• Kawano, S. (STAT) – Model Validation and Dependent Shrinkage Priors for Small Area Estimation

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA
    Hybrid Event

    This dissertation addresses two questions in survey methodology: How can we produce granular, reliable estimates? And how can we validate them without ground truth? We develop three methods: (1) Gaussian data thinning enables out-of-sample model validation using only direct survey estimates and their sampling variances. We characterize its bias–variance tradeoff to guide model comparison. — […]

  • ECE 290 Seminar: “Photon Counting CT: How Counting X-Ray Photons Enables a Major Advance in Medical Imaging”

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA

    Presented by: Adam Wang, Assistant Professor of Radiology @ Stanford University Description: “Computed tomography (CT) is a mainstay of medical imaging, but its capabilities are constrained by radiation dose and the information captured by conventional x-ray detectors. Photon-counting CT (PCCT) measures individual x-ray photons and their energies, creating new opportunities for high-resolution, low-dose, and quantitative imaging. […]

  • CM Seminar: Professor Jim Whitehead – “Sides Taken: Generative Artists Made by Generative AI”

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA

    Welcome to the second Computational Media seminar of the fall quarter. Open to all, class enrollment is not required. Food will be provided. Please join us in-person at E2-280 or via Zoom to learn more about the works of Professor Jim Whitehead: Title: Sides Taken: Generative Artists Made by Generative AI Presenter: Dr. Jim Whitehead, Professor of […]

  • ECE Special Seminar: “Bilevel Optimization for Agentic AI: From Theory to Retrieval-augmented Agentic Reinforcement Learning”

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA

    Presented by: Quan Xiao, PhD Candidate @ Cornell University Description: “Agentic AI systems combine large language models with system-level design choices such as post-training data selection, retrieval, tool use, and memory management in augmented inference. Training these systems involves multiple coupled objectives beyond task success, including safety, retrieval quality, and adaptation efficiency. Sequential tuning can cause […]

  • ECE 290 Seminar: “From Stochastic Planning to Safe and Resilient Autonomy: Learning and Control for Robotic Systems”

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA

    Presented by: Francesco Trotti, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow @ University of Bologna, Italy Description: “Developing autonomous robotic systems capable of operating reliably in uncertain and dynamic environments requires the integration of planning, learning, and control while addressing fundamental challenges related to safety, robustness, and computational efficiency. This talk will present a research journey from stochastic […]

  • Bondar, G. (AM) – Geometric and Graph Structured Optimal Transport for Learning and Control

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA
    Hybrid Event

    We motivate, formulate, and solve several structured optimal transportation (OT) problems for learning and control. The field of OT had its inception in 1781, when Gaspard Monge sought the optimal map to transport mass from a given initial distribution to a desired terminal distribution. Both OT and its entropy-regularized variant, the Schrödinger bridge problem (SBP), […]