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Events for November 04, 2014
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CS Colloquium: Bert Zwart (CWI - Stochastics) - Learning and Earning
Tue, Nov 04, 2014 @ 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Bert Zwart , CWI - Stochastic Group
Talk Title: Learning and Earning
Series: CS Colloquium
Abstract: Price experimentation is an important tool for firms to find the optimal selling price of their products and has become more popular due to the rise of internet as a sales channel. It should be conducted properly, since experimenting with selling prices can be costly. A firm therefore needs to find a pricing policy that optimally balances between learning the optimal price and gaining revenue. The topic is exciting from an academic standpoint, bridging control, game theory, machine learning, operations research and statistics.
We investigate the so-called 'certainty equivalent pricing' policy, where estimating consumer behavior and optimizing profit are completely decoupled, and discuss situations where this rule may or may not lead to the profit rate that is achievable. It turns out that it is sometimes necessary to develop algorithms that ensure that the right amount of price experimentation is undertaken so as to learn and exploit consumer behavior as efficiently as possible.
This is based on joint work with Arnoud den Boer (UTwente, NL)
Biography: Bert Zwart is a researcher at CWI, where he leads the Stochastic group. He also holds secondary positions at VU University Amsterdam (Professor), Georgia Tech (Adjunct Professor) and the Dutch research center on Stochastics, Eurandom. Before that he was holding a Coca-Cola Chair at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. His research is in applied probability and stochastic operations research, inspired by problems in computer, communication, energy and service networks. Bert Zwart is the 2008 recipient of the Erlang prize for outstanding contributions to applied probability by a researcher not older than 35 years old, an IBM faculty award, VENI and VIDI awards from the Dutch Science Foundation NWO, numerous best papers awards, and co-authered more than 100 refereed publications. Bert has been area editor of Stochastic Models for the journal Operations Research, the flagship journal of his profession, since 2009, and serves on several additional journal boards and TPC's.
Host: Leana Golubchik
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
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CS Distinguished Lecture: Dr. Gregory D. Hager (Johns Hopkins University)
Tue, Nov 04, 2014 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Gregory D. Hager, Johns Hopkins University
Talk Title: Shaping the Future of Computing Research: Renaissance, Enlightenment, or Diaspora?
Series: CS Distinguished Lectures
Abstract: In 1822, Charles Babbage did an amazing thing - he realized that machines designed to perform physical work could process information. It would be over 100 years before electronic devices would allow effective realizations of his ideas. It would take an additional 40 years before computers became household devices, but only another 20 years until smart mobile devices revolutionized the connection between people, information, and the world around them. In those 60 years, computing has forged new industries, reshaped the workforce, invented new ways to interact and recreate, and reshaped society.
What are the implications of these trends for the computing research community? Where might new drivers for the field emerge, and where will they lead us? How can we frame future challenges and opportunities to ensure the continued health and growth of the field?
In this talk, I will offer some perspectives on computing research, how it is evolving, and some of the forces at work in shaping its future. I will relate some examples of how the Computing Community Consortium has successfully catalyzed efforts at creating new national computing initiatives and offer some perspective on new opportunities going forward.
Streaming for this talk will be available HERE at 3:30 PM.
Biography: Gregory D. Hager is Professor and Chair of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University. He is also Chair of the Computing Community Consortium which has the mission of catalyzing the computing research community and enable the pursuit of innovative, high-impact research. He received his MSE and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986 and 1988, respectively. After a year as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Karlsruhe, he joined the faculty of Yale University in 1990. He moved to Johns Hopkins in 1999. His research interests include image-guided robotics, human-machine collaboration, and medical applications of image analysis and robotics. He has served as the Deputy Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Computer Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology, he serves on board of the International Federation of Robotics Research and is a fellow of the IEEE for his contributions to vision-based robotics.
Host: Wyatt Lloyd
Webcast: https://bluejeans.com/737763866Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101
WebCast Link: https://bluejeans.com/737763866
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Assistant to CS chair
