Lecture 4
The Transformer Network for Natural Language Processing
March 22 | 1:00 – 2:15 p.m.
Zoom link: https://kaust.zoom.us/j/93725451705
Abstract
Natural language processing (NLP) is employed for such tasks as language interpretation, text synthesis, question answering, and language translation. The field of NLP has made enormous progress in recent years, and is now becoming a ubiquitous part of many aspects of life, for example for email-writing assistants and in chat-bots. These advances have been based on new technology that has built on foundational aspects of neural networks. In this session we will discuss the mapping of words to vectors, which is at the heart of modern NLP, and we will introduce the concept of “attention.” Attention is a fundamental component of the Transformer Network, which will be discussed in detail. This technology represents the state of the art across a wide array of NLP applications.
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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.