Technical Talks

Joseph Gonzalez is a Computer Science Professor at UC Berkeley, the co-director of the RISE and Sky Computing Labs, and a member of the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) group. He leads the Large Models Systems (LM-Sys) and Gorilla projects which have significantly advanced open research in large language models and their supporting systems. Joseph is also co-founder and Head of AI at RunLLM.com. His research addresses problems in data systems, large language models, scalable machine learning, computer vision, robotics, autonomous driving, and graph analytics. Prior to joining Berkeley, Gonzalez co-founded Turi Inc (formerly GraphLab) based on his thesis work. Gonzalez’s innovative work has earned him significant recognition, including the Okawa Research Grant, the NSF Expedition Award, the VLDB Test-of-Time award, and NSF Early CAREER Award.

Denis Yarats is the Co-Founder & CTO of Perplexity, building AI-native search tools since 2022. With a PhD in AI from NYU and experience at Facebook AI Research, Quora, and Microsoft, Denis brings deep technical expertise to his work. He's also an angel investor in AI startups like Cognition Labs (Devin) and Cursor. Currently, he's developing Comet, a new "browser for agentic search" that reflects his ongoing commitment to advancing how we discover information online. His work sits at the intersection of reinforcement learning, natural language processing, and search technology.

Sharon Zhou is the Founder and CEO of Lamini, a developer platform focused on reducing AI hallucinations. With a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford where she was advised by Andrew Ng, Sharon's work centers on making AI more accessible and reliable. She serves as CS faculty at Stanford and has taught over a million students through her Generative AI courses. Before focusing on AI, Sharon studied Classics at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude with a double major. Her mission is to "blend technological wonder with human warmth" by democratizing AI development beyond a small circle of experts. Sharon was recognized in MIT Technology Review's 35 Under 35 and actively invests in AI startups as an angel investor.

Michele Catasta is the President of Replit, where he drives innovation in AI-powered coding environments. Previously serving as VP of AI a Replit, Michele brings extensive expertise in applying artificial intelligence to code generation. Before joining Replit, he held leadership positions at Google Labs and X (the moonshot factory), focusing on AI applications for source code and large language models. Michele completed his PhD in Computer Science at EPFL and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University. Beyond his corporate role, he advises AI initiatives at investment firms like Coatue and serves as an educator, recently co-teaching a course on "vibe coding" with Andrew Ng at DeepLearning.AI.