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Events for March 29, 2018

  • CS Colloquium: Junier Oliva (Carnegie Mellon University) Scalable Learning Over Distributions

    Thu, Mar 29, 2018 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Junier Oliva, Carnegie Mellon University

    Talk Title: Scalable Learning Over Distributions

    Series: CS Colloquium

    Abstract: A great deal of attention has been applied to studying new and better ways to perform learning tasks involving static finite vectors. Indeed, over the past century the fields of statistics and machine learning have amassed a vast understanding of various learning tasks like clustering, classification, and regression using simple real valued vectors. However, we do not live in a world of simple objects. From the contact lists we keep, the sound waves we hear, and the distribution of cells we have, complex objects such as sets, distributions, sequences, and functions are all around us. Furthermore, with ever-increasing data collection capacities at our disposal, not only are we collecting more data, but richer and more bountiful complex data are becoming the norm.

    In this presentation we analyze regression problems where input covariates, and possibly output responses, are probability distribution functions from a nonparametric function class. Such problems cover a large range of interesting applications including learning the dynamics of cosmological particles and general tasks like parameter estimation.

    However, previous nonparametric estimators for functional regression problems scale badly computationally with the number of input/output pairs in a data-set. Yet, given the complexity of distributional data it may be necessary to consider large data-sets in order to achieve a low estimation risk.

    To address this issue, we present two novel scalable nonparametric estimators: the Double-Basis Estimator (2BE) for distribution-to-real regression problems; and the Triple-Basis Estimator (3BE) for distribution-to-distribution regression problems. Both the 2BE and 3BE can scale to massive data-sets. We show an improvement of several orders of magnitude in terms of prediction speed and a reduction in error over previous estimators in various synthetic and real-world data-sets.


    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium. Please note, due to limited capacity, seats will be first come first serve.

    Biography: Junier Oliva is a Ph.D. candidate in the Machine Learning Department at the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University. His main research interest is to build algorithms that understand data at an aggregate, holistic level. Currently, he is working to push machine learning past the realm of operating over static finite vectors, and start reasoning ubiquitously with complex, dynamic collections like sets and sequences. Moreover, he is interested in exporting concepts from learning on distributional and functional inputs to modern techniques in deep learning, and vice-versa. He is also developing methods for analyzing massive datasets, both in terms of instances and covariates. Prior to beginning his Ph.D. program, he received his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. He also spent a year as a software engineer for Yahoo!, and a summer as a machine learning intern at Uber ATG.

    Host: Fei Sha

    Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100D

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Assistant to CS chair

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  • CS Distinguished Lecture: Satinder Singh (University of Michigan) – Reinforcement Learning: From Vision to Action and Back

    Thu, Mar 29, 2018 @ 04:00 PM - 05:20 PM

    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Satinder Singh, University of Michigan

    Talk Title: Reinforcement Learning: From Vision to Action and Back

    Series: Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series

    Abstract: Stemming in part from the great successes of other areas of Machine Learning, in particular the recent success of Deep Learning, there is renewed hope and interest in Reinforcement Learning (RL) from the wider applications communities. Indeed, there is a recent burst of new and exciting progress in both theory and practice of RL. I will describe some theoretical results from my own group on a simple new connection between planning horizon and overfitting in RL, as well as some results on combining RL with Deep Learning in Minecraft, and Zero-Shot Generalization across compositional tasks. I will conclude with some lookahead at what we can do, both as theoreticians and those that collect data, to accelerate the impact of RL.

    This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium.


    Biography: Satinder Singh is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has been the Chief Scientist at Syntek Capital, a venture capital company, a Principal Research Scientist at AT&T Labs, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT's Brain and Cognitive Science department. His research focus is on developing the theory, algorithms and practice of building artificial agents that can learn from interaction in complex, dynamic, and uncertain environments, including environments with other agents in them. His main contributions have been to the areas of reinforcement learning, multi-agent learning, and more recently to applications in cognitive science and healthcare. He is a Fellow of the AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) and has coauthored more than 150 refereed papers in journals and conferences and has served on many program committee's. He was Program-CoChair of AAAI 2017, and in 2013 helped cofound RLDM (Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making), a biennial multidisciplinary meeting that brings together computer scientists, psychologists, neuroscientists, roboticists, control theorists, and others interested in animal and artificial decision making.


    Host: Haipeng Luo

    Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: Computer Science Department

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