[Colloq] New CCIS Event: Learning with Lower Information Costs

[Northeastern University CCIS]

Learning with Lower Information Costs

Thursday February 20th, 2014 10:30AM - 11:45AM

366 WVH

 Sivan Sabato

Title: Learning with Lower Information Costs
Speaker: Sivan Sabato, Microsoft Research New England
Where/When: 366 WVH, Thursday, Feb 20 at 10:30 AM
Abstract:
In this talk I will consider learning with lower information costs,
focusing on linear regression. Linear regression is one of the most
widely used methods for prediction and forecasting, with widespread
uses in many fields such as natural sciences, economy and medicine.
I will show how to improve the information costs of linear regression in
two settings. First, I will present a new estimation algorithm for the
standard supervised regression setting. This is the first efficient
estimator that enjoys minimax optimal sample complexity, up to log
factors, for general heavy tailed distributions. The technique is
general and can be applied to a larger class of smooth and strongly
convex losses. Second, I will consider the challenge of using crowd
sourcing for labeling in tasks that usually require experts, and show
how to achieve this using linear regression combined with a feature
multi-selection approach.
Based on Joint work with Daniel Hsu and Adam Kalai.
Bio:
Sivan Sabato is a post-doctoral researcher at Microsoft Research New England.
Her main research interests are in statistical machine learning theory and its
applications. Sivan received her M.Sc. in Computer Science from the Technion,
and her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She
is an alumna of the Adams fellowship program for outstanding Ph.D. students, and
has been awarded several honors, including the Wolf Prize for outstanding M.Sc.
thesis, the Google Anita Borg Scholarship, and the Intel Excellence Award.
Host: Rajmohan Rajaraman