CS Colloquium

Dr. Oleksiy Al-Saadi
Sonoma State University

Stevenson 1301
Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Ms. Geeta Chauhan
Silicon Valley Software Group, AI Practice Head / CTO

Stevenson 1301
Monday, September 9, 2024

This talk will cover how to build and deploy distributed deep learning models at scale. You will learn how to parallelize your models, and techniques for optimizing your cluster for faster performance for both model training and inference. The talk will also cover use cases from different verticals like FinTech, Medical Diagnostics, Automotive sector. 

Ron Chrisley
University of Sussex, Director of the Centre for Cognitive Science

Stevenson 1301
Monday, September 16, 2024

To what extent can artificial cognitive systems model, or even truly be said to possess, mental imagery?

One study, (Cabrita 2024), drawing on (Yampolskiy 2017), proposes susceptibility to optical illusions as a sufficient condition for experiencing mental imagery, and evaluates GPT4-o accordingly.

I argue that this criterion is too weak, and instead propose that for an agent to be credited with mental imagery it should demonstrate the capacity to perform not just image processing (i.e., pattern sensitivity), but imagistic reasoning. Accordingly, I propose two necessary criteria for the ascription of mental imagery: explanatory need, and (human-level) reasoning performance.

To assess the extent to which a given AI system meets these criteria, the paradigm in the classic study of imagistic reasoning by Finke, Pinker and Farah (1989) is used. This paradigm asks human subjects to imagine familiar objects and shapes, asks them to transform these shapes “internally” or “mentally”, and then asks the subjects to answer questions about the resulting imagined shapes. Other paradigms (e.g. the Mental Rotation Test from (Shepard and Metzler 1971)) are also considered.

Two kinds AI systems, multi-modal models, and chained models, are assessed with respect to the imagistic reasoning tasks. Proposals for how their limitations might be overcome are offered.
The talk closes by considering a chess problem that (Penrose 2017) puts forward as requiring imagistic reasoning that (he claims) AI cannot perform.

Nielet D'mello
Datadog Security

Stevenson 1301
Monday, October 7, 2024

Victor Ramensky
Bank of Marin

Stevenson 1301
Monday, October 14, 2024

There are great challenges working in IT and Cybersecurity, making sure operations run smoothly and the company's electronic assets are safe.  Then there are the challenges of doing this under the watchful eyes of government regulators.  I will share my positive experiences and challenges with both the FDIC (Banking) and FDA (Pharma) when it comes to running IT and Cybersecurity.  This can help you consider the pros and cons of working in a regulated industry!

Robert Lee

Stevenson 1301
Monday, October 21, 2024

NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) vs CIS Critical Security Controls(CSC). There are several standard and frameworks  to learn in the cybersecurity industry. Which one makes sense ? Rob will  present both the CSF and CSC frameworks  and comparisons on both.

Dr. Yuhong Liu
Santa Clara University

Stevenson 1301
Monday, October 28, 2024

As we move further into the big data era, people are motivated in numerous ways to proactively generate, share and exchange diverse digital contents online every day. While the increasing amount of information greatly facilitates people’s decision makings, it also brings great challenges. For example, driven by the huge profits behind the big data economy, malicious attacks are emerging rapidly to mislead normal users’ decision-making process by providing carefully crafted false information. In addition, retrieving tremendous amount of user private information has become a popular attack target. This talk will discuss the security, trust and privacy issues in online social networks, the trend and challenges, particularly focusing on several sample attacks.

Dept Event

Wine Spectator Patio
Monday, November 4, 2024

CS students, join us for Advise-a-palooza for Spring 2025 registration.

Dr. Roya Salek Shahrezaie
Sonoma State University

Stevenson 1301
Monday, November 18, 2024

Dept Event

Stevenson 1301
Monday, November 25, 2024

Short presentations of research carried out by Sonoma State Computer Science Students, and CS awards.

Dept Event

Stevenson 1301
Monday, December 2, 2024

Short presentations of capstone projects carried out by Sonoma State Computer Science Students