Nina Miolane

The tutorial "Flow With What You Know" was just awarded "Best Blog Post" for ICLR 2025! cf. iclr-blogposts.github.io/2025/about/

Been musing on the geometry of disentangled representations & factorization: Doing it by construction seems like a limiting inductive bias.
What if you just add a soft geometric constraint to the loss and let the latent space sort itself out? Easy and tunable. 1/3

Thinking About Thinking is a nonprofit organization bringing together researchers, policymakers, and builders to engage with the most important open problems shaping artificial intelligence.

I’m pleased to share that I've been selected as a Fellow of the 2026 Thinking About Thinking Program!

I’m grateful to join a global, research-led ecosystem engaging thoughtfully with how AI is developed, governed, and understood.

@geometric-intel.bsky.social @ai-ucsb.bsky.social

And my desk has an ocean view 💅

🏆 #UCSB ranks #1 in scientific impact among public universities (#3 overall)!

Congratulations to our researchers!

@ucsantabarbara.bsky.social @ucsbengineering.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Exciting News! 🎓✨

Our new online professional master’s program—the Master of Engineering and Technology Leadership (METL)—is launching in Fall 2026:

We Are Hiring its Executive Director!

Join us in building the future of engineering @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social: lnkd.in/gbe5fhHU

We’re excited to kick off this year’s REAL AI Seminar Series! 🤖✨

Thrilled to start with @fatihdinc.bsky.social , thanks for joining us to launch the series.

Dr. Fatih Dinc gave a wonderful talk on biological versus artificial neural networks 🤯 @ucsbece.bsky.social @geometric-intel.bsky.social

Love to see it from @fatihdinc.bsky.social 😼🐼

Looking forward to seeing future talks from @ai-ucsb.bsky.social @ucsbece.bsky.social

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Exciting news from OCAQpi! Researchers @ucsbengineering.bsky.social @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social have advanced photonics with PZT-integrated SiN microcomb resonators. 🌟 Dive into this innovation: https://tinyurl.com/258gp9x4

We don’t need no (AI) education How artificial intelligence is rewiring the way we learn, remember, and make sense of the world

@abbybertics.bsky.social s reports from campus about an education system in crisis, and asks what the future might look like as students begin to tap into a tool that can think quicker, write faster and teach better than many of their instructors.

🎙️Listen here: www.economist.com/podcasts/202... !

As students tap into #AI tools that can teach better than their instructors, what does the future of education look like?

👉 @abbybertics.bsky.social from our lab @geometric-intel.bsky.social explores this question for the #TheEconomist !

Tomaso Poggio on his quest for theories to explain the fundamental learning abilities of brains and machines Thus far, engineering has outpaced theory in the science of intelligence. But Poggio is hopeful that theories can catch up.

Thus far, engineering has outpaced theory in the science of intelligence. But Tomaso Poggio is hopeful that theories can catch up.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/brain-inspir...

Thrilled to share @ninamiolane.bsky.social 's OpEd in @insidehighered.com with Annie K. Lamar!
Open-source software and scientific infrastructure fuel discovery by removing barriers – not creating them. Time to start treating open science as the public good it is🔬💡

Science Shouldn’t Rely on Corporate Software (opinion) We need to treat the software undergirding scientific research as a public good—and make investments accordingly.

The way forward is to invest in true open-source software and infrastructure.

Read our full oped w/ Annie K. Lamar @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social #publicvoices of TheOpEdProject:

insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

@geometric-intel.bsky.social @ai-ucsb.bsky.social @ucsbengineering.bsky.social

🙌 To be sure, *some* companies are truly dedicated to open-source.

By generously sharing their resources, they have dramatically advanced science.

It's time universities do the same.

👩‍🔬 Science advances slowly, across decades.

Commercial tools, by contrast, advance quickly through mergers, pivots and quarterly earnings reports.

Tethering our infrastructure to private companies is like writing knowledge in disappearing ink.

🦾 If we continue to rent the foundations of our knowledge from private companies, we should not be surprised when the floor gives way beneath us.

💵 Without proper funding structures, essential research tools remain fragile, often maintained by overworked volunteers.

Universities must begin funding engineers at competitive salaries and recognizing software development as a legitimate form of scholarship.

👩‍💻 Universities are reluctant to fund software engineers at competitive salaries.

A skilled engineer can earn 5x more in industry than in academia, yet most grants deprioritize dedicated engineering roles.

🤔 Much of modern research rests on tools and platforms maintained not by universities or public institutions, but by corporations whose priorities can shift overnight.

Knowledge itself is being built on the shifting sand of corporate discretion.

Thanks @insidehighered.com for publishing our OpEd w Annie K. Lamar #publicvoices of The Oped Project @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social !

🤖Open source software & infra accelerates scientific discoveries by removing financial & technical barriers.

It's about time we start treating it as a public good👇

Canvas bag with different quotes from writers

This year I’ve been volunteering for The OpEd Project by helping writers from different backgrounds refine and place opinion pieces. They sent me a holiday gift! They didn’t need to. It’s been wonderful to work with these writers.

Opinion | AI Isn't the Solution for Every Problem Health organizations should step back and understand what communities want

🔈 My first op-ed as a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest with The OpEd Project, out today, encourages health organizations to remember that AI is not the solution to every problem; instead, community priorities, not technology, should come first. 🔈

Thanks @thetransmitter.bsky.social for the feature! In our dementia work:

🧠 We predict cognitive decline by detecting early molecular signs.

🤖 We use LLM-augmented XAI to map key proteins to literature & accelerate biomarker discovery.

@louisacornelis.bsky.social G Bernardez R Saloner K Casaletto

How are better tools and bigger datasets transforming the field? In a new special report, @thetransmitter.bsky.social explores the state of neuroscience and provides context on the field's focus, output, people and funding. Explore now: www.thetransmitter.org/state-of-neu...

Recently have been doing virtual reality experiments with mice in complex, open world environments.
No linear tracks.
No T-mazes.
No simple gratings.
No binary choices.
No blocky, high contrast environments.
Those are great for some experiments, but we want to focus on COMPLEX processing. (6/n)

Can your AI beat a mouse? This is happening Sunday! robustforaging.github.io NeurIPS workshop 11 to 2 California time on Zoom!

@mbeyeler.bsky.social
@sinzlab.bsky.social
@ninamiolane.bsky.social
@crisniell.bsky.social
@mariusschneider.bsky.social
J. Canzano, Y. Hou, J. Peng, et al.

#NeurIPS2025

We are thrilled to announce our first invited talk this morning, featuring Prof. Rose Yu (@yuqirose.bsky.social) from UC San Diego, presenting “Fantastic Symmetries and Where to Find Them” at the UniReps workshop! 🎤✨