# Schedule - Large Language Model Applications / Spring 2026 https://cmu-llms.org/schedule/ | ![](https://cmu-llms.org/_images/logo.png) | [Carnegie Mellon University](https://www.lti.cs.cmu.edu/) [**Large Language Model Applications**](https://cmu-llms.org/ "Large Language Model Applications / Spring 2026 - Carnegie Mellon University") Spring 2026 | | --- | --- | [ ](https://cmu-llms.org/schedule/) # Main Navigation * [ Home ](https://cmu-llms.org/) * [ Syllabus ](https://cmu-llms.org/syllabus/) * [ Schedule ](https://cmu-llms.org/schedule/) * [ Assignments ](https://cmu-llms.org/assignments/) * [ Project ](https://cmu-llms.org/project/) * [ Scribe ](https://cmu-llms.org/scribe/) * [ Useful Links ](https://cmu-llms.org/materials/) # Schedule * Event Date Description Course Material * Lecture 01/13/2026 Tuesday **Origins of LLMs** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-01-13-llm-history.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * [Bengio et al. 2003. “A Neural Probabilistic Language Model”](https://www.jmlr.org/papers/volume3/bengio03a/bengio03a.pdf) * [Jurafsky and Martin textbook chapter on noisy channel models](https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/slp3/D.pdf) * Lecture 01/15/2026 Thursday **Natural language understanding vs generation** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-01-15-nlu-nlg.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Assignment 01/17/2026 Saturday Assignment #1 released [[Prompting, Finetuning, Retrieval, and Embeddings](https://cmu-llms.org/assignments/01)] * Lecture 01/20/2026 Tuesday **The science of prompting** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-01-20-prompting.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * [Quantifying Language Models’ Sensitivity to Spurious Features in Prompt Design](https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.11324) * [Prompt Engineering Guide](https://www.promptingguide.ai/) * Lecture 01/22/2026 Thursday **Deciding when to finetune and finetuning efficiently** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-01-22-finetuning.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * [To fine-tune or not to fine-tune](https://ai.meta.com/blog/when-to-fine-tune-llms-vs-other-techniques/) * Due 01/23/2026 23:59 Friday Initial Pitch due * Lecture 01/27/2026 Tuesday **Learning representations and embeddings** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-01-27-embeddings.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 01/29/2026 Thursday **Retrieval 1: Storing and retrieving knowledge** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-01-29-retrieval.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 02/03/2026 Tuesday **Retrieval 2: Retrieval augmented generation, deep research** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-02-03-retrieval+rag.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 02/05/2026 Thursday **Retrieval 3: Retrieval augmented generation (2) and deep research** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-02-05-rag+deepresearch.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Assignment 02/05/2026 Thursday Assignment #2 released [[Chatbots, Agents, and Assistants](https://cmu-llms.org/assignments/02)] * Lecture 02/10/2026 Tuesday **Deep research** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-02-10-deep-research.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 02/12/2026 Thursday **Task-Oriented Dialogue** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-02-12-task.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Due 02/12/2026 23:59 Thursday Assignment #1 due * Lecture 02/17/2026 Tuesday **Tool-use, chitchat, personas, and companionship** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-02-17-chatbots.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 02/19/2026 Thursday **Writing and ideation assistants and AI creative writing** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-02-19-creativity-v2.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Due 02/19/2026 23:59 Thursday Proposal due * Lecture 02/24/2026 Tuesday **LLMs for evaluation: Synthetic data generation, simulation, automatic evaluation, AI-as-judge** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-02-24-evaluation.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 02/26/2026 Thursday **Multi-agent systems** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-02-26-multi-agent-systems.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Assignment 02/26/2026 Thursday Final Project released [[Final Project](https://cmu-llms.org/assignments/04)] * No class 03/03/2026 Tuesday Spring Break * No class 03/05/2026 Thursday Spring Break * Lecture 03/10/2026 Tuesday **Harms caused by LLM applications** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-10-risks.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Due 03/10/2026 23:59 Tuesday Assignment #2 due * Lecture 03/12/2026 Thursday **Attacking LLMs and LLM applications** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-12-misuse.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 03/17/2026 Tuesday **Code-writing assistants (guest lecture from Zora Wang)** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-17-coding-agents.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 03/19/2026 Thursday **[tentative] Image generation and conversing about images** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-19-vision.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 03/24/2026 Tuesday **LLMs for Non-English Languages and non-American Cultures (guest lecture from Shaily Bhatt)** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-24-non-english.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Due 03/24/2026 23:59 Tuesday Midpoint check-in due * Lecture 03/26/2026 Thursday **World models (guest lecture from Mingkai Deng)** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-26-world-models.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Assignment 03/30/2026 Monday Assignment #3 released [[Language Models beyond Natural Language](https://cmu-llms.org/assignments/03)] * Lecture 03/31/2026 Tuesday **LLMs for biological understanding (guest lecture by Prof Lei Li)** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-31-drug-design.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 04/02/2026 Thursday **Music generation (guest lecture by Prof Chris Donahue)** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-04-02-music.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 04/07/2026 Tuesday **Numbers** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-7-detection-and-numbers.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * No class 04/09/2026 Thursday Carnival * Lecture 04/14/2026 Tuesday **Robots and embodied AI (guest lecture from Leena Mathur)** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-04-14-robotics.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Lecture 04/16/2026 Thursday **Deployment** [[slides](https://storage.googleapis.com/cmu-llms/2026/2026-03-16-deployment.pdf%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Due 04/16/2026 23:59 Thursday Assignment #3 due * Lecture 04/21/2026 Tuesday **Project presentations** [[slides](https://cmu-llms.org/coming_soon/%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Due 04/21/2026 11:00 Tuesday Final Presentation due * Lecture 04/23/2026 Thursday **Project presentations** [[slides](https://cmu-llms.org/coming_soon/%20%0A%20%20%20%20 "Download slides")] Readings: * Due 04/30/2026 23:59 Thursday Final Report due 5000 Forbes Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15213 * [ lti.cs.cmu.edu/ ](https://www.lti.cs.cmu.edu/)