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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250319T120000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250319T170000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20250317T044243Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250317T044243Z
UID:1458-1742385600-1742403600@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Delegation and Verification of Quantum Computation
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Venkata Koppula will be giving a talk on Wednesday\, March 19th\, in Bharti 501. Please note that this is not our usual Monday slot. The talk will begin at 12:00 PM\, with refreshments served at 11:50 AM\, prior to the talk. Below are the details:\n\n\nAbstract: Consider a resource-bounded client that wants to outsource some computation C to a powerful server. The client might want the following desirable features:\n(a) verifiability – some proof that the server has indeed performed the computation C\n(b) blind delegation – the server performs the computation without learning anything about C\n\nI will briefly discuss how these properties can achieved in the classical setting (where both client and server are classical\, but the server is more powerful than the client). Next\, I will discuss some recent progress for these questions in the quantum setting\, where the server is quantum\, and the client is classical. Both these problems can be solved using a single cryptographic tool.\n\nThis will be a (mostly non-technical) survey talk outlining the main results in this domain\, and I will conclude with some (minor/major) open questions. No crypto/quantum background will be assumed for this talk.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/delegation-and-verification-of-quantum-computation/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250304T160000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250304T170000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20250225T150648Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250225T150648Z
UID:1409-1741104000-1741107600@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Distribution Testing: The New Frontier for Formal Methods
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Kuldeep S. Meel (Georgia Institute of Technology) \n  \nAbstract:  The dominant guiding philosophy in the first sixty years of Computer Science was for designers to design systems that were always correct\, and to accept nothing less as users. But times have changed: Users and designers are accustomed to systems with statistical components and behaviors. What does it mean for the formal methods community? In this talk\, we argue that such a dramatic change in the acceptance and design of systems presents exciting opportunities to make fundamental contributions: we need to rethink the notions and techniques for the design of specifications and verification methodologies. In particular\, we will focus on the systems whose behaviors are not naturally captured by symbolic relations but rather require reliance on probability distributions. We will discuss our recent efforts in designing formal methodologies for testing whether a sampling subroutine generates a desired distribution. We will showcase the challenges\, opportunities\, and rewards in our journey.\n\nSpeaker Bio:  Kuldeep Meel holds Stephen Fleming Early-Career Associate Professorship in the School of Computer Science\, and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto (on leave). His research interests lie at the intersection of Formal Methods and Artificial Intelligence. He is a recipient of the 2022 ACP Early Career Researcher Award\, the 2019 NRF Fellowship for AI\, and was named AI’s 10 to Watch by IEEE Intelligent Systems in 2020. His research program’s recent recognitions include the Distinguished Paper Award at CAV-23 and CAV-24\, ICLP-24 Best Paper Award\,2023  CACM Research Highlight Award\, 2022 ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight\, IJCAI-22 Early Career Spotlight\,  Best Paper Award nominations at ICCAD-21 and DATE-23\, 1st Place in Model Counting Competition (2020 and 2022).  He is passionate about teaching\, and most proud of being recipient of university-level Annual Teaching Excellence Awards in 2022 and 2023.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/distribution-testing-the-new-frontier-for-formal-methods/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250304T150000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250304T170000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20250304T073434Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250304T073434Z
UID:1448-1741100400-1741107600@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Distribution Testing: The New Frontier for Formal Methods
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Kuldeep S. Meel (Georgia Institute of Technology)\n\n\nAbstract:  The dominant guiding philosophy in the first sixty years of Computer Science was for designers to design systems that were always correct\, and to accept nothing less as users. But times have changed: Users and designers are accustomed to systems with statistical components and behaviors. What does it mean for the formal methods community? In this talk\, we argue that such a dramatic change in the acceptance and design of systems presents exciting opportunities to make fundamental contributions: we need to rethink the notions and techniques for the design of specifications and verification methodologies. In particular\, we will focus on the systems whose behaviors are not naturally captured by symbolic relations but rather require reliance on probability distributions. We will discuss our recent efforts in designing formal methodologies for testing whether a sampling subroutine generates a desired distribution. We will showcase the challenges\, opportunities\, and rewards in our journey.\n\nSpeaker Bio:  Kuldeep Meel holds Stephen Fleming Early-Career Associate Professorship in the School of Computer Science\, and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto (on leave). His research interests lie at the intersection of Formal Methods and Artificial Intelligence. He is a recipient of the 2022 ACP Early Career Researcher Award\, the 2019 NRF Fellowship for AI\, and was named AI’s 10 to Watch by IEEE Intelligent Systems in 2020. His research program’s recent recognitions include the Distinguished Paper Award at CAV-23 and CAV-24\, ICLP-24 Best Paper Award\,2023  CACM Research Highlight Award\, 2022 ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight\, IJCAI-22 Early Career Spotlight\,  Best Paper Award nominations at ICCAD-21 and DATE-23\, 1st Place in Model Counting Competition (2020 and 2022).  He is passionate about teaching\, and most proud of being recipient of university-level Annual Teaching Excellence Awards in 2022 and 2023.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/distribution-testing-the-new-frontier-for-formal-methods-2/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250220T160000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250220T170000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20250220T051853Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250220T051853Z
UID:1347-1740067200-1740070800@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Cyber-Physical Security of Microfluidic Biochips: Safeguarding Healthcare in the Era of Global Pandemics and Point-of-Care Testing
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Navajit Singh Baban (Division of Engineering\, Center for Cybersecurity\, NYU Abu Dhabi) \n  \nAbstract: \nMicrofluidic biochips (MBs)\, a transformative class of lab-on-a-chip devices\, are reshaping clinical diagnostics\, point-of-care testing\, and biomedical research. However\, their rapid commercialization and complex global supply chain have made them increasingly vulnerable to three major security threats: structural attacks\, material attacks\, and intellectual property (IP) theft-based attacks\, posing significant risks to healthcare and biomedical integrity. Structural attacks involve malicious modifications to micro-reaction chamber heights\, potentially leading to faulty diagnostics. To address this\, we developed a deep-learning-based anomaly detection framework that effectively identifies microstructural inconsistencies. Material attacks target the integrity of biochips through stealthy chemical alterations during fabrication\, degrading device performance while evading conventional quality control checks. A prime example is BioTrojans—chemically altered microvalves designed to fail prematurely when triggered. To counteract this\, we introduced a mechanoresponsive dye-based watermarking system\, which shifts spectral peaks in response to material deformation. By leveraging a calibrated spectral-intensity curve\, this approach enables real-time spectrometric detection of compromised materials\, ensuring biochip reliability. IP theft-based attacks\, such as reverse engineering\, counterfeiting\, and piracy\, further threaten biochip security by enabling unauthorized replication and overproduction. To mitigate these risks\, we developed advanced authentication strategies\, including device-level watermarking\, melt-electrospun biochip fingerprinting\, and physically unclonable functions (PUFs)\, providing robust image-based and spectral-based authentication. By integrating multi-layered security countermeasures\, this work fortifies MBs against emerging cyber-physical threats\, ensuring their reliability\, trustworthiness\, and security in an era of global pandemics\, rapid point-of-care diagnostics\, and the growing demand for secure biomedical technologies. \nBiography: \nDr. Navajit Singh Baban is a postdoctoral associate at NYU Abu Dhabi’s Division of Engineering\, Center for Cybersecurity\, specializing in the cyber-physical security of biochips. He holds a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from VIT University\, an M.Tech. in Materials Science from IIT Kanpur\, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from NYU\, where he was a Global Ph.D. Fellow\, completing his doctorate in 2021. \nHis research lies at the intersection of cybersecurity\, mechanical engineering\, bioengineering\, and materials science\, focusing on developing security frameworks to protect biochips from malicious attacks\, which occur at the micro- and nano-structural level and the material level. He also works on authentication techniques\, such as watermarking\, fingerprinting\, and physically unclonable functions (PUFs)\, to combat intellectual property theft-based attacks\, such as counterfeiting\, overbuilding\, reverse engineering\, and piracy. \nBeyond biochip security\, Dr. Baban has a strong interest in biomechanics\, particularly bioinspired fracture and adhesion mechanics\, where he integrates nature-driven innovations into bioengineering solutions. Dedicated to translating research into real-world applications\, his work focuses on advancing cyber-physically secure and resilient biotechnology and healthcare.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/cyber-physical-security-of-microfluidic-biochips-safeguarding-healthcare-in-the-era-of-global-pandemics-and-point-of-care-testing/
LOCATION:SIT006\, Amar Nath and Shashi Khosla School of Information Technology\, IIT Delhi\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi 110016\, India\, New Delhi\, Delhi\, 110016\, India
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250219T150000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250219T170000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20250217T083026Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250217T083327Z
UID:1335-1739977200-1739984400@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Tech for Good in the Age of Quantum and AI : Sameer Chauhan
DESCRIPTION:Sameer Chauhan\, Director-General of the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) is visiting India from 15 February- 21 February and will  deliver a talk and interact with faculty and students at IIT Delhi on the 19th of February at 3PM Venue SIT-001 [Khosla building]. \nTech for Good in the Age of Quantum and AI\n\nThe convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing presents unprecedented opportunities and challenges for global governance\, security\, and equitable development. In this talk Sameer Chauhan examines the implications of these technologies for international cooperation\, ethical governance\, and sustainable development. With AI driving automation and decision-making at scale\, and quantum breakthroughs redefining cryptography\, optimisation\, and material science\, the talk will focus on regulatory imperatives\, transnational partnerships\, and the role of academic institutions in shaping a resilient\, inclusive technological future.`\n\nAbout Sameer:\n\nSameer Chauhan\, Director-General of the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC)\, is a seasoned leader with over 25 years of experience in technology and international development. Under his leadership\, UNICC has become a trusted provider of innovative digital solutions\, supporting over 80 UN entities and global organizations. With expertise in cybersecurity\, data analytics\, and ethical technology\, Chauhan aligns UNICC’s initiatives with the UN Sustainable Development Goals\, fostering collaboration and resilience across the global development community. \nhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sameerchauhan1/ \nhttps://www.unicc.org/\nhttps://www.unicc.org/news/2024/10/29/celebrating-6-years-of-collaboration-in-cybersecurity-2024-common-secure-conference/
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/tech-for-good-in-the-age-of-quantum-and-ai-sameer-chauhan/
LOCATION:SIT 001\, Amar Nath and Shashi Khosla School of Information Technology\, IIT Delhi\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi 110016\, India\, Delhi\, Delhi\, 110016\, India
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250217T120000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250217T133000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20250212T122558Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250219T003504Z
UID:1331-1739793600-1739799000@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Polynomial Size\, Short-Circuit Resilient Circuits for NC
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Raghuvansh Saxena (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research)\n \nWe show how to convert any circuit of poly-logarithmic depth and polynomial size into a functionally equivalent circuit of polynomial size (and polynomial depth) that is resilient to adversarial short-circuit errors. Specifically\, the resulting circuit computes the same function even if up to $epsilon d$ gates on every root-to-leaf path are short-circuited\, i.e.\, their output is replaced with the value of one of its inputs\, where $d$ is the depth of the circuit and $epsilon > 0$ is a fixed constant. \nPreviously\, such a result was known for formulas (Kalai-Lewko-Rao\, FOCS 2012). It was also known how to convert general circuits to error resilient ones whose size is quasi-polynomial in the size of the original circuit (Efremenko et al.~STOC 2022). The reason both these works do not extend to our setting is that there may be many paths from the root to a given gate\, and the resilient circuit needs to “remember” a lot of information about these paths\, which causes it to be large. Our main idea is to reduce the amount of this information at the cost of increasing the depth of the resilient circuit.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/polynomial-size-short-circuit-resilient-circuits-for-nc/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250127T120000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250127T133000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20250121T160348Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250219T003504Z
UID:1141-1737979200-1737984600@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Distinct Elements in Streams and the Klee's Measure Problem
DESCRIPTION:Sourav Chakraborty  (Indian Statistical Institute)\n\nWe will present a very simple streaming algorithm on F0 estimation that also caught the eye of Donald E. Knuth.  In a recent article\, Donald E. Knuth started with the following two paragraphs:\n \n“Sourav Chakraborty\, N. V. Vinodchandran\, and Kuldeep S. Meel have recently proposed an interesting algorithm for the following problem: A stream of elements (a1\, a2\,…\,am) is input\, one at a time\, and we want to know how many of them are distinct. In other words\, if A = {a1\, a2\,…\,am} is the set of elements in the stream\, with multiplicities ignored\, we want to know |A|\, the size of that set. But we don’t have much memory; in fact\, |A| is probably a lot larger than the number of elements that we can hold in memory at any one time. What is a good strategy for computing an unbiased estimate of |A|?\n \nTheir algorithm is not only interesting\, it is extremely simple. Furthermore\, it’s wonderfully suited to teaching students who are learning the basics of computer science. (Indeed\, ever since I saw it\, a few days ago\, I’ve been unable to resist trying to explain the ideas to just about everybody I meet.) Therefore I’m pretty sure that something like this will eventually become a standard textbook topic. This note is an initial approximation to what I might write about it\, if I were preparing a textbook about data streams.”\n\nThis simple algorithm comes out of the first ever “efficient” streaming algorithm (from PODS 21) for the Klee’s Measure problem\, which was a big open problem in the world of streaming for many years.\n\nThis work is based on joint works with N. V. Vinodchandran\, and Kuldeep S. Meel across multiple articles\, notable the following: Estimating the Size of Union of Sets in Streaming Models. PODS 2021 [Paper 1]\nDistinct Elements in Streams: An Algorithm for the (Text) Book. ESA 2022 [Paper 2].
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/distinct-elements-in-streams-and-the-klees-measure-problem/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250124T120000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250124T130000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20250109T100500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250219T003504Z
UID:962-1737720000-1737723600@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Online\, greedy\, and conceptually simple algorithms
DESCRIPTION:Allan Borodin\, University of Toronto \nWhat can and cannot be computed by “conceptually simple algorithms”? In this regard\, my primary interest is in approximation algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems and the relation of such problems to areas such as scheduling\, algorithmic game theory and computational social choice. \nWhy do we care about conceptual simplicity\, and can we formalize such a concept? For some problems\, simple algorithmic ideas provide the best-known solution or are reasonably competitive with the best-known algorithms\, especially in the context of real data. Moreover\, “in \npractice”\, it is often the case that users will opt for a quick understandable algorithm. While it is arguably impossible to precisely define a useful general definition of “simplicity”\, we can study well-used (albeit rarely precisely defined) combinatorial algorithmic paradigms such as various forms and extensions of online and greedy algorithms\, primal-dual algorithms\, local search\, and “simple” dynamic programming. Can we then provide definitions for such paradigms that are sufficiently expressive to capture many or most existing algorithms\, but still allow us to prove impossibility results that do not rely on computational complexity assumptions? To what extent is our theoretical analysis consistent with performance in practice? We will consider the specific problem of online interval selection in different online settings. In particular\, we will consider the problem in the random order arrival model when the online algorithm can permanently reject previously accepted intervals.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/allan-borodin-speaks/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250121T120000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250121T130000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20241212T063048Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241212T122213Z
UID:210-1737460800-1737464400@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Cybersecurity: Why its hard\, solutions\, and careers
DESCRIPTION:Rajeev Barua\, University of Maryland. \nThe battle between cyber attackers and attack detection teams is an arms race that is not letting up. Attackers constantly devise new ways of exploiting system vulnerabilities\, and new methods to hide from detection. In response\, detection teams have responded with new technologies to detect attacks. \nThis talk will overview why cybersecurity is hard\, the solutions available\, and the latest industry trends\, and it will discuss careers in cybersecurity in India and worldwide. \nDr. Rajeev Barua is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland. He is also the Founder and CEO of SecondWrite Inc\, which commercializes binary rewriting technology his research group developed at the university. He received his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi\, and his Ph.D in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. Dr. Barua’s research interests are in the areas of program analysis\, cybersecurity\, and Applied AI. \nDr. Barua is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2002\, the UMD George Corcoran Award for teaching excellence in 2003\, and the UMD Jimmy Lin Award for innovation in 2014. He has published over 70 academic papers and five issued patents. His company\, SecondWrite\, has raised over $2.4M in funding\, including $1.3M in US governments SBIR grants\, and the rest from professional private investors.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/cybersecurity-why-its-hard-solutions-and-careers/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250120T143000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250120T163000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20241212T090010Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241212T122237Z
UID:425-1737383400-1737390600@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:A Theory of Alternating Paths and Blossoms\, from the Perspective of Minimum Length
DESCRIPTION:Vijay V. Vazirani \, University of California\, Irvine. \nIt is well known that the proof of some prominent results in mathematics took a very long time — decades and even centuries. The first proof of the Micali-Vazirani (MV) algorithm\, for finding a maximum cardinality matching in general graphs\, was recently completed — over four decades after the publication of the algorithm (1980). MV is still the most efficient known algorithm for the problem. In contrast\, spectacular progress in the field of combinatorial optimization has led to improved running times for most other fundamental problems in the last three decades\, including bipartite matching and max-flow. \nThe new ideas contained in the MV algorithm\, and its proof remain largely unknown\, and hence unexplored. We hope to rectify this shortcoming and use ideas from the proof to give a simpler exposition of the algorithm. \nBased on this paper. \nBio: Vijay Vazirani is a distinguished professor at the University of California\, Irvine. A description of his research appears in the citation of his 2022 INFORMS John von Neumann Theory Prize. In 2001\, he published Approximation Algorithms\, which was followed by two co-edited books\, Algorithmic Game Theory in 2007 and Online and Matching-Based Market Design in 2023.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/a-theory-of-alternating-paths-and-blossoms-from-the-perspective-of-minimum-length/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250103T160000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20250103T170000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20241203T110026Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241212T122254Z
UID:420-1735920000-1735923600@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Leveraging LLMs for Networking & Security in Cloud Environments
DESCRIPTION:Deepak Bansal\, Microsoft \nAbstract: Customer networks have grown\, mostly organically\, large and complex in cloud environments like Azure. Customers are often afraid to make changes and find it hard to diagnose when things go wrong. In this talk\, I am going to share how Microsoft is using LLMs to simplify network operations at scale in Azure and how it is enabling the same for its customers through Azure Copilot. On the security side\, I will share how LLMs are being used to enable security monitoring and threat hunting. \nBio: Deepak graduated from IIT D in CS in 1999 and did a Masters in CS at MIT. He is currently a Corp Vice President and Technical Fellow at Microsoft in Redmond\, WA USA and is driving cloud (Azure infrastructure) and security (Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative).
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/leveraging-llms-for-networking-security-in-cloud-environments/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20241219T120000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20241219T130000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20241126T043850Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241212T122814Z
UID:212-1734609600-1734613200@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:Global Search and Discovery with Differential Policy Optimization
DESCRIPTION:Chandrajit Bajaj\, UT Austin \nReinforcement learning (RL) with continuous state and action spaces is arguably one the most challenging problems within the field of machine learning.  Most current learning methods focus on integral identities such as value (Q) functions to derive an optimal strategy for the learning agent. In this talk we present the dual form of the original RL formulation to propose the first differential RL framework that can handle settings with limited training samples and short-length episodes. Our approach introduces Differential Policy Optimization (DPO)\, a pointwise and stage-wise iteration method that optimizes policies encoded by local-movement operators. We prove a pointwise convergence estimate for DPO and provide a regret bound comparable with the best current theoretical derivation. Such pointwise estimate ensures that the learned policy matches the optimal path uniformly across different steps. We then apply DPO to a class of practical RL problems with continuous state and action spaces\,  e.g. shape and material optimization and discovery of new molecules with targeted dynamics. \nThis is joint work with Garvit Bansal\, Minh Nguyen.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/prospecting-for-global-optimizers-with-physics-agents/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20241209T173000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20241209T183000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20241125T234344Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241126T044936Z
UID:178-1733765400-1733769000@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:New Algorithmic Challenges for Ethical Decision-Making
DESCRIPTION:Swati Gupta\, MIT. \nWhen someone is denied a job\, offered a different price for the same goods or services\, or declined a loan\, intent to discriminate is often not the case. The decision system applies the same data and rules to all and yet has a disproportionate effect on various groups. The causes of such disparate impact in machine learning and optimization are many\, and these create an opportunity for us to develop new algorithms. I will present three such opportunities. The first is motivated by challenges due to bias and errors in evaluation data. I will present new optimization problems using ordinal data\, which can create a pathway to solving discrimination in hiring (Management Science\, 2023 with Salem\, and UC Davis Law Review\, 2023 with Salem and Desai). Next\, I will discuss the challenge of selecting the “right” notion of fairness. I will present the concept of “portfolios”\, that ask to find a small set of approximate solutions that summarize the set (potentially infinite) set of fairness objectives. I will showcase combinatorial techniques to tackle this challenge\, and connections to polyhedral structure (EC 2023\, SODA 2025\, with Singh and Moondra). Finally\, motivated by the recent lawsuits on price fluctuations\, I will discuss challenges in trajectory-constrained stochastic optimization\, which for example\, can provide algorithms that monotonically change prices in demand learning (WINE 2022\, with Kamble and Salem). This talk is based on joint work with Jad Salem\, Deven Desai\, Mohit Singh\, Jai Moondra\, and Vijay Kamble. \n  \nBio: Dr. Swati Gupta is an Associate Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the Operations Research and Statistics Group\, and holds the Class of 1947 Career Development Professorship. She received a Ph.D. in Operations Research from MIT\, and a dual Bachelors + Masters in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Delhi. Her research interests include optimization and machine learning\, with a focus on algorithmic fairness. Her work is cross-disciplinary and spans various domains such as hiring\, admissions\, e-commerce\, healthcare\, districting\, power systems\, and quantum optimization. She served as the lead of Ethical AI for the NSF AI Institute on Advances in Optimization\, from 2021-2023. She has received the NSF CAREER Award in 2023\, the JP Morgan Early Career Faculty Recognition in 2021\, the NSF CISE Research Initiation Initiative Award in 2019\, Simons-Berkeley Research Fellowship in 2017-2018\, and the Google Women in Engineering Award (India) in 2011. Dr. Gupta’s research is partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)\, as well as Social and Ethical Responsibilities in Computing (SERC) at MIT.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/new-algorithmic-challenges-for-ethical-decision-making/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20241129T173000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20241129T183000
DTSTAMP:20260921T184803
CREATED:20241126T044001Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241126T044001Z
UID:214-1732901400-1732905000@homecse.iitd.ac.in
SUMMARY:How Do We Involve People in AI Decision-Making? Towards Effective Participatory AI Designs
DESCRIPTION:Vijay Keswani\, Duke University. \n  \nThe expanding capabilities of AI come with a surge in the reports of societal and personal harms related to its use. Examples range from systemic biases in AI decision-aid tools in healthcare and policing to stereotype propagation in AI-based search and translation tools. Technical research on mitigating such harms forward certain solutions to ensure that AI behavior is aligned with ethical norms and values. Yet\, this research leaves unanswered the question of “whose norms are followed” and can fail to counter AI harms when there is a disparity between the assumed ethical norms and the values of the people impacted by AI. But what if there was a way for the stakeholders (e.g.\, AI users or domain experts) to tell us how an AI tool should ideally operate? \nIn this talk\, I will argue for democratizing how we build AI tools and undertaking a participatory approach to AI assessment and development. By eliciting feedback from relevant stakeholders on the harms they observe and the outcomes they expect\, AI models can be aligned with the expressed stakeholder values. We will see concrete illustrations of such participatory mechanisms for image search audits\, multi-winner elections\, and medical decision-making. Across these applications\, certain features of participation in AI will become clear: (a) participatory designs are domain-specific\, (b) their efficacy relies heavily on the effectiveness of mechanisms used for eliciting stakeholder preferences\, and (c) (when done right) they enhance user agency and trust in AI tools. \nVijay Keswani is a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University. His research interests center around community-focused AI development and the ethics of data and technology. His work leverages tools from various disciplines to build robust AI models\, combining computational and statistical learning mechanisms with methods from law\, philosophy\, psychology\, and economics. He received his PhD from Yale University in 2023. While at Yale\, he was a Resident Fellow at the Information Society Project during 2022-2023 and a 2022 Policy Fellow at the Yale Institute for Social and Policy Studies.
URL:https://homecse.iitd.ac.in/event/how-do-we-involve-people-in-ai-decision-making-towards-effective-participatory-ai-designs/
LOCATION:Bharti 501\, IIT Campus\, Hauz Khas\, New Delhi
CATEGORIES:Seminars
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