Talk Title: Seeing Through Memory SystemsAbstract: How does memory shape our perception of the world around us? While the neural systems supporting high-level visual processing and memory are each relatively well understood, how they interact to give rise to memory-guided visual experience remains a fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience. In this talk, I will present a series of studies investigating how memory influences perception in the human brain and behavior, focusing on the process of naturalistic scene understanding. From a behavioral perspective, I will discuss recent work combining immersive virtual reality, in-headset eye-tracking, and computational modeling to reveal how memory shapes scene perception during active viewing (Mynick et al., 2024 Current Biology). At the neural level, I will introduce a novel model system for studying perceptual-mnemonic interactions at the anterior edge of high-level visual cortex (Steel et al., 2021, Nature Communications), as well as a perplexing bivalent neural code that mediates interactions between the hippocampus and cortex (Steel, Silson, et al., Nature Neuroscience). Together, these studies challenge prevailing theories of memory’s role in high-level visual processing and offer new insights into the neural and cognitive mechanisms underpinning memory-guided perception in real-world contexts.Bio: Caroline is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth Her research group uses cognitive and computational neuroscience approaches to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying memory, perception, and neurodiversity. She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge as a Gates-Cambridge Scholar and NIH-Cambridge Fellow, and continued her postdoctoral work at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT with a fellowship from the Harvard Society of Fellows. Caroline's contributions to cognitive neuroscience have been recognized by awards including the Society for Neuroscience’s Janett Rosenberg Trubatch Young Investigator Award, the NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2015), the National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellowship (2016), and the NSF CAREER Award (2022).Webinar Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89002014229?pwd=bzZuZGh6cVhOSjJ6TlNZVHgrRnNaQT09Followed by a reception with food and drink in 3rd floor atrium

Join artist Alie Reilinger, printer at Cambridge-based Albertine Press and owner of Yellow Leg Studios, for an afternoon of crafting to start your weekend off with creativity! Details to come.About Alie ReilingerAlie is a printmaker and mixed-media artist based in Boston, MA. In addition to her own creative practice, she teaches a variety of classes and workshops in the Cambridge and Boston areas.Her liberal arts degree in Biology and Conservation from Vassar College contributes to the sensibility of her artwork - you’ll see a lot of birds and plants! Her work also takes inspiration from her queer identity, folk tales, and historical woodcuts.

Recreational swims provide a fun and engaging way for children and parents to practice new skills, stay active, and enjoy quality time together in the pool with the MIT community.No Z Center (MIT Recreation - Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center) membership is required to participate.A parent or caregiver must accompany children in the water. Per Z Center policy, each adult may supervise up to two children at a time.Children must be at least 6 months old to join. If younger, they must be able to hold their head up comfortably. Registration is here. Only for MIT Spouses and Partners Connect members.

Speaker: Rocco Anthony Servedio - Columbia UniversityTitle: Sparsifying suprema of Gaussian processesAbstract: We show that the supremum of any centered Gaussian process can be approximated to any arbitrary accuracy by a finite dimensional Gaussian process, where the dimension of the approximator is just dependent on the target error. As a corollary, we show that for any norm \Phi defined over R^n and target error \eps, there is a norm \Psi such that (i) \Psi is only dependent on t(\eps) = \exp (\exp (poly(1/\eps))) dimensions and (ii) \Psi(x)/\Phi(x) \in [1-\eps, 1+ \eps] with probability 1-\eps (when x is sampled from the Gaussian space). We prove a similar-in-spirit result for sparsifying high-dimensional polytopes in Gaussian space, and present applications to computational learning and property testing. Our proof relies on Talagrand's majorizing measures theorem.Joint work with Anindya De, Shivam Nadimpalli, and Ryan O'Donnell.

What: Sky’s The Limit: a Thriving Stars career panel featuring four accomplished alumnae of the MIT EECS PhD program:Warah Inam SM ’13, PhD ’16 Founder, CEO OverjetRadhika Marathe SM ’11, PhD ’15 LIDAR Design Engineer, Analog DevicesShirin Farrahi SM ’10, PhD ’13 Principal Software Engineer, Cadence Design SystemsSerena Booth SM ’20, PhD ’24 AAAS AI Policy Fellow, US Senate Incoming Asst. Professor, Computer Science, Brown UniversityModerated by Leslie Kolodziejski, Graduate officer and Professor of Electrical Engineering in EECSWhen: Thursday, February 13th from 4 – 5:30 PM EST. Registrants will be reminded of event, and Zoom link is below. Please register in advance right here!Where: On Zoom! We’ll open the platform around 3:45 PM EST. Zoom link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/91700544341Questions? Please contact eecs-thriving-stars@mit.edu

Sid Kankanala (University of Chicago)