{ "153630-21916118": { "datetime_modified":"20261014T092959", "datetime_start":"20261023T100000", "datetime_end":"20261023T110000", "has_end_time":1, "date_start":"2026-10-23", "date_end":"2026-10-23", "time_start":"10:00:00", "time_end":"11:00:00", "time_zone":"America\/Detroit", "event_title":"Collaborative Intelligence: Learning Together from Heterogeneous Data and Language", "occurrence_title":"", "combined_title":"Collaborative Intelligence: Learning Together from Heterogeneous Data and Language: Raed Al Kontar", "event_subtitle":"Raed Al Kontar", "event_type":"Workshop \/ Seminar", "event_type_id":"21", "description":"Data are increasingly generated by many connected users, machines, and systems, which has led to explosive interest in collaborative analytics, such as federated learning, that borrow strength across diverse sources. To date, these efforts have focused mainly on predictive modeling. In this talk, I argue that collaboration, without untangling the nature of heterogeneity across users, can lead to swift and evident failures. Indeed, borrowing from the wrong sources can be worse than not collaborating at all. To this end, I present two frameworks that address two questions at the heart of collaboration: what to share, and whom to borrow from. First, we introduce Personalized PCA, a descriptive framework that extracts interpretable and identifiable features describing what is shared and what is unique across diverse datasets. Second, I bring language into the collaboration. When a new user has too little data to tell which collaborators are relevant, expert textual descriptions of the new system, often available yet overlooked, can fill the gap. Here, a large language model translates these descriptions into a prior over source relevance that guides learning when data are scarce and is gradually corrected as data accumulate. I conclude by highlighting future directions at the intersection of agentic AI, statistics, and decision making.", "occurrence_notes":null, "guid":"153630-21916118@events.umich.edu", "permalink":"http:\/\/events.umich.edu\/event\/153630", "building_id":"1000167", "building_name":"West Hall", "campus_maps_id":"163", "room":"340", "location_name":"West Hall", "has_livestream":0, "cost":"", "tags":["Talk","statistics","seminar","AEM Featured"], "website":"", "sponsors":[ { "group_name":"Department of Statistics Seminar Series", "group_id":"3585", "website":"" }, { "group_name":"Department of Statistics", "group_id":"3473", "website":"" } ], "image_url":"", "styled_images":{ "event_thumb":"", "event_large":"", "event_large_2x":"", "event_large_lightbox":"", "group_thumb":"", "group_thumb_square":"", "group_large":"", "group_large_lightbox":"", "event_large_crop":"", "event_list":"", "event_list_2x":"", "event_grid":"", "event_grid_2x":"", "event_feature_large":"", "event_feature_thumb":"" }, "occurrence_count":1, "first_occurrence":21916118 } , "150951-21910488": { "datetime_modified":"20261021T121244", "datetime_start":"20261023T100000", "datetime_end":"20261023T110000", "has_end_time":1, "date_start":"2026-10-23", "date_end":"2026-10-23", "time_start":"10:00:00", "time_end":"11:00:00", "time_zone":"America\/Detroit", "event_title":"Craft Lecture by Tisa Bryant: \"Residual as Method\"", "occurrence_title":"", "combined_title":"Craft Lecture by Tisa Bryant: \"Residual as Method\"", "event_subtitle":"", "event_type":"Lecture \/ Discussion", "event_type_id":"13", "description":"Zell Visiting Writers Series craft lecutures are free and open to the public and will be offered both virtually (via Zoom) and in person (Michigan League, Henderson Room 3rd floor). Seats are offered on a first come, first served basis; please arrive early to secure a spot. Login here (no pre-registration needed): https:\/\/myumi.ch\/ZellWriters26\n\nTisa Bryant\u2019s writing explores Black women\u2019s subjectivity by remixing rhetorical, literary, cinematic and visual arts techniques into original modes of narrative and storytelling. Her latest book, *Residual*, is an assemblage of the interiors of grief, the home as archive, and the mystery of mothers, published by Nightboat Books in 2026. Her first book, *Unexplained Presence*, on the mythologies of Black presences in the arts, was reissued by Wave Books in 2024. In her afterword to *Unexplained Presence*, renowned critic Margo Jefferson hailed Tisa as a \u201cliterary and film auteur, an auteur of performance on the page, stage and screen or canvas.\u201d \n\nA Boston native, Tisa was a member of the Dark Room Collective, an African-diasporic writing group that hosted a celebrated reading series in Cambridge and Boston. She is co-editor of the three-volume, cross-referenced literary journal, *The Encyclopedia Project*, and collaborated from 2015-2018 with critic and writer Ernest Hardy on *The Black Book*, an original talk and film series presented at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Tisa is editor of *Deep West Assembly*, a monograph of recent works by the award-winning visual artist Cauleen Smith, forthcoming in 2026 from Astrup Fearnley Museet and Kestner Gesellschaft. She lives in Iowa City, where she is Associate Professor of English in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and is currently at work on a novel.\n\nFor any questions about the event or to share accommodation needs, please email zvwseries@umich.edu--we are eager to help ensure this event is inclusive to you. The building, event space, and restrooms are wheelchair accessible. Diaper changing tables are available in nearby restrooms. Gender-inclusive restroom is available on the third floor, Room 343T.\n\nASL interpreters and CART services at in-person events are available upon request; please email zvwseries@umich.edu at least two weeks prior to the event, whenever possible, to allow time to arrange services.\n\nU-M employees with a U-M parking permit may use the Church Street Parking Structure (525 Church St., Ann Arbor) or the Thompson Parking Structure (500 Thompson St., Ann Arbor). \n\nFor Public Parking: The Maynard Street Public Parking Structure (324 Maynard St., Ann Arbor) or The Forest Avenue Public Parking Structure (650 South Forest Ave., Ann Arbor) . All of these options include parking spots for individuals with disabilities.", "occurrence_notes":null, "guid":"150951-21910488@events.umich.edu", "permalink":"http:\/\/events.umich.edu\/event\/150951", "building_id":"1000191", "building_name":"Michigan League", "campus_maps_id":"108", "room":"Henderson Room, 3rd floor", "location_name":"Michigan League", "has_livestream":0, "cost":"", "tags":["Undergraduate","Ann Arbor","The Helen Zell Writers' Program","Literature","Graduate","Department Of English Language And Literature","Culture","Creative Writing","Books"], "website":"", "sponsors":[ { "group_name":"Zell Visiting Writers Series", "group_id":"3463", "website":"" }, { "group_name":"Residential College [RC]", "group_id":"1029", "website":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/umichrc" }, { "group_name":"English Language & Literature - MFA Program in Creative Writing", "group_id":"1150", "website":"" }, { "group_name":"University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers' Program", "group_id":"3419", "website":"" }, { "group_name":"Department of English Language and Literature", "group_id":"3604", "website":"" } ], "image_url":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "styled_images":{ "event_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_large_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "group_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "group_thumb_square":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_thumb_square\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "group_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "group_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_large_crop":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_crop\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_list":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_list_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_grid":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_grid_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid_2x\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_feature_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_large\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg", "event_feature_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2026\/08\/event_150951_original-1.jpg" }, "occurrence_count":1, "first_occurrence":21910488 } }