A theoretical machine learning and computational neuroscience lab at the University of the Witwatersrand.
South Africa
Joined March 2025
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We are excited to share that CAandL Lab will feature in 3 papers at #ICML2026 this week. Stop by and say hi if you are interested in any of these!
@devonjarvi5, @stefsmlab, @geraudnt with @kleinric, @BenjaminRosman, Damien Harvey, Branden Ingram, and Steven James
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
I'm excited to share our position paper that has been accepted at ICML as a Spotlight paper. In this work we (@kleinric, @BenjaminRosman, Steven James and @stefsmlab) make a call to action for more focus on model collapse in the AI Fairness community
arxiv.org/pdf/2605.04127
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
I’m excited to share that our paper “Compositionality and systematicity emerge from iterated learning in deep linear networks” has been published at PNAS. This work was conducted with @kleinric @BenjaminRosman and @SaxeLab. Some highlights below.
pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pn…
New research from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, is shedding light on how language evolves, in both humans and artificial intelligence models. The study explores the role of culture and “iterated learning”, showing how language becomes more structured over generations in both human development and large-scale AI language models.
🔗 Read More: ow.ly/42Vr50Z4BjH
#WitsForGood #WitsResearch #ResearchForGood
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
New research from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, is shedding light on how language evolves, in both humans and artificial intelligence models. The study explores the role of culture and “iterated learning”, showing how language becomes more structured over generations in both human development and large-scale AI language models.
🔗 Read More: ow.ly/42Vr50Z4BjH
#WitsForGood #WitsResearch #ResearchForGood
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
New preprint out!
What happens when diffusion models are trained on heterogeneous data (different classes/populations)? Do they generalise and memorise everything at the same time?
The answer is no, and it has a clear dependence on the distribution's properties.
🧵1/6
We’re happy to share our latest work on diffusion models, now out as an arXiv preprint. During score learning, different classes in a dataset are generalized and memorized at different times. What drives these differences? Find out here: arxiv.org/abs/2605.06367
CAandL Lab is at #Cosyne2026! 🧠
If you are interested in complementary learning systems and multisensory integration, check out our work by @liamculligan tomorrow!
Our gratitude to the MIND Institute @WitsUniversity for generously sponsoring the conference travel expenses.
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
Hiring 2 Postdocs to work on Theoretical Foundations of AI Safety @chalmersuniv
If you have a background in Physics, Math, or ML and want to tackle AI alignment at a fundamental level alongside UCL, apply below!
🔗Apply: chalmers.se/en/about-chalmer…
🔬Lab: stefsmlab.github.io/
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
We would like to congratulate and wish the Faculty of Science well on the launch of the AMPLIFY Unit lead by Abdul Hamid Carrim! Mathematics is at the heart of Computer Science and we are excited to see this step towards promoting excellence in 1st Year Mathematics.
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
🎉 Congratulations to Jess Rees and Tristan Bester on being awarded the highly competitive Google PhD Fellowship for 2025 . 💙🏛️
This prestigious fellowship recognises exceptional PhD candidates from the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics (CSAM) at Wits whose research shows outstanding potential for groundbreaking scientific contributions and meaningful societal impact.
Read More: ow.ly/JcFH50XZZsP
#WitsForGood #WitsResearch #InnovationForGood
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
I'm beyond honoured to be included on @TIME's list of the TIME100 AI of 2025! #TIME100AI
time.com/collections/time100…
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
It’s been a real pleasure visiting @devonjarvi5 lab @caandl_lab at @WitsUniversity this week and giving a talk – great discussions and inspiring work happening here! 🇿🇦
We are very proud of our CAandL Lab Director @devonjarvi5 for this achievement!
I am excited to share that I have been named in the @mailandguardian 200 Young South Africans for 2025!
This is a great honour and demonstrates the impact of the work we are doing at @WitsUniversity in Computer Science.
lnkd.in/eyasKJB8
#MG200 #MG200Young
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
Excited to be at @RL_Conference 🇨🇦 this week! I'm presenting two talks on logical composition in RL (Aug 6, Track 3) + a poster at @RLFrameWorkshop on a simple yet effective approach for non-Markov RL (Aug 5). Huge thanks to my amazing co-authors 🥳. Come say hi!
Thrilled to share that our paper was just published in JAIR (jair.org/index.php/jair/arti…)! We formalise task composition in RL using lattice structures📷, building a general framework for logical composition over arbitrary tasks beyond Boolean logic. (1/8)
🧵👇
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
🏆We are so proud of our ✨Honourable Mention✨ for the #FAccT2025 Best Paper Awards! This work was borne out of (com)passion, determination & a commitment to challenging norms in dataset collection & evaluation.
Read more here➡️arxiv.org/abs/2406.09496
🏆 Announcing the #FAccT2025 best paper awards! 🏆
Congratulations to all the authors of the three best papers and three honorable mention papers.
Be sure to check out their presentations at the conference next week!
facct-blog.github.io/2025-06…
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
The first session is happening tomorrow, May 29th at 4:30 PM CET, online via Zoom! 🔵🔴 See you there!
🎉 We’re thrilled to announce the first @ELLISforEurope × Unireps Speaker Series (Reading Group associated with ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Program) session is happening soon! 🔜
🗓️ When: 29th May 2025 – CET
📍 Where: ethz.zoom.us/j/66426188160
🎙️ Who: @AndrewLampinen (Keynote) & @Jack_W_Lindsey (Flash Talk)
👉 Join our Google group for more updates: groups.google.com/u/2/g/elli…
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
Great news! This work has also been accepted into RLC for the Journal to Conference Track. Congrats @geraudnt and teams for the great result 🦾
Thrilled to share that our paper was just published in JAIR (jair.org/index.php/jair/arti…)! We formalise task composition in RL using lattice structures📷, building a general framework for logical composition over arbitrary tasks beyond Boolean logic. (1/8)
🧵👇
CAandL Lab is at ICLR this week with 3 poster presentations. Come by and chat if you are interested! Congrats to all of the authors🥳 @frnc_mori @stefsmlab @framigna @devonjarvi5 @kleinric @BenjaminRosman @SaxeLab @sebalexlee @ClementineDomi6
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
Our paper, “Make Haste Slowly: A Theory of Emergent Structured Mixed Selectivity in Feature Learning ReLU Networks” will be presented at ICLR 2025 this week (openreview.net/forum?id=27SS…)! We derive closed-form dynamics for some, remarkably linear, feature learning ReLU networks (1/9)
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
I'm excited to announce that I have received the Thuthuka Research Grant from the @NRF_News! I will use this grant to start my own lab focused on comp neuro and ML theory at @WitsUniversity: the @caandl_lab! This is a joint effort with @VictoriaWi83762, @stefsmlab and @geraudnt.
Cognition, Adaptation and Learning (CAandL) Lab retweeted
🚀Exciting News! 🚀
Join us for the first UniReps x @UCL_Neuro_AI Meetup at @ucl @SWC_Neuro on Sept 8, 2025! 🎉
📍 Register now! 👉docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…
🔬 Exploring unifying representations in neural models—both artificial & biological.
🎙️ Keynote by Iris Groen (University of Amsterdam)
🧠 Tutorials, talks & networking with top minds in AI & neuroscience!
