|
From the Workshop: SPARC Workshop on Distributed Learning and Optimization
|
CNI organised the SPARC Workshop on Distributed Learning and Optimization on 13 July 2026 at the ECE Department, IISc Bengaluru. The one-day offline workshop brought together researchers from IITs, IISc, Rutgers University, and Google DeepMind for a focused day of technical exchange.
The workshop featured eight invited talks spanning distributed learning, optimization, information theory, reinforcement learning, and networked systems. Talks were delivered by Prof. Chandramani Singh and Prof. Sundeep Prabhakar Chepuri (IISc), Prof. Kunal Narayan Chowdhury (IIT Delhi), Prof. P. N. Karthik (IIT Hyderabad), Dr. Kartikeyan Shanmugam (Google DeepMind), Prof. Nikhil Karamchandani (IIT Bombay), Prof. Amitalok Budkuley (IIT Kharagpur), and Prof. Salim El Rouayheb (Rutgers University).
The workshop received 147 registrations and was attended by 56 participants in person. The sessions encouraged active discussions between speakers and participants throughout the day.
|
From the Summer School 2026
|
CNI hosted the 6th CNI Summer School 2026 from 20–24 July 2026 at IISc Bengaluru. The five-day offline programme was led by Prof. Aditya Mahajan, Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University.
This year's theme was Model Approximation in MDPs and POMDPs. The course introduced the foundations of stochastic systems, Markov Decision Processes, and Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes, and explored how model approximation can be applied to decision-making under uncertainty. Topics ranged from dynamic programming and Bellman operators to approximation bounds and their connections to reinforcement learning.
The summer school saw strong participation, with 89 participants attending in person from 185 eligible registrations. Participants included PhD, Master's, and Bachelor's students, faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, and industry professionals from institutions across India including IISc, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee, and several NITs and IIITs.
|
At the Conference: SPCOM 2026
|
CNI was a silver sponsor of the 16th International Conference on Signal Processing and Communications (SPCOM 2026), held at ECE Department, IISc from July 16–18, 2026. The biennial conference featured plenary talks, tutorials, invited sessions, and contributed papers spanning signal processing, communications, and machine learning.
|
