Connectionists: Fully funded Ph.D. position "New Perspectives on Semi-Supervised Learning"

[Marco Loog - EWI]

"New Perspectives on Semi-Supervised Learning"
Fully funded Ph.D. position Delft University of Technology

Learning methods are at the heart of almost any modern computer application. Supervised learning algorithms [e.g. classifiers and decision rules] are able to generalize from examples and predict the desired output to unseen input. A major obstacle in their successful use is the need for sufficient expert-labeled examples to learn from. Semi-supervised learning [SSL] promises to improve radically upon this situation by exploiting both labeled and unlabeled data. To this date, however, SSL has not lived up to this promise, often even deteriorating instead of improving performance. Current methods can be difficult to handle, especially by the non-expert, and they are not as widely used as their supervised counterparts. We therefore need SSL methods that are reliable and can be readily substituted for the supervised classifiers that are en vogue in the different research domains and application areas.

The prospective PhD student will work on the necessary concepts and methodologies to design semi-supervised learners that can guarantee performance improvements. Of prime importance in this is developing insight into the mechanism underlying SSL. More than being interested in the best performing learner, we aim to understand the learning problem as such. To start with, the research would focus on the use of projection estimators -- considering the link between divergence measures and loss functions -- and their use in SSL.

The project allows for a highly personal interpretation of any subsequent investigations.

For more information, please visit http://recruitment2.tudelft.nl/vacatures/index.php?lang=en&id=544901&type=a

Marco Loog

  Pattern Recognition Laboratory
  Delft University of Technology

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