ELLIS UniReps Speaker Series

We’re excited to launch a Speaker Series in collaboration with European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) community, focusing on key topics relevant to our community.

When, How, and Why Do Neural Models Learn Similar Representations? The ELLIS UniReps Speaker Series explores the phenomenon of representational alignment, where different neural models—both biological and artificial—develop similar internal representations when exposed to comparable stimuli. This raises key theoretical and practical questions:

• When do similar representations emerge across models?
• Why does this alignment occur, and what underlying principles drive it?
• How can we leverage this alignment to explore applications such as model merging, model re-use, and fine-tuning?

Each monthly session features two talks:

• 🔵 Keynote talk – A broad overview by a senior researcher, providing context on a key topic.
• 🔴 Flash talk – A focused presentation by an early-career researcher (such as a PhD student or postdoc), highlighting recent findings or ongoing work.

You can nominate yourself or another researcher as a speaker by filling out our nomination form .

The series provides a platform for early-career researchers to share their work and fosters interdisciplinary discussions across deep learning, neuroscience, cognitive science, and mathematics.

Stay tuned: we’ll be sharing more details soon, including the first scheduled talks, here and across our social media channels, as well as on ELLIS platforms.