Mathematics of Information Seminar. CS286, 2006-07

Mathematics of Information seminar. CS286, 2006-07

A concern with logical and statistical quantities --- information --- is central to science and engineering. The pertinent mathematics is being actively developed in disciplines such as algorithms, complexity, communications, control, quantum mechanics, economics, probability, combinatorics, algebra and harmonic analysis. This seminar is devoted to synthesis of methods across disciplines. Participants will give short lecture series on techniques and current questions in specific areas.

Instructor: Schulman
Prerequisites: Coursework in some of the relevant fields at the first-year graduate level.
Course sponsored by the CMI
The lectures this year will be given mostly by postdocs, faculty and visitors.

Fall 2006, CS286a
Credit: 3 units P/F
Times: Fridays 2:30-4:00 in Moore 239, with tea
First meeting: October 27

Speaker schedule:
Oct 27 Yair Bartal - Advances in Metric Embedding Theory Abstract
Nov 3 Yair Bartal - Advances in Metric Embedding Theory
Nov 10 Ben Recht - Statistical Learning: Kernels, Convexity, and Generalization Abstract
Nov 17 Ben Recht - Statistical Learning II: Representation, Generalization, and Examples Abstract
Dec 1 Ben Recht - Statistical Learning III: A convex approach to semi-supervised and unsupervised learning Abstract

Winter 2007, CS286b
Credit: 3 units P/F
Times: Fridays 2:30-4:00 in Moore 239, with tea
First meeting: January 12

Speaker schedule:
Jan 12 Michael Wakin - Geometric Models for Dimensionality Reduction in Signal and Data Processing Abstract
Jan 19 Michael Wakin - Geometric Models for Dimensionality Reduction in Signal and Data Processing Abstract
Jan 26 Vera Asodi - Edge Coloring with Delays Abstract
Feb 2 Vera Asodi - Edge Coloring with Delays Abstract
Feb 16 Yuval Rabani - Low distortion embeddings for edit distance Abstract
Feb 23 Eyal Rozenman - Expanders, groups and applications Abstract
Mar 2 Eyal Rozenman - Expanders, groups and applications Abstract

Spring 2007
The seminar will not run regularly during the spring quarter but will occur a few times nonetheless.
Times: Fridays 2:30-4:00 in Moore 239, with tea

Speaker schedule:
Apr 13 David Zuckerman (U Texas) - Linear Degree Extractors and Inapproximability Abstract
Apr 20 Yonina Eldar (Technion) - Rethinking Biased Estimation: Improving Maximum Likelihood and the Cramèr-Rao Bound Abstract

Last year's seminar