Lecture 1
Introduction to Basics of Deep Learning
February 22 | 1:00 – 2:15 p.m.
Zoom link: https://kaust.zoom.us/j/98515276954
Abstract
As Provost, Professor Lawrence Carin hopes to help foster a culture of collegiality, teamwork and lifelong learning, along with the traditional focus on research and teaching excellence. This includes providing opportunities and incentives for KAUST faculty and students to provide talks on their research to a broad cross-section of the KAUST community, particularly in areas that are cross-cutting, with these sessions done in a manner that is widely accessible.
These sessions are meant to be educational, distinct from the more-traditional talks given to experts in the field. As an example of such sessions, this lecture will introduce the concept of deep learning, an important new area of AI. We will review what deep learning is and what it may offer beyond traditional data science methodology.
This lecture will present deep learning from a broad perspective, and in subsequent sessions an emphasis will be placed on deep learning applied to image analysis and to natural language processing.
Brief biography
Lawrence Carin is the new Provost at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Prior to joining KAUST professor Carin was the James L. Meriam Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, where he also served as the Vice President for Research. He is one of the most prolific authors in the world in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence, regularly publishing in the most competitive forums. Dr. Carin had taught at Duke for over 25 years, and has published nearly 400 peer-reviewed papers.
Lawrence Carin earned the BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1985, 1986, and 1989, respectively. In 1989 he joined the Electrical Engineering Department at Polytechnic University (Brooklyn) as an Assistant Professor, and became an Associate Professor there in 1994. In September 1995 he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Duke University. He was ECE Department Chair from 2011-2014, the Vice Provost for Research from 2014-2019, and since 2019 he has served as Duke’s Vice President for Research.
From 2003-2014 he held the William H. Younger Distinguished Professorship, and since 2018 he has held the James L. Meriam Distinguished Professorship. Dr. Carin’s research focuses on machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and applied statistics. He publishes widely in the main ML/AI conferences, and he has also engaged in translation of research to practice. He was co-founder of the small business Signal Innovations Group, which was acquired by BAE Systems in 2014, and in 2017 he co-founded the company Infinia ML. He is an IEEE Fellow.
