Event in the first two months of 2024 brought together more than 100 participants and exposed hot topics in the area, such as Probabilistic Modeling and Machine Learning.
The School of Applied Mathematics of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EMAp) organized, between January 29 and February 2, 2024, the 5th edition of the Tropical Probabilistic AI School (Tropical ProbAI), in Rio de Janeiro. The event was aimed at providing an inclusive educational environment, serving cutting-edge knowledge in Machine Learning, Probabilistic Modeling and Artificial Intelligence.
In total, Tropical ProbAI 2024 was attended by 102 participants, including Undergraduate, Master's and Doctorate students, researchers, engineers, industry professionals and those passionate about the Artificial Intelligence sector. Topics that are currently in evidence were covered, both in academia and in the job market, such as Probabilistic Modeling and Machine Learning.
Tropical ProbAI 2024 brought together more than 100 participants at FGV in the first two months
Schedule
The event consisted of two poster presentations and 10 sessions over the five days, aiming to mix theoretical lectures and practical exercises by students. This dual approach was made possible by the collaboration of teachers and monitors with students.
The lectures were given by international experts in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Diane Bouchacourt, who works at Meta - the company that owns Instagram and Facebook -, brought a work on reading image representation and self-supervised learning that the participants were very pleased with.
Those who also stood out were Adele Ribeiro, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Marburg, in Germany, who presented the topic of Introduction to Causal Inference, and Helge Langseth, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), an expert in Variational Inference.
Langseth made a point of emphasizing FGV's effort in holding the event, with a huge contribution from Eliezer de Souza e Silva, post-doctoral researcher at the School in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science.
“The event is a spin-off of the Probabilistic AI (ProbAI) Summer School that we have been running in Europe for some time, and I think it was really good to see that Tropical AI was started and organized successfully. Eliezer was one of the two initiators of ProbAI and I'm happy that he was able to invest all the work into making Tropical AI as well. The atmosphere at the School was very pleasant and people enjoyed being there. There were a number of students from Europe who preferred to come to the Tropical ProbAI event instead of ProbAI (which would have been more accessible for them), and I think this is a strong sign of the quality of Tropical ProbAI”, he commented.
Researcher at Basis AI Research Institute, Sam Witty presented the introduction of Causal Probabilistic Programming and considered himself very excited to disseminate updated knowledge about a branch of Science that is in full development.
“We are excited to share our research on Causal Reasoning and Probabilistic Programming with a diverse audience from around the world, especially in areas that have historically been neglected by Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence seminars, training and conferences,” said the expert.
João Loula, a brazilian doctoral student at MIT, was a class assistant for researcher Vikash Mansinghk
Furthermore, Witty added that the area of research in Artificial Intelligence has enormous potential for the practice of scientific discoveries and the formulation of public policies for society in general.
“I want everyone to be able to realize this potential, regardless of whether they attend a university in just a few countries. Events like the ProbAI Summer School help expand access to these and other ideas”, reinforced the researcher.
International visitors
Throughout the event, FGV EMAp welcomed dozens of Exact Sciences students from around the planet, such as Tunisian Syrine Sbaa.
“The workshop sessions were especially enriching for me, as they provided a practical opportunity to apply the concepts discussed during the morning sessions. It was inspiring to interact with other researchers and enthusiasts, exchange ideas and delve deeper into different topics. Specifically, I had the privilege of presenting my research on Particle Methods for Nonlinear Stochastic Control and Intelligent Games, focusing on the implementation of the Artificial Genius Inc. (AGI) algorithm that my team and I developed using reinforcement learning,” says Syrine, researcher who benefited from a scholarship for African candidates.
Tropical ProbAI 2024 welcomed participants from all over the planet at FGV headquarters
“Additionally, the informal interactions during coffee breaks were enlightening, allowing me to learn more about advances in mathematics at FGV EMAp and connect with incredible people. A big thank you to Eliezer, David and everyone involved in making Tropical ProbAI 2024 a resounding success! Overall, the experience was truly transformative, impacting both my professional journey and my personal growth. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that left a lasting impression, inspiring me to push the limits of my research even further”, adds the researcher, praising the structure of the event at the School.
Diego Mesquita and Eliezer de Souza da Silva were part of the Tropical ProbAI 2024 Organizing Committee, which had the support of the Norwegian Open AI Lab and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Eliezer revealed that the feedback from those present about Tropical ProbAI 2024 was excellent and this only encourages the institution to have even bolder goals for the short-term future.
“We have already held it outside of Brazil, we started in 2019. The idea is for ProbAI to take place every six months, one edition in the Nordic summer and the other in the South American summer. Everyone was satisfied with the event, people praised it a lot, students and guest speakers. Seeing that FGV EMAp is part of a process of excellence in terms of Probabilistic Modeling and research is gratifying”, he commented.
Eliezer de Souza da Silva was one of the speakers at Tropical ProbAI 2024
Diego reinforced the importance of FGV being at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence events, as it is one of the most modern and current Mathematics topics present in society's daily lives.
“Artificial Intelligence will continue to be a subject that needs more study to learn new things, and students need to deepen this through classes and events. There will continue to be cutting-edge research and innovation and the fact that AI is popular now is positive and helps us with holding these meetings, but it does not change the research task and the objective we want to achieve with this learning and study. The School has a fundamental role in creating a Probabilistic Machine Learning community here in Brazil and fostering real research so that we can continue to progress and learn more about Artificial Intelligence”, concluded the FGV EMAp professor.