Building Institutes That Turn AI Foundations into Useful Systems
Foundation models; optimization; scientific AI
Speaker
Sham Kakade
Co-director, Kempner Institute; Rampell Family Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Statistics
Harvard University
Biography
Sham Kakade is co-director of Harvard’s Kempner Institute and Rampell Family Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Statistics. His research spans the mathematical foundations of machine learning and the design of practical learning algorithms. At the Kempner Institute, he helps lead an interdisciplinary effort to understand intelligence through computation and neuroscience. His work on foundation models, optimization and learning theory gives him a useful perspective on how large research programs can connect scientific questions, engineering capabilities and reliable evaluation.