Verbalizing LightGCN: Direct Learning of Textual Representations from User-Item Interaction Graph via LLMs
In this work, we propose VerbaLightGCN, a novel LLM-based recommendation framework that integrates the semantic understanding of LLMs with user-item interaction modeling. Traditional collaborative filtering (CF) models typically embed user and item IDs into a latent space to capture interaction signals. However, pretrained LLMs cannot natively interpret these learned embeddings. To bridge this gap, VerbaLightGCN adopts a CF-as-text paradigm, in which collaborative signals are encoded in textual form and directly learned from the user–item interaction graph, and are then combined with semantic information to construct user and item profiles that function as latent embeddings. Inspired by LightGCN, our method retains its message-passing design but replaces numerical embedding computations with a Chain-of-Thought prompting mechanism. This enables LLMs to simulate the LightGCN aggregation process through natural language. The result is a recommendation framework that unifies semantic understanding with collaborat…
Subtitle: Pre-Conference Talk by NGO HUU Manh Khanh. Contact: scisseminar@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , NGO HUU Manh Khanh
PhD Candidate
School of Computing and Information Systems
Singapore Management University, NGO HUU Manh Khanh is a PhD candidate in the School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) at Singapore Management University (SMU). He is supervised by Prof. Hady W. Lauw. His research interests lie at the intersection of Recommendation Systems and Large Language Models. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UQVQ5TVJHVDVRMDA3TkdGTEdYQ0hQRVBYVC4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public.
Tuesday, July 14, 2026, 4:00 PM – 4:15 PM.
Meeting room 4.4, Level 4. School of Computing and Information Systems 1,
Singapore Management University, 80 Stamford Road, Singapore 178902.
For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg. MITB Coffee Session (Singapore)
Public Events
RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://scispg.smu.edu.sg/acton/media/44865/mitbcs0726. Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Analytics for Business, Consumer & Social Insights. Information Technology & Systems. Innovation & Entrepreneurship. International. Learning & Professional Development. Operations Management. Organisational Behaviour. Strategic Management. Law. Audience: Public.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
In-Campus
SMU School of Computing and Information Systems
Limited seats available!
SMU: Jakarta Coffee Session
Public Events
Hourly Sessions: 10:00am to 2:00pm. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://calendly.com/joshuasim/smu-consultation-jakarta-190726. Event Details: Join us for an insightful session to discover how our post-graduate programmes can support your personal and professional aspirations.
Our Admissions Advisors will speak with you directly to provide detailed guidance on the application process and to discuss the financial aid and scholarship opportunities that may be available to you.
For a pre-application assessment, please bring along a copy of your resume for a personalised review. Kindly note that sessions may be conducted in a group se… Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Finance & Financial Markets. Business. Audience: Prospective Student. Public.
Sunday, July 19, 2026, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM.
Nirwana Lounge
Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta, Jl. MH Thamrin No.1, RT.1/RW.5, Menteng, Central Jakarta City, Jakarta 10310, Indonesia.
From Behaviour to Explanation: Actual Causality in Process Algebra
Formal verification can tell us whether a system satisfies a property, but often not why this property holds. In this talk, I will discuss ongoing work on integrating actual causality into process algebra and concurrent-system semantics. We introduce the Causal Transition Calculus (CTC), a framework combining process algebra, modal logic, and intervention-based reasoning inspired by Halpern and Pearl. The framework allows us to reason about causes of behavioural properties in concurrent systems, while connecting variable-level interventions with operational semantics and labelled transition systems. A central insight is that causality depends not only on observable behaviour, but also on the internal structure generating that behaviour: systems that are behaviourally equivalent may still differ from a causal perspective. This work aims to build bridges between concurrency theory, formal verification, causal reasoning, and explainable system analysis, opening new directions for understanding complex reactive a…
Subtitle: Research Seminar by Dr Georgiana Caltais. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , Georgiana Caltais
Assistant Professor
Formal Methods and Tools Group
University of Twente
Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS), Georgiana Caltais is an Assistant Professor in the Formal Methods and Tools group at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. She received her PhD from Radboud University and Reykjavík University and subsequently held research positions at ETH Zürich and the University of Konstanz.
Her research focuses on the formal modelling,… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTbOXO7ktpRtBsn62WuekYtpUQTMzSzY3R0FDVzJNNUIwRUxCUUVaQU5HQy4u&route=shorturl. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Meeting Room 4-1, Level 4. SMU SCIS 2, Singapore 178903.
For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg. Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) for Cyber-Security and Political Sciences
This presentation explores the transformative potential of generative AI—particularly large language models (LLMs)—in addressing critical challenges in domains such as cybersecurity, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and political sciences. In this talk, the speaker will cover the following and other related topics.Generative AI–Enhanced Threat Modeling in ITS: We develop an LLM-based framework to automate threat modeling for complex intelligent transportation systems by mapping information flows to MITRE ATT&CK techniques and NIST Cybersecurity Framework controls. The approach evaluates multiple AI methods, including zero-shot learning, RAG, multimodal reasoning, in-context learning, and fine-tuning. Policy Analysis for Secure Transportation Systems: This project enhances transportation cybersecurity policy using AI-driven legal analysis and stakeholder engagement. Building on the TraCR AI system, it integrates U.S. and international regulations and uses agentic AI and graph-based retrieval to…
Subtitle: Research Seminar by Dr Latifur Khan. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , Latifur Khan
Professor
Department of Computer Science
University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), USA
Fellow of IEEE, AAAS, IET & BCS, Dr. Latifur Khan is a full Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA and Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security Center. Dr. Khan is a fellow of IEEE, AAAS, and the British-based IET and BCS, and an ACM Distinguished Scientist. He has received prestigious awards including the IEEE ITSS ISI 2012 Technical… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTbOXO7ktpRtBsn62WuekYtpUQTFSQlY0UTQ2OTJVQzI4M1Y4MEQxRzA2MC4u&route=shorturl. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Seminar Room 4-2, Level 4. SMU SCIS 2, Singapore 178903.
For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg. SMU: Bangkok Coffee Session
Public Events
Hourly Sessions: 6:00pm to 8:00pm. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://calendly.com/smupgppmg/smu-consultation?month=2026-07&date=2026-07-22. Event Details: Join us for an insightful session to discover how our post-graduate programmes can support your personal and professional aspirations.
Our Admissions Advisors will speak with you directly to provide detailed guidance on the application process and to discuss the financial aid and scholarship opportunities that may be available to you.
For a pre-application assessment, please bring along a copy of your resume for a personalised review. Kindly note that sessions may be conducted in a group se… Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Finance & Financial Markets. Business. Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Analytics for Business, Consumer & Social Insights. Audience: Prospective Student. Public.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit.
SMU: Ho Chi Minh City Coffee Session
Public Events
Hourly Sessions: 5:00pm to 8:00pm. RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://calendly.com/danielpang-smu/smu-hcmc-jul26. Event Details: Join us for an insightful session to discover how our post-graduate programmes can support your personal and professional aspirations.
Our Admissions Advisors will speak with you directly to provide detailed guidance on the application process and to discuss the financial aid and scholarship opportunities that may be available to you.
For a pre-application assessment, please bring along a copy of your resume for a personalised review. Kindly note that sessions may be conducted in a group se… Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Finance & Financial Markets. Business. Audience: Prospective Student. Public.
Friday, July 24, 2026, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Lotte Hotel Saigon
2A-4A Tôn Đức Thắng, Phường, Sài Gòn, Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam.
Generative AI for Cardiovascular Health
Cardiovascular disease remains a major global health challenge, making reliable and accessible monitoring increasingly important. Two of the most widely used signals for assessing cardiovascular function are the electrocardiogram (ECG), which records the heart’s electrical activity, and the photoplethysmogram (PPG), which measures blood-volume changes through optical sensing. Recent advances in generative AI have opened new possibilities for learning from these signals. However, important challenges remain in ensuring reliable performance on real-world signals, generalizing across diverse populations and healthcare settings, and enabling flexible interaction beyond narrowly defined prediction tasks. In this talk, I will present a progression of methods for building more reliable, transferable, and interactive cardiovascular AI. Drawing on research in signal quality enhancement and disentangled learning, large-scale multimodal representation learning, and language models, I will show how physiology-informed de…
Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by PHAM Hung Manh. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , PHAM Hung Manh
PhD Candidate
School of Computing and Information Systems
Singapore Management University, Hung Manh PHAM is a third-year PhD candidate in Computer Science, supervised by Prof. Pan Zhou and co-supervised by Prof. Dong Ma and Prof. Bin Zhu. He is also a visiting student at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on machine learning for healthcare and biomedicine, particularly physiology-informed learning and medical foundation models. His broader interests include causal… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UQUk0RU5QQlVMTDk5TDZHUFRYS1REU1pYNC4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community.
Monday, July 27, 2026, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM.
Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902.
For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg. SMU: Manila Coffee Session
Public Events
RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://calendly.com/ivysim-smu/manilacs270726?month=2026-07. Event Details: Join us for an insightful session to discover how our post-graduate programmes can support your personal and professional aspirations.
Our Admissions Advisors will speak with you directly to provide detailed guidance on the application process and to discuss the financial aid and scholarship opportunities that may be available to you.
For a pre-application assessment, please bring along a copy of your resume for a personalised review. Kindly note that sessions may be conducted in a group se… Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Business. Finance & Financial Markets. Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Audience: Prospective Student. Public.
Monday, July 27, 2026, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM.
Fairmont Makati Hotel.
AI-Driven Interactive Knowledge Synthesis and Explorable Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed how people access information and learn, yet most AI systems remain largely text-centric, providing generated prose with limited support for visual synthesis and interactive exploration. This dissertation argues that AI should move beyond generating text to constructing interactive explanatory artifacts that combine generated content, visual structure, and user interaction to support deeper understanding. Such artifacts enable people to inspect, manipulate, and reason about complex information and concepts, whether synthesizing knowledge from multiple sources or learning abstract subjects such as mathematics. To investigate this vision, the dissertation presents three AI-driven systems spanning knowledge synthesis and mathematics education: Compendia, which transforms fragmented information from online documents into interactive visual data stories; MathVibe, which supports teacher–AI co-creation of mathematics explorable explanations; and EETutor, which dynamicall…
Subtitle: PhD Dissertation Proposal by VIDANA Gamage Manusha Imesh Karunathilaka. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , PHAM Hung Manh
PhD Candidate
School of Computing and Information Systems
Singapore Management University, Hung Manh PHAM is a third-year PhD candidate in Computer Science, supervised by Prof. Pan Zhou and co-supervised by Prof. Dong Ma and Prof. Bin Zhu. He is also a visiting student at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on machine learning for healthcare and biomedicine, particularly physiology-informed learning and medical foundation models. His broader interests include causal… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTejbEKPlArBJhZomj91naG9UOTcxQURGSkRORjdNUktMTElXU1RGNkVQWC4u. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community.
Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Meeting room 5.1, Level 5. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902.
For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg. SMU: Tokyo Coffee Session
Public Events
Hourly Sessions: 12:00pm - 3:00pm (JST) (hourly sessions)
6:00pm - 8:00pm (JST) (hourly sessions). RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://calendly.com/smuai/tokyo-coffee-session. Event Details: Join us for an insightful session to discover how our post-graduate programmes can support your personal and professional aspirations.
Our Admissions Advisors will speak with you directly to provide detailed guidance on the application process and to discuss the financial aid and scholarship opportunities that may be available to you.
For a pre-application assessment, please bring along a copy of your resume for a personalised review. Kindly note that sessions may be conducted in a group se… Type: Information Sessions. Subject: Finance & Financial Markets. Business. Audience: Prospective Student. Public.
Friday, July 31, 2026, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM.
SALONE VENDREDI
103-0022 Tokyo, Chuo-City, Nihonbashimuromachi, 3-4-4 Floor 1.
Privacy Preservation in Large Language Models (LLMs)
Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized artificial intelligence but introduced profound privacy vulnerabilities, including data leakage, model inversion, and the inadvertent exposure of sensitive information. As LLMs integrate into high-stakes applications, mitigating these risks is paramount. This talk explores the fundamental privacy challenges inherent in LLM operations and introduces NOIR, the first privacy-preserving LLM model. To prevent prompting contents exposure to honest-but-curious cloud service providers, NOIR utilizes a secure, distributed architecture that transmits only encoded embeddings. By employing local differential privacy at the token embedding level alongside a data-independent, randomized tokenizer, NOIR effectively shields both proprietary prompts and resultant answers. The talk will demonstrate how NOIR achieves an optimal balance, providing rigorous privacy guarantees without compromising computational efficiency or downstream model performance.
Subtitle: Research Seminar by Dr My T. Thai. Contact: scisseminars@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: , My T. Thai
Professor
Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering
University of Florida, My T. Thai is a Research Foundation Professor, Associate Director of UF Nelms Institute for the Connected World, and a Fellow of IEEE and AAIA. Dr. Thai is a leading authority who has done transformative research in Trustworthy AI and Optimization, especially for complex systems with applications to healthcare, social media, critical networking infrastructure, and cybersecurity. The results of her… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTbOXO7ktpRtBsn62WuekYtpUMDdEMzI3V0xUMVQyM0RUV0JUQzlLUlQyOS4u&route=shorturl. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. Current Student. Academic Community.
Monday, August 3, 2026, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM.
Meeting Room 4-4, Level 4. SMU SCIS 1, Singapore 178902.
For more info visit computing.smu.edu.sg. SMU Doctor of Engineering (EngD) Virtual Information Session
Infosessions
.
RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://scispg.smu.edu.sg/acton/media/44865/engdis0826. Type: Information Sessions. Webinar & Online Learning. Subject: Business. Leadership. Operations Management. Organisational Behaviour. Strategic Management. Information Technology & Systems. Analytics for Business, Consumer & Social Insights. Audience: Professionals. Prospective Student.
Thursday, August 20, 2026, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Virtual via Zoom
Details will be provided via email upon registration.