See the calendar below for future seminars and events.

Following every Thursday seminar, attendees are welcome to come to one of our SMRI Afternoon Teas which take place on Thursday afternoons at 2pm on the Quadrangle Terrace, accessed through the entry in Quadrangle Lobby P and via the SMRI Common Room on level 4.

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Upcoming and current events: seminars, workshops and course

Workshop: Statistical Learning Theory

Speaker: Yunwen Lei, University of Hong Kong

Dates & times: Friday December 5, Monday December 8, Tuesday December 9, Tuesday December 16, Wednesday December 17, 2 – 4 pm AEDT

Location: The Quad Seminar Room S418 (McRae) A14.04.S418

Abstract: This workshop introduces fundamental tools in statistical learning theory to analyze the prediction behavior of machine learning algorithms. Topics include generalization analysis—such as population risk decomposition, uniform convergence, and Rademacher complexity—as well as the convergence analysis of optimization algorithms, including stochastic gradient descent and its early-stopping strategies. Applications to neural networks are also discussed.

Focus Period, ‘Mathematical Science of AI Safety’

Some aspects of intelligence are becoming a commodity. They are bought and sold by the token and piped from large datacenters hosting artificial neural networks to our phones, laptops, cars and perhaps soon domestic robots. However our understanding of what neural networks do, and how they “learn” is limited. This makes it difficult to assess the downside risks of rapid adoption of AI across the economy and in our personal lives. The goal of this focus period will be to come to grips with these questions from a mathematical perspective. Many mathematicians want to contribute, but lack a clear entry point into the subject. A primary aim will be to articulate guiding questions, in consultation with experts at the forefront of AI development. We also aim to bring together some of the most interesting thinkers in this nascent field.

Organisers: Daniel Murfet, Susan Wei & Geordie Wiliamson

November 3rd – December 12th, 2025, The University of Sydney

More information on the website.

Workshop: Algebraic Geometry

A workshop organised by Paolo Cascini (Imperial), Ivan Cheltsov (Edinburgh), Svetlana Makarova (ANU), Evgeny Shinder (Sheffield), & Behrouz Taji (UNSW).

February 9th – 13th, 2025, The University of Sydney