Inside Our ProgramProgram Events
Events
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Jan15
EVENT DETAILS
lessWednesday / CS Seminar
January 15th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
Sainyam Galhotra, Cornell UniversityTalk Title
Context-aware Responsible Data ScienceAbstract
"Data-based systems are increasingly used in applications that have far-reaching consequences and long-lasting societal impact. However, the development process remains highly specialized, tedious, and unscalable. This produces a manually fine-tuned rigid solution that works only for one specific problem in one specific context. The system fails to adapt to the changing world and severely limits the full utilization of valuable data.So, how can you avert this fate for your systems?
In this talk, I present my vision of context-aware systems that enable even non-expert users to develop correct, explainable, and equitable data-science pipelines. To achieve this, I will focus on i) re-thinking the design of data science pipelines, and ii) the importance of causal inference for trustworthy data analysis. I will present a data discovery framework that automatically identifies useful data on behalf of end-users for various tasks. Lastly, I will discuss my proposal of leveraging counterfactual reasoning and causal inference to quantify the impact of an input on the outcome. These topics are the pieces of the puzzle that come together to create the Data Scientists' holy grail - an easily deployable, scalable, and robust system that you can trust even as everything around it evolves."
Biography
Sainyam Galhotra is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Cornell University and a field member for Computer Science, Statistics and Data Science. Previously, he was a Computing Innovation Fellow pursuing postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst under the supervision of Prof. Barna Saha (currently at UC San Diego). The goal of his research is to lay the foundation of responsible data science, that enable efficient development and deployment of trustworthy data analytics applications. His research has combined techniques from Data Management, Probabilistic Methods, Causal Inference, Machine Learning, and Software Engineering. His research has been published in top-tier Data Management (SIGMOD, VLDB, PODS, & ICDE), AI (NeurIPS, AAAI & AIES) and Software Engineering (FSE) conferences. He is a recipient of the Best Paper Award in FSE 2017 and Most Reproducible Paper Award in both SIGMOD 2017 and 2018, and Best Artifact Paper Honorable Mention Award in SIGMOD 2023. He was recognized as a Data Science rising star, a DAAD AInet Fellow, and as the first recipient of the Krithi Ramamritham Award at UMass for contribution to database research.Research/Interest Areas
Data Management
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Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/92345079181?pwd=4K3AzzUtPHxoMnaB97EZqRXJ5s4vva.1
Panopto: https://northwestern.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=07420843-9285-40df-81c0-b26001574825
DEI Minute: Diversity tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Jan16
EVENT DETAILS
lessThursday / CS/ME Seminar
January 16th / 3:00 PM
Hybrid / Ford ITWSpeaker
Baxi Chong, Georgia TechTalk Title
Embodied Intelligence in Highly-capable Mesoscale RobotsAbstract
Mesoscale robots (1-10 cm in height, 0.01-2 kg in weight) offer unique advantages over their macro and micro counterparts, particularly their ability to navigate confined spaces while maintaining high mobility. Despite their potential, mesoscale robotics remains an underexplored area of research. In the first part of my talk, I will outline the challenges associated with mesoscale locomotion, such as terrain uncertainty and complex dynamics. To address these challenges, I will introduce the paradigms I developed in my prior work to study embodied intelligence (EI) at the mesoscale. Specifically, I will discuss how mechanical intelligence (MI) emerges from passive dynamics in reptile- and centipede-like robots, enabling novel capabilities such as guaranteed robustness, sand-swimming, and obstacle-aided locomotion. I will also present my research vision to integrate computational intelligence with MI, inspired by theories and algorithms from signal transmission, to further advance EI in mesoscale robots. In the second part of my talk, I will explore a co-design problem: how variations in morphology can enhance MI for specialized tasks such as burrowing, load-carrying, and climbing. Using tools from geometric mechanics, I will demonstrate how these insights can inform robot design. I will conclude by discussing the broader implications of mesoscale robotics, including advancing our understanding of evolutionary biology and enabling modular, reconfigurable robot systems for diverse real-world applications.Biography
Dr. Baxi Chong is a postdoctoral fellow at the CRAB (Complex Rheology And Biomechanics) Lab in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on locomotion with mechanical intelligence. Specifically, Dr. Chong studies a diversity of unconventional (e.g., multi-legged, elongated, or cable-driven) robots, and how/why their special body plans can introduce benefits to locomotion in specific environments. Dr. Chong contributed to over 10 research articles on high-impact journals such as Science, Science Robotics, PNAS, and IJRR. His scientific work has been featured in several media outlets, including BBC, Physics World, Forbes, and Nature Research Highlight. Besides the contribution to science, Dr. Chong’s research laid the theoretical foundation for a start-up company (Ground Control Robotics, Ltd) where he currently serves as the leader in the robophysics research team. Dr. Chong has been recently recognized by the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for his contribution in fundamental science and industry.Research/Interest Areas
Robotics, biomechanics, geometric mechanics
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Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/94754754723?pwd=arUzeYm97ASgmPDuNl8FMbWoaXfcSc.1
Panopto: https://northwestern.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=1aecbb8a-d8b7-4ba6-9983-b261012d3cac
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Thursday, January 16, 2025 at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
LOCATION ITW, Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Jan22
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Jan22
EVENT DETAILSmore info
lessWant to join the decision-makers? Register for Northwestern University's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) Program Information Session and learn how you can enhance your knowledge of IT and gain the business management skills you need to direct effective IT strategy.
TIME Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
CONTACT Svetlana Korzeniowski msit@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR MS in Information Technology (MSIT) Program
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Jan24
EVENT DETAILS
lessFriday / CS Seminar
January 24th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
Meena Jagadeesan, UC BerkeleyTalk Title
Steering Machine Learning Ecosystems of Interacting AgentsAbstract
"Modern machine learning models—such as LLMs and recommender systems—interact with humans, companies, and other models in a broader ecosystem. However, these multi-agent interactions often induce unintended ecosystem-level outcomes such as clickbait in classical content recommendation ecosystems, and more recently, safety violations and market concentration in nascent LLM ecosystems.
In this talk, I discuss my research on characterizing and steering ecosystem-level outcomes. I take an economic and statistical perspective on ML ecosystems, tracing outcomes back to the incentives of interacting agents and to the ML pipeline for training models. First, in LLM ecosystems, we show how analyzing a single model in isolation fails to capture ecosystem-level performance trends: for example, training a model with more resources can counterintuitively hurt ecosystem-level performance. To help steer ecosystem-level outcomes, we develop technical tools to assess how proposed policy interventions affect market entry, safety compliance, and user welfare. Then, turning to content recommendation ecosystems, we characterize a feedback loop between the recommender system and content creators, which shapes the diversity and quality of the content supply. Finally, I present a broader vision of ML ecosystems where multi-agent interactions are steered towards the desired algorithmic, market, and societal outcomes."
Biography
Meena Jagadeesan is a 5th year PhD student in Computer Science at UC Berkeley, where she is advised by Michael I. Jordan and Jacob Steinhardt. Her research investigates multi-agent interactions in machine learning ecosystems from an economic and statistical perspective. She has received an Open Philanthropy AI Fellowship and a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship.Research/Interest Areas
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Economics and Computation
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Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/92665903240?pwd=YGOjSzB0Pxk4oDvRsVBbA0auFIvH0p.1
Panopto: https://northwestern.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=408ccd84-8bf4-409a-b995-b261015654c8
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Friday, January 24, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Jan27
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Monday, January 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Jan29
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, January 29, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Jan30
EVENT DETAILS
lessTBA
TIME Thursday, January 30, 2025 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Jan31
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Friday, January 31, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb3
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Monday, February 3, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb5
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb7
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Friday, February 7, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb10
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Monday, February 10, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb12
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb14
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Friday, February 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb17
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Monday, February 17, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb19
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb21
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Friday, February 21, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb24
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Monday, February 24, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb26
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Feb28
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Friday, February 28, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Mar3
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Monday, March 3, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Mar5
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
---
Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, March 5, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Mar7
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Friday, March 7, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Mar10
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Monday, March 10, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Mar12
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
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Mar14
EVENT DETAILS
lessMonday / CS Seminar
January 13th / 12:00 PM
Hybrid / Mudd 3514Speaker
TBATalk Title
TBAAbstract
TBABiography
TBAResearch/Interest Areas
TBA
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Zoom: TBA
Panopto: TBA
DEI Minute: tinyurl.com/cspac-dei-minuteTIME Friday, March 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library) map it
CONTACT Wynante R Charles wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)
