Course Schedule

Class Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:45 PM - 3:45 PM

Location: AGH 203

Semester Dates: 8/25/2026 - 12/3/2026

Office Hours: Professor René Vidal: Thursday 5pm-5:45pm, AGH 609, starting 09/03

TAs will rotate office hours every two weeks.

Yuyan & Leandro: Friday 9am-10am, AGH 216A. 08/28, 09/11, 09/25, 10/09, 10/23, 11/06, 11/20, 12/04
Buyun & Nghia: Tuesday 3:30pm-4:30pm, AGH 306. 09/01, 09/15, 09/29, 10/13, 10/27, 11/10, 11/24, 12/08

TAs will hold extra office hours on the week that assignments are due.

For extra OHs with René, feel free to email Sonia Castro Rodríguez soniacr@engineering.upenn.edu

The most recent recording can always be accessed through Canvas → Class Recordings. Please note that this website may be updated with a slight delay.

Event

Date

Title

Slides

Recording

Lecture 01

Aug 25, 2026
Tuesday

Introduction

[syllabus] [slides 01]

[recording]

Lecture 02

Aug 27, 2026
Thursday

Background

[slides 02-03-04]
Updated on Sep 15

[recording]

Lecture 03

Sep 01, 2026
Tuesday

Background

[see above]

[recording]

Lecture 04

Sep 03, 2026
Thursday

Background

[see above]

[recording]

Lecture 05

Sep 08, 2026
Tuesday

Probabilistic PCA

[slides 05-06]
Updated on Sep 9

[recording]

Lecture 06

Sep 10, 2026
Thursday

Probabilistic PCA

[see above]

[recording]

Lecture 07

Sep 15, 2026
Tuesday

Variational Inference and Expectation Maximization

[slides 07]
Updated on Sep 23

[recording]

Assignment

Sep 16, 2026
Wednesday

Homework 1 released!

[Homework 1]

Lecture 08

Sep 17, 2026
Thursday

Variational Auto Encoders

[slides 08-09-10]
Updated on Oct 1

[recording]

Lecture 09

Sep 22, 2026
Tuesday

Variational Auto Encoders

[see above]

[recording]

Lecture 10

Sep 24, 2026
Thursday

Variational Auto Encoders

[see above]

[recording]

Due

Sep 29, 2026 12:00
Tuesday

Homework 1 Due

Quiz

Sep 29, 2026 13:45
Tuesday

Quiz 1
AGH 203

In-person quiz.

Lecture 11

Sep 29, 2026
Tuesday

Markov Models

[slides 11]
Updated on Oct 1

[recording]

Break

Oct 01, 2026
Thursday

Fall Break
No classes (Oct 1 - Oct 4)

Lecture 12

Oct 06, 2026
Tuesday

Hidden Markov Models

[slides 12]
Updated on Oct 1

Lecture 13

Oct 08, 2026
Thursday

Linear Dynamical Systems

[slides 13]
Updated on Oct 1

Lecture 14

Oct 13, 2026
Tuesday

Diffusion Models - MHVAE

Lecture 15

Oct 15, 2026
Thursday

Diffusion Models - MHVAE

Lecture 16

Oct 20, 2026
Tuesday

Diffusion Models - Implementation

Lecture 17

Oct 22, 2026
Thursday

Diffusion Models - DDPM + DDIM

Lecture 18

Oct 27, 2026
Tuesday

Diffusion Models - Score-based Model + SDE Perspective

Lecture 19

Oct 29, 2026
Thursday

Diffusion Models - Applications

Lecture 20

Nov 03, 2026
Tuesday

Transformers

Lecture 21

Nov 05, 2026
Thursday

Transformers - Applications: Text and Image

Lecture 22

Nov 10, 2026
Tuesday

Transformers - VLM

Lecture 23

Nov 12, 2026
Thursday

Transformers - VLM

Lecture 24

Nov 17, 2026
Tuesday

Hands on Transformer

Break

Nov 26, 2026
Thursday

Thanksgiving Break
No classes (Thanksgiving)

Lecture 25

Dec 01, 2026
Tuesday

TBD

Lecture 26

Dec 03, 2026
Thursday

TBD