CSC 578: Advanced Deep Learning

This course provides an in-depth exploration of state-of-the-art deep learning techniques, emphasizing both theoretical foundations and hands-on implementation. Topics include advanced optimization strategies and modern learning generalization methods. Students will engage with advanced computer vision techniques to explore video analysis, as well as modern sequence models and efficient Transformer variants, including positional encoding, to accelerate training. The course also covers advanced topics in large language models such as reinforcement learning fine tuning, mixture of experts, and chain of thought reasoning. Additionally, students will explore Graph Neural Networks for graph learning, reasoning, with applications in retrieval-augmented generation and structured data modeling. Throughout the course, students will critically analyze emerging methods, implement deep learning models from scratch, and engage with cutting-edge research.