Summer Course and Workshop on
Optimization in Machine Learning

May 31 - June 7, 2011
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas, USA

We will be able to reimburse the travel and lodging expenses of a number of Portuguese students (support from the UT Austin | Portugal Program) and of a number of US citizens and permanent residents (support from the Program in Applied and Computational Analysis, Research and Training Group (RTG-NSF) of the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Mathematics & ICES).

This Summer Course and Workshop will be held under the auspices of the international partnership between the University of Texas at Austin and Portuguese Universities, as part of the UT Austin | Portugal Program in the Area of Mathematics (CoLab) and the Program in Applied and Computational Analysis, Research and Training Group (RTG-NSF), UT Austin, Department of Mathematics and the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES). This event is also part of the programs of the Portuguese Operations Research Society (APDIO) and the Portuguese International Center for Mathematics (CIM).

The Summer Course on Optimization in Machine Learning (May 31 - June 3, 2011) will consist of two 10-hour modules given by Katya Scheinberg (Lehigh University) and Nati Srebro (Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago).

The Workshop on Optimization in Machine Learning (June 6-7, 2011) will consist of 60-minute plenary talks and a number of talks and poster presentations. Plenary speakers already confirmed for the workshop are Kristin P. Bennett (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Inderjit S. Dhillon (University of Texas at Austin), Sanjiv Kumar (Google Research), and Lieven Vandenberghe (University of California, Los Angeles).

Organizers: Omar Ghattas (University of Texas at Austin), Katya Scheinberg (Lehigh University), and Luis Nunes Vicente (University of Coimbra).

Contact and deadlines: The deadline for the course registration is March 31, 2011. For course and workshop registration please send email to oml2011@math.utexas.edu

 Course Schedule   Course Syllabus   Workshop Schedule   Workshop Abstracts   Lodging & Travel 
last year event

Course Schedule

 May 31, 2011   
 9:30am - 12:30pm (coffee break 10:45-11:15)

2:00pm - 5:00pm (coffee break 3:15-3:45)
 
 June 1, 2011   
 9:30am - 12:30pm (coffee break 10:45-11:15)

2:00pm - 5:00pm (coffee break 3:15-3:45)
 
 June 2, 2011   
 9:30am - 12:30pm (coffee break 10:45-11:15)

2:00pm - 5:00pm (coffee break 3:15-3:45)
 
 June 3, 2011   
 9:30am - 12:30pm (coffee break 10:45-11:15)

2:00pm - 5:00pm (coffee break 3:15-3:45)
 


The course will take place in Room ACE 6.304 of the Applied Computational Engineering and Sciences Building (ACES or equivalently ACE).

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Course Syllabus

This Summer Course introduces a range of machine learning models and optimization tools that are used to apply these models in practice. For the students with some Machine Learning background the course will introduce what lies behind the optimization tools often used as a black box as well as an understanding of the trade-offs of numerical accuracy and theoretical and empirical complexity. For the students with some Optimization background this course will introduce a variety of applications arising in Machine Learning and Statistics as well as novel optimization methods targeting these applications. The models we will cover include: support vector machines, sparse regression, sparse PCA, collaborative filtering, dimensionality reduction. The optimization methods will include interior point, active set, stochastic gradient, coordinate descent, cutting planes method.

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Workshop Schedule

 June 6, 2011 
      
 9:30am - 10:30am    Invited Talk 1
 10:30am - 11:00am    Coffee Break
 11:00am - 12:00pm    Invited Talk 2
      
 12:00am - 2:00pm    Lunch Break
      
 2:00pm - 3:00pm    Invited Talk 3
 3:00pm - 3:30pm    Coffee Break
 3:30pm - 5:00pm    Contributed Talks
      
 6:00pm - 7:30pm    Reception
      
 June 7, 2011 
      
 9:30am - 11:00am    Contributed Talks
 11:00am - 11:30am    Coffee Break
 11:30am - 12:30pm    Invited Talk 4
      


The course will take place in Room ACE 6.304 of the Applied Computational Engineering and Sciences Building (ACES or equivalently ACE).

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Workshop Abstracts

The titles and abstracts and remaining information are available here.

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Lodging and Travel Information

Travel arrangements and booking are the responsibility of the individual participants.

Arrival and Departure

The Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) is the closest airport to Austin and the University of Texas. For transportation to and from the airport, feel free to take a taxi or the Super Shuttle. The Super Shuttle can be reached at (512) 258-3826, or 1-800-BLUE VAN, or online; or you can book a ride upon arrival.

Lodging

We have reserved a block of rooms for participants of this workshop at the

Extended Stay America - Downtown, 600 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78701.
The block will be held only until May 20. After that, remaining rooms in the block will be released, and it will be hard to book hotel rooms near downtown.

To book a room at the Extended Stay America, please contact the hotel by phone or email.

Phone: (512) 457-9994, Fax: (512) 457-0924, Email: DTL@extendedstay.com
Mention the name of the block reservation: UT Math/OML Event. Internet reservations, and reservations by travel agents (bundling room & airfare), cannot be made in the block. Participants can get internet access by paying a one time fee of $4.99 per stay.

The dates of the contract are May 30 (arrival) to June 8 (departure). If you arrive earlier and/or leave later (e.g. to get a better airfare) please book your room as soon as possible. Availability outside the dates of the contract is not guaranteed, and it decreases with time.

Local Transportation

For transportation to campus the Capitol Metro Airport Flyer #100 bus route (inbound) stops one block from the Extended Stay America hotel at 6th & Guadalupe, approximately every 35 minutes. The fare is $1 per trip or $1.50 for a 24 hour pass on any Capital Metro bus. The #100 bus stops on the University campus at Dean Keeton and Speedway, near the Math building (RLM) and one block north of the conference location (ACE). Several other bus routes service the University from Congress avenue, a few blocks east of the hotel, including routes 1L, 1M, 5, and 7.

Maps and directions for the UT campus are available here and here and here.

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