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  • Oct
    19

    CS Seminar "Battling Bandits: Exploiting Preference Feedback towards Efficient Information Aggregation" - Aadirupa Saha

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

    12:00 PM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

    EVENT DETAILSmore info

    Wednesday / CS Seminar
    October 19th / 12:00 PM
    Hybrid / Mudd 3514

    Title: Battling Bandits: Exploiting Preference Feedback towards Efficient Information Aggregation

    Speaker: Aadirupa Saha

    Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/95703886447

    Live Stream: https://northwestern.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=436f00fd-a68a-4e35-b3a8-af27014a9b2e

    Abstract: Studies have revealed that users often find it easier to elicit their preferences in terms of relative feedback, say "Do you prefer Item A over B?", rather than their absolute counterparts: "How much do you score items A and B on a scale of [0-10]?". Drawing inspirations, in the search for an effective feedback mechanism, this led to the famous formulation of Dueling Bandits (DB), which is a widely studied online learning framework for efficient information aggregation from relative / comparative feedback. However despite the novel objective, unfortunately, most of the existing DB techniques were limited only to simpler settings of finite decision spaces, and stochastic environments, which are unrealistic in practice.

    In this talk, we will start with the basic problem formulations for DB and familiarize ourselves with some of the breakthrough results. Following this, will dive deeper into a more practical framework of contextual dueling bandits (C-DB) where the goal of the learner is to make customized predictions based on the user contexts: We will see a new algorithmic approach that can efficiently achieve the optimal regret performance for this problem, resolving an open problem from Dudík et al. [COLT, 2015]. We will conclude the talk with some interesting open problems.

    [The discussion on C-DB setup is based on joint work with Akshay Krishnamurthy (MSR, NYC), ALT 2022]

    Biography: Aadirupa is visiting faculty at TTI Chicago. Before this, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research New York City. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, advised by Aditya Gopalan and Chiranjib Bhattacharyya. Aadirupa was an intern at Microsoft Research, Bangalore, Inria, Paris, and Google AI, Mountain View.
    Her research interests include Bandits, Reinforcement Learning, Optimization, Learning theory, Algorithms. Off late, she is also very interested in working on problems in the intersection of ML and Game theory, Algorithmic fairness, and Privacy.

    Website: https://aadirupa.github.io/

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    TIME Wednesday, October 19, 2022 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

    LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

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    CONTACT Xiaolin Wang    xiaolin.wang@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

  • May
    29

    Bagel Thursday

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

    9:00 AM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

    LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

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    CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

  • May
    29

    Computer Science End of Year Awards

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

    2:30 PM Cohen Commons, Technological Institute

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

    LOCATION Cohen Commons, Technological Institute    map it

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    CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

  • Jun
    4

    CS Seminar: Reusing Deep Learning Models: Challenges and Directions in Software Engineering: An Update (George K. Thiruvathukal)

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

    12:00 PM

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Wednesday, June 4, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

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    CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

  • Jun
    5

    Final Project Demos- Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing Class

    Department of Computer Science (CS)

    9:30 AM

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

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    CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

  • Jun
    15

    2024-2025 Commencement Ceremony

    University Academic Calendar

    All Day

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    TIME Sunday, June 15, 2025

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    CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

  • Jun
    16

    Northwestern Engineering PhD Hooding and Master's Degree Recognition Ceremony

    McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

    9:00 AM 2705 Ashland Ave

    EVENT DETAILS

    TIME Monday, June 16, 2025 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

    LOCATION 2705 Ashland Ave   

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    CONTACT Northwestern Engineering Events    northwestern-engineering-events@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  • Jun
    16

    Northwestern Engineering Undergraduate Convocation

    McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

    2:00 PM 2705 Ashland Ave

    EVENT DETAILSmore info

    TIME Monday, June 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

    LOCATION 2705 Ashland Ave   

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    CONTACT Northwestern Engineering Events    northwestern-engineering-events@northwestern.edu EMAIL

    CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science