Jonathan Kelly

YOU ARE EXPECTED TO DEMONSTRATE 'FIT' IN YOUR COLD MAIL TO A PI Someone wrote a cold mail to a potential Supervisor seeking a PhD position in a Canadian University. After going through the mail, the Prof., replied with these words: "Check out publications from our lab, many of which are by our graduate students (and some by honours students). If you have many questions upon reading through these papers, then you are likely a good fit for our lab." From the response, it could be infer that the prospective graduate student didn't show how his/her research interest aligns with the research area of the Prof's group. It means he/she didn't demonstrate 'fit' in the cold mail. Demonstrating "fit" for a Principal Investigator's (PI's) work in a cold email means showing that your research interests, skills, and goals align with their research focus and objectives. It involves highlighting how your expertise and experience make you a strong candidate to contribute to their research group and projects. To demonstrate fit, you can: 1. Show familiarity with the PI's research: Mention specific publications, projects, or theories that resonate with your interests and goals. 2. Explain how your skills align: Describe your relevant skills, experience, and education that align with the PI's research focus. 3. Present a research idea: Propose a research idea that builds upon or complements the PI's work, demonstrating your understanding of their research objectives. 4. Highlight shared research interests: Emphasize the common research interests and goals that you share with the PI, showcasing your enthusiasm for collaborating with their group. 5. Demonstrate your value: Explain how your unique perspective, skills, or experience can enhance the PI's research projects and contribute to their team. By effectively demonstrating fit, you can grab the PI's attention, showcasing that you're a motivated and qualified candidate for potential research opportunities in their lab. The perfect fit is not just about finding a lab, but finding a home for your research interests.

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There's only 5 days left to submit your paper! Remember, we only a short 1-page abstract

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One of my favourite podcasts in the past few months. Peter Attia is both a medical doctor and and engineer. In this podcast, he discusses AI with Isaac Kohane, a medical doctor with a PhD in Computer Science. The first half they do a great job of exploring the history of AI and how we got today. The second half dives into AI in medicine. There is huge potential to boost medical care with further application of AI that exists today. https://lnkd.in/gZK3tcHc

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I will be teaching an ICPSR Summer Workshop, "Sensitivity Analysis: Quantifying the Robustness of Inferences to Alternative Factors or Data", Hybrid (virtual, FtF in Ann Arbor, MI, with asynchronous access to materials). https://lnkd.in/etB9AR8h Most social scientists need to consider the unobserved conditions that could change an inference. This workshop is about the statistical tools (R, Stata or the konfound-it app https://lnkd.in/ep_z-DJS ) to do just that, quantifying the strength of evidence to inform policy, practice, or general social science. The workshop is a full 20 instruction hours of instruction including opportunities to adapt to specific models such as mediation, moderation, diff in diff, logistic regression, hazard/cox regression, multilevel models, differential attrition from treatment groups, etc. Go here to register: https://lnkd.in/etB9AR8h Group discounts available as well. https://lnkd.in/eWRv8G7q

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Very pleased to report that my article with Hunter Gentry, "Transitional gradation and the distinction between episodic and semantic memory", has just appeared in _Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B". It is also open access thanks to the new resources I have available at University of Florida, specifically an OA agreement with the UF library and the Royal Society. So everybody can see it without any shenanigans! In this article we explore various arguments against Tulving's traditional episodic/semantic memory distinction, provide them on a firmer metaphysical foundation by drawing upon the theory of natural kinds and previous things I've said about a phenomenon called "transitional gradation" in the special sciences, recommend replacing the distinction with a more dynamic life cycle of mnemonic forms of representation, and sketch some new ideas for experiments inspired by the perspective that can help arbitrate the debate over episodic memory in animals (largely Hunter's work here). Hunter was a joy to work with on this and if you see an application from him you should give it serious consideration. He's the real deal and will be publishing stuff like this for decades to come. https://lnkd.in/gPMJSV7Q

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Excited to present my work next week at the #MS2Discovery Interdisciplinary Research Institute at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. The seminar will focus on my papers: 'Finding a Needle in a Haystack: A Machine Learning Framework for Anomaly Detection in Payment Systems' (https://lnkd.in/e7ch4zeW) and 'Improving the Efficiency of Payments Systems Using Quantum Computing' (https://lnkd.in/d8e8zAu2). #Payments #AI #ML #Quantum #PaymentSystems

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The 2024 ACADIA x NOMAS Workshop is this Saturday! Get ready for the 2024 ACADIA x NOMAS Introduction to Computational Design & AI Workshop! #ACADIAorg is pleased to offer this specially organized workshop for NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architects) Student Chapters participating in the 2024 NOMA Barbara G. Laurie Design Student Competition, “Highway to Healing: The Transformation of the West Baltimore I-40 Corridor,” focusing on the transformation of the West Baltimore area. This free workshop, titled “Introduction to Computational Design & AI,” aims to equip #NOMAS students with essential knowledge and skills in computational design and Artificial Intelligence for generation and evaluation of competition entries. Students who opt into the ACADIAxNOMAS workshop content on their competition entries will be eligible for the ACADIA Award. Schedule: Saturday, July 27, 2024 1:00 - 4:00 PM ET Overview: This virtual workshop will introduce introductory computational design and AI concepts as well as workflows to support the social, environmental, and material goals of architectural and urban design projects. The workshop will specifically address how computational design and AI can enhance the work of NOMAS teams participating in the design for the transformation of West Baltimore as part of the NOMA 2024 competition. Led by esteemed Board Members of ACADIA, the workshop will feature introductions to computational design themes, concise technical demonstrations, and valuable resources for further exploration and consideration of the topics covered. Software: This workshop will utilize #Rhino3D #Grasshopper3D #midjourney #artbreeder #lookx to communicate computational thinking and design. Workshop Leaders: Felecia Davis, Biayna Bogosian, Shermeen Yousif, and myself. Registration: NOMAS students can register on Eventbrite (https://lnkd.in/gJn5_Acg) to participate in this workshop by following the link provided.

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Elon Musk's Neuralink announce Data Compression Challenge open to public.  The main idea of the invention is to provide efficient interface between brain and machine/computer. Implant in the brain is expected to transfer wirelessly huge amounts of data to computer and, possibly, back. It's clear that the system has many restrictions like: limited energy reserve and limited computational power. Even if theoretically compression at the 200/1 rate would be feasible (what is not), the limitations of energy resources and computation would not allow to implement that sophisticated and computationally intensive transformation in acceptable cost.  https://lnkd.in/eS-r5DuS

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Check out this great article on the Financial Post about the impressive trajectory of DCS Prof. Sanja Fidler, head of the Nvidia Toronto Research Lab. The feature highlights some of the amazing accomplishments of Prof. Fidler and how she has helped make Nvidia a leader in AI. Read more at https://lnkd.in/gsXB3UgV.

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In the rapidly advancing age of artificial intelligence (AI), the protection of children from potential risks has become a paramount concern on a global scale. On the 1st of October, 2024, the Association of African Universities, the University of Nottingham, and the Ethical Data Initiative held a panel discussion on Child Protection in the Age of AI as part of their Ethical Data Discussion Series. The event brought together education professionals, child protection experts, and legal experts, to discuss the pressing need to influence and shape national and international policies governing children’s safety online. It highlighted the importance of international and interdisciplinary collaboration, and evidence-based recommendations in this complex domain. The recording of the webinar is now available at https://lnkd.in/dUUdfF6b #ai #artificialintelligence

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AI offers tremendous potential but also serious risks. Here's one application that is saving lives - reducing patient mortality by 20% at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto: "CHARTwatch is a revolutionary early warning system that monitors patients to predict deterioration within 48 hours. It analyzes over 100 variables hourly, categorizing patients as low, medium, or high risk. If a patient is high risk, CHARTwatch alerts the medical team for prompt intervention, reducing ICU admissions and death rates. Implemented at St. Michael’s Hospital, it has shown a remarkable 20% decrease in patient mortality." https://lnkd.in/eScYrmKS

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I will be hosting Joseph Jay Williams (Experimentation)'s visit to UBC, where he will present his talk on "Changing Behavior using AI and Experimentation" on Friday, September 20th. Please check the details and join us for what promises to be an engaging and insightful discussion! Title: Changing Behaviour using AI and Experimentation: Applications in Education, Health Behaviour, Marketing, Website Design Speaker: Joseph Jay Williams, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, University of Toronto Time and Date: 10 - 11:30 AM, September 20th, 2024 Room: ICCS 246 Zoom: https://lnkd.in/gwxSaZcM Abstract:How can we change people's behaviour to help them achieve their goals? This lecture presents tools and methods for optimizing a product or intervention by making it Intelligent and Adaptive, including: (1) Messages/Prompts in Mobile Apps; (2) Explanations of concepts in websites; (3) Texts & Emails for Marketing & Health. This work is based on the AdapEx framework,which recently received 1st prize in the $1M Xprize competition for future of experimentation, to transform components of an interface into Intelligent agents, that integrate human intelligence (crowdsourcing) and artificial intelligence (LLMs). These components become Adaptive by using perpetually MicroExperiments to test out these different actions, and using qualitative and quantitative data to optimize what to show to a user/customer, in different contexts. We show how to use AdapComps to integrate AI/LLMs, Machine Learning for adaptive experiments, theories of psychology, and human-computer interaction/user experience design.

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Thanks so much again to the program committee for inviting me to give a keynote at ISMP 2024 on our work on stochastic algorithms for continuous constrained optimization. ( International Symposium on Mathematical Programming, https://ismp2024.gerad.ca/ ) Key takeaway: Constrained optimization can accelerate, e.g., informed learning. We need the algorithms to realize this potential fully. A trimmed-down version of my slides can be found here (best viewed in Adobe Reader so the video clips will play): https://lnkd.in/ep79kSBC

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Who is who in terms of public investments in Quantum Technology (QT)? In this article from McKinsey, Canada is in the top 10 of countries investing in QT (which is good news!) but still a relatively small player compared to other world leaders.

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New in the AFP: The Category of Sets An axiomatization of category SET on top of HOL, following the presentation given by Halvorson, including Cantor's diagonalization theorem and mathematical induction. https://lnkd.in/g6WTQ-MX

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We invite research submissions on Quantum Computing and Reinforcement Learning (QCRL) at IEEE Quantum Week 2024 (Montreal, Sep. 15-20, 2024). https://2024.qcrl.io/ Scope and Topics: Topics relevant to this session include, but are not limited to: - Theoretical studies of quantum reinforcement learning algorithms - Challenges in quantum reinforcement learning in the NISQ era - Quantum reinforcement learning under the influence of quantum device noise QRL in the context of trustworthy ML (e.g., adversarial attacks, federated learning) - Quantum reinforcement learning for scientific discovery, commercial, and industrial applications - Benchmarking QRL algorithms - Reinforcement learning for quantum control, quantum error correction, and quantum error mitigation - Reinforcement learning for quantum architecture search, optimization, and program synthesis - Hybrid RL-QC systems design Important Deadlines: - Jul 10, 2024: Abstract Due Date - Jul 15, 2024: Paper Submission Due Date - Jul 28, 2024: Notification of Paper Acceptance - Aug 5, 2024: Camera-ready Papers Due #quantum #machinelearning #reinforcementlearning

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📣 Kiroong Choe is presenting our new IEEE TVCG paper, Enhancing Data Literacy On-demand: LLMs as Guides for Novices in Chart Interpretation, at the "Look, Learn, Language Models" session this Friday: https://lnkd.in/eygdA_jt 📝 Author List: Kiroong Choe, Chaerin Lee, Soohyun Lee, Jiwon Song, Aeri Cho, Nam Wook Kim, Jinwook Seo 🎓 Kiroong (https://kiroong.github.io/), a Ph.D. student at Seoul National University advised by Prof. Jinwook Seo, spearheaded this work by leading a group of other students. I enjoy meeting with him because he always thinks critically about my input and offers different perspectives when needed, which in turn improves my own thinking. 🙂 📊 We compared three different methods of learning assistance for interpreting complex visualizations for novices: 1) using web search, 2) LLMs with text-based support, and 3) LLMs with both text and visual support. We developed a "visual prompting" system to support the third condition. 💡 An interesting finding is that, despite participants preferring the LLM-based approach, when we counted the number of insights, the web search performed the best, even though it was more time-consuming and challenging to use. 🤔 This might suggest that cognitive difficulty leads to more engagement and thus more learning. This would be an important consideration for future LLM-based learning systems. 📄 Please check out the full paper manuscript: https://lnkd.in/etfn6yGg

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I am delighted to receive an Honorable Award from Transformative Quantum Technologies (TQT). I want to thank Shayan Ghasemi (my team member) for helping me design and develop our idea. TQT awarded research teams and our design ideas for the Quantum for Environment (Q4Environment) Design Challenge, whose green-tech solutions address global environmental issues. TQT and the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) aim to engineer quantum processes to advance new solutions to important societal problems. Quantum theory is the ultimate law of nature. At its most fundamental level, nature is governed by quantum physics. Therefore, we look to quantum solutions when we need efficiency, accuracy, and sensitivity beyond what the classical world allows. Source: https://lnkd.in/evRpYUTy #Quantum #material_design #Technologies #Environment #AI

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With apologies to Daft Punk, I’m at University of Waterloo about to give an invited talk titled “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: Visualization for HCAI Tools” hosted by Jian Zhao in the Cheriton School of Computer Science. Our arXiv paper on this topic can be found here: https://lnkd.in/dY2ncEDq

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