March 2021 - talks - lists.cs.princeton.edu

Ryan Amos will present his Pre FPO "Consumer protection with longitudinal data collection and analysis" on Thursday, April 1, 2021 at 1pm via Zoom.
by Nicki Mahler 01 Apr '21

01 Apr '21

Ryan Amos will present his Pre FPO "Consumer protection with longitudinal data collection and analysis" on Thursday, April 1, 2021 at 1pm via Zoom. Zoom link: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/j/98956078851?pwd=UWxReS9DcWc3aFlTWEFydTJTVXlnQT09 | https://princeton.zoom.us/j/98956078851?pwd=UWxReS9DcWc3aFlTWEFydTJTVXlnQT09 ] Committee: Examiners: Prateek Mittal (adviser), Ed Felten (adviser), Arvind Narayanan Readers: Jonathan Mayer, Joe Calandrino ( Federal Trade Commission) All are welcome to attend. Title: Consumer protection with longitudinal data collection and analysis Abstract: We'll discuss how we can use longitudinal data to understand issues surrounding consumer protection, particularly issues driven by misaligned incentives in advertising. In the first half, I'll present our work on collecting and analyzing our dataset of one million privacy policies from a twenty year timespan. Our work adds to the growing body demonstrating the inadequacy of the notice-and-choice model of privacy policy regulation. We find that privacy policies have become more difficult to read, and, by comparing our findings to prior web measurements, that they show a troubling lack of transparency. Our work helps contextualize the impact of the GDPR by showing how it stands out against a decade of privacy policy changes. In the second half, I'll present our ongoing work on collecting and analyzing a dataset of Yelp's review recommendation system, which we take as a proxy for fake review filtering. To understand the evolving game between fake reviewers and platforms, we frame our work differently from prior work -- rather than focusing on the reviews themselves, we focus on the platform's reactions to reviews. We find that a substantial proportion of filtered-out reviews are later reclassified, suggesting that Yelp takes an aggressive approach to removing reviews. I'll additionally discuss our ongoing work in this field and questions we want to answer.

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CS Colloquium Speaker: Sarah Dean, today at 4:30pm
by Emily C. Lawrence 29 Mar '21

29 Mar '21

CS Colloquium Speaker Sarah Dean, University of California, Berkeley Host: Elad Hazan Date: Monday, March 29 Time: 4:30pm EST Event page: [ https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26052 | https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26052 ] Register for Zoom webinar here: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tGTox7xySEK97iKWXtIOSg | https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tGTox7xySEK97iKWXtIOSg ] Title: Reliable Machine Learning in Feedback Systems Abstract: Machine learning techniques have been successful for processing complex information, and thus they have the potential to play an important role in data-driven decision-making and control. However, ensuring the reliability of these methods in feedback systems remains a challenge, since classic statistical and algorithmic guarantees do not always hold. In this talk, I will provide rigorous guarantees of safety and discovery in dynamical settings relevant to robotics and recommendation systems. I take a perspective based on reachability, to specify which parts of the state space the system avoids (safety) or can be driven to (discovery). For data-driven control, we show finite-sample performance and safety guarantees which highlight relevant properties of the system to be controlled. For recommendation systems, we introduce a novel metric of discovery and show that it can be efficiently computed. In closing, I discuss how the reachability perspective can be used to design social-digital systems with a variety of important values in mind. Bio: Sarah is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, advised by Ben Recht. She received her MS in EECS from Berkeley and BSE in Electrical Engineering and Math from the University of Pennsylvania. Sarah is interested in the interplay between optimization, machine learning, and dynamics in real-world systems. Her research focuses on developing principled data-driven methods for control and decision-making, inspired by applications in robotics, recommendation systems, and developmental economics. She is a co-founder of a transdisciplinary student group, Graduates for Engaged and Extended Scholarship in computing and Engineering, and the recipient of a Berkeley Fellowship and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

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Reminder: Sarah Dean, tomorrow at 4:30
by Emily C. Lawrence 28 Mar '21

28 Mar '21

CS Colloquium Speaker Sarah Dean, University of California, Berkeley Host: Elad Hazan Date: Monday, March 29 Time: 4:30pm EST Event page: [ https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26052 | https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26052 ] Register for Zoom webinar here: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tGTox7xySEK97iKWXtIOSg | https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tGTox7xySEK97iKWXtIOSg ] Title: Reliable Machine Learning in Feedback Systems Abstract: Machine learning techniques have been successful for processing complex information, and thus they have the potential to play an important role in data-driven decision-making and control. However, ensuring the reliability of these methods in feedback systems remains a challenge, since classic statistical and algorithmic guarantees do not always hold. In this talk, I will provide rigorous guarantees of safety and discovery in dynamical settings relevant to robotics and recommendation systems. I take a perspective based on reachability, to specify which parts of the state space the system avoids (safety) or can be driven to (discovery). For data-driven control, we show finite-sample performance and safety guarantees which highlight relevant properties of the system to be controlled. For recommendation systems, we introduce a novel metric of discovery and show that it can be efficiently computed. In closing, I discuss how the reachability perspective can be used to design social-digital systems with a variety of important values in mind. Bio: Sarah is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, advised by Ben Recht. She received her MS in EECS from Berkeley and BSE in Electrical Engineering and Math from the University of Pennsylvania. Sarah is interested in the interplay between optimization, machine learning, and dynamics in real-world systems. Her research focuses on developing principled data-driven methods for control and decision-making, inspired by applications in robotics, recommendation systems, and developmental economics. She is a co-founder of a transdisciplinary student group, Graduates for Engaged and Extended Scholarship in computing and Engineering, and the recipient of a Berkeley Fellowship and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

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CS Systems Group Speaker: Guanhua Wang, Thursday, April 1 at 3:00pm
by Emily C. Lawrence 25 Mar '21

25 Mar '21

CS System Group Speaker Guanhua Wang, UC Berkeley Host: Wyatt Lloyd Date: Thursday, April 1 Time: 3:00pm ET Event page: [ https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26062 | https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26062 ] Zoom meeting link: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/j/906163778 | https://princeton.zoom.us/j/906163778 ] Title: Disruptive Research on Distributed ML Systems Abstract: Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) enable computers to excel across many different applications such as image classification, speech recognition and robotics control. To accelerate DNN training and serving, parallel computing is widely adopted. System efficiency is a big issue when scaling out. In this talk, I will make three arguments towards better system efficiency in distributed DNN training and serving. First, Ring All-Reduce for model synchronization is not optimal, but Blink is. By packing spanning trees rather than forming rings, Blink achieves higher flexibility in arbitrary networking environments and provides near-optimal network throughput. Blink is filed as a US patent and is being used by Microsoft. Blink gains lots of attention from industry, such as Facebook (distributed PyTorch team), ByteDance (parent company of TikTok app). Blink was also featured on Nvidia GTC China 2019 and news from Baidu, Tencent, etc. Second, communication can be eliminated via sensAI's class parallelism. sensAI decouples a multi-task model into disconnected subnets, each is responsible for decision making of a single task. sensAI's attribute of low-latency, real-time model serving attracts several Venture Capitals in the Bay Area. Third, Wavelet is more efficient than gang-scheduling. By intentionally adding task launching latency, Wavelet interleaves peak memory usage across different waves of training tasks on the accelerators, and thus it improves both computation and on-device memory utilization. Bio: Guanhua Wang is a final year CS PhD in the RISELab at UC Berkeley, advised by Prof. Ion Stoica. His research lies primarily in the ML+System area including fast collective communication schemes for model synchronization, efficient in-parallel model training and real-time model serving.

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CS Colloquium Speaker: Sarah Dean, Monday, March 29 at 4:30
by Emily C. Lawrence 23 Mar '21

23 Mar '21

CS Colloquium Speaker Sarah Dean, University of California, Berkeley Host: Elad Hazan Date: Monday, March 29 Time: 4:30pm EST Event page: [ https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26052 | https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26052 ] Register for Zoom webinar here: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tGTox7xySEK97iKWXtIOSg | https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tGTox7xySEK97iKWXtIOSg ] Title: Reliable Machine Learning in Feedback Systems Abstract: Machine learning techniques have been successful for processing complex information, and thus they have the potential to play an important role in data-driven decision-making and control. However, ensuring the reliability of these methods in feedback systems remains a challenge, since classic statistical and algorithmic guarantees do not always hold. In this talk, I will provide rigorous guarantees of safety and discovery in dynamical settings relevant to robotics and recommendation systems. I take a perspective based on reachability, to specify which parts of the state space the system avoids (safety) or can be driven to (discovery). For data-driven control, we show finite-sample performance and safety guarantees which highlight relevant properties of the system to be controlled. For recommendation systems, we introduce a novel metric of discovery and show that it can be efficiently computed. In closing, I discuss how the reachability perspective can be used to design social-digital systems with a variety of important values in mind. Bio: Sarah is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, advised by Ben Recht. She received her MS in EECS from Berkeley and BSE in Electrical Engineering and Math from the University of Pennsylvania. Sarah is interested in the interplay between optimization, machine learning, and dynamics in real-world systems. Her research focuses on developing principled data-driven methods for control and decision-making, inspired by applications in robotics, recommendation systems, and developmental economics. She is a co-founder of a transdisciplinary student group, Graduates for Engaged and Extended Scholarship in computing and Engineering, and the recipient of a Berkeley Fellowship and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

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Khiem Ngo will present his Pre-FPO "Tolerating Slowdowns in Replicated State Machines using Copilots" on Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 3pm via Zoom.
by Nicki Mahler 22 Mar '21

22 Mar '21

Khiem Ngo will present his Pre-FPO "Tolerating Slowdowns in Replicated State Machines using Copilots" on Tuesday, March 23, 2021 at 3pm via Zoom. Zoom link: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/j/98688513083 | https://princeton.zoom.us/j/98688513083 ] Committee Members: Wyatt Lloyd (Advisor) Michael Freedman (Examiner) Ravi Netravali (Examiner) Amit Levy (Reader) Siddhartha Sen (MSR, Reader) All are welcome to attend. Title: Tolerating Slowdowns in Replicated State Machines using Copilots Abstract. Replicated state machines (RSMs) are linearizable, fault-tolerant groups of replicas coordinated by a consensus algorithm. Linearizability gives the RSM the illusion of being a single machine that responds to client commands one by one. Fault-tolerance enables the RSM to continue operating despite the failure of a minority of replicas. RSMs are used throughout large-scale systems, such as distributed databases, cloud storage, and service managers. At such scale, it is common for some machines to be slow. The slowdowns manifest as machines whose latency for responding to other machines is higher than usual. Thus, RSMs should also be slowdown-tolerant, i.e., provide similar performance despite the presence of slow replicas. Unfortunately, no existing consensus protocol is slowdown-tolerant: a single slow replica can sharply increase their latency. This increased latency decreases availability because a service that does not respond in time is not meaningfully available. In this talk, I will first define s-slowdown-tolerance and explain why existing consensus protocols are not slowdown-tolerant. Then I will introduce Copilot replication, the first 1-slowdown-tolerant consensus protocol. Copilot replication uses two pilots to ensure the RSM stays fast, by using proactive redundancy in all stages of processing a client command. Our evaluation shows that Copilot delivers normal latency despite the slowdown of any 1 replica.

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CS Colloquium Speaker: Riad Wahby, today at 12:30pm
by Emily C. Lawrence 22 Mar '21

22 Mar '21

CS Colloquium Speaker Riad Wahby, Stanford University Host: Andrew Appel Date: Monday, March 22 Time: 12:30pm EST Event page: [ https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26050 | https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26050 ] Register for Zoom webinar here: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SMKdFMoQRo2Cj3zvU57zyw | https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SMKdFMoQRo2Cj3zvU57zyw ] Title: Probabilistic Proofs: Theory, Hardware, and Everything in Between Abstract: In the past decade, systems that use probabilistic proofs in real-world applications have seen explosive growth. These systems build upon some of the crown jewels of theoretical computer science---interactive proofs, probabilistically checkable proofs, and zero-knowledge proofs---to solve problems of trust and privacy in a wide range of settings. This talk describes my work building systems that answer questions ranging from "how can we build trustworthy hardware that uses untrusted components?" to "how can we reduce the cost of verifying smart contract execution in blockchains?" Along the way, I will discuss the pervasive challenges of efficiency, expressiveness, and scalability in this research area; my approach to addressing these challenges; and future directions that promise to bring this exciting technology to bear on an even wider range of applications. Bio: Riad S. Wahby is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford, advised by Dan Boneh and Keith Winstein. His research interests include systems, computer security, and applied cryptography. Prior to attending Stanford, Riad spent ten years as an analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit designer. Riad and his collaborators received a 2016 IEEE Security and Privacy Distinguished Student Paper award; his work on hashing to elliptic curves is being standardized by the IETF.

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Reminder: Riad Wahby, tomorrow at 12:30
by Emily C. Lawrence 21 Mar '21

21 Mar '21

CS Colloquium Speaker Riad Wahby, Stanford University Host: Andrew Appel Date: Monday, March 22 Time: 12:30pm EST Event page: [ https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26050 | https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26050 ] Register for Zoom webinar here: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SMKdFMoQRo2Cj3zvU57zyw | https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SMKdFMoQRo2Cj3zvU57zyw ] Title: Probabilistic Proofs: Theory, Hardware, and Everything in Between Abstract: In the past decade, systems that use probabilistic proofs in real-world applications have seen explosive growth. These systems build upon some of the crown jewels of theoretical computer science---interactive proofs, probabilistically checkable proofs, and zero-knowledge proofs---to solve problems of trust and privacy in a wide range of settings. This talk describes my work building systems that answer questions ranging from "how can we build trustworthy hardware that uses untrusted components?" to "how can we reduce the cost of verifying smart contract execution in blockchains?" Along the way, I will discuss the pervasive challenges of efficiency, expressiveness, and scalability in this research area; my approach to addressing these challenges; and future directions that promise to bring this exciting technology to bear on an even wider range of applications. Bio: Riad S. Wahby is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford, advised by Dan Boneh and Keith Winstein. His research interests include systems, computer security, and applied cryptography. Prior to attending Stanford, Riad spent ten years as an analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit designer. Riad and his collaborators received a 2016 IEEE Security and Privacy Distinguished Student Paper award; his work on hashing to elliptic curves is being standardized by the IETF.

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CS Colloquium Speaker: Fraser Brown, today at 12:30pm EST
by Emily C. Lawrence 18 Mar '21

18 Mar '21

CS Colloquium Speaker Fraser Brown, Stanford University Host: Wyatt Lloyd Date: Thursday, March 18 Time: 12:30pm EST Event page: [ https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26053 | https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26053 ] Register for Zoom webinar here: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zrh31QWnTI2rkKRYabO8rg | https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zrh31QWnTI2rkKRYabO8rg ] Title: Eliminating Bugs in Real Systems Abstract: Software is everywhere, and almost everywhere, software is broken. Some bugs just crash your printer; others hand an identity thief your bank account number; still others let nation-states spy on dissidents and persecute minorities. This talk outlines my work preventing bugs using a blend of programming languages techniques and systems design. First, I'll talk about securing massive, security-critical codebases without clean slate rewrites. This means rooting out hard-to-find bugs---as in Sys, which scales symbolic execution to find exploitable bugs in systems like the twenty-million line Chrome browser. It also means proving correctness of especially vulnerable pieces of code---as in VeRA, which automatically verifies part of the Firefox JavaScript engine. Finally, I'll discuss work on stronger foundations for new systems---as in CirC, a recent project unifying compiler infrastructure for program verification, cryptographic proofs, optimization problems, and more. Bio: Fraser Brown is a PhD student at Stanford advised by Dawson Engler, occasional visiting student at UCSD with Deian Stefan, and NSF graduate research fellowship recipient. She works at the intersection of programming languages, systems, and security, and her research has been used by several companies. She holds an undergraduate degree in English from Stanford.

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Reminder: Fraser Brown, tomorrow at 12:30
by Emily C. Lawrence 17 Mar '21

17 Mar '21

CS Colloquium Speaker Fraser Brown, Stanford University Host: Wyatt Lloyd Date: Thursday, March 18 Time: 12:30pm EST Event page: [ https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26053 | https://www.cs.princeton.edu/events/26053 ] Register for Zoom webinar here: [ https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zrh31QWnTI2rkKRYabO8rg | https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zrh31QWnTI2rkKRYabO8rg ] Title: Eliminating Bugs in Real Systems Abstract: Software is everywhere, and almost everywhere, software is broken. Some bugs just crash your printer; others hand an identity thief your bank account number; still others let nation-states spy on dissidents and persecute minorities. This talk outlines my work preventing bugs using a blend of programming languages techniques and systems design. First, I'll talk about securing massive, security-critical codebases without clean slate rewrites. This means rooting out hard-to-find bugs---as in Sys, which scales symbolic execution to find exploitable bugs in systems like the twenty-million line Chrome browser. It also means proving correctness of especially vulnerable pieces of code---as in VeRA, which automatically verifies part of the Firefox JavaScript engine. Finally, I'll discuss work on stronger foundations for new systems---as in CirC, a recent project unifying compiler infrastructure for program verification, cryptographic proofs, optimization problems, and more. Bio: Fraser Brown is a PhD student at Stanford advised by Dawson Engler, occasional visiting student at UCSD with Deian Stefan, and NSF graduate research fellowship recipient. She works at the intersection of programming languages, systems, and security, and her research has been used by several companies. She holds an undergraduate degree in English from Stanford.

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