COMP 648: Computer Vision Seminar | Fall 2024

Instructor: Vicente Ordóñez-Román (vicenteor at rice.edu)
Class Time: Tuesdays from 4pm to 5:15pm Central Time (Sewall Hall 562).

Course Description: This seminar will explore and analyze the current literature in computer vision, especially focusing on computational methods for visual recognition. Our topics include image classification and understanding, object detection, image segmentation, and other high-level perceptual tasks. Particularly, we will explore this semester recent topics such as Multimodal LLMs, Controllable Diffusion Models, LLMs for Grounded tasks in Vision and Robotics, Diffusion Models for Video, Transformer Models for Image Matching, among others.

Recommended Prerrequisites: COMP 547 (Computer Vision) or COMP 646 (Deep Learning for Vision and Language) or COMP 546/ELEC 546 (Intro to Computer Vision) or COMP 576 (Intro to Deep Learning) or COMP 647 (Deep Learning) or research experience in any of these topics.

Schedule

Date Topic  
Aug 27th Classes Suspended
Sep 3rd Welcome and Introductions
Sep 10th
  • Recent Advances in Multimodal LLMs: Jefferson Hernandez
  • Compositionality in Vision and Language Models (VLMs): Catherine He
Sep 17th Text-to-Video Generation Models: Moayed Haji-Ali
Sep 24th Invited Speaker: Prof. Zhengzhong Tu (Texas A&M University)
Title: Democratizing Diffusion Models for Controllable and Efficient Computational Imaging
Room: Duncan Hall 3076 [link to event]
Oct 1st Long-context Models for Language and Beyond: Zilin Xiao
Oct 8th Vision and Language for Robotics: Jaywon Koo
Oct 15th MIDTERM RECESS (NO SCHEDULED CLASSES)
Oct 22nd Controllable Generation in Diffusion Models: TBD
Oct 29th Leveraging Synthetic Data for Training: TBD
Nov 5th ELECTION DAY (NO SCHEDULED CLASSES)
Nov 12th Recently Proposed Datasets and Benchmarks: TBD
Nov 19th Computer Vision for Aerial Images: TBD
Nov 26th Invited Speaker: TBD
Dec 3rd Final Activity

Disclaimer: The topics on this list are tentative and subject to adjustments throughout the semester as interests in the group evolve.

Logistics: This is a seminar with a pass/fail grade. Registered students are required to participate and present a recent work in a topic of interest of the seminar at least once throughout the semester and complete and original research project and final research report. A Satisfactory grade requires participating presenting a paper at least once during the semester, actively participating in discussions throughout the semester, and completing the project.

Honor Code and Academic Integrity: "In this course, all students will be held to the standards of the Rice Honor Code, a code that you pledged to honor when you matriculated at this institution. If you are unfamiliar with the details of this code and how it is administered, you should consult the Honor System Handbook at http://honor.rice.edu/honor-system-handbook/. This handbook outlines the University's expectations for the integrity of your academic work, the procedures for resolving alleged violations of those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of students and faculty members throughout the process."

Title IX Support: Rice University cares about your wellbeing and safety. Rice encourages any student who has experienced an incident of harassment, pregnancy discrimination or gender discrimination or relationship, sexual, or other forms interpersonal violence to seek support through The SAFE Office. Students should be aware when seeking support on campus that most employees, including myself, as the instructor/TA, are required by Title IX to disclose all incidents of non-consensual interpersonal behaviors to Title IX professionals on campus who can act to support that student and meet their needs. For more information, please visit safe.rice.edu or email titleixsupport@rice.edu.

Disability Resource Center: "If you have a documented disability or other condition that may affect academic performance you should: 1) make sure this documentation is on file with the Disability Resource Center (Allen Center, Room 111 / adarice@rice.edu / x5841) to determine the accommodations you need; and 2) talk with me to discuss your accommodation needs."