Conversational Systems (CSys) represent practical and tangible outcomes of advances in NLP and AI. CSys see continuous improvements through unsupervised training of large language models (LLMs) on a humongous amount of generic training data. However, when these CSys are suggested for use in domains like Mental Health, they fail to match the acceptable standards of clinical care, such as the clinical process in Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The talk will present, Knowledge-infused Learning (KiL), a paradigm within NeuroSymbolic AI that focuses on making machine/deep learning models (i) learn over knowledge-enriched data, (ii) learn to follow guidelines in process-oriented tasks for safe and reasonable generation, and (iii) learn to leverage multiple contexts and stratified knowledge to yield user-level explanations. KiL established Knowledge-Intensive Language Understanding, a set of tasks for assessing safety, explainability, and conceptual flow in CSys.

Manas Gaur is an assistant professor in the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering department at UMBC. Before UMBC, he held the position of Senior AI Research Scientist with the Knowledge and Dialog team within the AI Center at Samsung Research America. He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Artificial Intelligence Institute at The University of South Carolina. His Ph.D. research was supported by Eric and Wendy Schmidt Data Science for Social Good Fellowship, AI For Social Good Fellowship from Dataminr Inc., EPSRC-UKRI grant through Alan Turing Institute, and NSF-EAGER on Knowledge-infused Learning. His most noted work on Knowledge-infused Learning parallels Neuro-symbolic AI in mental health. His research focuses on knowledge graphs, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and conversational systems for social good applications.

Access GBM slides here! 

UMBC graduate students in CMSC-641 Algorithms actively engage in learning quantum algorithms in the two-week unit.

A set of six videos now available on YouTube are the cornerstone of a two-week unit that introduces quantum algorithms in UMBC's core graduate course CMSC-641 Design and Analysis of Algorithms. The project was developed by Professor Alan T. Sherman and his colleagues, including Professors Sam Lomonaco (computer science) and Linda Oliva (education), with support from the Hrabowski innovation Fund and College of Engineering and Information Technology. Additional members of the team include graduate students Marc Laczin and Siddharth Chandrasekaran, and Dr. Omar Shehab (IBM), a former Ph.D. student of Dr. Lomonaco.

Quantum algorithms running on quantum computers offer the potential to solve complex problems with dramatically reduced execution time and energy consumption. For example, Shor's quantum algorithm for factoring integers runs in polynomial time, faster than any known algorithm for classical computers and offers future potential to break the widely-used RSA cryptosystem. Whereas classical computers use discrete 1s and 0s to perform calculations, quantum computers use Q-bits, which involve complex numbers and can simultaneously be 0 or 1. Based on quantum physics, quantum computers operate in a strange universe that includes the curious and potentially useful effects of superposition and entanglement. In pursuit of transformative potential advantages, government and private industry are investing significantly in quantum computer technologies. All computer science students need to know about these vital emerging technologies.

Read more about this in this UMBC news story about the project. 

Be a part of UMBC's biggest undergraduate research event of the year! 

On URCAD, our undergraduates will share their research, or their creative achievement in the form of a poster or oral presentation.  

Questions? aprilh@umbc.edu

To help bridge this gap, Off-Campus Student Services is holding an organization fair on Wednesday, March 15th to bring student organizations together and give off-campus students an opportunity to meet and learn about your organizations. 

Our community is open to all students, regardless of experience level or major. Come connect with other coding enthusiasts and discover potential opportunities in the tech industry. 

Join our Just Coding community this Friday, 2/17/2023, from 11 AM to 12 PM at The Common 327! 

We hope to see you there!

What in the World - Join OCSS and i3b as we come together to discuss some of the current events happening in the world. 

The Library Online 101 - Learn how to use one search, access documents, make reservations, request Inter-library loans, chat with a librarian, and more all from the comfort of your computer. 

You don't have to be on campus to take advantage of all the resources that the library has to offer

Good Morning Commuters - hosted at True Grits this week!

                  

Christopher Slaughter ’23, M31 computer engineering, has won a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue graduate work at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom next fall. Slaughter is the fifth student from UMBC to be recognized with the prestigious award, established by the University of Cambridge in 2000 with a donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Read the full story here:

Interested in prestigious scholarships? Email: aprilh@umbc.edu

Have you ever wasted time circling around a parking lot looking for a spot on campus? UMBC Parking Services is excited to introduce Perch Parking. Perch Parking was created by UMBC alumni, who understand the challenges of finding parking on campus during peak times. 

Perch Parking, currently utilized in Lot 3,is a cutting-edge parking detection system that uses AI and cameras to provide real-time information on available parking spots. The innovative system uses cameras mounted on strategic light poles to monitor the parking lot, allowing the AI to update a 3D map in real-time. All you need to do is download the Perch Parking app from the Apple App Store (Android version coming soon) and you'll have a miniature live model of the parking lot in the palm of your hand.

This service is still in its early stages. By participating in the open beta, you can help to fine-tune the app. This also could lead to the expansion of the system into more lots on campus.

Join us today in the open beta testing of the Perch Parking app. Your feedback will be invaluable in our quest to help make the parking experience at UMBC a smoother one.