Physics & Astronomy Colloquium: Jesse Thaler, MIT
Title: Collision Course: Particle Physics meets Machine Learning
Abstract: Modern machine learning has had an outsized impact on many scientific fields, and particle physics is no exception. What is special about particle physics, though, is the vast amount of theoretical knowledge that we already have about many problems in the field, as well as the daunting deluge of data coming from flagship experiments like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In this colloquium, I will explain how one can teach a machine to "think like a physicist" by embedding theoretical principles into advanced machine learning architectures. At the same time, I will advocate that physicists must learn how to "think like a machine" to maximize the physics reach of the LHC.