School of Computing Science

Scottish Programming Languages Seminar

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 01 July, 2024
Time: 08:00 - 17:00
Location:TBA

The Scottish Programming Languages Seminar (SPLS) Series is an informal meeting of the Scottish Programming Languages Institute (SPLI) Community for discussing anything related to programming languages. This edition of SPLS will be hybrid and is organised by the the School of Informatics at University of Edinburgh. (Times TBC). We will be physically located in 40 George Square, room LG.09 at the University of Edinburgh. Accessibility information is available here. Online participants can also join and the link will be provided. If you would like to attend in person, please register by the 19th June using this form. Registration is required for catering. If you wish to give a talk, please indicate it on the form. If your title or abstract is yet to be determined, they can be sent by the 24th June by email to one of our organisers.

Efficient Retrieval Techniques over Learned Representations

Group: Information Retrieval (IR)
Speaker: Franco Maria Nardini , ISTI-CNR
Date: 01 July, 2024
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Room 422, SAWB

Title:

Efficient Retrieval Techniques over Learned Representations

Abstract:

This talk will introduce two recent techniques that enable efficient retrieval over learned representation. First,
we will discuss how to speed up retrieval over dense---multi-vector---representations. Our novel framework, which we call "Efficient Multi-Vector dense retrieval with Bit vectors" (EMVB), enables efficient query processing in multi-vector dense retrieval in four main steps involving efficient pre-filtering of passages, column-wise, and SIMD-aware computation of the centroid interaction with Product Quantization. Experiments on MS MARCO and LoTTE show that EMVB is up to 2.8x faster while reducing the memory footprint by 1.8x with no loss in retrieval accuracy compared to PLAID. Second, we will introduce SEISMIC, a novel organization of the inverted index that enables fast yet effective approximate retrieval over learned sparse embeddings. Our approach organizes inverted lists into geometrically cohesive blocks, each equipped with a summary vector. During query processing, we quickly determine if a block must be evaluated using the summaries during query processing. Results show that query processing using Seismic is one to two orders of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art inverted index-based solutions and further outperforms the winning (graph-based) submissions to the BigANN Challenge by a significant margin.

Bio:

Franco Maria Nardini is a Senior Researcher at the Information Science and Technologies Institute (ISTI) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). His research interests are mainly focused on Web Information Retrieval (IR), Machine Learning (ML), and Data Mining (DM). He authored over 110 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, conferences, and other venues. Currently, he is General Co-Chair of ECIR 2025. In the past, he served as Program Co-Chair of SPIRE 2023, Tutorial Co-Chair of ACM WSDM 2021, Demo Papers Co-Chair of ECIR 2021, General Co-Chair, and Program Committee Co-Chair of the Italian Information Retrieval Workshop (IIR) in 2023 and 2016, respectively. He is a co-recipient of the ACM SIGIR 2015 Best Paper Award, the ECIR 2022 Industry Impact Award, and the ECIR 2014 Best Demo Paper Award. He is a member of the editorial board of ACM TOIS. He also served as a program committee member of several top-level conferences in IR, ML, and DM, like ACM SIGIR, ECIR, ACM SIGKDD, ACM CIKM, ACM WSDM, IJCAI, ECML-PKDD.

Scottish Programming Languages Seminar

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 01 July, 2024
Time: 08:00 - 17:00
Location: TBA

The Scottish Programming Languages Seminar (SPLS) Series is an informal meeting of the Scottish Programming Languages Institute (SPLI) Community for discussing anything related to programming languages. This edition of SPLS will be hybrid and is organised by the the School of Informatics at University of Edinburgh. (Times TBC). We will be physically located in 40 George Square, room LG.09 at the University of Edinburgh. Accessibility information is available here. Online participants can also join and the link will be provided. If you would like to attend in person, please register by the 19th June using this form. Registration is required for catering. If you wish to give a talk, please indicate it on the form. If your title or abstract is yet to be determined, they can be sent by the 24th June by email to one of our organisers.

Efficient Retrieval Techniques over Learned Representations

Group: Information Retrieval (IR)
Speaker: Franco Maria Nardini , ISTI-CNR
Date: 01 July, 2024
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Room 422, SAWB

Title:

Efficient Retrieval Techniques over Learned Representations

Abstract:

This talk will introduce two recent techniques that enable efficient retrieval over learned representation. First,
we will discuss how to speed up retrieval over dense---multi-vector---representations. Our novel framework, which we call "Efficient Multi-Vector dense retrieval with Bit vectors" (EMVB), enables efficient query processing in multi-vector dense retrieval in four main steps involving efficient pre-filtering of passages, column-wise, and SIMD-aware computation of the centroid interaction with Product Quantization. Experiments on MS MARCO and LoTTE show that EMVB is up to 2.8x faster while reducing the memory footprint by 1.8x with no loss in retrieval accuracy compared to PLAID. Second, we will introduce SEISMIC, a novel organization of the inverted index that enables fast yet effective approximate retrieval over learned sparse embeddings. Our approach organizes inverted lists into geometrically cohesive blocks, each equipped with a summary vector. During query processing, we quickly determine if a block must be evaluated using the summaries during query processing. Results show that query processing using Seismic is one to two orders of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art inverted index-based solutions and further outperforms the winning (graph-based) submissions to the BigANN Challenge by a significant margin.

Bio:

Franco Maria Nardini is a Senior Researcher at the Information Science and Technologies Institute (ISTI) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). His research interests are mainly focused on Web Information Retrieval (IR), Machine Learning (ML), and Data Mining (DM). He authored over 110 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, conferences, and other venues. Currently, he is General Co-Chair of ECIR 2025. In the past, he served as Program Co-Chair of SPIRE 2023, Tutorial Co-Chair of ACM WSDM 2021, Demo Papers Co-Chair of ECIR 2021, General Co-Chair, and Program Committee Co-Chair of the Italian Information Retrieval Workshop (IIR) in 2023 and 2016, respectively. He is a co-recipient of the ACM SIGIR 2015 Best Paper Award, the ECIR 2022 Industry Impact Award, and the ECIR 2014 Best Demo Paper Award. He is a member of the editorial board of ACM TOIS. He also served as a program committee member of several top-level conferences in IR, ML, and DM, like ACM SIGIR, ECIR, ACM SIGKDD, ACM CIKM, ACM WSDM, IJCAI, ECML-PKDD.

SICSA Bootcamp on Cyber Security

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 08 July, 2024
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: TBA

Join us for an exciting, in-person workshop on Cyber Security at The University of Aberdeen. Book your place today!

SICSA 2024 Bootcamp and PhD Conference

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 08 July, 2024
Time: 10:00 - 15:00
Location: University of Aberdeen, ,

We are delighted to host our Bootcamp and PhD Conference at the University of Aberdeen this year. Our theme this year is Developing Adaptability and Resilience. We will have a packed schedule of inspiring key note speeches and practical workshops, insightful training and opportunities to meet and chat with your fellow PhD colleagues. Look out for more information on the registration links coming soon.

Clemencia Siro IR Seminar

Group: Information Retrieval (IR)
Speaker: Clemencia Siro, University of Amsterdam
Date: 08 July, 2024
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Room 422, SAWB

TBC

SICSA 2024 PhD Conference

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 09 July, 2024
Time: 09:30 - 14:30
Location: University of Aberdeen, ,

We are delighted to host our PhD Conference at the University of Aberdeen this year. Our theme this year is Developing Adaptability and Resilience. We will have a packed schedule of inspiring key note speeches and practical workshops, insightful training and opportunities to meet and chat with your fellow PhD colleagues. Register to save your place today!

2024 SICSA PhD Conference

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 09 July, 2024
Time: 09:30 - 15:00
Location: University Of Aberdeen – King’s Conference Centre, 69 University Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3DR, United Kingdom

We are delighted to host our PhD Conference at the University of Aberdeen in July. Our theme this year is Developing Adaptability and Resilience. We will have a packed schedule of inspiring key note speeches and practical workshops, insightful training and opportunities to meet and chat with your fellow PhD colleagues. Register to save your place today!

Machine Learning in Science Conference

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 21 August, 2024
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: TBA

The Machine Learning in Science researcher community is happy to announce our Conference for the 21st and 22nd of August. We are a highly multi-disciplinary group focused on knowledge sharing regarding using machine learning and artificial intelligence in research. The themes we will discuss this year are machine learning in healthcare, machine learning in climate sustainability, artificial intelligence security, and artificial intelligence enhanced research. We encourage all researchers active in any of these areas to attend. Currently, we are looking for oral and poster presentations for which you can sign up using the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/bjAULZEqmw . Registration for general attendance will open soon and can be done through our website https://mlinscience.gitlab.io/

Research Skills for Innovation

Group: Glasgow Computing Science Innovation Lab
Speaker: TBC
Date: 17 September, 2024
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Location: Advanced Research Centre 237C

At this GLACSIL event, academic and industry speakers will discuss the research skills they see as essential to successful innovation: how they hire, support, train, and develop, and prioritise those skills in their organisations. 

This is a hybrid event.

Zoom link: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/87964952377?pwd=K0dWUGJVaXlROXczajNycldIa1hmUT09

GLACSIL - Topic TBC

Group: Glasgow Computing Science Innovation Lab
Speaker: TBC
Date: 29 October, 2024
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Location: Advanced Research Centre

TBC

Location - Advanced Research Centre, Suite 2

This is a hybrid event.  Zoom link: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/84750210682?pwd=a25kTTVPRldYeVdWVG9pU3lGc2dQZz09

ACI 2024 - The Eleventh International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 02 December, 2024
Time: 00:00 - 00:00
Location: TBA

ACI is the leading International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction. It is a highly multidisciplinary event drawing researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to share and discuss work and topics related to the research and design of computing-enabled and interactive technology for and with animals. We are keen to be as inclusive as possible. We wish to welcome a wide range of contributions and participants to the conference, promote a constructive dialogue around the animal-centred research and design of computing-enabled systems, and foster the development of ACI as a discipline. The conference is open to contributions from researchers and practitioners in a wide range of fields, including (but not limited to) ethics, behavior analysis, psychology, veterinary behavior, zoology, ethology, interaction design, computer science, and electrical engineering. Find out more about the conference and submission deadlines.

GLACSIL Industrial Studentship Showcase

Group: Glasgow Computing Science Innovation Lab
Speaker: TBC
Date: 03 December, 2024
Time: 14:00 - 17:00
Location: Advanced Research Centre 237C

At this event we'll celebrate the work and achievements of the industrial research students sponsored by GLACSIL partners via talks, technology demonstrations, plus festive drinks and nibbles. 

Further details will be added in due course. 

This is a hybrid event. Zoom link:  https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/85920553642?pwd=endpSlhESjMxcFJmQUNPb3p0SENjZz09

GLACSIL Industrial Studentship Showcase

Group: Glasgow Computing Science Innovation Lab
Speaker: TBC
Date: 03 December, 2024
Time: 14:00 - 17:00
Location: Advanced Research Centre 237C

We'll celebrate the work and achievements of the research students sponsored by GLACSIL members via a series of talks and technology demonstrations.

Further details to follow.

This is a hybrid event.  Zoom link: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/85920553642?pwd=endpSlhESjMxcFJmQUNPb3p0SENjZz09