publications | Calgary Machine Learning Lab

2025

SD^2: Self-Distilled Sparse Drafters

Mike Lasby, Nish Sinnadurai, Valavan Manohararajah, Sean Lie, Yani Ioannou, and Vithursan Thangarasa

In ES-FoMo III: 3rd Workshop on Efficient Systems for Foundation Models, ICML Workshops, Jul 2025

@inproceedings{lasby2025selfdistilled_workshop,
  author = {Lasby, Mike and Sinnadurai, Nish and Manohararajah, Valavan and Lie, Sean and Ioannou, Yani and Thangarasa, Vithursan},
  booktitle = {ES-FoMo III: 3rd Workshop on Efficient Systems for Foundation Models, ICML Workshops},
  title = {SD^2: Self-Distilled Sparse Drafters},
  venue = {Vancouver, BC, Canada},
  eventdate = {2025-07-19},
  month = jul,
  year = {2025},
}

ICML Workshops

Backdooring VLMs via Concept-Driven Triggers

Yufan Feng, Weimin Lyu, Yuxin Wang, Benjamin Tan, and Yani Ioannou

In Data in Generative Models - The Bad, the Ugly, and the Greats (DIG-BUGS), ICML Workshops, Jul 2025

Bib OpenReview

@inproceedings{feng2025backdooring_workshop,
  author = {Feng, Yufan and Lyu, Weimin and Wang, Yuxin and Tan, Benjamin and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {Data in Generative Models - The Bad, the Ugly, and the Greats (DIG-BUGS), ICML Workshops},
  title = {Backdooring VLMs via Concept-Driven Triggers},
  venue = {Vancouver, BC, Canada},
  eventdate = {2025-07-19},
  month = jul,
  year = {2025},
}

ICML Workshops

Exploring Functional Similarities of Backdoored Models

Yufan Feng, Benjamin Tan, and Yani Ioannou

In ICML Workshop on Technical AI Governance (TAIG), Jul 2025

Bib OpenReview

@inproceedings{feng2025functional_workshop,
  author = {Feng, Yufan and Tan, Benjamin and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {ICML Workshop on Technical AI Governance (TAIG)},
  title = {Exploring Functional Similarities of Backdoored Models},
  venue = {Vancouver, BC, Canada},
  eventdate = {2025-07-19},
  month = jul,
  year = {2025},
}

ICML Workshops

Understanding Normalization Layers for Sparse Training

Mohammed Adnan, Ekansh Sharma, Rahul Krishnan, and Yani Ioannou

In 3rd Workshop on High-dimensional Learning Dynamics (HiLD), ICML Workshops, Jul 2025

Bib OpenReview

@inproceedings{adnan2025understanding_workshop,
  title = {Understanding Normalization Layers for Sparse Training},
  author = {Adnan, Mohammed and Sharma, Ekansh and Krishnan, Rahul and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {3rd Workshop on High-dimensional Learning Dynamics (HiLD), ICML Workshops},
  venue = {Vancouver, BC, Canada},
  eventdate = {2025-07-18},
  month = jul,
  year = {2025},
}

ICML

Sparse Training from Random Initialization: Aligning Lottery Ticket Masks using Weight Symmetry

Mohammed Adnan, Rohan Jain, Ekansh Sharma, Rahul Krishnan, and Yani Ioannou

In Forty-second International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Jul 2025

arXiv Bib Video Code OpenReview Website

@inproceedings{mohammed2025sparsetraining,
  author = {Adnan, Mohammed and Jain, Rohan and Sharma, Ekansh and Krishnan, Rahul and Ioannou, Yani},
  title = {Sparse Training from Random Initialization: Aligning Lottery Ticket Masks using Weight Symmetry},
  booktitle = {Forty-second International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML)},
  month = jul,
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://icml.cc/virtual/2025/poster/46094},
  arxivid = {2505.05143},
  eprint = {2505.05143},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
  venue = {{Vancouver, BC, Canada}},
  eventdate = {2025-07-13/2025-07-19},
}

arXiv preprint

SD^2: Self-Distilled Sparse Drafters

Mike Lasby, Nish Sinnadurai, Valavan Manohararajah, Sean Lie, Yani Ioannou, and Vithursan Thangarasa

Apr 2025

arXiv Bib Website

@article{lasby2025sd2selfdistilledsparsedrafters,
  title = {SD$^2$: Self-Distilled Sparse Drafters},
  author = {Lasby, Mike and Sinnadurai, Nish and Manohararajah, Valavan and Lie, Sean and Ioannou, Yani and Thangarasa, Vithursan},
  month = apr,
  year = {2025},
  eprint = {2504.08838},
  arxivid = {2504.08838},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.08838},
}

TMLR

What is Left After Distillation? How Knowledge Transfer Impacts Fairness and Bias

Aida Mohammadshahi, and Yani Ioannou

Transactions on Machine Learning Research (TMLR), Mar 2025

arXiv Bib PDF Video Blog OpenReview Slides

@article{mohammadshahi2025leftafterdistillation,
  author = {Mohammadshahi, Aida and Ioannou, Yani},
  title = {What is Left After Distillation? How Knowledge Transfer Impacts Fairness and Bias},
  journal = {Transactions on Machine Learning Research (TMLR)},
  year = {2025},
  month = mar,
  arxivid = {2410.08407},
  eprint = {2410.08407},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
}

CPAL Spotlight

Sparse Training from Random Initialization: Aligning Lottery Ticket Masks using Weight Symmetry

Mohammed Adnan, Rohan Jain, Ekansh Sharma, Rahul Krishnan, and Yani Ioannou

In Conference on Parsimony and Learning (Recent Spotlight Track), Mar 2025

Bib PDF Video OpenReview Poster Website

@inproceedings{mohammed2025sparsetraining_cpal,
  author = {Adnan, Mohammed and Jain, Rohan and Sharma, Ekansh and Krishnan, Rahul and Ioannou, Yani},
  title = {Sparse Training from Random Initialization: Aligning Lottery Ticket Masks using Weight Symmetry},
  booktitle = {Conference on Parsimony and Learning (Recent Spotlight Track)},
  year = {2025},
  month = mar,
  url = {https://cpal.cc/spotlight_track/},
  venue = {{Stanford University, CA, USA}},
  eventdate = {2025-03-24/2025-03-27},
}

2024

NeurIPS Workshops

Long-Tail Learning with Language Model Guided Curricula

Mohammed Adnan, Rahul Krishnan, and Yani Ioannou

In Muslims in ML (MusIML) Workshop, NeurIPS 2024 Workshops, Dec 2024

Bib PDF OpenReview Website

@inproceedings{adnan2024longtailed_musiml,
  author = {Adnan, Mohammed and Krishnan, Rahul and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {{Muslims in ML (MusIML) Workshop, NeurIPS 2024 Workshops}},
  venue = {{Vancouver, BC, Canada}},
  eventdate = {2024-12-10},
  title = {Long-Tail Learning with Language Model Guided Curricula},
  month = dec,
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://neurips.cc/virtual/2024/109148},
}

NeurIPS Workshops

A Closer Look at Sparse Training in Deep Reinforcement Learning

Muhammad Athar Ganaie, Vincent Michalski, Samira Ebrahimi Kahou, and Yani Ioannou

In Muslims in ML (MusIML) Workshop, NeurIPS 2024 Workshops, Dec 2024

Bib PDF OpenReview Website

@inproceedings{athar2024closerlookrl_musiml,
  author = {Ganaie, Muhammad Athar and Michalski, Vincent and Kahou, Samira Ebrahimi and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {{Muslims in ML (MusIML) Workshop, NeurIPS 2024 Workshops}},
  venue = {{Vancouver, BC, Canada}},
  eventdate = {2024-12-10},
  title = {A Closer Look at Sparse Training in Deep Reinforcement Learning},
  month = dec,
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://neurips.cc/virtual/2024/109144},
}

NeurIPS

Navigating Extremes: Dynamic Sparsity in Large Output Spaces

Nasib Ullah, Erik Schultheis, Mike Lasby, Yani Ioannou, and Rohit Babbar

In 38th Annual Conference Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Dec 2024

arXiv Bib PDF Code OpenReview Website

@inproceedings{nasib2024navigating,
  author = {Ullah, Nasib and Schultheis, Erik and Lasby, Mike and Ioannou, Yani and Babbar, Rohit},
  booktitle = {{38th Annual Conference Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)}},
  venue = {{Vancouver, BC, Canada}},
  eventdate = {2024-12-10/2024-12-16},
  title = {Navigating Extremes: Dynamic Sparsity in Large Output Spaces},
  month = dec,
  year = {2024},
  arxivid = {2411.03171},
  eprint = {2411.03171},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
  url = {https://nips.cc/virtual/2024/poster/95193},
}

NeurIPS Workshops

Winning Tickets from Random Initialization: Aligning Masks for Sparse Training

Rohan Jain, Mohammed Adnan, Ekansh Sharma, and Yani Ioannou

In 2nd Workshop on Unifying Representations in Neural Models (UniReps), NeurIPS 2024 Workshops, Dec 2024

Bib PDF OpenReview Poster Website

@inproceedings{jain2024winningtickets_unireps,
  author = {Jain, Rohan and Adnan, Mohammed and Sharma, Ekansh and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {{2nd Workshop on Unifying Representations in Neural Models (UniReps), NeurIPS 2024 Workshops}},
  venue = {{Vancouver, BC, Canada}},
  eventdate = {2024-12-14},
  title = {Winning Tickets from Random Initialization: Aligning Masks for Sparse Training},
  month = dec,
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://neurips.cc/virtual/2024/102627},
}

NeurIPS Workshops

What’s Left After Distillation? How Knowledge Transfer Impacts Fairness and Bias

Aida Mohammadshahi, and Yani Ioannou

In 19th Workshop for Women in Machine Learning (WiML), NeurIPS 2024 Workshops, Dec 2024

Bib Website

@inproceedings{mohammadshahi2024leftafterdistillation_wiml,
  author = {Mohammadshahi, Aida and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {{19th Workshop for Women in Machine Learning (WiML), NeurIPS 2024 Workshops}},
  venue = {{Vancouver, BC, Canada}},
  eventdate = {2024-12-10},
  title = {What’s Left After Distillation? How Knowledge Transfer Impacts Fairness and Bias},
  month = dec,
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://neurips.cc/virtual/2024/107546},
}

NeurIPS Workshops

Learning to Reweight Examples in Backdoor Defense

Yufan Feng, Benjamin Tan, and Yani Ioannou

In 19th Workshop for Women in Machine Learning (WiML), NeurIPS 2024 Workshops, Dec 2024

Bib Website

@inproceedings{feng2024learningreweight_wiml,
  author = {Feng, Yufan and Tan, Benjamin and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {{19th Workshop for Women in Machine Learning (WiML), NeurIPS 2024 Workshops}},
  venue = {{Vancouver, BC, Canada}},
  eventdate = {2024-12-10},
  title = {Learning to Reweight Examples in Backdoor Defense},
  month = dec,
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://neurips.cc/virtual/2024/107522},
}

arXiv preprint

Learning Parameter Sharing with Tensor Decompositions and Sparsity

Cem Üyük, Mike Lasby, Mohamed Yassin, Utku Evci, and Yani Ioannou

arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.09816, Nov 2024

arXiv Bib

@article{cem2024fips,
  author = {Üyük, Cem and Lasby, Mike and Yassin, Mohamed and Evci, Utku and Ioannou, Yani},
  title = {Learning Parameter Sharing with Tensor Decompositions and Sparsity},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.09816},
  month = nov,
  year = {2024},
  arxivid = {2411.09816},
  eprint = {2411.09816},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
}

TMLR

SelfXit: An Unsupervised Early Exit Mechanism for Deep Neural Networks

Hossein KhademSohi, Mohammadamin Abedi, Yani Ioannou, STEVE DREW, Pooyan Jamshidi, and Hadi Hemmati

Transactions on Machine Learning Research (TMLR), Oct 2024

Bib PDF Code OpenReview

@article{khademsohi2024selfxit,
  title = {SelfXit: An Unsupervised Early Exit Mechanism for Deep Neural Networks},
  author = {KhademSohi, Hossein and Abedi, Mohammadamin and Ioannou, Yani and DREW, STEVE and Jamshidi, Pooyan and Hemmati, Hadi},
  journal = {Transactions on Machine Learning Research (TMLR)},
  issn = {2835-8856},
  year = {2024},
  month = oct,
}

arXiv preprint

Trustworthy and Responsible AI for Human-Centric Autonomous Decision-Making Systems

Farzaneh Dehghani, Mahsa Dibaji, Fahim Anzum, Lily Dey, Alican Basdemir, Sayeh Bayat, Jean-Christophe Boucher, Steve Drew, Sarah Elaine Eaton, Richard Frayne, and 16 more authors

arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.08407, Aug 2024

arXiv Bib

@article{dehghani2024trustworthy,
  author = {Dehghani, Farzaneh and Dibaji, Mahsa and Anzum, Fahim and Dey, Lily and Basdemir, Alican and Bayat, Sayeh and Boucher, Jean-Christophe and Drew, Steve and Eaton, Sarah Elaine and Frayne, Richard and Ginde, Gouri and Harris, Ashley and Ioannou, Yani and Lebel, Catherine and Lysack, John and Arzuaga, Leslie Salgado and Stanley, Emma and Souza, Roberto and de Souza Santos, Ronnie and Wells, Lana and Williamson, Tyler and Wilms, Matthias and Wahid, Zaman and Ungrin, Mark and Gavrilova, Marina and Bento, Mariana},
  title = {Trustworthy and Responsible AI for Human-Centric Autonomous Decision-Making Systems},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.08407},
  month = aug,
  year = {2024},
  arxivid = {2408.15550},
  eprint = {2408.15550},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
}

ICLR

Dynamic Sparse Training with Structured Sparsity

Mike Lasby, Anna Golubeva, Utku Evci, Mihai Nica, and Yani Ioannou

In International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), May 2024

arXiv Bib PDF Blog Code OpenReview Poster Slides Website

@inproceedings{lasby2024srigl,
  author = {Lasby, Mike and Golubeva, Anna and Evci, Utku and Nica, Mihai and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {{International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR)}},
  venue = {{Vienna, Austria}},
  eventdate = {2024-05-07/2024-05-11},
  title = {Dynamic Sparse Training with Structured Sparsity},
  month = may,
  year = {2024},
  arxivid = {2305.02299},
  eprint = {2305.02299},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
  url = {https://iclr.cc/virtual/2024/poster/17975},
  dimensions = {1157762278},
}

CPAL Spotlight

Dynamic Sparse Training with Structured Sparsity

Mike Lasby, Anna Golubeva, Utku Evci, Mihai Nica, and Yani Ioannou

In Conference on Parsimony and Learning (CPAL) Recent Spotlight Track, Jan 2024

Bib Code Website

@inproceedings{lasby2024srigl_cpal,
  title = {Dynamic Sparse Training with Structured Sparsity},
  venue = {{Hong Kong}},
  eventdate = {2024-01-03/2024-01-06},
  author = {Lasby, Mike and Golubeva, Anna and Evci, Utku and Nica, Mihai and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {Conference on Parsimony and Learning (CPAL) Recent Spotlight Track},
  month = jan,
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://openreview.net/forum?id=LWBzJRTBAH},
  paper = {https://openreview.net/pdf?id=LWBzJRTBAH},
}

CPAL Spotlight

Classification Bias on a Data Diet

Tejas Pote, Mohammed Adnan, Yigit Yargic, and Yani Ioannou

In Conference on Parsimony and Learning (CPAL) Recent Spotlight Track, Jan 2024

Bib PDF OpenReview Poster

@inproceedings{pote2024classification,
  title = {Classification Bias on a Data Diet},
  venue = {{Hong Kong}},
  eventdate = {2024-01-03/2024-01-06},
  author = {Pote, Tejas and Adnan, Mohammed and Yargic, Yigit and Ioannou, Yani},
  booktitle = {Conference on Parsimony and Learning (CPAL) Recent Spotlight Track},
  month = jan,
  year = {2024},
}

2023

CANAI

Meta-GCN: A Dynamically Weighted Loss Minimization Method for Dealing with the Data Imbalance in Graph Neural Networks

Mahdi Mohammadizadeh, Arash Mozhdehi, Yani Ioannou, and Xin Wang

In 36th Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Canadian AI, CANAI 2023, Montreal, Canada, June 5-9, 2023, Proceedings, Jan 2023

DOI Bib

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/ai/MohammadizadehM23,
  author = {Mohammadizadeh, Mahdi and Mozhdehi, Arash and Ioannou, Yani and Wang, Xin},
  editor = {Soares, Am{\'{\i}}lcar and Zulkernine, Farhana H. and Dividino, Renata and Rabbany, Reihaneh and Ye, Qiang and Beach, David and Ali, Karim},
  title = {Meta-GCN: {A} Dynamically Weighted Loss Minimization Method for Dealing with the Data Imbalance in Graph Neural Networks},
  booktitle = {36th Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Canadian AI, {CANAI} 2023, Montreal, Canada, June 5-9, 2023, Proceedings},
  publisher = {Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.21428/594757DB.0041F830},
}

TMLR

Bounding generalization error with input compression: An empirical study with infinite-width networks

Angus Galloway, Anna Golubeva, Mahmoud Salem, Mihai Nica, Yani A. Ioannou, and Graham W. Taylor

Transactions on Machine Learning Research (TMLR), Jan 2023

arXiv Bib OpenReview

@article{galloway2023bounding,
  author = {Galloway, Angus and Golubeva, Anna and Salem, Mahmoud and Nica, Mihai and Ioannou, Yani A. and Taylor, Graham W.},
  title = {Bounding generalization error with input compression: An empirical study with infinite-width networks},
  journal = {Transactions on Machine Learning Research (TMLR)},
  volume = {2023},
  month = jan,
  year = {2023},
  arxivid = {2207.09408},
  eprint = {2207.09408},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
}

2022

ICML Workshops

Monitoring Shortcut Learning using Mutual Information

Mohammed Adnan, Yani Ioannou, Chuan-Yung Tsai, Angus Galloway, H. R. Tizhoosh, and Graham W. Taylor

In ICML 2022 Workshop on Spurious Correlations, Invariance, and Stability, Jul 2022

arXiv Bib

@inproceedings{mohammed2022monitoringshortcuts,
  author = {Adnan, Mohammed and Ioannou, Yani and Tsai, Chuan-Yung and Galloway, Angus and Tizhoosh, H. R. and Taylor, Graham W.},
  title = {Monitoring Shortcut Learning using Mutual Information},
  year = {2022},
  booktitle = {ICML 2022 Workshop on Spurious Correlations, Invariance, and Stability},
  month = jul,
  day = {22},
  eventdate = {2022-07-22},
  venue = {Baltimore, MD, USA},
  arxivid = {2206.13034},
  eprint = {2206.13034},
  eprinttype = {arXiv}
}

ICLR Workshops

Condensing Sparse Layers

Anna Golubeva, Mike Lasby, Yani Ioannou, and Mihai Nica

In 2nd Workshop on Sparsity in Neural Networks, Jul 2022

Bib Blog Poster Website

@inproceedings{golubeva2022condensed,
  author = {Golubeva, Anna and Lasby, Mike and Ioannou, Yani and Nica, Mihai},
  title = {Condensing Sparse Layers},
  year = {2022},
  booktitle = {2nd Workshop on Sparsity in Neural Networks},
  month = jul,
  day = {13},
  eventdate = {2022-07-13},
  venue = {Virtual},
  url = {https://sites.google.com/view/sparsity-workshop-2022/accepted-papers},
  paper = {https://drive.google.com/file/d/13gUfpF9LRsMVPKA65emKrxXmhyYXsb92/view}
}

AAAI

Gradient Flow in Sparse Neural Networks and How Lottery Tickets Win

Utku Evci, Yani A. Ioannou, Cem Keskin, and Yann Dauphin

In Proceedings of the 36th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Feb 2022

Oral DOI arXiv Bib Video Blog Code Poster

Oral Presentation

@inproceedings{evci2022gradientflowsparse,
  author = {Evci, Utku and Ioannou, Yani A. and Keskin, Cem and Dauphin, Yann},
  title = {{Gradient Flow in Sparse Neural Networks and How Lottery Tickets Win}},
  year = {2022},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 36th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence},
  venue = {Vancouver, BC, Canada},
  eventdate = {2022-02-22/2022-03-1},
  month = feb,
  arxivid = {2010.03533},
  eprint = {2010.03533},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
  doi = {10.1609/aaai.v36i6.20611},
  dimensions = {1149215051},
}

2021

NeurIPS Workshops

Domain-Agnostic Clustering with Self-Distillation

Mohammed Adnan, Yani Ioannou, Chuan-Yung Tsai, and Graham Taylor

In 2nd NeurIPS Workshop on Self-Supervised Learning: Theory and Practice, Nov 2021

arXiv Bib Poster Website

@inproceedings{mohammed2021clusteringselfdistillation,
  author = {Adnan, Mohammed and Ioannou, Yani and Tsai, Chuan-Yung and Taylor, Graham},
  title = {Domain-Agnostic Clustering with Self-Distillation},
  year = {2021},
  booktitle = {2nd NeurIPS Workshop on Self-Supervised Learning: Theory and Practice},
  month = nov,
  day = {23},
  eventdate = {2021-11-23},
  venue = {Virtual Conference},
  arxivid = {2111.12170},
  eprint = {2111.12170},
  eprinttype = {arXiv},
  paper = {https://sslneurips21.github.io/files/CameraReady/domain_agnostic_clustering_with_self_distillation.pdf},
  url = {https://sslneurips21.github.io/pages/Accepted%20Paper.html},
}