus open to all.) Pl apply and reach out to them directly if you have any questions. Best, Naren * Amazon Research Awards: Deadline Extension November 13, 2023* ARA provides grant recipients unrestricted funds and AWS promotional credits. Funded projects are assigned an Amazon research contact, and recipients also receive training resources, including AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers. Before applying, we encourage researchers to visit the ARA website and read our frequently asked questions <https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/frequently-asked-questions> for more specific program information. We look forward to receiving your submissions. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on November 13, 2023. This edition of the call for proposals reflects Amazon's ongoing efforts to collaborate with researchers in a variety of areas: - AI for Information Security <https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/call-for-proposals/ai-for-inform…> - Automated Reasoning <https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/call-for-proposals/automated-rea…> - AWS AI: Generative AI, Responsible AI, ML Compilers, Distributed Training <https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/call-for-proposals/aws-ai-call-f…> - AWS Cryptography and Privacy <https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/call-for-proposals/aws-cryptogra…> - Distributed Database Systems <https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/call-for-proposals/aws-database-…> - Sustainability <https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/call-for-proposals/sustainabilit…> Proposals will be reviewed for the quality of their scientific content, creativity, and their potential for impact at scale. Proposals related to theory, practice, and novel new techniques are all welcome.

1 0