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Judy Fan

@judithfan.bsky.social
2.3K followers 296 following 18 posts

Cognitive scientist seeking to reverse engineer the human cognitive toolkit. Asst Prof of Psychology at Stanford. Lab website: cogtoolslab.github.io

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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Heading to #CogSci2026 in Rio this week? Overview 🧵 thread highlighting work being presented by members of the Cognitive Tools Lab (cogtoolslab.github.io) — come say hi! 🧠🛠️✨
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Erik Brockbank @erikbrockbank.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
When you meet someone new, what kind of questions do you ask? It’s tempting to think that *really* getting to know people is just a matter of asking the right questions. Excited to share the next chapter in ongoing work on what makes a *deep question* with amazing collaborators...
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Rebecca Zhu @rebeccazoo.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
New preprint! How do children’s drawing abilities develop in contexts where they have relatively fewer drawing opportunities? In a study with 120 Kisumu, Kenya children, we find that children produce more recognizable drawings with age and with drawing experience. osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io
OSF
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Linas Nasvytis @linasnasvytis.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
1/ New preprint! Reasoning models often require hundreds of task examples and thousands of rollouts to improve on a task. How can they learn more from much less? Introducing CORE: contrastive self-reflection for rapid, sample-efficient, and interpretable self-improvement 🧵
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Cognitive Science Society @cogscisociety.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Exciting news! 🎉 We're thrilled to introduce our new Governing Board members! • Judith Ellen Fan @judithfan.bsky.social, from Stanford • Joshua Hartshorne, from @sydney.edu.au We appreciate their service and dedication to the Society, and look forward to the years ahead.
A promotional graphic features portraits of Judith Ellen Fan from Stanford University and Joshua Hartshorne from the University of Sydney against a dark teal background with bright green accents. Large text on the left reads: “We are thrilled to announce the addition of two new members to the Cognitive Science Society Governing Board.”
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Linas Nasvytis @linasnasvytis.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
1\ Can you make this Roman-numeral equation true by moving exactly one matchstick?
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Justin Yang @justintheyang.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Thrilled to be sharing my latest work at #CogSci2026! Many of the spaces we move through, from kitchens to airports, were designed with specific uses in mind. How do people create such environments, and how do users figure out what they were designed for? 📃 osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
The Cognitive Tools Lab at Stanford (cogtoolslab.github.io) is recruiting two new research staff members to join in AY 26-27. Full-Time Lab Manager: forms.gle/UVwfx5wbY9Km.... IRiSS Predoc Researcher: iriss.stanford.edu/predoc/2026-.... Please share widely in your networks, thank you!!
cogtoolslab.github.io
about the lab – cognitive tools lab
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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
🚨 NSF is already quietly eliminating the SBE Directorate, despite Congress’ mandate that NSF support the behavioral & social sciences. Steps to counter this are in motion. If you - have an SBE proposal under review - serve on an SBE grant panel You can help! Fill out this form: shorturl.at/xuKw2
shorturl.at
Share Your Story: Impacts of the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF)
Following the release of the President's Budget Request (PBR) on April 3rd, NSF quickly and quietly took steps to begin to dismantle the SBE Directorate. The Federation of Associations in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) wants to hear about how the SBE Directorate at NSF has supported your research and career. Your stories help FABBS communicate to policymakers and the public what’s at stake when the federal government fails to fund critical sciences. We may follow up for clarification, but we will not share your name or institution publicly without your permission.
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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak “This country has given me endless opportunities…: The America we inhabit today bears almost no resemblance to the country I chose all those years ago” newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-a-nobel...
newsletter.ofthebrave.org
I’m a Nobel Prize-winning immigrant. I can no longer recognize this country.
Attacks on science and immigrants are destroying America.
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
The Cognitive Tools Lab at Stanford (cogtoolslab.github.io) is recruiting two new research staff members to join in AY 26-27. Full-Time Lab Manager: forms.gle/UVwfx5wbY9Km.... IRiSS Predoc Researcher: iriss.stanford.edu/predoc/2026-.... Please share widely in your networks, thank you!!
cogtoolslab.github.io
about the lab – cognitive tools lab
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
New paper in press at Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts w/ @aaronhertzmann.com interrogating the information bottlenecks that make the drawing of objects & scenes from observation so difficult. This was a really fun paper to write together--we hope it'll be a fun read, too!
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
New paper out in Current Directions in Psychological Science making the case for studying generative behaviors in humans and machines: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/.... (version without a paywall: cogtoolslab.github.io/pdf/fan_cdps...)
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
This collaboration with @parastooabtahi.bsky.social @rdhawkins.bsky.social & colleagues has been such a treat! Super excited about this line of work on how people use both words and gestures to coordinate on shared understanding of multi-step assembly tasks—check it out at #CHI2026!
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CAIC @ Purdue @caic-at-purdue.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
CAIC has been hard at work creating an interdisciplinary hub for pursuing big questions in cognitive science. This spring we are excited to officially launch the Cognition, Agency, Intelligence Conference featuring talks by an amazing lineup of interdisciplinary researchers. See you on April 2-3! 🥳
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Badr AlKhamissi @bkhmsi.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
🎉 Re-Align is back for its 4th edition at ICLR 2026! 📣 We invite submissions on representational alignment, spanning ML, Neuroscience, CogSci, and related fields. 📝 Tracks: Short (≤5p), Long (≤10p), Challenge (blog) ⏰ Deadline: Feb 5, 2026 for papers 🔗 representational-alignment.github.io/2026/
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
What a pleasure speaking with Chris Piech, Denise Pope, and Dan Schwartz about AI & Education on "School's In," (youtube.com/watch?v=lL07...) recorded live at Stanford Open Minds in LA (openminds.stanford.edu/los-angeles)!
youtube.com
AI and the future of human learning | School's In Podcast
YouTube video by Stanford Graduate School of Education
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Monica Ellwood-Lowe @mellwoodlowe.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I’m hiring!! 🎉 Looking for a full-time Lab Manager to help launch the Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab at Stanford. We’ll use all-day language recording, eye tracking, & neuroimaging to study how kids & families navigate unequal structural constraints. Please share: phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo
phxc1b.rfer.us
Research Coordinator, Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab in Graduate School of Education, Stanford, California, United States
The Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) seeks a full-time Research Coordinator (acting lab manager) to help launch and coordinate the Minds,.....
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Abdul-Rahim Deeb @ardeeb.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
If you're heading to @cogscisociety.bsky.social, come to our symposium “Perception as a Foundation for Common‑Sense Theories of the World” 📅 August 1 • 9 AM 📍 Salon 2 With @thiskevinsmith.bsky.social @shariliu.bsky.social @judithfan.bsky.social @ardeeb.bsky.social — See you there! #CogSci2025
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Kristine Zheng @kristinezheng.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Linking student psychological orientation, engagement & learning in intro college-level data science New work ‪‪at @cogscisociety.bsky.social w/ @erikbrockbank.bsky.social @shawnschwartz.bsky.social, C.Bryan, D.Yeager, C.Dweck & @judithfan.bsky.social poster 8/1 @ 10:30 tinyurl.com/solds-cogsci25
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Erik Brockbank @erikbrockbank.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
"36 Questions That Lead To Love" was the most viewed article in NYT Modern Love. Excited to share new results investigating these and other “deep questions” with @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social @judithfan.bsky.social & @rdhawkins.bsky.social Preprint: tinyurl.com/bdfx5smk Code: tinyurl.com/3v6pws4s
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Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
The National Institutes of Health is responsible for more than 80% of the world’s grant investment in biomedical research and Trump is destroying it projects.propublica.org/nih-cuts-res...
projects.propublica.org
Shattered Science: The Research Lost as Trump Targets NIH Funding
The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission. More than 150 researchers shared with ProPu...
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Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Day of Action planned for July 21 to protect science protectscienceandinnovation.org
protectscienceandinnovation.org
Protect Science and Innovation
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
THIS WEEK the @cogscisociety.bsky.social Minds in the Making workshop brings you Vanessa Bermudez and @togelius.bsky.social in conversation about LEARNING 🧠💪 x DESIGN 🛠️! And what makes GAMES awesome for learning. Wednesday July 16th, 12pm-1pm PT. Register here: stanford.zoom.us/meeting/regi....
stanford.zoom.us
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Minds in the Making: Learning Seminar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Join speakers Yasmin Kafai, Vanessa Bermudez, and Julian Togelius for a conversation at the interface of design and learning
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Next up is the CREATIVITY session in our @cogscisociety.bsky.social Minds in the Making workshop ft. @aaronhertzmann.com @manishsaggar.bsky.social & Aaron Kozbelt! Thursday June 19th, 11am-12pm PT. Register here: stanford.zoom.us/meeting/regi...!
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Super stoked for our Minds in the Making workshop at @cogscisociety.bsky.social 2025! If you are at all interested in the intersection between cognitive science and design, you won’t want to miss it!! 🧠🛠️
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Super stoked for our Minds in the Making workshop at @cogscisociety.bsky.social 2025! If you are at all interested in the intersection between cognitive science and design, you won’t want to miss it!! 🧠🛠️
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This skeet will self destruct @pardoguerra.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Out today, the Academic Council of the University of California issues the following statement: “Higher education is under direct and sustained attack. 1/ senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/repor...
senate.universityofcalifornia.edu
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Ellen Nakashima @ellenwapo.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
NEW: Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.)& Trump's former NatSec Advisor Matt Pottinger make the case that funding for scientific R&D isn't a gift to academia. It's vital to U.S. national security, as China, the United States' primary strategic adversary, is already investing heavily in R&D. shorturl.at/PgUK0
shorturl.at
Opinion | Funding for R&D isn’t a gift to academia
Investing in scientific research and development is vital to U.S. security.
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Sam Wang @samwang.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Every one of you involved in higher education – student, faculty, alumni, staff – needs to get in touch with your leadership (president and trustees) and local media to make it clear what’s at stake and get them to band together. Example message: www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025...
dailyprincetonian.com
To stop intimidation, Eisgruber needs your help
When targeting one institution is a bald attempt to divide and conquer, as is the case with Columbia, it is essential for a coalition or group of institutions and individuals to stand up together.&nbs...
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Melissa Kline Struhl @mekline.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
The platform I run, Children Helping Science, is supported almost entirely by US government science funding, both directly and in collaboration with CHS researchers. Here's the note we sent to users today - we need help gathering your stories and citations! Submit here: forms.gle/zFnzrVURntdZ...
I'm writing today with a big request during a difficult time for all of us. Together, we've grown Children Helping Science into a cornerstone for online developmental research. Researchers from roughly 150 institutions have conducted remote studies with over 15,000 families since 2020, with many of those families returning to participate in multiple studies across labs.
The CHS team and infrastructure is currently supported almost entirely by the United States government (NSF and NIH). Like many US researchers, we're facing substantial uncertainty about what this means for our financial stability over the coming months and years, and we are hard at work pursuing every angle to keep this platform available to the community. This includes exploring new funding strategies we have previously not considered, like possibly allowing some carefully vetted companies to display ads to families.
Researchers will continue to be able to use the CHS platform for free, but your support right now is critical. At the same time, we know that many of you, especially those of you in the United States, are facing the same instability to present and future funding as we are.
Today, we are asking for three FREE actions from all of you to support our immediate fundraising efforts:**Send us your citations.**
If you have publications that collected data or advertised studies through CHS or Lookit, please share those references. These citations are essential for demonstrating CHS’s impact to funders. A list of all the citations we're aware of is linked here, in case you're not sure whether we have your recent articles.
**Send us publicly shareable materials and press coverage.**
If you have cute study designs, engaging visuals, or images of adorable kids (with the necessary permissions) we’d love to use them in presentations to potential funders. Similarly, if your research has been covered in any public media (university publications, podcasts, news articles), please send these to us.
**Share your funding applications and ideas.**
If you are preparing a grant proposal (to any funding source), please reach out to discuss how you can include a budget line to support CHS. If you have ideas for joint projects, or even of funders you think we should reach out to - we're all ears! And if you have ever received funding to conduct studies using CHS/Lookit, please also make sure we know about it.You can do all of these things right now at this link (https://forms.gle/zFnzrVURntdZizMK8). Please also feel free to email us (best address: mekline@mit.edu) with any other questions or ideas.
We are committed to keeping CHS running and serving this community, and we will do everything in our power to keep the lights on. Thank you for helping to make CHS such a wonderful community resource and for helping us in whatever ways you can!
With appreciation,
Melissa Kline Struhl
Executive Director
Laura Schulz
Scientific Director
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Erik Brockbank @erikbrockbank.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Hello bluesky world :) excited to share a new paper on data visualization literacy 📈 🧠 w/ @judithfan.bsky.social, @arnavverma.bsky.social, Holly Huey, Hannah Lloyd, @lacepadilla.bsky.social! 📝 preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps... 💻 code: github.com/cogtoolslab/...
osf.io
OSF
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
SO proud of this work on data visualization literacy getting out into the world — especially when our tools for figuring out what is true are as vital as they have ever been!!! #StandUpForScience today and always!
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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Do children understand all types of visual media in the same way? "Cross-contextual diversity in children’s early understanding of visual media" - a new review paper led by Rebecca Zhu: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Table 1 from paper: recognition and reference evidence for perception of different types of visual media by infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
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Dan Jurafsky @jurafsky.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Happy New Year everyone! Jim and I just put up our January 2025 release of Speech and Language Processing! Check it out here: web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/sl...
web.stanford.edu
Speech and Language Processing
Speech and Language Processing
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Dr Anna Leshinskaya @annaleshinskaya.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
I have recently launched the relational cognition lab at UC Irvine: relcoglab.org! We study learning and memory in mind, brains and machines. I am open to collaborations and hiring a lab technician (lab manager/junior specialist). Job ad & application here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09400.
relcoglab.org
Relational Cognition Lab
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Aaron Hertzmann @aaronhertzmann.com · 18/12/2024
The most creative technology I’ve ever used is a pencil. Sketching, brainstorming, communicating, writing, art… this thing can do it all.
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
What an honor & joy to be with you last week to celebrate the eSYMb team and Kristian Tylén's vision/spirit. Thank you so much, @izzywisher.bsky.social, @fusaroli.bsky.social, @jcskewes.bsky.social & all Aarhus colleagues who made this impactful workshop possible (despite the many obstacles).
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Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 10/01/2025
3rd day of "Celebrating eSYMb: The Evolution of Symbolic Behaviour - A Workshop in Memory of Kristian Tylén" workshop. Murillo Pagnotta on the makapangsat cobble: this face-like pebble is a controversial archeological finding, but can we test the idea that it's attention grabbing because of 1/
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Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 09/01/2025
2nd day of "Celebrating eSYMb: The Evolution of Symbolic Behaviour - A Workshop in Memory of Kristian Tylén" workshop masterfully arranged by @izzywisher.bsky.social. Larissa Mendoza Straffon presents Honing the tools of the mind (paper here: osf.io/b8fz2) 1/
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Riccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 08/01/2025
At the "Celebrating eSYMb: The Evolution of Symbolic Behaviour - A Workshop in Memory of Kristian Tylén" workshop (masterfully arranged by @izzywisher.bsky.social). Thread of thoughts: 1/
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Bria Long @brialong.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
I’m still recruiting for this position — please get in touch if you’re interested in working together!
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Bill Thompson @wdt.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
We have extended the deadline for this position to January 31st. Also, the start date is pretty flexible; if you're graduating next spring/summer and interested in the role, apply!
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Kartik Chandra @kartikchandra.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Graphics has long studied how to make: (1) realistic images 📷 (2) non-photorealistic images ✍️ (3) realistic sounds 🎤 What about (4) "non-phono-realistic" sounds? What could that even mean? Next week at SIGGRAPH Asia, MIT undergrad Matt Caren will present our proposal… 🧵 arxiv.org/abs/2409.13507
A screenshot of the first page of the paper.
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Chris Bail @chrisbail.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Cool job at Princeton open to Computational Social Scientists: puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...
puwebp.princeton.edu
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CogCompNeuro @cogcompneuro.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
After a great conference in Boston, CCN is going to take place in Amsterdam in 2025! To help the exchange of ideas between #neuroscience, cognitive science, and #AI, CCN will for the first time have full length paper submissions (alongside the established 2 pagers)! Info below👇 #NeuroAI #CompNeuro
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Bria Long @brialong.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Finally, if you find this kind of work interesting, I’m currently hiring! I'm recruiting both a postdoc and a lab manager (more at vislearnlab.org) to launch the Visual Learning Lab at @UCSDPsychology —please feel free to reach out (or come say hi at CDS)!
vislearnlab.org
Home | The Visual Learning Lab at UCSD
Lab webpage for the Visual Learning Lab at UCSD, lead by Dr. Bria Long, Ph.D. Launching in July 2024!
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Bria Long @brialong.bsky.social · 23/02/2024
Excited to share that our paper, “Parallel developmental changes in children’s production and recognition of line drawings of visual concepts” has been published in Nature Communications! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Parallel developmental changes in children’s production and recognition of line drawings of visual concepts - Nature Communications
Children produce drawings prolifically throughout childhood. Here, the authors conducted a systematic study of how children create and recognize line drawings across development and suggest that chang...
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Judy Fan @judithfan.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
I'm so proud to be involved in this work and so grateful to get to work with these amazing scientists!! @kushinm.bsky.social & al. Do check it out at #NeurIPS2023 next week if you are interested in *visual abstraction*!!
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