#AcademicRunPlaylist - 10/19/24

Another day, another mushroom discovery - this time hen of the woods! Accompanying the fall outing was a number of talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an intriguing talk by Simran Arora on approaches for understanding transformer models and designing more efficient model classes at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmuZ3ckl8rs

Next was a great talk by Ella Qiawen Liu on how people associate cross-domain word/concept mappings (and of course how LLMs can also simulate those mappings) at the Santa Fe Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkiCE8rBi9k

Next was a thought-provoking talk by Albert Gu on the tradeoffs between state space models and transformers at the Simons Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksRp_DIHWj4

Next was an interesting talk by Mark Churchland on understanding neural computations by bridging neural spiking and neural factor abstractions at the Kempner Institute at Harvard University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFkwFTI8RnQ

Next was a compelling talk by Bingbin Liu on theoretically and empirically investigating the capabilities and limitations of transformers in sequential reasoning (tldr; they can't reliably do it) at the Simons Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMUsZ0OqYCA

Last was "The Scientist in the Crib" by Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff, and Patricia Kuhl. This is an accessible introduction to developmental psychology for the uninitiated, with a good review of much of the important research in the field. This is very much a general audience book (and it's 25 years old), however, so if you're looking for a more academically focused volume there are better sources out there https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-scientist-in-the-crib-alison-gopnikandrew-n-meltzoffpatricia-k-kuhl?variant=32207398207522