Computer Science | Grinnell College

NOTE: This Tuesday we will meet in the CS Commons at noon. Please bring your own lunch; we'll try to have some drinks and snacks, too.

This week in CS Table, we will consider some applications of machine learning that show both potential benefit and great risks: The use of ML algorithms in decisions related to bail, sentencing, and parole. We have two readings:

• Simonite, Tom (2017). How to upgrade judges with machine learning. MIT Technology Review.
• Angwin, Julia, Larson, Jeff, Mattu Surya, and Kirchner, Lauren. Machine bias. Pro Publica.

On Thursday, September 6, John Stone will give a talk on adversarial examples, which are inputs to software applications for classification, assessment, or diagnosis that are specifically contrived to elicit incorrect or misleading results. Many applications based on neural networks configured by machine-learning algorithms have been found to be vulnerable to such examples. The talk will explain the nature of the vulnerability and explore possible explanations.

At 4:00 p.m., refreshments will be served in the Computer Science Commons. The talk, "Adversarial Examples; or, When Is a School Bus an Ostrich?" will begin at 4:15 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

On February 28, 2017, we’ll be looking at applications of machine learning to judge people by their faces. Faces have the potential to convey much information about a person’s emotion and intent, but extracting that information from a face alone is a difficult task (and arguably impossible or impractical depending on which side of the research you fall on). Computers equipped with machine learning and computer vision algorithms have the capacity to perform these sorts of analyses on faces. What is possible with this sort of technology? Are there any ethical ramifications to consider?

• Malcom Gladwell. Blink (Excerpt: The Mysteries of Mind Reading).
• Emerging Technology from the arXiv. Machine-Vision Algorithm Learns to Judge People by Their Faces. November 1, 2016.
• Emerging Technology from the arXiv. Neural Network Learns to Identify Criminals by Their Faces. November 22, 2016.

Paper copies of the readings are available outside Prof. Curtsinger's office. Computer science table (CS Table) is a weekly meeting of Grinnell College community members (students, faculty, staff, etc.) interested in discussing topics related to computing and computer science. CS Table meets Tuesdays from 12:00-1:00pm in JRC 224B. Contact the CS faculty for the weekly reading. Students on meal plans, faculty, and staff are expected to cover the cost of their meals. Visitors to the College and students not on meal plans can charge their meals to the department.

On Thursday, October 29, Shitanshu Aggarwal 2011 and Jay Lidaka 2010 will present their summer research work, carred out under the direction of Professor Jerod Weinman.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, Parallel training: speeding up machine learning using graphical processing units, will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821.

On Thursday, September 10, Jerod Weinman of the Department of Computer Science will present the first talk in this year's Thursday Extras series, entitled Efficient machine learning for computer vision-based depth perception.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821.