Machine Learning Essentials

Chris Callison-Burch is an associate professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where his work has positioned him as a thought leader in natural language processing (NLP) and crowdsourcing. Before joining Penn, he was a research faculty member at the Center for Language and Speech Processing at Johns Hopkins University, contributing significantly to advancements in the field during his six-year tenure.Chris has held prominent roles in major conferences and organizations, including serving as the General Chair of the ACL 2017 conference, Program Co-Chair for EMNLP 2015, Chair of the Executive Board of NAACL (2011–2013), and Secretary-Treasurer for SIGDAT (2015–2017). His editorial contributions span leading journals such as Transactions of the ACL (TACL) and Computational Linguistics.With over 100 publications that have been cited more than 10,000 times, Chris's research has had a profound impact on computational linguistics. Recognized as a Sloan Research Fellow, he has received prestigious faculty research awards from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook. His work has also been supported by DARPA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).Chris's research interests focus on the intersections of natural language processing, machine translation, and the innovative use of crowdsourcing to tackle complex computational challenges. His contributions continue to shape the future of AI-driven language technologies and their practical applications.

Honors and Awards: 2017 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2018 Best Paper Award by the IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 2019 Best Paper Award by the IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering runner up Research Expertise: Networks, Dynamics, and Data Sciences Victor M. Preciado is an Associate Professor and Graduate Chair in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is affiliated with the Networked and Social Systems Engineering program, the Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences, and the Applied Math and Computational Science program. Victor received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Prof. George Verghese and was a postdoctoral researcher at the GRASP lab working with Prof. Ali Jadbabaie. His main research interests lie at the intersection of Networks, Dynamics, and Data Sciences; in particular, in using innovative mathematical and computational approaches to model and control complex, high-dimensional dynamical systems. Relevant applications of this line of research can be found in the context of socio-technical networks, healthcare operations, critical technological infrastructure, and brain dynamics. Member of: Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences Affiliations: Applied Mathematics and Computational Science Education: PhD Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 2008 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology