News and events

News

External Seminar Series

3-4PM (London) at Ground Floor Lecture Theatre (view map) and Zoom.

Subject to change; contact Barry Fong (b.fong ‘at’ ucl.ac.uk) for email updates.

Date	Speaker	Title
22 July 2026	Chandramouli Chandrasekaran	To Be Confirmed

27 May 2026: Yuri Vlasov - Neural Correlates of Perceptual Decision Making in Primary Somatosensory Cortex.
20 May 2026: Cengiz Pehlevan - Is the brain mechanistically identifiable?
13 May 2026: Gautam reddy - On the surprising effectiveness of meta-trained transformers
6 May 2026: Tim Vogels - The brain is not a computer
29 April 2026: Gesine Reinert - Synthetic networks
20 April 2026: Tatiana Engel - Closing the discovery loop with digital twins and causal perturbations
27 March 2026: Alex Luedtke - Simplifying debiased inference via automatic differentiation and probabilistic programming
25 March 2026: Sergio Bacallado - In-Context Learning for Hierarchical Gaussian Processes: Mechanisms and Theoretical Trade-offs
4 March 2026: Tom Griffiths - Bayes in the age of intelligent machines
25 February 2026: Julijana Gjorgjieva - Shaping neural circuit structure and function through biologically plausible learning
18 February 2026: Pierre Marion - Attention layers provably solve single-location regression
11 February 2026: Francesco Cagnetta - Where neural scaling laws come from: a model-based theory of data structure
4 February 2026: Raphaël Berthier - Diagonal linear networks, incremental learning and the lasso regularization path
14 January 2026: Josh McDermott - New Models of Auditory Perception via Machine Learning
7 January 2026: Qingyuan Zhao - A counterfactual perspective of heritability, explainability, and ANOVA
17 December 2025: Alexander van Meegen - Coding schemes in neural networks learning classification tasks
11 December 2025: Andrej Risteski - Toward Understanding and Mitigating Error Amplification in Long-Horizon Tasks
10 December 2025: Kathlen Kohn - Algebraic Neural Network Theory
9 December 2025: Pratyusha Chowdhury - Understanding strongly correlated systems through conformal field theory
19 November 2025: Johannes Schmidt-Hieber - Spike-timing-dependent Hebbian learning as noisy gradient descent
12 November 2025: Junhnyung Park - Causal and counterfactual spaces
5 November 2025: Mate Lengyel - Uncertainty in navigation
29 October 2025: Aurelien Bibaut - Inference after adaptive experiments: challenges, solutions, and progress towards an optimal procedure.
22 October 2025: Mauro M. Monsalve Mercado - The geometry of the neural state space of decisions.
15 October 2025: Mufan Li - The proportional scaling limit of neural networks
8 October 2025: Claudia Clopath - Predictive learning enables compositional representations
17 September 2025: Matt Golub - Identifying Communication Between Brain Regions
10 September 2025: Michal Irani - Reading Minds and Machines
27 August 2025: Alan Amin - Why Masking Diffusion Works: Condition on the Jump Schedule for Improved Discrete Diffusion
21 August 2025: Andrew Wilson - Deep Learning is Not So Mysterious or Different
23 July 2025: SueYeon Chung - Computing with Neural Manifolds: A Multi-Scale Framework for Understanding Biological and Artificial Neural Networks
2 July 2025: Bert de Vries - Realizing Synthetic Active Inference Agents: Challenges and Opportunities
25 June 2025: Marcus Benna - Exploring the computational benefits of nonlinear synaptic processing
20 June 2025: Ulrike von Luxburg - Informative posthoc explanations only exist for simple functions
19 June 2025: Krikamol Muandet - Learning with Nonlinear Expectations
4 June 2025: Vladimir Kostic - Operator-Theoretic Perspectives on Data-Driven Modeling of Dynamical Systems
28 May 2025: Uri Shalit - Human-AI Collaboration in Causal Decision-Making: From Uncertainty to Action
21 May 2025: Brian DePasquale - Learning the Language of Smell: Foundation Models for Protein-Odor Interactions
14 May 2025: Alex Williams - Quantifying individuality in neural circuit representations
30 April 2025: Edward Kennedy - Minimax optimality in causal inference
23 April 2025: Vijay Balasubramanian - Time makes space: emergence of spatial representations in networks encoding temporally continuous experiences.
9 April 2025: Ryan Adams - Graph Neural Networks Gone Hogwild
12 March 2025: Marta Zlatic - Circuits for memory-based action selection
26 February 2025: Benjamin Cowley - A one-to-one mapping between model units and visual neurons reveals population code for social behavior
19 February 2025: Marta Catalano - Distances on random measures for Bayesian nonparametrics
13 February 2025: Yuhao Wang - Residual permutation test for regression coefficient testing
12 February 2025: Nicole Mücke - Recent Trends in Learning Operators
5 February 2025: Philipp Hennig - Probabilistic Linear Algebra: From Cholesky to Data Loaders
29 January 2025: Jonathan Cornford - Brain-like learning with exponentiated gradients
22 January 2025: Martin Schrimpf - Vision and Language in Brains and Machines
15 January 2025: Mariya Toneva - Improving LLMs as model organisms of human language processing
8 January 2025: Andrea Benucci - Processing of texture images in the mouse visual cortex
18 December 2024: Nick Koning - Continuous Testing
6 December 2024: Brent Doiron
4 December 2024: Christopher Langdon - Embedding dimension of neural manifolds and the structure of mixed selectivity
27 November 2024: Mona Azadkia - A simple measure of conditional dependence
26 November 2024: Harsha Gurnani - Feedback-driven dynamics constrain learning timescales in motor adaptation
20 November 2024: Friedemann Zenke - Learning representations with local synaptic plasticity rules through prediction
13 November 2024: Benjamin Bloem-Reddy - Causal Inference with Cocycles
6 November 2024: David Abel - The Reward Hypothesis
30 October 2024: Siu Lun Chau - Credal Two-Sample Tests of Epistemic Ignorance
16 October 2024: Gábor Csányi - ML model for chemistry shows extreme generalisation
9 October 2024: Shreya Saxena - Constrained Models of Neural Dynamics for Generalization and Insights
11 September 2024: Pedro A. Ortega - An Introduction to Information-Theoretic Bounded Rationality
4 September 2024: Carsen Stringer - Unsupervised pretraining in biological neural networks
28 August 2024: Evan Schaffer - Representational drift preserves geometry
11 July 2024: Rajesh Rao - A sensory-motor theory of the neocortex based on active predictive coding
10 July 2024: Trenton Bricken - Post-Bayesian Machine Learning
3 July 2024: Anna Schapiro - Learning representations of specifics and generalities over time
19 June 2024: Patricia Lockwood - Computational approaches to social decision-making in health, development and disorder
12 June 2024: Liu Ziyin - Symmetry, Model Capacity, and Learning of Representations
29 May 2024: Tom Verguts - Learning cognitive control
22 May 2024: Eric Schulz - Machine Psychology
15 May 2024: Ingo Steinwart - Some Aspects of Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning
1 May 2024: Fanghui Liu - From kernel methods to neural networks: double descent, function spaces, and learnability
17 April 2024: Srdjan Ostojic - The role of population structure in computations through dynamics
20 March 2024: Will Handley - Nested sampling: powering next-generation inference and machine learning tools for astrophysics, cosmology, particle physics and beyond
6 March 2024: Patrick Rebeschini - Constructing and Learning Mirror Maps
28 February 2024: Mijung Park - Privacy-preserving data generation in the era of foundation models: Generative transfer learning with differential privacy
31 January 2024: Rafal Bogacz - Inferring neural activity before plasticity as a foundation for learning beyond backpropagation
24 January 2024: Samuel Livingstone - Robust gradient-based sampling algorithms using skew-symmetric numerical schemes
17 January 2024: Greg Pavliotis - Statistical inference for Interacting particle systems and their mean field limit
6 December 2023: Arvind Kumar - How tuning curve shapes determine the speed-accuracy tradeoff in the brain
22 November 2023: Jozsef Fiser - Complex perceptual decision making processes in humans
15 November 2023: Peter Bartlett - In-Context Learning Linear Models with Transformers
8 November 2023: João Sacramento - Gradient descent discovers gradient descent
1 November 2023: Robert Geirhos
18 October 2023: Alessandro Sanzeni - Probing the operating principles of cortical circuits with theory and optogenetics
13 September 2023: Aaron Seitz - Towards a whole brain model of perceptual learning
6 September 2023: Luca Mazzucato - Neural mechanism of optimal performance
30 August 2023: Rafael Polania - Rational sensing from insects to rodents to humans to machines
6 July 2023: Tamara Broderick - The Bayesian Infinitesimal Jackknife for Variance
31 May 2023: Loreen Hertäg - The formation, refinement, and functional implications of prediction-error circuits with diverse inhibitory interneurons
3 May 2023: Sebastian Musslick - Computational Dilemmas in Neural Systems: Principles for the Bounds of Human Cognition
19 April 2023: Naresh Shanbhag - Brain-inspired Computing in Silicon
4 April 2023: Alex Lew and Vikash K. Mansinghka - Scaling Probabilistic Reasoning by Generalizing Automatic Differentiation
3 April 2023: Federica Gerace - DATA-CENTRIC AI: Play with Datasets to Improve Machine Learning Performances
29 March 2023: Tengyao Wang - Sparse change detection in high-dimensional linear regression
23 March 2023 Agostina Palmigiano - Mechanisms underlying behavioral modulations of sensory representations.
23 March 2023: Mladen Kolar - Confidence Sets for Causal Discovery
17 March 2023: Roberta Raileanu - From Solving Narrow Tasks to Learning General Skills
16 February 2023: Masatoshi Uehara - Statistically efficient offline reinforcement learning
15 February 2023: Danijar Hafner - Embodied Intelligence Through World Models
14 February 2023: Joshua Robinson - Geometric neural representation learning
13 February 2023: Veronika Koren - Efficient encoding and transmission of sensory signals along the feedforward somatosensory pathway
8 February 2023: Katharina Wilmes - Cortical circuit computations underlying learning
7 February 2023: Raaz Dwivedi - From HeartSteps to HeartBeats: Personalized Decision-making
1 February 2023: Francesco Locatello - Causal Representation Learning
31 January 2023: Ema Perkovic - Identifying and estimating causal effects with incomplete causal information
18 January 2023: Boris Hanin - Bayesian Interpolation with Deep Linear Networks
16 November 2022: Rui Ponte Costa - Unlocking efficient credit assignment in the brain
9 November 2022: Aldo Pacchiano - Unpacking Reward Shaping: Understanding the Benefits of Reward Engineering on Sample Complexity
2 November 2022: Richard J Samworth - Optimal nonparametric testing of Missing Completely At Random, and its connections to compatibility
26 October 2022: David Firth - Multiple deprivation meets sport climbing: Exponential scores for ranking and weighted indices
19 October 2022: Uri Shalit - Learning invariant models for out-of-domain generalization: good news and bad news
12 October 2022: Sadra Sadeh - Perturbative analysis of neural dynamics in brain networks
5 October 2022: Samory Kpotufe - Tracking Most Significant Changes in Bandits
26 September 2022: Mark van Rossum - Energy efficient plasticity
14 September 2022: Bhaswar Bhattacharya - Distribution-Free Nonparametric Inference Based on Optimal Transport: Efficiency Lower Bounds and Rank-Kernel Tests
2 September 2022: Eero Simoncelli - Photographic Image Priors in the Era of Machine Learning Eero Simoncelli, NYU & Flatiron Institute
17 August 2022: Weijie Su - When Will You Become the Best Reviewer of Your Own Papers? A Truthful Owner-Assisted Scoring Mechanism
6 July 2022: Yashar Ahmadian - Excitatory-inhibitory balance, normalization, and adaptation
30 June 2022: Emmanuel Candès - Sailing through data: Discoveries and mirages
21 June 2022: Misha Ahrens - Brain-wide computation for navigation, learning, and autonomic control
25 May 2022: Srini Turaga - Visual selectivity emerges from connectome and task constraints in the fruit fly visual system
18 May 2022: Lei Jing - Bias-adjusted spectral clustering in multi-layer stochastic block models
20 April 2022: Juan Álvaro Gallego - Understanding the emergence of neural population dynamics underlying behaviour
6 April 2022: Kevin Miller - Structured Reinforcement Learning in the Brain
30 March 2022: Alberto Bietti - Statistical benefits of convolutional models: a kernel perspective
1 March 2022: Anna Sadnicka - Exploring the feature space and mechanistic bounds of phenotype in movement disorders
23 February 2022: Simon Tavaré - Some statistical problems in cancer genome evolution
9 February 2022: Ann Hermundstad - Design principles of adaptable neural codes
26 January 2022: Zoltan Szabo - When Kernel Machines Meet Shape Constraints
12 January 2022: Scott Linderman - Reconciling empirical, algorithmic, and theoretically optimal models of mouse behavior in a time-varying two-armed bandit task
8 December 2021: Stefano Ermon - Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distribution
24 November 2021: Jeff Beck - Probabilistic codes and their predictions for neural activity
3 November 2021: Ralf Haefner - A perceptual confirmation bias as the result of approximate online hierarchical inference
27 October 2021: Marcelo Mattar - Prioritized experience replay supports planning and non-local learning.
27 October 2021: Taiji Suzuki - Optimization and generalization theories of deep learning and its connection to kernel methods
20 October 2021: Alison Etheridge - Infinitesimal progress.
29 September 2021: Nathan Kallus - Smooth Contextual Bandits
8 September 2021: Sam McDougle - Space and time in movement planning and sensorimotor adaptation
21 July 2021: Po-Ling Loh - A modern take on Huber regression
14 July 2021: Persi Diaconis - Tales from the Trenches of Foundations
17 June 2021: Emmanuel Candès - Reliable predictions? Equitable treatment? Some recent progress in predictive inference
9 June 2021: Gabrielle Gutierrez - Smart compression in the retina: a theoretical study of recoding inputs in neural circuits
2 June 2021: Morgane Austern - Asymptotics of cross-validation
12 May 2021: Helen Barron - Neuronal computation underlying inferential reasoning in humans and mice
29 April 2021: Puneet Dokania - Impact of Parameter Regularization and Overfitting in Neural Network's Robustness
27 April 2021: Christopher Tosh - Doing more with less: Machine learning with precious data
21 April 2021: Gabriel Koch Ocker - Decomposition of higher-order correlations by nonlinear Hebbian learning
24 March 2021: Ilija Bogunovic - Robust Learning Algorithms for Sequential Decision Making
15 March 2021Wei Hu - Opening the Black Box: Towards Theoretical Understanding of Deep Learning
10 March 2021: Volkan Cevher - Limits of Robbins-Monro-type algorithms: From minimization to minimax optimization
23 February 2021: Tuan-Anh Le - Building AI with Neuro-Symbolic Generative Modeling
10 February 2021: Erik Bodin - Black-box density function estimation using recursive partitioning
3 February 2021: Cristina Savin - Task-specific routing of information in neural circuits viastructured noise
20 January 2021: Robert Rosenbaum - Universal Properties of Strongly Coupled Neuronal Networks
13 January 2021: Wuchen Li - Innovations in Mean-Field Game Theory for Scalable Computation and Diverse Applications
25 November 2020: Le Song and Xinshi Chen - Understanding Deep Architectures with Reasoning Layer
11 November 2020: Josh McDermott - Successes and Failures of Neural Network Models of the Auditory System
4 November 2020: Alessandro Rudi - Non-parametric Models for Non-negative Functions
14 October 2020: John Murray - Modeling large-scale dynamics of human cortex
16 March 2020: Robert Guangyu Yang - Understanding brains by building artificial networks
12 March 2020: Emtiyaz Khan
9 March 2020: Eric Nalisnick - Building and Critiquing Models for Probabilistic Deep Learning
5 March 2020: Ahmed El Alaoui - Reconstruction problems on amenable graphs
4 March 2020: Arnak Dalalyan - All-in-one Robust Estimator of the Gaussian Mean (arXiv:2002.01432)
24 February 2020: Yixin Wang - The Blessings of Multiple Causes
21 February 2020: Yingzhen Li - Deep probabilistic modelling for reliable machine learning systems
22 January 2020: Michael Bronstein - Deep learning on graphs and manifolds: going beyond Euclidean data
15 January 2020: Wei Ji Ma - (1) Human planning in large state spaces (2) Growing up in Science: Wei Ji Ma's unofficial story
8 January 2020: Chand Chandrasekaran - Single Trial Neural Circuit Dynamics Underlying Perceptual Decision-Making
18 December 2019: Irina Gaynanova - Simultaneous Non-Gaussian Component Analysis (SING) for Data Integration in Neuroimaging
11 December 2019: David Freedman - Neural Circuits of Cognition in Artificial and Biological Neural Networks
27 November 2019: Matthew Chalk - Inferring the function performed by a recurrent neural network
20 November 2019: Benjamin Guedj - A walkthrough of advanced PAC-Bayes results
13 November 2019: Omri Barak - Structure in the randomness of trained recurrent neural networks
23 October 2019: Rajen Shah - Low-priced lunch in conditional independence testing
2 October 2019: Christian Walder - New Tricks for Estimating Gradients of Expectations
24 September 2019: Gergely Neu - A unified view of entropy-regularized Markov decision processe
19 September 2019: Emtiyaz Khan - Learning-Algorithms from Bayesian Principle

Events

Advances in Adaptive Experimentation Workshop, 18-19 June 2026.
Gatsby Bridging Programme, 22 June - 7 August 2026.

2026

Gatsby tri-centre meeting (10-12 Jun) - an annual gathering of Gatsby Unit, the Gatsby Programme at ELSC, and the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University.

2025

School on Analytical Connectionism (25 Aug-5 Sep).
Gatsby Bridging Programme (23 Jun-8 Aug): a 7-week maths summer school.
Dynamical systems approaches to the brain (16-18 Jun).
Gatsby tri-centre meeting (9-11 Jun)

2024

Gatsby Bridging Programme (24 Jun-9 Aug).
Bonsai Conference 2024 (2-6 Dec) - Developing and using the Bonsai visual reactive programming language

2023

School on Analytical Connectionism (28 Aug-8 Sep) - a school and workshop series centering on analytical approaches to connectionism.
Gatsby Bridging Programme (19 Jun-5 Aug).
Gatsby25 (16-17 June) - a 2-day event to celebrate Gatsby Unit's 25th anniversary.

2019-20

Neural interfaces for neurobiological insights (9 Oct 2020).
Recent developments on kernel methods (26-27 Sep 2019).
Gatsby21 (11-13 Jul 2019)- a 3-day event to celebrate the Gatsby Unit's 21st anniversary.

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