Stanford Student Courses

Recent years have witnessed the successful application of time-honored techniques from the statistical physics of disordered systems, like the replica method and the cavity method, to understanding modern advances in machine learning and computation. We will develop the foundations of these methods, starting with a crash course in statistical mechanics, and then progressing to the basic theory of spin glasses, associative memories, random matrices, and random landscapes. We will additionally learn how to apply this theory to problems in learning and computation, including high dimensional statistics and deep learning. Overall, this foundations course will prepare students to read the growing interdisciplinary literature spanning physics, learning and computation.

Survey of advances in the theory of neural networks, mainly (but not solely) focused on results of relevance to theoretical neuroscience.Synthesizing a variety of recent advances that potentially constitute the outlines of a theory for understanding when a given neural network architecture will work well on various classes of modern recognition and classification tasks, both from a representational expressivity and a learning efficiency point of view. Discussion of results in the neurally-plausible approximation of back propagation, theory of spiking neural networks, the relationship between network and task dimensionality, and network state coarse-graining. Exploration of estimation theory for various typical methods of mapping neural network models to neuroscience data, surveying and analyzing recent approaches from both sensory and motor areas in a variety of species. Prerequisites: calculus, linear algebra, and basic probability theory, or consent of instructor.

Bioengineering focuses on the development and application of new technologies in the biology and medicine. These technologies often have powerful effects on living systems at the microscopic and macroscopic level. They can provide great benefit to society, but they also can be used in dangerous or damaging ways. These effects may be positive or negative, and so it is critical that bioengineers understand the basic principles of ethics when thinking about how the technologies they develop can and should be applied. On a personal level, every bioengineer should understand the basic principles of ethical behavior in the professional setting. This course will involve substantial writing, and will use case-study methodology to introduce both societal and personal ethical principles, with a focus on practical applications.

Representations and Algorithms for Computational Molecular Biology ( BIOE 214, CS 274, GENE 214)Topics: This is a graduate level introduction to bioinformatics and computational biology, algorithms for alignment of biological sequences and structures, BLAST, phylogenetic tree construction, hidden Markov models, basic structural computations on proteins, protein structure prediction, molecular dynamics and energy minimization, statistical analysis of 3D structure, knowledge controlled terminologies for molecular function, expression analysis, chemoinformatics, pharmacogenetics, network biology. Lectures are supplemented with assignments and programming projects, which allow students to implement important computational biology algorithms. Firm prerequisite: CS 106B. NOTE: For students in the Department of Biomedical Data Science Program, this core course MUST be taken as a letter grade only.

Artificial Intelligence technology can and must be guided by human concerns. The course examines how mental models and user models of AI systems are formed, and how that leads to user expectations. This informs a set of design guidelines for building AI systems that are trustworthy, understandable, fair, and beneficial. The course covers the impact of AI systems on the economy and everyday life, and ethical issues of collecting data and running systems, including respect for persons, beneficence, fairness and justice.

Computer Vision has become ubiquitous in our society, with applications in search, image understanding, apps, mapping, medicine, drones, and self-driving cars. Core to many of these applications are visual recognition tasks such as image classification and object detection. Recent developments in neural network approaches have greatly advanced the performance of these state-of-the-art visual recognition systems. This course is a deep dive into details of neural-network based deep learning methods for computer vision. During this course, students will learn to implement, train and debug their own neural networks and gain a detailed understanding of cutting-edge research in computer vision. We will cover learning algorithms, neural network architectures, and practical engineering tricks for training and fine-tuning networks for visual recognition tasks.Prerequisites: Proficiency in Python - All class assignments will be in Python (and use numpy) (we provide a tutorial here for those who aren't as familiar with Python). If you have a lot of programming experience but in a different language (e.g. C/C++/Matlab/Javascript) you will probably be fine.College Calculus, Linear Algebra (e.g. MATH 19, MATH 51) -You should be comfortable taking derivatives and understanding matrix vector operations and notation. Basic Probability and Statistics (e.g. CS 109 or other stats course) -You should know basics of probabilities, gaussian distributions, mean, standard deviation, etc.

Intelligent computer agents must reason about complex, uncertain, and dynamic environments. This course is a graduate level introduction to automated reasoning techniques and their applications, covering logical and probabilistic approaches. Topics include: logical and probabilistic foundations, backtracking strategies and algorithms behind modern SAT solvers, stochastic local search and Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms, variational techniques, classes of reasoning tasks and reductions, and applications.

Lecture/small group course exploring intersections of STEM, arts and humanities scholarship and practice that engages with, and generated by, exponential technologies. Our course explores the social ethical and artistic implications of artificial intelligence systems with an emphasis on aesthetics, civic society and racial justice, including scholarship on decolonial AI, indigenous AI, disability activism AI, feminist AI and the future of work for creative industries.

AI has been advancing quickly, with its impact everywhere. In healthcare, innovation in AI could help transforming of our healthcare system. This course offers a diverse set of research projects focusing on cutting edge computer vision and machine learning technologies to solve some of healthcare's most important problems. The teaching team and teaching assistants will work closely with students on research projects in this area. Research projects include Care for Senior at Senior Home, Surgical Quality Analysis, AI Assisted Parenting, Burn Analysis & Assessment and more. AI areas include Video Understanding, Image Classification, Object Detection, Segmentation, Action Recognition, Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, HCI and more. The course is open to students in both school of medicine and school of engineering.

How do we make music with artificial intelligence? What does it mean to do so (and is it even a good idea)? How might we design systems that balance machine automation and human interaction? More broadly, how do we want to live with our technologies? Are there - and ought there be - limits to using AI for art? (And what is Art, anyway?) In this "critical making" course, students will learn practical tools and techniques for AI-mediated music creation, engineer software systems incorporating AI, HCI and Music, and critically reflect on the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of technology.

Is it really possible for an artificial system to achieve genuine intelligence: thoughts, consciousness, emotions? What would that mean? How could we know if it had been achieved? Is there a chance that we ourselves are artificial intelligences? Would artificial intelligences, under certain conditions, actually be persons? If so, how would that affect how they ought to be treated and what ought to be expected of them? Emerging technologies with impressive capacities already seem to function in ways we do not fully understand. What are the opportunities and dangers that this presents? How should the promises and hazards of these technologies be managed?Philosophers have studied questions much like these for millennia, in scholarly debates that have increased in fervor with advances in psychology, neuroscience, and computer science. The philosophy of mind provides tools to carefully address whether genuine artificial intelligence and artificial personhood are possible. Epistemology (the philosophy of knowledge) helps us ponder how we might be able to know. Ethics provides concepts and theories to explore how all of this might bear on what ought to be done. We will read philosophical writings in these areas as well as writings explicitly addressing the questions about artificial intelligence, hoping for a deep and clear understanding of the difficult philosophical challenges the topic presents.No background in any of this is presupposed, and you will emerge from the class having made a good start learning about computational technologies as well as a number of fields of philosophical thinking. It will also be a good opportunity to develop your skills in discussing and writing critically about complex issues.