{"count":205,"next":"https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/events/?format=json&limit=10&offset=110&ordering=-event__category","previous":"https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/events/?format=json&limit=10&offset=90&ordering=-event__category","results":[{"id":66914,"title":"Master's Graduation","slug":"master-s-graduation","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/master-s-graduation","visual_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28620/200x112.jpg","visual_large_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28620/720x405.jpg","visual_maxsize_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28620/max-size.jpg","lang":"en","start_date":"2026-10-03","end_date":"2026-10-03","start_time":null,"end_time":null,"description":"","image_description":"","creation_date":"2024-09-13T09:51:37","last_modification_date":"2024-09-13T10:26:03","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"","url_place_and_room":"","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":[],"speaker":"","organizer":"<a href=\"http://architecture.epfl.ch\">EPFL Architecture</a>","contact":"<a href=\"mailto:architecture@epfl.ch\">EPFL Architecture</a>","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":1,"fr_label":"Tout public","en_label":"General public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/113402/","category":{"id":4,"code":"DIVERS","fr_label":"Autres types d’événement","en_label":"Miscellaneous","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/391/?format=json"]},{"id":66557,"title":"Student Welcome Day","slug":"student-welcome-day-3","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/student-welcome-day-3","visual_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28283/200x112.jpg","visual_large_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28283/720x405.jpg","visual_maxsize_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28283/max-size.jpg","lang":"en","start_date":"2026-08-28","end_date":"2026-08-28","start_time":null,"end_time":null,"description":"<strong>Student Welcome Day 2025</strong><br>\r\nProgramme 2026 available soon<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<strong>General Information</strong><br>\r\n<a href=\"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==STCC%207%208025\">Swiss Tech Convention Center - Auditorium C</a><br>\r\n14:00    Katrin Beyer, ENAC Faculty Dean<br>\r\n14:15    Sophie Delhay, Section Director<br>\r\n14:45    Diversity Office <br>\r\n<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<strong>Propedeutical Year Information (1st year)</strong><br>\r\n<a href=\"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==STCC%207%208025\">Swiss Tech Convention Center - Auditorium C</a><br>\r\n15:00    ALICE y1 (Professor Dieter Dietz)<br>\r\n15:30    Introducing the team (Laurent Chassot)<br>\r\n15:45    Agepoly (Association générale des étudiant·es de l’EPFL)<br>\r\n16:00    ASAR (Association des étudiant·es de la Section d'Architecture) <br>\r\n16:15   Coaching and moving towards the studios<br>\r\n16:30    Meeting in the studios<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<strong>Information Session for New Master Students,<br>\r\nExchange Students and Passerelle HES Students</strong><br>\r\n<a href=\"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==RLC%20E1%20240\">Room SG 0 211</a><br>\r\n15:30 - 16:30 Laure Kochnitzky Palluel, Section Deputy<br>\r\n16:30 - 16:45 Agepoly (Association générale des étudiant·es de l’EPFL)","image_description":"","creation_date":"2024-08-22T16:05:56","last_modification_date":"2026-02-11T11:50:09","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"","url_place_and_room":"","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":[],"speaker":"","organizer":"Section d'architecture","contact":"<a href=\"mailto:gesualdo.casciana@epfl.ch\">gesualdo.casciana@epfl.ch</a>","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":1,"fr_label":"Tout public","en_label":"General public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"futur·es étudiant·es, nouveaux·elles étudiant·es","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/113078/","category":{"id":4,"code":"DIVERS","fr_label":"Autres types d’événement","en_label":"Miscellaneous","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/391/?format=json"]},{"id":66556,"title":"Presentations Studios / UE","slug":"presentations-studios-ue","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/presentations-studios-ue","visual_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28282/200x112.jpg","visual_large_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28282/720x405.jpg","visual_maxsize_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/28282/max-size.jpg","lang":"en","start_date":"2026-08-31","end_date":"2026-08-31","start_time":"08:30:00","end_time":"18:30:00","description":"<p>This day is an opportunity for architecture students from the 2nd year Bachelor to the 2nd year Master to attend presentations of the studio and teaching unit programmes, to enable them to choose their options and finalise their enrolments.There will be no online replay and the event is not recorded. The presentation documents are available on the dedicated pages:<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<a href=\"https://go.epfl.ch/sar-website-studios-fr\">Design studios and teaching units</a>  ↗︎<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<a href=\"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/inscriptions-automne-ateliers-ue/\">Registration dates</a>  ↗︎</p>","image_description":"","creation_date":"2025-02-27T11:12:12","last_modification_date":"2026-02-09T14:21:39","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"","url_place_and_room":"","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/spoken_languages/1/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/spoken_languages/2/?format=json"],"speaker":"","organizer":"Section d'architecture","contact":"<a href=\"mailto:laure.palluel@epfl.ch?subject=Ateliers%20%26%20UE\">laure.palluel@epfl.ch</a>","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":2,"fr_label":"Public averti","en_label":"Informed public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"ateliers, UE","file":"https://memento.epfl.ch/public/upload/files/PRESENTATIONSUEATELIERS252620250526.pdf","icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/115809/","category":{"id":4,"code":"DIVERS","fr_label":"Autres types d’événement","en_label":"Miscellaneous","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/391/?format=json"]},{"id":71939,"title":"Infinite sumsets in structured and random sets","slug":"infinite-sumsets-in-structured-and-random-sets","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/infinite-sumsets-in-structured-and-random-sets","visual_url":null,"visual_large_url":null,"visual_maxsize_url":null,"lang":"en","start_date":"2026-06-15","end_date":"2026-06-15","start_time":"14:00:00","end_time":"15:00:00","description":"<p>In combinatorics and ergodic theory, the decomposition into structured and random objects has been successfully exploited to prove density results and refinements. In both fields, nilsystems are the model for structured configurations. Recently, Kra, Moreira, Richter, and Roberson used dynamics in nilsystems to provide a density version of Hindman's theorem. In this talk, we delve into further sumset consequences for these two extreme cases and provide some examples of applications.</p>","image_description":"","creation_date":"2026-05-26T10:23:46","last_modification_date":"2026-05-26T10:25:57","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"CM 1 517","url_place_and_room":"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==CM%201%20517","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/spoken_languages/2/?format=json"],"speaker":"Tristán Rádić (Northwestern University)","organizer":"","contact":"Felipe Hernandez Castro","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Expert","en_label":"Expert"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/120849/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/7/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/427/?format=json"]},{"id":71937,"title":"IMX Talks - ﻿Integrating Organic Materials in Systems through AI and High-Throughput Processing","slug":"imx-talks-integrating-organic-materials-in-syste-2","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/imx-talks-integrating-organic-materials-in-syste-2","visual_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/33248/200x112.jpg","visual_large_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/33248/720x405.jpg","visual_maxsize_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/33248/max-size.jpg","lang":"en","start_date":"2026-06-01","end_date":"2026-06-01","start_time":"10:00:00","end_time":"11:00:00","description":"<p>Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) are foundational for next-generation wearable electronics due to their dual ionic and electronic transport. This talk explores breakthroughs in material design and architecture leveraging OMIECs for highly sensitive, low-power applications like organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). As an example, I will present the structure-property relationships enabling dual transport and introduce a side-chain engineering approach using perylene diimide trimers (hPDI). This transformation enhances both ionic and electronic conductivity, enabling stable, high-transconductance n-type OECTs.  Another example that will be discussed is conjugated polyelectrolytes, in particular PCPDTBTSO<sub>3</sub>-K, or commonly known as CPE-K. This conjugated polyelectrolyte exhibits two-way coupling of ionic and electronic conductivity, which allows for reversible electrochemical doping, enabling dual-mode transistors and high-performance solid-state supercapacitors. I will also demonstrate that OMIECs provide a promising platform for unconventional flexible substrates. Using wet-chemical processing, we can pattern active channels on flexible polyimide or low-cost PCB substrates for dense biosensing arrays. Finally, I will highlight a pathway toward \"green,\" self-powered wearable electronics combining molecular semiconductor advances with flexible processing techniques.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nBio: Dr. Nguyen Dang Tung is an Assistant Professor at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at VinUniversity and serves as the Director of Career Service and Industry for the College. Since joining the university in August 2023, he has led the Integrated Electronics group (https://www.intorlab.com.vn), which develops devices and manufacturing technologies using organic materials to address environmental and societal challenges. Currently, the group focuses on developing multifunctional fibers and organic electrochemical devices. Notably, the group established the first thermal drawing tower for research in Vietnam and is pioneering the use of AI for materials research. Prior to VinUniversity, Dr. Nguyen-Dang studied and worked at Ecole Polytechnique of Paris (B.A. and M.Sc. in Materials Science), EPFL (PhD, Materials Science), Saint-Gobain Company (Research Engineer) and UCSB (in CPOS). His major scientific contributions include a method for creating micro- and nano-patterns on fibers and textiles, a framework for the conservation of shape during the design of functional fibers (at EPFL), and the development of the first dual-mode organic transistors—realized 50 years after the invention of their inorganic counterparts (at UCSB). For his research, Dr. Nguyen-Dang has received E-MRS Student Award (France), SNSF Fellowship (Switzerland) and Otis Williams Fellowship (U.S.A.)<br>\r\n <br>\r\n<strong>VinUniversity</strong> (https://vinuni.edu.vn) is an English-medium, non-profit university located in Hanoi, Vietnam. Established by Vingroup, the largest conglomerate in Vietnam, VinUni aspires to become a world-class institution. VinUniversity has transitioned into a research-focused university, centered around three main research pillars: Planet, People, and Prosperity. <br>\r\n </p>","image_description":"","creation_date":"2026-05-26T08:26:47","last_modification_date":"2026-05-26T08:27:02","link_label":"Website","link_url":"https://vinuni.edu.vn/vi/people/ts-nguyen-dang-tung/","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"MXF 312","url_place_and_room":"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MXF%20312","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/spoken_languages/2/?format=json"],"speaker":"Prof. Nguyễn-Dang Tung, College of Engineering and Computer Science, VinUniversity, Hà Nội, Việt Nam.","organizer":"Prof. Fabien Sorin","contact":"Prof. Fabien Sorin","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":1,"fr_label":"Tout public","en_label":"General public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/120846/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/8/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/314/?format=json"]},{"id":71936,"title":"Understanding and Predicting the Membrane Permeability of Macrocyclic Peptides Based on Large-Scale Data","slug":"understanding-and-predicting-the-membrane-permeabi","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/understanding-and-predicting-the-membrane-permeabi","visual_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/33247/200x112.jpg","visual_large_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/33247/720x405.jpg","visual_maxsize_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/image/33247/max-size.jpg","lang":"en","start_date":"2026-09-15","end_date":"2026-09-15","start_time":"16:15:00","end_time":"17:15:00","description":"<p>Macrocyclic peptides are promising molecules for targeting intracellular protein–protein interactions and other challenging biological targets. However, their poor membrane permeability often limits their biological and therapeutic applications. Understanding the structural factors that govern passive membrane permeation is therefore essential for the rational design of cell-permeable macrocyclic peptides.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nIn this seminar, I will present our recent efforts to understand and predict the membrane permeability of macrocyclic peptides using large-scale experimental data, conformational analysis, and machine learning. We aim to clarify how conformational flexibility, including molecular chameleonicity, influences membrane permeability.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nI will also introduce our ongoing efforts toward DNA-encoded macrocyclic N-methyl peptide libraries as a future platform for discovering functional intracellular binders.</p>","image_description":"Prof. Shinsuke Sando","creation_date":"2026-05-22T16:51:02","last_modification_date":"2026-05-22T16:51:02","link_label":"Prof. Shinsuke Sando","link_url":"https://park.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sandolab/index_e.html","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"CH G1 495","url_place_and_room":"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==CH%20G1%20495","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/spoken_languages/2/?format=json"],"speaker":"Prof. Shinsuke Sando, University of Tokyo","organizer":"C. Heinis","contact":"C. Heinis","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Expert","en_label":"Expert"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"cbseminar","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/120844/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/9/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/14/?format=json"]},{"id":71933,"title":"Controlling and Guiding Generative Models for Three-Dimensional Shape Optimization","slug":"controlling-and-guiding-generative-models-for-thre","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/controlling-and-guiding-generative-models-for-thre","visual_url":null,"visual_large_url":null,"visual_maxsize_url":null,"lang":"en","start_date":"2026-07-07","end_date":"2026-07-07","start_time":"11:00:00","end_time":"13:00:00","description":"<u>EDIC candidacy exam</u><br>\r\nExam president: Prof. Martin Rajman<br>\r\nThesis advisor: Prof. Pascal Fua<br>\r\nCo-examiner: Prof. Mark Pauly<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<u>Abstract</u><br>\r\nOptimizing 3D shapes within the latent spaces of deep generative models is fundamental to computer assisted engineering, yet remains prone to a critical failure mode we term manifold drift: the tendency of gradient-based optimization to move latent vectors away from the manifold of valid shapes. This problem is exacerbated in state-of-the-art 3D shape generative models that operate in increasingly high-dimensional latent spaces where valid shapes occupy a vanishingly small fraction of the full space. Existing mitigation strategies, including latent regularization and flow-matching approaches, either sacrifice expressiveness, demand a difficult trade-off between objective guidance and generative fidelity that remains prone to manifold drift, or are computationally infeasible to scale to modern, large-capacity 3D shape models. We introduce a novel optimizer-corrector framework that alternates between gradient steps for objective minimization and guided flow matching to drive the latent state back to the valid shape manifold. By decoupling objective minimization from flow-based correction, optimizing freely and correcting strictly, this alternating design avoids inherent trade-offs, preserving geometric validity without sacrificing expressiveness while remaining computationally feasible on modern 3D shape models. We demonstrate its effectiveness across generative priors of varying complexity, from simple vector latent spaces to large-scale architectures across a variety of downstream optimization tasks, including aerodynamic drag reduction and object compliance optimization.<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<u>Selected papers</u><br>\r\n ","image_description":"","creation_date":"2026-05-22T13:14:54","last_modification_date":"2026-05-22T13:14:54","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"BC 333","url_place_and_room":"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20333","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":[],"speaker":"Emilien Seiler","organizer":"","contact":"edic@epfl.ch","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":1,"fr_label":"Tout public","en_label":"General public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"EDIC candidacy exam","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/120840/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/6/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/27/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/48/?format=json"]},{"id":71932,"title":"Failure-Aware LLM Serving for Agentic Workloads","slug":"failure-aware-llm-serving-for-agentic-workloads","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/failure-aware-llm-serving-for-agentic-workloads","visual_url":null,"visual_large_url":null,"visual_maxsize_url":null,"lang":"en","start_date":"2026-06-17","end_date":"2026-06-17","start_time":"09:00:00","end_time":"11:00:00","description":"<u>EDIC candidacy exam</u><br>\r\nExam president: Prof. Anastasia Ailamaki<br>\r\nThesis advisor: Prof. Anne-Marie Kermarrec<br>\r\nCo-examiner: Prof. Robert West<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<u>Abstract</u><br>\r\n<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<u>Selected papers</u>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>ReAct (<a href=\"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.03629\" target=\"_blank\">https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.03629</a>)</li>\r\n\t<li>Agentix (<a href=\"https://www.usenix.org/system/files/nsdi26-luo.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.usenix.org/system/files/nsdi26-luo.pdf</a>)</li>\r\n\t<li>Why do multi-agent systems fail? (<a href=\"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.13657\" target=\"_blank\">https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.13657</a>)</li>\r\n</ul>","image_description":"","creation_date":"2026-05-22T13:11:09","last_modification_date":"2026-05-22T13:12:05","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"BC 133","url_place_and_room":"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20133","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":[],"speaker":"Palak","organizer":"","contact":"edic@epfl.ch","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":1,"fr_label":"Tout public","en_label":"General public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"EDIC candidacy exam","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/120839/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/6/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/27/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/48/?format=json"]},{"id":71931,"title":"Access Bit Scanning for Page Replacement Policies","slug":"access-bit-scanning-for-page-replacement-policies","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/access-bit-scanning-for-page-replacement-policies","visual_url":null,"visual_large_url":null,"visual_maxsize_url":null,"lang":"en","start_date":"2026-06-22","end_date":"2026-06-22","start_time":"10:00:00","end_time":"12:00:00","description":"<u>EDIC candidacy exam</u><br>\r\nExam president: Prof. Thomas Bourgeat<br>\r\nThesis advisor: Prof. Babak Falsafi<br>\r\nCo-examiner: Prof. Sanidhya Kashyap<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<u>Abstract</u><br>\r\nModern workloads with memory footprints ranging from hundreds of gigabytes to several terabytes have become widespread over the last decade. With memory accounting for nearly 50% of server costs in modern data centres, provisioning large DRAM capacities significantly increases total cost of ownership (TCO). Tiered memory architectures combine memories with different capacities, latencies, and cost characteristics to improve cost efficiency while satisfying application performance requirements. Application performance in these architectures is highly sensitive to page placement decisions. Consequently, making informed placement decisions requires precise tracking of data access patterns and accurate identification of hot pages.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nExisting operating systems commonly rely on hardware-maintained access bits in page table entries to estimate memory access behaviour and identify hot data regions. They periodically scan the application's entire virtual address space to construct workload access profiles. However, linear scanning of page table access bits does not scale for modern applications with terabyte-scale memory footprints. Since scanning overhead scales with the memory footprint, a single full scan can take several seconds for workloads with large memory footprints. Reducing scanning frequency lowers monitoring overhead but also decreases profiling accuracy and responsiveness to changing access patterns, resulting in a fundamental tradeoff between profiling accuracy and monitoring overhead. Therefore, we need scalable, low-overhead mechanisms for access monitoring in next-generation memory management systems.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nIn this talk, I will discuss recent approaches to scalable memory access profiling in large-memory systems. Specifically, I will present works that use techniques such as adaptive sampling, region-based monitoring, and hierarchical profiling of page table trees to reduce and bound scanning overhead. <br>\r\n<br>\r\n<u>Selected papers</u><br>\r\ncoming soon","image_description":"","creation_date":"2026-05-22T13:08:29","last_modification_date":"2026-05-22T13:18:11","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"BC 010","url_place_and_room":"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20010","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":[],"speaker":"<br>\r\nArunkrishna Annai Madalam Sivasubramanian  ","organizer":"","contact":"edic@epfl.ch","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":1,"fr_label":"Tout public","en_label":"General public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"EDIC candidacy exam","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/120838/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/6/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/27/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/48/?format=json"]},{"id":71930,"title":"Generative models for black-box optimization of complex objectives","slug":"generative-models-for-black-box-optimization-of-co","event_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/generative-models-for-black-box-optimization-of-co","visual_url":null,"visual_large_url":null,"visual_maxsize_url":null,"lang":"en","start_date":"2026-07-09","end_date":"2026-07-09","start_time":"10:00:00","end_time":"12:00:00","description":"<u>EDIC candidacy exam</u><br>\r\nExam president: Prof. Nicolas Flammarion<br>\r\nThesis advisor: Prof. Pascal Fua<br>\r\nCo-examiner: Prof. Alexander Mathis<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<u>Abstract</u><br>\r\nMany high-impact problems in science and engineering reduce to optimizing a complex objective, where each evaluation is costly and often unreliable: physical experiments fail, simulators diverge, and stochastic systems return noisy feedback. Classical black-box optimizers struggle in this regime, where evaluation budgets are tight and the feasible region is hard to characterize a priori. Our work investigates how the statistical expressivity of modern generative samplers can be leveraged in black-box optimization. We propose that these samplers enable efficient navigation of feasible sets and optimization of geometrically complex objectives under limited, unreliable observations. <br>\r\n<br>\r\nTwo complementary lines of work have already been studied. The main one, SPARROW, demonstrated that a sampler-driven optimizer can substantially reduce the number of function calls needed to maximize complex and unreliable objectives. A parallel line established that samplers can be steered to satisfy hard constraints without sacrificing the statistical diversity of the generated samples. Because SPARROW imposes minimal assumptions on the underlying sampler, these constrained samplers can drive it directly, opening a path to constrained black-box optimization.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nBuilding on these results, two directions are planned. The first is theoretical: a deeper mathematical study of sampler-driven optimization, drawing on the broader literature on sample-efficient black-box optimization, in order to derive stronger guarantees and more efficient algorithms. The second is applied: applying the methods to concrete domains and exploiting the structure those domains expose to sharpen performance beyond what a pure black-box treatment can achieve.<br>\r\n<br>\r\nThe applications of low-budget black-box optimization are diverse, including engineering design (e.g. aerodynamic shape optimization, mechanical components), scientific discovery (e.g. protein and molecule design under synthesizability and stability constraints), and the safety and security of opaque ML systems (e.g. query-efficient adversarial probing, red-teaming of black-box models).<br>\r\n<br>\r\n<u>Selected papers</u><br>\r\n ","image_description":"","creation_date":"2026-05-22T12:53:32","last_modification_date":"2026-05-22T13:09:04","link_label":"","link_url":"","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"BC 333","url_place_and_room":"https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20333","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":[],"speaker":"Edouard Dufour","organizer":"","contact":"edic@epfl.ch","is_internal":"False","theme":"","vulgarization":{"id":1,"fr_label":"Tout public","en_label":"General public"},"registration":{"id":3,"fr_label":"Entrée libre","en_label":"Free"},"keywords":"EDIC candidacy exam","file":null,"icalendar_url":"https://memento.epfl.ch/event/export/120837/","category":{"id":1,"code":"CONF","fr_label":"Conférences - Séminaires","en_label":"Conferences - Seminars","activated":true},"academic_calendar_category":null,"domains":[],"mementos":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/6/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/27/?format=json","https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/mementos/48/?format=json"]}]}