Pop-Up Institutes

Each year the Rhodes IID sponsors several Pop-Up Institutes.

Each Pop-Up Institute centers on a topic of current scientific importance driven by faculty in the mathematical and computational science community from across the university. Each Pop-Up Institute typically contains several elements spread over several months:

• Introductory mini courses: These courses last several weeks and are an invitation for students and researchers new to the topic to enter the conversation. They are also a mechanism by which researchers from diverse backgrounds, already working around the topic, to find a common language and perspective to better seed joint projects.
• Reading group: By reading through a number of recent or seminal papers on the topic from a number of different perspectives, the reading group will bring students and researchers up to the current state of the art. The hope is that the discussion will lead the group to start new collaborations.
• Distinguished visitors: Through conferences and seminars, we’ll bring leading experts on the subject to Duke to connect the conversations to the state-of-the-art in the broader scientific community and to show different perspectives on the subject.
• Other elements, such as long-term visitors or collaboration with other centers at Duke or nationally will be considered when available.

The initial topics were chosen through conversations with the current IID community. In subsequent years, an open call will be made to solicit topics. 

Fall 2025 Pop-up:  Transformers and Generative Diffusion Models in AI

• The Rhodes iiD mini-course on Transformers will start *THIS THURSDAY* September 18th at 10:00-11:20 in Gross Hall room 230C with Larry Carin giving the first lecture on transformers.

  The minicourse will continue on Tuesday and Thursday at the same time moving forward.
  You can always find up to date info at https://bigdata.duke.edu/participate/pop-up-institutes/

  The *reading group* will continue this Tuesday in Gross Hall 330 with lunch at 12 noon and the discussion starting at 12:15pm.

There will also be an associated conference and visitors that will be announced as the semester develops.