Wed 29 Oct 13:30: Title tbc
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Benjamin Bedert (University of Cambridge)
- Wednesday 29 October 2025, 13:30-14:30
- Venue: MR4, CMS.
- Series: Discrete Analysis Seminar; organiser: Julia Wolf.
Wed 22 Oct 13:30: Title tbc
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Marcelo Campos (IMPA)
- Wednesday 22 October 2025, 13:30-14:30
- Venue: MR4, CMS.
- Series: Discrete Analysis Seminar; organiser: Julia Wolf.
Wed 05 Nov 13:30: Title tbc
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Ewan Cassidy (University of Cambridge)
- Wednesday 05 November 2025, 13:30-14:30
- Venue: MR4, CMS.
- Series: Discrete Analysis Seminar; organiser: Julia Wolf.
Tue 11 Nov 14:00: Title tbc Note: This talk will unusually take place on a Tuesday.
Abstract not available
Note: This talk will unusually take place on a Tuesday.
- Speaker: Mehtaab Sawhney (Columbia University)
- Tuesday 11 November 2025, 14:00-15:30
- Venue: MR4, CMS.
- Series: Discrete Analysis Seminar; organiser: Julia Wolf.
Fri 10 Oct 12:00: NLIP 2025 Social: Meet New PhD Students
Introductory Presentations from new PhD students and Research Assistants in the NLIP Group:
New PhD Students
Bianca-Mihaela Ganescu (supervised by Prof Paula Buttery)
Filip Trhlik (supervised by Prof Paula Buttery)
Yizhou Chi (supervised by Prof Andreas Vlachos)
Przemyslaw Kubiak (supervised by Dr Fermin Moscoso del Prado Martin)
Research Assistants
Laura Barbanel
Lily Goulder
Aoife O’Driscoll
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Friday 10 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.
Tue 11 Nov 13:15: From Data to Models to Understanding: Evaluating Neural Latents and Finding Decision Boundaries in Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs)
Advances in machine learning have unlocked access to increasingly rich computational models of cognition and its underlying neural dynamics. This richness brings with it several challenges of different kinds. I will discuss two specific challenges and ways to address them. Model evaluation: ensuring that models fit to neural data align with the true underlying dynamics, to which we do not have direct access. I will show how the model’s few-shot generalisation – its ability to predict held-out parts of the data from a few examples – helps quantify this match. This approach selects models that capture the full richness of the data without ‘inventing’ extraneous features. Model analysis: many dynamical models exhibit multistability, marked by decision boundaries (separatrices) in their state space, which are hard to locate—especially in high dimensions. We introduce a Koopman‐theory‐driven neural network that learns a scalar function vanishing on the separatrix, and demonstrate its use on simple systems and RNNs to design optimal perturbations for crossing these boundaries and to make predictions for the outcome of optogenetic stimulations.
- Speaker: Kabir Dabholkar, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
- Tuesday 11 November 2025, 13:15-12:45
- Venue: CBL Seminar Room, Engineering Department, 4th floor Baker building.
- Series: Computational Neuroscience; organiser: .
Fri 07 Nov 16:00: Large-scale drivers and spatial variability of extreme sea level on the European Shelf
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Lisanne Blok
- Friday 07 November 2025, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Tea Room, Old House.
- Series: Bullard Laboratories Tea Time Talks; organiser: David Al-Attar.
Fri 17 Oct 12:00: Making and breaking tokenizers
Despite massive investments in training large language models, tokenizers remain a critical but often neglected component with weaknesses that can cause wild hallucinations, bypass safety guardrails, and break downstream applications. This talk will cover:
Our recent research in automatically detecting problematic ‘glitch’ tokens in any model
Fundamental issues with pretokenizers and their design
Novel approaches to encodings and pretokenization that address some of these problems.
Speaker Bio Sander Land is a researcher at Writer, previously working at Cohere. He completed his PhD at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, before undertaking a postdoc at Biomedical Engineering, King’s College London, University of London.
- Speaker: Sander Land (Writer)
- Friday 17 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 03 Oct 12:00: NLIP 2025 Social: Meet New PhD Students
Introductory Presentations from new PhD students and Research Assistants in the NLIP Group:
New PhD Students
Bianca-Mihaela Ganescu (supervised by Prof Paula Buttery)
Filip Trhlik (supervised by Prof Paula Buttery)
Yizhou Chi (supervised by Prof Andreas Vlachos)
Przemyslaw Kubiak (supervised by Dr Fermin Moscoso del Prado Martin)
Research Assistants
Laura Barbanel
Lily Goulder
Aoife O’Driscoll
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Friday 03 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.
Thu 30 Oct 15:30: The Board of Longitude: Science, Innovation and Empire – book launch event
Simon Schaffer (University of Cambridge), Richard Dunn (Science Museum, London), Alexi Baker (Yale Peabody Museum), Rebekah Higgitt (National Museums Scotland), Sophie Waring (Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, London)
The Board of Longitude was one of Georgian Britain’s most important scientific institutions. The Board developed in the eighteenth century after legislation that offered major rewards for methods to determine longitude at sea: the enterprise came to support the work of navigators, instrument-makers, clockmakers and surveyors, as well as a host of other artisans and schemers. Its activities also included computation and publication of the Nautical Almanac and establishment of the astronomical observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. This new book, published by Cambridge University Press, uses the rich archives of the Board, now available online, to shed new light on colonial and exploratory projects in the Pacific and the Arctic, as well as tracing the projects of practitioners often lost to history. A round-table discussion involves the authors of the book and offers the opportunity for discussion of the significance of these histories during a period of major industrial, imperial and technological development.
- Speaker: Various speakers
- Thursday 30 October 2025, 15:30-17:00
- Venue: Hopkinson Lecture Theatre, New Museums Site.
- Series: Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science; organiser: Ahmad Elabbar.
Thu 06 Nov 15:30: When is measurement good? Evidence, validity, and values
The quality of a measurement procedure may be evaluated, among other criteria, by (i) the quality of knowledge it produces about the measurand, (ii) the relevance of its results for guiding human decision making and action, and (iii) the desirability of its impacts on individuals, society, and nature. These criteria are compatible in principle, but their application involves conflicting commitments regarding the aims and methods of measurement. I call these distinct sets of commitments ‘modes of measurement quality evaluation’, and show that value trade-offs are insufficient to reconcile them. I illustrate these claims using examples from the contemporary measurement of time and mental health.
- Speaker: Eran Tal (McGill University)
- Thursday 06 November 2025, 15:30-17:00
- Venue: Hopkinson Lecture Theatre, New Museums Site.
- Series: Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science; organiser: Ahmad Elabbar.
Thu 13 Nov 15:30: Reservoirs of venereal diseases: women and medico-moral discourses in Idi Amin's Uganda
For many Ugandans, Idi Amin’s rule is an unfinished chapter that continues to shape political discourse about the way the state relates to its citizens. Despite being one of the most documented figures in history, sensationalized media portrayals and limited archival sources have obscured many facets of his rule. Scholarship has often focused on high-profile events like the expulsion of Asians but like many authoritarian leaders, Amin was deeply invested in imposing moral order, enacting a series of decrees between 1971 and 1977 which aimed to reform the behavior of Ugandans. This ‘anti-immorality’ campaign led to the arrest, imprisonment, and forced treatment of many Ugandans, predominantly women. The campaign garnered support from unexpected places, including medical professionals, religious leaders, and ordinary citizens. In this talk, I examine the anti-venereal disease decree, which Amin enacted in 1977 to address what he and medics believed was a venereal disease epidemic caused by immorality. I examine the campaign against venereal diseases as a political, medico-moral, and epidemiological project, socially constructed, but with real consequences for women. This campaign found support among medical and public health officials whose agendas intersected with moral reform efforts, framing venereal diseases through a gendered moral lens, echoing colonial precedents.
- Speaker: Doreen Kembabazi (Adyeeri) (University of Warwick)
- Thursday 13 November 2025, 15:30-17:00
- Venue: Hopkinson Lecture Theatre, New Museums Site.
- Series: Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science; organiser: Ahmad Elabbar.
Thu 20 Nov 15:30: Institutionalizing values and science: the strengths of standardization in troubled times
There has been increasing interest in the ‘values and science’ literature on the ways that organizations and institutions mediate and promote the influences of values in scientific research. The present paper builds on this recent focus by exploring the value-laden nature of the standards (e.g., rules, norms, guidelines) used to guide research. The paper examines previous scholarship on the epistemic and ethical benefits and disadvantages associated with standardization, thereby highlighting the importance of analyzing the conditions under which specific kinds of standardization are most likely to be justifiable. It argues that the benefits of standardization are particularly salient during ‘troubled times’ like the present, when there are significant political and economic forces promoting the manipulation of science for desired ends. Finally, drawing on examples from the field of toxicology, the paper suggests a set of principles for pursuing standardization in ways that take advantage of its epistemic and ethical benefits while lessening its weaknesses.
- Speaker: Kevin C. Elliott (Michigan State University)
- Thursday 20 November 2025, 15:30-17:00
- Venue: Hopkinson Lecture Theatre, New Museums Site.
- Series: Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science; organiser: Ahmad Elabbar.
Fri 28 Nov 13:00: (TBC)
(TBC)
- Speaker: Richard Dyer (DAMTP, IoA)
- Friday 28 November 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Potter Room / Zoom .
- Series: DAMTP Friday GR Seminar; organiser: Daniela Cors.
Fri 28 Nov 13:00: (TBC)
(TBC)
- Speaker: Richard Dyer (DAMTP, IoA)
- Friday 28 November 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Potter Room / Zoom .
- Series: DAMTP Friday GR Seminar; organiser: Daniela Cors.
Fri 21 Nov 13:00: (TBC)
(TBC)
- Speaker: Aidan McSharry (DAMTP).
- Friday 21 November 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Potter Room / Zoom .
- Series: DAMTP Friday GR Seminar; organiser: Daniela Cors.
Fri 14 Nov 13:00: (TBC)
(TBC)
- Speaker: Gregorio Carullo (Birmingham University)
- Friday 14 November 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Potter Room / Zoom .
- Series: DAMTP Friday GR Seminar; organiser: Daniela Cors.
Fri 14 Nov 13:00: (TBC)
(TBC)
- Speaker: Gregorio Carullo (Birmingham University)
- Friday 14 November 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Potter Room / Zoom .
- Series: DAMTP Friday GR Seminar; organiser: Daniela Cors.
Fri 31 Oct 13:00: (TBC)
(TBC)
- Speaker: Francesco Di Filippo (Goethe University Frankfurt)
- Friday 31 October 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Potter Room / Zoom .
- Series: DAMTP Friday GR Seminar; organiser: Daniela Cors.
Fri 07 Nov 13:00: (TBC)
(TBC)
- Speaker: Lorenzo Gavassino (DAMTP)
- Friday 07 November 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Potter Room / Zoom .
- Series: DAMTP Friday GR Seminar; organiser: Daniela Cors.