Cultivating Community: UW A3D3 Trainees Lead Engaging Seminars and Luncheons with Faculty Members

By: Trung Le
February 15, 2024

Seattle, WA – On February 5th, 2024, A3D3 trainees at the University of Washington (UW) kicked off their “Lunch with Professors” series, an initiative to foster a vibrant academic community within the institution. Led by student organizers Trung Le, Jingyuan Li, and Rajeev Botadra, this event series aims to connect faculty members and fifteen UW A3D3 students and postdocs in an informal and inviting setting.

The series, designed to create a welcoming space for learning and networking, is an opportunity for faculty members to get to know the trainees on a deeper level, and for trainees to gain invaluable insights and advice from faculty members, ranging from research trends, career paths, to potential opportunities from the faculty member’s network. 

The first event in the series kicked off with great enthusiasm, featuring Professor Shih-Chieh Hsu, Professor of Physics and Director of A3D3. The luncheon has drawn a diverse crowd of students from different disciplines of neuroscience, hardware design, and physics. Reflecting on the experience, attendee Leo shared: “The event was super fun! It was nice to meet with students that are in different fields but working on projects are all tied together through A3D3. And Shih-Chieh did a great job creating a friendly environment for us to chat informally about science and academia.”

In addition to the “Lunch with Professors” series, UW A3D3 trainees have also actively engaged in academic seminars. Every month, trainees gather around the A3D3 Seminar which hosts scholars working across applied areas of artificial intelligence, such as hardware algorithm co-development, high energy physics, multi-messenger astrophysics,  and neuroscience. Trainees from Eli Shlizerman’s NeuroAI Lab are also leading a weekly journal club discussing Large Language Models and their relations to NeuroAI, hosting authors of prominent papers to exchange ideas and explore emerging trends in the respective field.

Looking ahead, the A3D3 trainees will continue to further expand the reach of their initiatives to a wider audience. Their efforts highlight the importance of student-led activities in shaping the future of A3D3 academic endeavors. Through seminars and informal luncheons, they are not only facilitating a friendly environment for knowledge exchange but also fostering a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration within the A3D3 community.