Nikolay Sarkisyan

Marie Curie Post Doctoral Fellow
nikolay.sarkisyan@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk

I am currently a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, delving into a project on historical revolutionary museums in Petrograd-Leningrad during the pivotal years of 1917-1941. This project, funded under the Horizon 2020 European Commission Grant Agreement number 10102852, allows me to explore the intricate transformations of Russian revolutionary traditions in museum spaces, particularly in the course of the 1920s and 1930s. My academic journey commenced at the University of Oslo, where I completed my PhD with a focus on the influence of the discourse of tolerance on contemporary Russian governance. This work offered profound insights into the intersection of politics, society, and history in post-Soviet Russia. My time at the University of Oslo was not only about academic growth but also about enhancing my teaching skills. I contributed to the university's curriculum by teaching courses on contemporary Russian politics and conducting Russian language classes. In 2014-17, before embarking on my doctoral studies, I worked at two prominent (formerly) historical-revolutionary museums: the Museum of Political History of Russia, formerly known as the Museum of the Revolution, and the Smol’ny Museum, previously the Museum of Lenin in Leningrad. My experiences in these museums were not just professionally enriching but also served as a source of inspiration for my current research project. I hold a Master’s degree in Sociology from the European University at St Petersburg and a Specialist degree in History from St Petersburg State University. My research interests are diverse and ever-evolving. Having initially focused on political science for my thesis, I transitioned (back) to history, examining the roots and evolution of Russia's revolutionary tradition. This research is not just a historical inquiry but also engages with broader theoretical questions about the nature of Soviet power, Stalinism, and the 1917 Revolution. In Michaelmas Term 2023, I explored new academic territories, teaching a course on post-Soviet red-brown literature. This endeavor reflects my growing interest in comparative literature and the sociology of literary work, marking a potentially new phase in my academic pursuits.

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Opponent-Shaping and Interference in General-Sum Games

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Add to Calendar Opponent-Shaping and Interference in General-Sum GamesThe Levett Room
Location
The Levett Room
Speakers
Jakob Foerster
Booking Required
Not Required
Accessibility
There is provision for wheelchair users.
Bio:

Jakob Foerster started as an Associate Professor at the department of engineering science at the University of Oxford in the fall of 2021. During his PhD at Oxford he helped bring deep multi-agent reinforcement learning to the forefront of AI research and interned at Google Brain, OpenAI, and DeepMind. After his PhD he worked as a research scientist at Facebook AI Research in California, where he continued doing foundational work. He was the lead organizer of the first Emergent Communication workshop at NeurIPS in 2017, which he has helped organize ever since and was awarded a prestigious CIFAR AI chair in 2019.





Abstract:

In general-sum games, the interaction of self-interested learning agents commonly leads to collectively worst-case outcomes, such as defect-defect in the iterated prisoner's dilemma (IPD). To overcome this, some methods, such as Learning with Opponent-Learning Awareness (LOLA), shape their opponents' learning process. However, these methods are myopic since only a small number of steps can be anticipated, are asymmetric since they treat other agents as naive learners, and require the use of higher-order derivatives, which are calculated through white-box access to an opponent's differentiable learning algorithm. In this talk I will first introduce Model-Free Opponent Shaping (M-FOS), which overcomes all of these limitations. M-FOS learns in a meta-game in which each meta-step is an episode of the underlying (``inner'') game. The meta-state consists of the inner policies, and the meta-policy produces a new inner policy to be used in the next episode. M-FOS then uses generic model-free optimisation methods to learn meta-policies that accomplish long-horizon opponent shaping. I will finish off the talk with our recent results for adversarial (or cooperative) cheap-talk: How can agents interfere with (or support) the learning process of other agents without being able to act in the environment?
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MBB Research Cluster: Representation of Sound in the Brain

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Add to Calendar MBB Research Cluster: Representation of Sound in the BrainSeminar Room 3 - The Academic Wing
Location
Seminar Room 3 - The Academic Wing
Speakers
Associate Professor Kerry Walker
Booking Required
Not Required

The Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Cluster is pleased to welcome Associate Professor Kerry Walker from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, who will talk about the "representation of sound in the brain", followed by a roundtable discussion.

This event will be held in Seminar Room 3 and is open to all members of the college.

Further information: https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/mind-brain-and-behaviour-mbb-research-cluster

Wolfson College Boatman Completes Record-Breaking Atlantic Crossing

Submitted by george.mather on

Jim Ronaldson has served the Wolfson College Boat Club as a talented and loyal boatman for more than 30 years. Inspired to act by the devastating impact of the pandemic on young mental health, Jim teamed up with fellow rower Ian Davies to take on the "world’s toughest row" to raise funds for Papyrus, which works to prevent suicide amongst young people. Ian raised funds for Myeloma UK.

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Wolfson Family Society International Party

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Add to Calendar Wolfson Family Society International PartyThe Buttery
Location
The Buttery
Speakers
N/A
Event price
N/A
Booking Required
Recommended
The Wolfson Family Society invites all families to our International Party on 2nd March 2024 from 4-6pm at the Buttery. Please bring along a dish from your home country to share (home made or store bought). Please include a note of ingredients in case of allergens. Drinks will be provided. Sign up to help us plan.



See you!



Emilia & Harriet

Jinzhao Sun

jinzhao.sun.phys@gmail.com

Jinzhao Sun is a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College. Jinzhao received his PhD in physics from the University of Oxford (Jesus College), supervised by Prof Vlatko Vedral and Prof Andrew Boothroyd. He did postdoctoral research with Prof Tom Gur at the University of Cambridge and Prof Myungshik Kim at Imperial College, and he will come back to Oxford supported by a Fellowship. Jinzhao’s research revolves around quantum computing, quantum information, quantum many-body physics, and quantum materials. His research lies in the exploration of quantum computing as a means to address problems that present challenges for classical computing. His research aims to uncover the potential power of quantum computing, and examine whether it holds advantages in tackling quantum many-body problems.

Quantum computing

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Hands Down: Piano music for four and six hands

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Add to Calendar Hands Down: Piano music for four and six handsThe Leonard Wolfson Auditorium
Location
The Leonard Wolfson Auditorium
Event price
Free
Booking Required
Not Required
Accessibility
No

Wolfson College presents a concert of Romantic piano music for four and six hands performed by current Wolfson students. Highlights include the Berceuse from Fauré's Dolly Suite, Saint-Saëns’s tempestuous Danse Macabre, and Rachmaninoff’s dances for six hands. 

Works by Beach, Debussy, Fauré, Moszkowski, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns, and Schubert.

Performed by Jessica Rahardjo, Emma Cameron, Tein van der Lugt, Theodor Borrmann, and Frederik Florenz.

Admission is free; donations are gratefully received for AMREF.

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Frameworks for Reliable AI Deployment in Medical Imaging

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Add to Calendar Frameworks for Reliable AI Deployment in Medical ImagingThe Levett Room
Location
The Levett Room
Speakers
Professor Konstantinos Kamnitsas
Booking Required
Not Required
Learn about the future of biomedical imaging with Professor Konstantinos Kamnitsas and the Wolfson Engineering Society!
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Zero Carbon Climate-Responsive Buildings

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Add to Calendar Zero Carbon Climate-Responsive BuildingsThe Levett Room
Location
The Levett Room
Speakers
Prof. Jesús Lizana
Booking Required
Not Required
Learn about the future of low-carbon architecture with Professor Jesús Lizana and the Wolfson Engineering Society
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Machine Learning and Automated Phylogenetics for Caucasian Languages

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Add to Calendar Machine Learning and Automated Phylogenetics for Caucasian LanguagesThe Levett Room
Location
The Levett Room
Speakers
Atticus Mawby
Booking Required
Not Required
The Wolfson Engineering Society invites you to learn about the latest developments in machine learning in the field of linguistics, and their application to some of Eurasia's most fascinating languages.