Humans of SymSys: Eric Zelikman

Eric is a SymSys major (‘20) with a concentration in theoretical neuroscience. Follow him on Medium for posts on AI ethics and neuroscience-inspired learning algorithms!

Why SymSys?

I think the way in which people learn, understand the world, and communicate is fascinating, and I also think there’s lot of overlooked inspiration to draw on for and to come from computational learning algorithms.

If you weren’t a SymSys major, what would you be?

Probably any two of CS, linguistics, and math.

Favorite SymSys course(s)?

Philosophy of Neuroscience (PHIL 167D w/ Prof. Rosa Cao) and Deep Generative Models (CS236) have shaped how I think about a lot of the topics I’m passionate about!

Response to all the SymSys memes out there?

I love them haha. It’s fun to joke about your major. Also this meme: