Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Rajesh P N Rao (9 December 2024)
Speaker: Prof. Rajesh P N Rao, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
Title: The Predictive Brain: An Active Predictive Coding Framework for Natural and Artificial Intelligence
Date: 9 December 2024
Summary of the talk: More than half the volume of the human brain is occupied by the neocortex which has delineated roles of visual perception in the visual cortex, action in the motor cortex, cognition in the prefrontal cortex, etc. However, recent experiments indicate that almost all cortical areas, even those traditionally labelled as sensory, are modulated by upcoming actions. Parallel data from anatomical studies point to major outputs from almost all cortical areas to sub-cortical centers that control the body. In this talk, Prof Rao will present the active predictive coding framework, which puts actions center stage in natural and artificial intelligence. He will review the Bayesian brain hypothesis, and then discuss predictive coding, a specific implementation of the Bayesian brain hypothesis that acknowledges cortical anatomy and physiology. This sets the stage for his more recent active predictive coding model, which suggests new explanations for how we recognize an object and its parts using eye movements, why perception seems stable despite eye movements, how we learn compositional representations of the world, how we plan complex actions by composing sequences of sub-goals and simpler actions, and how we form episodic memories of our sensory-motor experiences and learn abstract concepts such as a family tree. The talk will also briefly cover his work on brain co-processors that use artificial intelligence to interact directly with the brain to restore or augment human function.
About the speaker: Prof. Rajesh P N Rao is the CJ and Elizabeth Hwang Professor in the Paul G Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. He is also the co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology, adjunct professor in the Bioengineering department, and faculty member in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UW. His research interests span computational neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence.
Celebrating 25 Years of LTRC (6 and 7 December 2024)
Language Technologies Research Centre (LTRC) at IIIT, Hyderabad is celebrating its Silver Jubilee (25 years of completion) in a two day event on 6 and 7 December 2024.
Language Technologies Research Centre (LTRC) was established in October 1999 in response to the preeminent scientific challenge of our time – enabling machines to read, understand and derive meaning from human languages especially in the Indian context and Indian languages. It was, perhaps, first such a research theme focused centre in the country and today LTRC is the largest academic centre of speech and language technology in South Asia.
LTRC at IIITH, founded 25 years ago, has become one of India’s leading institutions in Language Technology research.
27th Foundation Day
IIIT Hyderabad will be celebrating its 27th Foundation Day on 2 September. Sri. D Sridhar Babu, Minister of IT & Industries, Telangana will be the chief guest at this momentous event. There will be a Fireside Chat with Sri D Sridhar Babu, followed by an interactive session with faculty, staff, students and alumni of IIITH. Students who would like to ask the Minister any questions during the interactive session are requested to please fill in this form asap https://forms.gle/sYL6P5BF7R3fdV5m8
We will be felicitating alumni winners of the Outstanding Service award at the event.
We are excited to announce the Outstanding Service Award for our alumni, for the year 2024! This is the highest honor the institute can confer on its alumni, in the Outstanding Service category. This years award goes to Soujanya Lanka B.Tech CSE -1998, Ph.D -2003 and Vipul Kedia B.Tech CSE (Hons) -1999
The Alumni Awards ceremony, will be the beginning of a new tradition at the institute. Established to mark our silver jubilee, the award is a badge of honor, both to the institute and the alumni who receive it. The Alumni Awards function, will now become a regular feature of our Foundation Day celebrations.
Invited talk by Dr. Masahiro Ehara (25 July 2024)
Prof. Masahiro Ehara at the Institute for Molecular Sciences will be visiting IIIT Hyderabad on 25 July 2024. During his visit, he will be giving a talk on Nanocluster and heterogeneous catalysts interplay between theory and experiment.
23rd Convocation (13 July 2024)
The 23rd Convocation of IIIT Hyderabad will be held on Saturday, 13th July 2024, 2pm at Global Peace Auditorium, Brahmakumaris Shanti Sarovar, Gachibowli, Hyderabad. Dr. (Mrs.) N Kalaiselvi, Director General, CSIR & Secretary, DSIR will present the convocation address.
Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Jayathi Murthy
Prof. Jayathi Murthy, President of Oregon State University will give a distinguished lecture on The story of a circuitous life through engineering on 4 July 2024. Prof. Jayathi Murthy is a national leader in higher education, engineering teaching, research and service, and has been Oregon State University’s president since September 2022. From the first woman student of Mechanical Engineering in IIT Kanpur to being the first Indian Woman President of Oregon State University, Prof. Jayathi will share snippets and insights of her inspiring journey.
21st IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA 2024)
The International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA) is the premier venue for practitioners and researchers interested in software architecture, in component-based software engineering and in quality aspects of software and how these relate to the design of software architectures. ICSA has a strong tradition as a working conference (previously named Working International Conference on Software Architecture, WICSA), where researchers meet practitioners and software architects can explain the problems they face in their day-to-day work and try to influence the future of the field. ICSA 2024 is scheduled to be held at International Institute of Information Technology Campus (IIIT-H) Hyderabad , India between 4th June 2024 and 8th June 2024.
3D VISION SUMMER SCHOOL – 2024
3D Vision Summer School 2024 offers hands-on weeklong deep dive into fundamentals of 3D computer vision and deep learning techniques. Great opportunity to learn from accomplished researchers in the field. Undergrad 3rd/4th year and MS/PhD students as well as industry aspirants are welcome to apply.
More details at https://3dvss.github.io
Master Trainer Program (MTP) for Technology Specific Work Theme – Allied UAS Technologies (11 – 15 March 2024)
IIIT Hyderabad is identified as one of the Resource Centers (RC) for the MeitY approved project entitled “Capacity building for human resource development in Unmanned Aircraft System (Drone and related Technology)”. As a part of this project, IIIT Hyderabad is organizing the third Master Trainer Program (MTP) for the Technology Specific Work Theme “Allied UAS Technologies” for five days from 11 – 15 March 2024.
The five-day program will include sessions on various subjects such as simulators for drone (ROS, MUJOCO), flight controller, Navigation-Guidance and Control for UAV, image processing and planning.
Venue: IIIT Hyderabad Campus, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, PIN-500032.
Date: 11 – 15 March 2024
R&D Showcase-2024 (16 – 17 March 2024)
IIITH’s annual R&D Showcase provides a unique opportunity for viewers to interact with faculty and students to understand their work in more tangible forms through demos, prototypes and presentations in keeping with the institute’s endeavour to promote applied research that benefits society.
This years Showcase is themed Interconnect and its relevance between algorithms, ethics and society.
The Showcase includes 300+ research posters, demos and models from IIITH’s 28 research centres, confluences, research reflections and a research startup showcase by Centre for Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).