Spring 2020

February 5, 2020

Towards Testing Monotonicity of Distributions Over General Posets

Speaker: Maryam Aliakbarpour (CSAIL)

In this talk, we consider the sample complexity required for testing the monotonicity of distributions over partial orders. A distribution p over a poset is monotone if, for any pair of domain elements x and y such that x \preceq y, p(x) \...

February 12, 2020

Scalable Convex Optimization with Applications to Semidefinite Programming

Speaker: Alp Yurtsever (LIDS)

Semidefinite programming is a powerful framework from convex optimization that has striking potential for data science applications. Even so, practitioners often critique this approach by asserting that it is not possible to solve...

February 19, 2020

Belief Shaping Through Signaling in Non-Cooperative Multi-Agent Environments

Speaker: Muhammed Sayin (LIDS)

In this talk, we will analyze the interaction between intelligent and selfish agents in non-cooperative environments with a specific focus on the transmission of some private information among them. We will seek to quantify the ability of...

February 26, 2020

Multi-Trek Separation in Linear Structural Equation Models 

Speaker: Jean Baptiste Seby (IDSS)

Building on the theory of causal discovery from observational data, we study interactions between multiple (sets of) random variables in a linear structural equation model with non-Gaussian error terms. We give a correspondence between the...

March 4, 2020

tspDB: Time Series Predict Database

Speaker: Anish Agarwal (LIDS)

A major bottleneck of the current Machine Learning workflow is the time consuming and error-prone engineering required to get data from a DB/warehouse so that an appropriately chosen prediction method can be applied to it. To address this...

April 1, 2020

Via Zoom: Graph Matrices: Norm Bounds and Applications

Speaker: Kwangjun Ahn (LIDS)

Graph matrices are a type of random matrix which has the following properties: (i) The entries of the matrix depend on random input. Moreover, this dependence can be described by a small graph. (ii) The matrix (as a function of the input) is...

April 8, 2020

Via Zoom: A Koopman Framework for Sampling in Stochastic Differential Equations

Speaker: Benjamin Zhang (Center for Computational Science & Engineering and AeroAstro)

We propose a general framework to construct efficient sampling methods for stochastic differential equations (SDEs) using eigenfunctions of the system’s Koopman operator. Importance sampling for SDEs is typically done by adding a control...

April 22, 2020

Via Zoom: Incentive-Aware Contextual Pricing with Non-Parametric Market Noise

Speaker: Jason Cheuk Nam Liang (LIDS & ORC)

Motivated by the availability of the massive amount of real-time data in online advertising markets, we study a dynamic pricing problem for repeated contextual second-price auctions with strategic buyers whose goals are to maximize their...

April 29, 2020

Via Zoom: Optimizing Capacity Restoration Service Time for Flow Batteries Participating in Energy Arbitrage Markets

Speaker: Mehdi Jafari (LIDS)

Redox flow battery (RFB) is one of the emerging technologies in the energy storage systems area. Different chemistries of this technology shows promising performance and lifetime features that can potentially compete with Li-ion batteries in...

May 6, 2020

Via Zoom: A Theory of Uncertainty Variables for State Estimation and Inference

Speaker: Rajat Talak (LIDS)

Rajat will discuss a new framework of uncertainty variables to model uncertainty. An uncertainty variable is characterized by a set in which its realization is bound to lie. Conditional uncertainty, on the other hand, is characterized by a...