Connectionists: Call for Abstracts: NIPS 2009 Workshop on Analysis and Design of Algorithms for Interactive Machine Learning

[Sumit Basu]

[note to moderator: the previous version never came through; thus the resend]

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    ADA-IML'09: Workshop on Analysis and Design of Algorithms for Interactive Machine Learning at NIPS 2009
 
                                             12/11 or 12/12, TBD
                             http://research.microsoft.com/~sumitb/adaiml09 
                     ***Deadline for abstract submission:  Friday, October 30, 5pm PST***
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INTRODUCTION AND GOALS OF THE WORKSHOP

The traditional role of the human operator in machine learning problems is that of a batch labeler, whose work is done before the learning even begins.  However, there is an important class of problems in which the human is interacting directly with the learning algorithm as it learns.  Canonical problem scenarios which fall into this space include active learning, interactive clustering, query by selection, learning to rank, and others.  Such problems are characterized by three main factors:

    1. the algorithm requires input from the human during training, in the form of labels, feedback, parameter guidance, etc. 
    2. the user cannot express an explicit loss function to optimize, either because it is impractical to label a large training 
       set or because they can only express implicit preferences.
    3. the stopping criterion is performance that's "good enough" in the eyes of the user.

The goal of this workshop is to focus on the machine learning techniques that apply to these problems, both in terms of surveying the major paradigms and sharing information about new work in this area. Through a combination of invited talks, discussions, and posters, we hope to gain a better understanding of the available algorithms and best practices for this space, as well as their inherent limitations.  


CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

We invite all researchers interested in presenting at the workshop to submit a one-page abstract of their work.   The presentation format will be a spotlight summary talk along with a poster session later in the afternoon.   We encourage presentations on new, developing ideas, as well as previously published work the authors would like to discuss in this forum.  Feel free to email us if you are concerned about whether your work is appropriate for the workshop.   Note that there will not be formal proceedings for the workshop, so authors need not be concerned about publishing work they present here at a later venue.  Please send your submissions (as PDF) by email to sumitb at microsoft dot com with the subject line "ADA-IML'09 Abstract: [submission title]"

***Deadline for submission:  Friday, October 30, 5pm PST***


INVITED SPEAKERS

We have a number of invited speakers who will be presenting at the workshop.  
-Jerry Zhu (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
-Jure Leskovec (Stanford)
-Carlos Guestrin (CMU)
-Rich Carauna (Microsoft Research)


SCHEDULE

Morning (7:30-10:30)  

I.    Introduction (0.5 hr) 
II.   Invited Talks (2 talks - 1.0 hr) 
III.  Poster preview talks (1.0 hr) 
IV. Developing a Syllabus/Bibliography for Interactive Machine Learning (30 mins)*

Afternoon (3:30-6:30)

V.    Invited Talks (2 talks - 1 hr) 
VI.   Poster Session (1.5 hrs) 
VII.  Open Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities (30 mins)

*Note that the syllabus-in-progress will be left on the board so that  participants may continue to contribute to it during the poster  session, final discussion, etc.


ORGANIZERS 

Sumit Basu (sumitb at microsoft dot com) and Ashish Kapoor (akapoor at microsoft dot com)