Fri 19 Sep 14:00: Human-AI Ecosystems for Daily Health and Well-being https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/89844574369?pwd=q4l4ooZPFBPzRIA5ptH0DjJMt14WzK.1
As the intelligence of everyday smart devices continues to evolve, they can already monitor basic health behaviors such as physical activities and heart rates. The vision of an intelligent health monitoring and intervention pipeline seems to be within reach. How do we get there? In this talk, I will introduce a comprehensive pipeline that connects AI, end-users, and health experts. For end-users, I will introduce our work that bridges behavior science theory-driven intervention designs and generalizable behavior models. I will also introduce my efforts on passive sensing datasets, human-centered algorithms & large language models (LLMs), as well as a benchmark platform that drives the community toward more robust and deployable health systems for both end-users and experts.
Biography: Dr. Xuhai “Orson” Xu is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Informatics and a Visiting Faculty at Google, where he leads research at the crossroads of human-computer interaction, applied AI, and health. His work develops deployable AI algorithms and intelligent interventions that harness everyday sensor data and health records to monitor and improve well-being, while his human-centered pipeline unites AI, clinicians, patients, and the broader community in a collaborative ecosystem for improved care. Dr. Xu’s work has been recognized through numerous awards and widespread media coverage for its groundbreaking contributions to digital health and human-computer interaction, including several Best Paper and Best Artifact awards at top-tier venues such as ACM CHI and IMWUT , the Innovation and Technology Award, and media posts such as the Washington Post, Scientific American, and ACM News.
https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/89844574369?pwd=q4l4ooZPFBPzRIA5ptH0DjJMt14WzK.1
- Speaker: Xuhai “Orson” Xu, Columbia University
- Friday 19 September 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Computer Lab, LT2 and Online.
- Series: Mobile and Wearable Health Seminar Series; organiser: Cecilia Mascolo.
Wed 15 Oct 17:00: The 5th Annual Cambridge Autism Research Lecture: Presented by John Harris
Tickets and further information can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-5th-annual-cambridge-autism-research-lecture-presented-by-john-harris-tickets-1644588982919?aff=oddtdtcreator&msockid=14a742a0f6796bb717945665f7b26abd
The Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, will be welcoming John Harris for a special talk about his recent book, Maybe I’m Amazed: A Story of Love and Connection in Ten Songs. In this memoir, John shares the deeply personal journey of how music opened up new worlds to his autistic son, one song at a time.
John is a distinguished journalist, critic, and author, best known for his regular column in The Guardian, where he writes on politics, culture, and music.
His writing has also appeared in a wide range of other publications, including Rolling Stone, Mojo, Q, The Independent, New Statesman, and The Times. John has authored several influential books and his work is widely respected for its deep empathy, nuanced critique, and ability to connect cultural phenomena with broader social and political trends.
The Annual Cambridge Autism Research Lecture is a seminar series that brings together leading voices in autism research alongside autistic people and parents sharing their lived experiences. Past speakers have included Judy Singer, Prof. Jason Arday, Prof. Holden Thorp, and Daniel Tammet.
This event is free and open to all. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Book your ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-5th-annual-cambridge-autism-research-lecture-presented-by-john-harris-tickets-1644588982919?aff=oddtdtcreator&msockid=14a742a0f6796bb717945665f7b26abd
- Speaker: John Harris, journalist, critic, and author
- Wednesday 15 October 2025, 17:00-18:30
- Venue: Winstanley Lecture Theatre - Trinity College, Trinity Street, Cambridge, CB2 1TQ.
- Series: ARClub Talks; organiser: Simon Braschi.
Wed 15 Oct 14:30: Linnett Lecture
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Professor Manos Mavrikakis
- Wednesday 15 October 2025, 14:30-15:30
- Venue: Unilever Lecture Theatre, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Theory - Chemistry Research Interest Group; organiser: Lisa Masters.
Wed 20 May 15:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Niamh O'Neill, University of Cambridge
- Wednesday 20 May 2026, 15:00-15:30
- Venue: Unilever Lecture Theatre, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Theory - Chemistry Research Interest Group; organiser: Lisa Masters.
Wed 20 May 14:30: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Pin Yu Chew, University of Cambridge
- Wednesday 20 May 2026, 14:30-15:00
- Venue: Unilever Lecture Theatre, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Theory - Chemistry Research Interest Group; organiser: Lisa Masters.
Tue 24 Feb 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Bjoern Eskofier, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
- Tuesday 24 February 2026, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Computer Lab, FW26 and Online.
- Series: Mobile and Wearable Health Seminar Series; organiser: Cecilia Mascolo.
Mon 13 Oct 16:15: Plasticity of the Parental Brain
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Jonny Kohl
- Monday 13 October 2025, 16:15-18:00
- Venue: Hodgkin-Huxley Seminar Room.
- Series: Adrian Seminars in Neuroscience; organiser: Professor Allan Herbison.
Thu 27 Nov 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Antimo Marrazzo (SISSA)
- Thursday 27 November 2025, 14:00-15:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 3, RDC.
- Series: Theory of Condensed Matter; organiser: Bo Peng.
Wed 17 Sep 12:45: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Fan Mo, University of Cambridge
- Wednesday 17 September 2025, 12:45-13:45
- Venue: Zoom (Meeting ID: 873 5011 9733, Passcode: 732177).
- Series: Foundation AI; organiser: Pietro Lio.
Wed 21 Jan 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Kasia Wyczesany, University of Leeds
- Wednesday 21 January 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: MR5, CMS Pavilion A.
- Series: Information Theory Seminar; organiser: Dr Varun Jog.
Mon 16 Mar 18:00: Evaluating scientific papers, and their authors, at the Royal Society of London, c.1780-1980
Refereeing is a form of peer review that is now familiar at many points in academic life: the opinions of referees are sought on articles submitted for publication, on grant proposals, and on tenure and promotion applications, among other things. But refereeing has not always been so central to academic reputations; nor has it always functioned the way it does now. This paper will drawing upon my team’s research in the archives of the Royal Society of London to explore how the practices of evaluating papers and their authors have changed over the last two centuries. The Royal Society was one of the first institutions to develop written refereeing processes, which have been used at its journal (the Philosophical Transactions) since the 1830s. The Society’s unrivalled archives include referee reports, correspondence and committee minutes that shed light on the way decisions were made, and by whom. The story told here must be set against the backdrop of the increasing professionalisation of academic life in the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which a list of published papers came to acquire great significance. The growth and changing social composition of the scientific community has also posed challenges for an evaluation practice that developed in the context of a closed, gentlemanly community.
- Speaker: Professor Aileen Fyfe FRSE, University of St Andrews
- Monday 16 March 2026, 18:00-19:00
- Venue: Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Cambridge Philosophical Society; organiser: Beverley Larner.
Mon 02 Mar 18:00: What is Digital Identity all about?
We have many forms of identity, whether socially constructed (kinship, personas, relationships), or issued via organisations (employers, banks, clubs, government). These identities can be partly stored as a digital twin (e.g. by recording biometric information plus some identifier/number, and then possibly linked to other information credentials or entitlements – e.g. citizenship, age, health, finance, educational records and so on).
These digital ecosystems can be designed to allow us to control (access to) such data, or they can be part of state and commercial surveillance. The trustworthiness of such ecosystems is highly questionable. I’ll walk through alternative designs and give examples of benefits and disadvantages, including threats (fake id, denial of service etc).
In this talk, I’ll also outline challenges, including future problems like the mutability of allegedly unique and persistent biometrics like iris or even DNA , and speculate about the possibility of reflecting social structures properly in designs to create more fair and resilient systems that might be more acceptable than many deployed or proposed today.
- Speaker: Professor Jon Crowcroft FRS. Computer Lab, at the University of Cambridge
- Monday 02 March 2026, 18:00-19:00
- Venue: Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Cambridge Philosophical Society; organiser: Beverley Larner.
Wed 15 Oct 14:00: Statistical Signal Processing for Quantum Error Mitigation
In the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era, quantum error mitigation (QEM) is essential for producing reliable outputs from quantum circuits. We present a statistical signal processing approach to QEM that estimates the most likely noiseless outputs from noisy quantum measurements. Our model assumes that circuit depth is sufficient for depolarizing noise, producing corrupted observations that resemble a uniform distribution alongside classical bit-flip errors from readout. Our method consists of two steps: a filtering stage that discards uninformative depolarizing noise and an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm that computes a maximum likelihood (ML) estimate over the remaining data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach on small-qubit systems using circuit simulations in Qiskit and IBM quantum processing unit (QPU) data, and compare its performance to contemporary statistical QEM techniques. We also show that our method scales to larger qubit counts using synthetically generated data consistent with our noise model. These results suggest that principled statistical methods can offer scalable and interpretable solutions for quantum error mitigation in realistic NISQ settings. Finally, while this talk solves a problem that appears on quantum computers, the solution technique does not require a quantum background. People who work in information theory, signal processing, and machine learning should be able to follow and appreciate the topic.
- Speaker: Prof. Dror Baron, North Carolina State University
- Wednesday 15 October 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: MR5, CMS Pavilion A.
- Series: Information Theory Seminar; organiser: Prof. Ramji Venkataramanan.
Thu 05 Mar 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dimitris Spathis, Google
- Thursday 05 March 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Computer Lab, LT2 and Online.
- Series: Mobile and Wearable Health Seminar Series; organiser: Cecilia Mascolo.
Tue 21 Oct 16:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Justin Chan, CMU
- Tuesday 21 October 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Online.
- Series: Mobile and Wearable Health Seminar Series; organiser: Cecilia Mascolo.
Tue 11 Nov 14:00: Title tbc Note: This talk will unusually take place on a Monday.
Abstract not available
Note: This talk will unusually take place on a Monday.
- Speaker: Mehtaab Sawhney (Columbia University)
- Tuesday 11 November 2025, 14:00-15:30
- Venue: MR4, CMS.
- Series: Discrete Analysis Seminar; organiser: Julia Wolf.
Thu 05 Mar 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Dimitris Spathis, Google
- Thursday 05 March 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: LT2.
- Series: Mobile and Wearable Health Seminar Series; organiser: Cecilia Mascolo.
Tue 10 Mar 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Ian Tang, Meta
- Tuesday 10 March 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: LT2.
- Series: Mobile and Wearable Health Seminar Series; organiser: Cecilia Mascolo.
Fri 24 Oct 12:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Christos Christodoulopoulos
- Friday 24 October 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Hybrid (In-Person + Online). Here is the Zoom link: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/4751389294?pwd=Z2ZOSDk0eG1wZldVWG1GVVhrTzFIZz09.
- Series: NLIP Seminar Series; organiser: Suchir Salhan.
Fri 05 Dec 12:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Aaron Mueller (Boston University)
- Friday 05 December 2025, 12:00-13:00
- Venue: Hybrid (In-Person + Online). Here is the Zoom link: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/4751389294?pwd=Z2ZOSDk0eG1wZldVWG1GVVhrTzFIZz09.
- Series: NLIP Seminar Series; organiser: Suchir Salhan.