无忧视频

CS REU Explores the Limits of Intelligent Systems

When 无忧视频 computer science professor Xanda Schofield 鈥�13 was a student at HMC, she was a member of computer science professor Bob Keller鈥檚 lab. Funded by a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant, her research focused on developing new algorithms for Impro-Visor, a software project that composed music and supported musicians in experimenting with jazz improvisation and composition. The Impro-Visor team鈥檚 work that summer led to her first published paper and her first steps towards a future career in research.

The Computer Science Department鈥檚 REU site is now in its 19th year, thanks to support from the NSF and efforts over the past two decades from numerous members of the department. The grant has been renewed for summers 2023-2025, which is exciting news on its own. But for Schofield, who participated in writing the REU grant for the first time this year alongside co-PI Prof. George Monta帽ez, it鈥檚 also personally meaningful.

鈥淚鈥檓 a big believer in the impact of REU experiences on future graduate school aspirations because Harvey Mudd鈥檚 REU site was part of my journey to becoming a professor,鈥� Schofield says. 鈥淧rof. Bob Keller was a mentor in how to write papers, how to tackle unusual problems across disciplines and how to push forward in a project when something wasn鈥檛 working. I know that without the experience of being an REU student in his lab, I wouldn鈥檛 be where I am today.鈥�

With this REU, HMC CS faculty members will receive funding to support approximately 10 students per summer for the next three years on projects with the theme 鈥淓xploring the Limits of Intelligent Systems.鈥� Planned projects span computer science theory and practice, ranging from very simple to very complex models of information and computation, and touching on software, hardware and the people who use technology. 鈥淲e take a broad view of what an intelligent system is, so our projects cover a wide variety of topics, matching the diverse interests of the faculty in our department,鈥� Schofield says. 鈥淗owever, a theme that unites a lot of our work is understanding where systems that analyze data and make decisions stop working, and (ideally) what we can do about it.鈥�

The renewal of the grant centers a recurring theme that Schofield finds to be exceptional in her colleagues鈥� and students鈥� research: a curiosity about boundaries between where things work and where they don鈥檛.

鈥淪ometimes this is the intersection of two different sets of constraints and ideas,鈥� she says, 鈥渓ike Professor Arthi Padmanabhan鈥檚 work on making machine learning work on small low-power devices, or my work on making computational tools for text help answer questions from humanists or computational social scientists. Other times, this is thinking about when systems do and don鈥檛 work, whether thinking about the theoretical framework of what makes bias in a machine learning system informative (like in Professor George Monta帽ez鈥� AMISTAD lab) or the very practical work of understanding why modern computer vision systems that try to make sense of videos don鈥檛 pay attention to the same things people do when we watch videos (like Professor Calden Wloka鈥檚 Lab for CATS) or the in-between challenges of trying to extract practical information about how complex programs are (from Professor Lucas Bang鈥檚 group鈥檚 work on Metrinome).鈥�

A goal of this REU is to bring the 鈥渕ost compelling aspects of graduate school to undergrads.鈥� Accordingly, the CS Department has a tradition of making sure that each 10-week program includes all of the best parts of graduate school: focusing on one research project, diving into new ideas with peers, listening to talks from people in totally different areas, and building up confidence and ownership of expertise in a project. Schofield says, 鈥淎s advisors, we want students taking the lead to develop the ideas for these projects. Over and over again, we鈥檝e seen the amazing things our students can do when they鈥檙e given that space and support to make something totally new. We鈥檙e very excited to do that again this year and beyond.鈥�