Robert Pless
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pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless
@pless.bsky.social
1.2K followers 300 following 24 posts

Professor at GWU, Developer of @traffickcam and @projectRephoto. Computer vision/AI researcher with mercenary interest in glitter and contemporary art.

http://www2.seas.gwu.edu/~pless

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Computer science 80%
Engineering 11%
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pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · 24d
The Hurricane in Jamaica is already causing severe flooding (click through to see the live feed)

www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/ja...
【LIVE】 Live Cam Spanish Town - Flat Bridge | SkylineWebcams
View over the Flat Bridge in Spanish Town, Jamaica Live cam
www.skylinewebcams.com

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jul 15
I'm excited to share that GWU is hosting a World Bank Symposium on AI & the Future of Human Capital.

For those not steeped in the development, Human Capital == people’s skills, knowledge, and health

www.worldbank.org/en/events/20...

Some flexibility in the deadline is likely to be possible.
AI & the Future of Human Capital in the Global South: A World Bank-George Washington University Knowledge Symposium
How AI-driven innovations can help address critical human development challenges in low- and middle-income countries. Call for research papers: Submissions due July 18
www.worldbank.org

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jul 7
Finally, papers are routed to specific Area Chairs based on expertise and the research community isn't so big once you are in a specific area, so I'll share that I notice both the community members that put extra effort into writing reviews, and those that don't. Thanks you to those that do! (4/4)

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jul 7
Adding this step, where the executive decision maker has the obligation to object to or approve of them, helps align the authority to make the decisions with the responsibility to get good reviews.
Additionally, the Area Chairs see the name of the reviewer (I'm looking at you, reviewer #2). (3/4)

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jul 7
In the past, as an area chair I would end up with a collection of reviews, some of which sucked, and would somewhat throw up my hands and say "these reviews aren't great and I have to decide based on them, but what can I do ... there are too many papers to do anything else". (2/4)

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jul 7
I'm an Area Chair for NeurIPS this year. I spent most of today reviewing all the reviews for my 13 assigned papers to highlight reviews that were insufficient. There were a few reviews that were incredibly shallow and some had hallmarks of GPT, and this was a chance to reject those. (1/4)

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jun 20
Question: Does anyone have a pre-computed faiss indices for large datasets (LAION 2B, 5B or similar) that have been used to train CLIP-like models?

The one below doesn't seem to work anymore
knn5.laion.ai

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jun 3
I’m curious of any of my friends are at the AI expo in DC today? I’ll be hanging around the George Washington University Trustworthy AI booth for some of the day. Happy to have coffee with anyone!

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Mar 30
A view of many kites flapping in the wind at the DC kite festival

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Mar 30
The kite festival is one of the best days in DC

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jan 29
I'm lucky to get to work on important problems with some great researchers; @astylianou.bsky.social is giving a talk about our work on image search for sex trafficking investigations tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon (link below)

Reposted by Robert Pless

astylianou.bsky.social
Abby Stylianou @astylianou.bsky.social · Jan 29
I'm giving a virtual talk tomorrow at 12pm EST about the work that I've done with @pless.bsky.social @rsouvenir19.bsky.social and @jacobsn.bsky.social on building image search tools to support the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Feel free to tune in. cina.gmu.edu/event/cina-d...
CINA Distinguished Speaker Series with Abby Stylianou
TraffickCam: Identifying Where Victims of Human Trafficking and Child Sexual Abuse are Photographed Join us on Wednesday, January 29 for the upcoming virtual CINA Distinguished Speaker Series event…
cina.gmu.edu

Reposted by Robert Pless

csprofkgd.bsky.social
Kosta Derpanis @csprofkgd.bsky.social · Jan 28
The International Conference on Computational Imaging (ICCP) is coming to my hometown, #Toronto! Excited to serve as a social media co-chair for such a fantastic event.

With an incredible organizing committee and an amazing city to host, how could I say no?

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Nov 20
(Click to enlarge, the rainbow is outside of the narrow default thumbnail)

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Nov 20
one of the most insane webcam rainbow images I've ever seen, from (volcview.wr.usgs.gov/ashcam-api/i..., but that might be different now!)

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Nov 8
Welcome! Lots of great people here!

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Oct 28
Birds (and bugs!) flying over DC last night

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Jun 13
Cool talk at the AI Aspirations event at the old Newseum

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · May 7
A lazy afternoon in Washington DC, in the style of Xavi Bou
An "ornithography" style composite picture showing trajectories of birds flying in the sky.

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Apr 14
My favorite tree in the field by the elementary school close to my house. #gloverPark

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Mar 2
The prompt was not “a bird on a floating branch”

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Dec 13
I'm excited to be heading today to NeurIPS. If you're there and want to chat, drop me a note!

If you're interested in faculty openings at GWU this year, also drop me a note!

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Nov 15
Real estate options are limited in the DC area

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Nov 11
TIL that NOAA operates hundreds of buoycams that constantly take panoramic images.

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Nov 8
All creatures enjoy sunsets?

pless.bsky.social
Robert Pless @pless.bsky.social · Nov 8
My friends do cool things!

Reposted by Robert Pless

davidho.bsky.social
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Nov 8
“Nature, one of the most prestigious journals in scientific publishing, on Tuesday retracted a high-profile paper it had published in March that claimed the discovery of a superconductor that worked at everyday temperatures.”
Room-Temperature Superconductor Discovery Is Retracted
It was the second paper led by Ranga P. Dias, a researcher at the University of Rochester, that the journal Nature has retracted.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Robert Pless

karpathy.bsky.social
karpathy @karpathy.bsky.social · May 6
BlueSky firehose in real time cool https://firesky.tv