May 2, 2021 - 10:00 am
Computer models that mimic humans’ extraordinary hearing abilities could improve treatments for hearing loss. Anne Trafton | MIT News Office The human auditory system is a marvel of biology. It can follow a conversation in a noisy restaurant, learn to recognize words from languages we’ve never heard before, and identify a familiar colleague by their footsteps as they walk by our office. So far, even the most sophisticated computational models...
Photo of Dr. Ben Deen
April 27, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Dr. Ben Deen (Rockefeller University)
Host: Prof. Winrich Freiwald (Rockefeller University)
Abstract: What is the cognitive and neural architecture of core reasoning systems for understanding people and places? In this talk, we will outline a novel theoretical framework, arguing that internal models of people and places are implemented...
April 13, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Panelists: Profs. Talia Konkle (Harvard), Josh Tenenbaum (MIT), and Sam Gershman (Harvard) Moderator: Prof....
Abstract: TBA
 
This panel discussion is being hosted via Zoom.
 
Zoom link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/98767476352
 
April 12, 2021 - 11:45 am
Memory permits the reuse of past cognitive computations Psychologists and neuroscientists have long studied memory using experimental tasks in which people or animals are presented with some information and then later asked to make judgments about it. This approach has led to a view of memory as a system specialized for solving these kinds of recollection tasks. Recent work by scientists at the Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines (CBMM)...
Photo of Dr. Andrei Barbu
April 6, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Dr. Andrei Barbu, InfoLab, CSAIL
Host: Prof. Boris Katz (CSAIL, MIT)
Abstract:  Children acquire language from very little data by observing and interacting with other agents and their environment. We demonstrate how by combining methods from robotics, vision, and NLP with a compositional approach, we can create a semantic parser...
Photo of Prof. Aude Oliva
March 30, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Hosted via Zoom
Prof. Aude Oliva, Senior Research Scientist, CSAIL; MIT Director MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab; Director MIT Quest...
Dear Friends,
Unfortunately, Prof. Aude Oliva is feeling unwell and we have canceled today’s talk “Mapping Responses in the Human Brain Through Space and Time.” We will reschedule this talk in the near future.
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Host: Prof. Leyla Isik (JHU)
Abstract: The human brain is a time machine; We are...
white puzzle pieces with one piece not assembled
March 30, 2021 - 12:00 pm
The purpose of play — for children, monkeys, rats or meerkats — has proved surprisingly hard to pin down. Scientists continue to toss around ideas. By Chris Woolston Anyone who has ever chucked a tennis ball in the general vicinity of a border collie knows that some animals take play very seriously. The intense stare, the tremble of anticipation, the apparent joy with every bounce, all in pursuit of inedible prey that tastes like the backyard....
blue and orange banner reading "Reach Out"
March 29, 2021 - 9:15 am
Jarrod Hicks (MIT) and Dr. Mengmi Zhang (Children’s, Harvard) have been selected as semifinalists in the 2021 Reach Out Science Slam Communication Challenge, which is jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Museum of Science, Boston. The Reach Out Science Slam is a nationwide effort to boost the communication skills of early-career researchers affiliated with the NSF’s 12 flagship Science and Technology Centers (...
Photo of Dr. R.T. Pramod
March 16, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Dr. Pramod R.T., Kanwisher Lab
Host: Prof. Nancy Kanwisher (MIT)
Abstract: Successful engagement with the world requires the ability to predict what will happen next. Although some of our predictions are related to social situations concerning other people and what they will think and do, many of our predictions concern the...
March 9, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Panelists: Profs. Christos Papadimitriou (Columbia),  Tomaso A. Poggio (CBMM, MIT) and Santosh Vempala (...
Abstract: About fifty years ago, holography was proposed as a model of associative memory. Associative memories with similar properties were soon after implemented as simple networks of threshold neurons by Willshaw and Longuet-Higgins. It turns out that the recurrent Willshaw networks were very...
Portrait of Prof. Murray Shanahan
March 2, 2021 - 2:00 pm
Prof. Murray Shanahan, Imperial College London
Host: Prof. Josh Tenenbaum (MIT)
Abstract:  The challenge of endowing computers with common sense remains one of the major obstacles to achieving the sort of general artificial intelligence envisioned by the field’s founders. A large part of human common sense pertains to the physics of the...
Photo of Prof. Santosh Vempala
February 23, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Prof. Santosh Vempala, Georgia Tech.
Host: Prof. Tomaso Poggio (MIT)
Abstract:  Despite great advances in ML, and in our understanding of the brain at the level of neurons, synapses, and neural circuits, we still have no satisfactory explanation for the brain's performance in perception, cognition, language, memory, behavior; as Nobel...
February 16, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Mengmi Zhang, Jie Zheng, and Will Xiao (Kreiman Lab)
Host: Prof. Gabriel Kreiman (Children's, Harvard)
Speaker: Mengmi Zhang
Title: The combination of eccentricity, bottom-up, and top-down cues explain conjunction and asymmetric visual search
Abstract: Visual search requires complex interactions between visual processing, eye movements, object...
February 9, 2021 - 4:00 pm
Dr. Andrzej Banburski and Simon Alford​ (Poggio Lab)
Host: Dr. Hector Penagos (MIT)
 
Abstract: Current machine learning algorithms are highly specialized to whatever it is they are meant to do — e.g. playing chess, picking up objects, or object recognition. How can we extend this to a system that could solve a wide range of problems? We argue that...
February 2, 2021 - 5:15 pm
Prof. Amnon Shashua, CEO of Intel Mobileye and CBMM External Advisory Committee member, will speak as part of the MISTI MIT-Israel's Breaking Boundaries: Israelis in Science, Technology and the Economy series. CBMM's Director, Tomaso Poggio will moderate, and we will also hear from An Jimenez (Computation & Cognition '21), a MISTI MIT-Israel alumna. MISTI MIT-Israel would like to thank the MIT Quest for Intelligence, CSAIL, the Center for...

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