The 5th MC and 3rd WG Meeting in Barcelona from 27-28th Jan 2025
Abstract: Deep neural networks provide unprecedented performance gains in many real-world problems in signal and image processing. Despite these gains, the future development and practical deployment of deep networks are hindered by their black-box nature, i.e., a lack of interpretability and the need for very large training sets. On the other hand, signal processing and communications have traditionally relied on classical statistical modeling techniques that utilize mathematical formulations representing the underlying physics, prior information and additional domain knowledge. Simple classical models are useful but sensitive to inaccuracies and may lead to poor performance when real systems display complex or dynamic behaviour. Here we introduce various approaches to model based learning which merge parametric models with optimization tools and classical algorithms leading to efficient, interpretable networks from reasonably sized training sets. We will consider examples of such model-based deep networks to image deblurring, image separation, super resolution in ultrasound and microscopy, radar for clinical applications, efficient communication systems, and more.
Bio: Yonina Eldar is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel where she heads the center for Biomedical Engineering and Signal Processing and holds the Dorothy and Patrick Gorman Professorial Chair. She is also a Visiting Professor at MIT, a Visiting Scientist at the Broad Institute, and an Adjunct Professor at Duke University and was a Visiting Professor at Stanford. She is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, an IEEE Fellow and a EURASIP Fellow. She received the B.Sc. degree in physics and the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Tel-Aviv University, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, in 2002. She has received many awards for excellence in research and teaching, including the IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Achievement Award (2013), the IEEE/AESS Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award (2014) and the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award (2016). She was a Horev Fellow of the Leaders in Science and Technology program at the Technion and an Alon Fellow. She received the Michael Bruno Memorial Award from the Rothschild Foundation, the Weizmann Prize for Exact Sciences, the Wolf Foundation Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research, the Henry Taub Prize for Excellence in Research (twice), the Hershel Rich Innovation Award (three times), and the Award for Women with Distinguished Contributions. She received several best paper awards and best demo awards together with her research students and colleagues, was selected as one of the 50 most influential women in Israel, and was a member of the Israel Committee for Higher Education. She is the Editor in Chief of Foundations and Trends in Signal Processing, a member of several IEEE Technical Committees and Award Committees, and heads the Committee for Promoting Gender Fairness in Higher Education Institutions in Israel.
Abstract: Quantum computers represent a thread for existing encryption schemes, as it is possible to design quantum algorithms that efficiently solve the computational problems behind the security of commonly used protocols such as RSA. To alleviate this problem and attain quantum-safe security, that is, protocols secure against quantum computers, two approaches have been proposed: post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution. The first is still based on computational security, while the second is based on (quantum) physical security, a change of paradigm where security follows from the laws of quantum physics. In the talk, we first present all these concepts and then focus on quantum physical security, summarizing the main recent developments and challenges. In particular, we introduce the device-independent scenario, which provides the strongest form of quantum physical security.
He got his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 2001 from the UB. After a post-doctoral stay in Geneva, he joined ICFO in 2003, where he leads the Quantum Information Theory group. The group activities focus on quantum information theory and quantum communication, but also cover other fields such as quantum optics, many-body physics, quantum thermodynamics, of the foundations of quantum physics. Acín’s research has been awarded with 4 grants from the European Research Council: 1 Starting, 1 Proof of Concept, 1 Consolidator and 1 Advanced Grant, the latter starting in 2020. He also received an AXA Chair in Quantum Information Science in 2016. Finally, in 2024, he was awarded with the “Rey Jaume I” prize for basic research.Abstract: The classical wiretap channel, first introduced and analysed by Wyner, and then solved completely by Csiszár & Körner in the 1970s, is one of the best-studied information theoretic models of secret communication. It is beautiful not least because its private capacity is given by a single-letter information formula. With the introduction of the Bennett-Brassard-1984 (BB84) protocol in quantum key distribution the scene was set for the quantum wiretap channel, but it took until the early 2000s before the communication model was defined in generality and essentially solved, independently by Devetak (2003) and Cai/Yeung/AW (2004). In this talk I want to review the quantum wiretap channel, starting from a discussion of the security criterion, which generalises Wyner’s classical wiretap channel to the quantum domain in at least two different ways. Neither leads to a single-letter capacity formula, an annoyance all-too familiar in quantum information theory. Other topics I’m planning to touch upon are the impact of additional resources (such as preshared correlation or side channels) on the capacity, the question of the so-called “strong converse”, and how the model changes in the presence jammers.
Andreas Winter received a Diploma degree in Mathematics from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, in 1997, and a Ph.D. degree from Fakultät für Mathematik, Universität Bielefeld, Germany, in 1999. He was Research Associate at the University of Bielefeld until 2001, and then with the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, UK. In 2003, still with the University of Bristol, he was appointed Lecturer in Mathematics, and in 2006 Professor of Physics of Information. From 2007 to 2012 he was in addition a Visiting Research Professor with the Centre of Quantum Technologies at NUS, Singapore. Since 2012 he has been ICREA Research Professor with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. His research interests include quantum and classical Shannon theory, and discrete mathematics. He is recipient, along with Charles H. Bennett, Igor Devetak, Aram W.Harrow and Peter W. Shor, of the 2017 Information Theory Society Paper Award. In 2022, he received an Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, a Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship of Technische Universität München, and one of three 2022 QCMC International Quantum Awards. In 2024 he was announced as one of ten recipients of an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, which he is planning to take up with the University of Cologne in Germany in 2025.