BEARS 2021: Presenters

Assistant Prof. Gopala Anumanchipalli works at the intersection of Speech Processing, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence with an emphasis on human-centered speech and Assistive technologies, including new paradigms for bio-inspired spoken language technologies, automated methods for early diagnosis, characterizing and rehabilitating disordered speech. With colleagues at UCSF, he also develops methods to advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying speech/language function in healthy people and Brain-Computer Interfaces to externally decode speech and language directly from the brain to augment lost function in paralyzed patients. Anumanchipalli received a B.Tech and MS in CS from IIIT Hyderabad in 2008,  a Ph.D in Language and Information Technologies from Carnegie Mellon, and a Ph.D in ECE from IST, Lisbon. After Postdoctoral training, be became a Full Researcher in the Department of Neurosurgery at UCSF where he continues to hold an adjunct position. He joined the EECS department in Spring 2021.

Assistant Prof. Nika Haghtalab‘s research focuses on the theoretical aspects of machine learning and algorithmic economics.She is particularly interested in developing a theory for machine learning that accounts for its interactions with people and organizations, and the wide range of social and economic limitations, aspirations, and behaviors they demonstrate. Prior to coming to Berkeley, Haghtalab was an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University.  she received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, where she was co-advised by Avrim Blum and Ariel Procaccia.

Assistant Prof. Angjoo Kanazawa‘s research lies at the intersection of computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning. She is focused on figuring out how to build a system that can use everyday photographs and videos to perceive and understand the dynamic, complex, interactive, 3D world in which we live. Kanazawa holds a B.A. in Mathematics from NYU and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is part of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab.

Associate Prof. Boubacar Kanté‘s multidisciplinary research interests are in the areas of wave-matter interaction from microwave to optics and related fields such as antennas, nanophotonics, novel materials, and quantum optics. He proposed and demonstrated the world first topological laser based on the quantum Hall effect for light, which was selected as one of the top 10 discoveries by Physics World in 2017. He also demonstrated the first bound state in continuum (BIC) laser and highlighted the unique scaling of these cavities.  Kanté introduced the notion of symmetry/parity of ring resonators, an idea used to prove that closed rings, previously believed incapable of producing artificial magnetism, can make ultra-broadband negative index in metamaterials. He introduced the “Fishnet-Achromatic-Metalens (FAM)” earlier this year, an ultrathin and compact flat optical lens that spans wavelengths from the visible to the infrared with record-breaking efficiencies.

Assistant Prof. Alp Sipahigil‘s research is in solid-state quantum technologies, with a focus on hybrid quantum devices based on superconducting qubits, nanomechanics, nanophotonics, and atom-like defects in solids. He has joint appointments as a Faculty Scientist at the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a supporting appointment at UC Berkeley Physics. Prior to joining Berkeley in 2021, he was an Institute for Quantum Information and Matter postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 2017 and his B.S. degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Bogazici University, Turkey, in 2010.