Inside IFM's Foundation Model Stack @ Stanford
Technical Talk · Hands-On Workshop · Dinner & Networking
🎓 For Stanford undergrads, MS/PhD students, researchers, and technical builders.
IFM's first event at Stanford. One evening with the researchers building the foundation models behind MBZUAI's frontier work — and get a chance to build with them.
🧠 What To Expect
We're bringing Hector Liu (Director, IFM Silicon Valley Lab) and Zihan Liu (Technical Lead, PAN World Model) to Stanford for a research deep dive, a fireside on how frontier models move from lab to deployment, and a hands-on workshop where you'll get to play with PAN — IFM's world model — live.
Then dinner, recruiting conversations, and community.
🎯 Why Come
🔬 Go deep on the research behind the K2 series of foundation models
🛠️ Build hands-on with PAN, IFM's world model platform
💬 Direct face time with IFM's SV Lab director and PAN technical lead
🧑🏫 Featured Speakers & Guests
Hector Liu — Director, IFM Silicon Valley Lab
Zihan Liu — Technical Lead, PAN World Model
Stanford Faculty
Prof. Tengyu Ma — Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Statistics, Stanford; Stanford AI Lab. Deep learning, foundation models, reinforcement learning.
Prof. James Zou — Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, of Computer Science and of Electrical Engineering, Stanford; Chan-Zuckerberg Investigator and faculty lead of Stanford AI for Health.
Prof. Shriti Raj — Assistant Research Professor, Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research; Junior Faculty Fellow at Stanford HAI. Human-centered decision support, wearable health data, generative AI in clinical settings.
💼 Recruiting conversations — IFM is hiring across research and engineering (internships, research tracks, and full-time roles)
🍽️ Dinner, swag, and giveaways for top Q&A questions
🗓️ Agenda
5:00 – 5:30 PM
Check-in & swag
5:30 – 5:45 PM
Opening Remarks: Inside IFM’s Foundation Model Stack
Hector Liu, Director, IFM Silicon Valley Lab
5:45 – 6:30 PM
Fireside Panel: Research to Real Systems — Hector Liu with Profs. Tengyu Ma, James Zou, and Shriti Raj
Q&A included
6:30 – 7:00 PM
Live Demo: Dive into IFM’s PAN World Model
Q&A included
7:00 – 7:30 PM
Hands-On Workshop: Play with PAN World Model
7:30 – 8:00 PM
Dinner, Networking & Open Discussion
🏛️ Hosted at Stanford University
🎟️ Capacity: 75–120 attendees · RSVP required · Limited spots, register early
🎁 Swag
AI Valley + MBZUAI × IFM stickers — for all attendees
IFM T-shirts — for attendees who join the MBZUAI × Stanford WhatsApp community
https://chat.whatsapp.com/Klf3udLhQAtAgOOVPgEJok?mode=gi_t
IFM backpacks — reserved for the first six Q&A questions
🤝 Co-Hosts
Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) at MBZUAI — Research center at the world's first graduate university dedicated exclusively to AI, with labs in Abu Dhabi, Silicon Valley, and Paris. Develops open language, multimodal, reasoning, and world models.
AI Valley — 8,000-member Bay Area AI builder community running curated hackathons and technical events. Past sponsors: OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, AWS, Netflix, Vercel, HRT, AGI House.
Stanford SESE — campus co-host and partner.
📩 Questions? [email protected]
AI Valley is a community for exceptional first-generation builders, founders, and creators. We curate high-signal hackathons, workshops, and gatherings where ambitious people find collaborators, mentors, and real opportunities. If you care about who you build with as much as what you build, this is your place.
🌐 Website: https://aivalley.io
📅 Events: https://lu.ma/aivalley
👥 Community (Discord): https://discord.gg/QESCnSUPC9
📰 Newsletter: https://aivalleyio.substack.com
🔗 All links: https://aivalley.io/links