9:30-10:20am:  Julia Salzman (BioX and Biochem), Genomics as a Statistical and Information Theoretic Problem

Abstract: In this presentation, I will discuss a unifying biological and statistical formulation for many fundamental problems in genome science. This formulation allows us to construct an algorithm that performs inference on raw reads, avoiding references completely. The talk will focus on the biological and probabilistic problem formulation and the statistical methodology that we have developed to solve it, using the "chalk-talk" style of presentation.

10:30-11:20am: Tsachy Weissman, Textual Transform Coding

Abstract: Inspired by recent work on compression with and for humans, the success of transform-based approaches to information processing, and the rise of powerful language-based AI, we propose Textual Transform Coding. It shares some of its key properties with traditional transform-based coding underlying much of our current multimedia compression technologies. It can form the basis for compression at bit rates until recently considered uselessly low, and for boosting human satisfaction from reconstructions at more traditional bit rates.