Diffusion Model Study Group Debut - Intro Session #2 with MIT Curriculum
🧠 Diffusion Models Study Group — Intro Session #2 (Aug 9)
🗓 Agenda:
[10 min] Welcome & community check-in
[30 min] PDEs, ODEs, and SDEs —
The essential math foundations behind diffusion models, explained intuitively
[15 min] A short history of diffusion models:
From physics to Stable Diffusion, and what’s next
[15 min] How our 5-month study group works (starts after this session)
– Format, curriculum, pricing, and how to join
📚 Pre-Class Learning Videos for this Saturday
Recommend watch these before our session to get a head start:
🧮 ODEs
[3Blue1Brown: Ordinary Differential Equations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_di4Zn4wz4) (18 min)
A stunning visual intro to how ODEs model time-dependent systems.
🌊 PDEs
[Partial Differential Equations Overview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvrIagjEk4c) (~22 min)
Clear explanation of how PDEs model changes across both space and time, with examples like heat and wave equations.
🎲 SDEs
[Steve Brunton: Stochastic Differential Equations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg7N4QAOcXE) (12 min)
Intuitive breakdown of randomness in differential equations via Brownian motion and calculus.
🧠 Why Learn Diffusion Models Now?
With major breakthroughs in video generation and diffusion-based LLMs, diffusion models have become a foundational architecture in generative AI.
Even if you only have a few hours a week, this study group is a practical and supportive way to dive deep and build real projects.
✨ About the Study Group
We’re forming a 12-person, peer-led study group to study diffusion models using MIT’s lecture notes — with guidance from mentors and TAs.
You’ll rotate teaching, build real projects, and gain deep, applied understanding.
📚 5-month curriculum (based on MIT’s notes)
🧪 Final goal: Train your own model + build a GenAI app
🧑🤝🧑 Learn with AI researchers, artists, and engineers
🕐 Weekly: ~2 hrs live + ~2 hrs self-paced
💬 Ongoing support + monthly research updates
👥 Who’s Organizing?
This group is led by:
Ti Guo – GenAI data scientist, organizer of 30+ study groups
Colby Wang – LLM researcher & technical instructor
AI Scholar Community: This is a community for people who want to learn deeper into AI through study groups.
Current group members include:
CTO of an AI film tool
AI art instructors
Full-time researchers
LLM instructors
💸 Cost & Access
🆓 This Aug 9 session is free and your last chance to preview before joining.
💵 $50/month early sign-up with limited spots (goes up to $100 later, so sign up early if you want to secure the lower price) The money is used for paying the TAs for teaching and Q&A, as well as for our assistant for helping with coordination
📝 MIT Lecture Notes: https://diffusion.csail.mit.edu/docs/lecture-notes.pdf
🎥 Past recordings: https://aischolars.notion.site
📣 Spots are limited — join the intro to see if it’s a good fit!
Questions? DM Ti or message us here!