Connectionists: World wide VVTNS series: Sixth season opening lecture, Wednesday, October 29, 2025, at 11:00 am EDT - Andrew Barto

[David Hansel]

*Important:*
The seminar is at 11 am *EDT*
Europe moved to Winter Time on Sunday, October 26, 2025
 US will move to Winter Time next Sunday, November 2
This week 11 am EDT= 4pm CET
Check the time where you are
[image: VVTNS.png]
https://www.wwtns.online
<https://streaklinks.com/A9c7PbbpKY7PxB6PaAJWGD3-/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wwtns.online>
-
on twitter: wwtns at TheoreticalWide

You are cordially invited to the sixth season opening lecture of  the
online VVTNS series

Andrew Barto

University of Massachusetts

Amherst

 on the topic of

What is So Interesting About Reinforcement Learning?

The lecture will be held on zoom on October 29, 2025, at *11:00 am EDT *

> To receive the link: https://www.wwtns.online/register-page
>
>

*Abstract: *This talk aims to answer these questions along four
dimensions.  First is history. RL was the basis of AI long before the term
AI was introduced in 1956. The first machine learning (ML) systems were
based on RL even before digital computers existed. Despite notable early
successes of ML based on RL, RL essentially disappeared from ML until
relatively recently. A second reason for renewed interest in RL is the
clarification of some misunderstandings that have been prevalent in the ML
community. A third, and most important, reason for this resurgence is that
new, or rediscovered, algorithms and connections to well developed
mathematical and engineering methods have been worked out. Finally, a
fourth reason for the renewed interest in RL is its strong links to animal
reward systems, in particular, to the role that dopamine plays in
motivation and learning.

*About VVTNS : Launched as the World Wide  Theoretical Neuroscience Seminar
(WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van Vreeswijk in
Memoriam (April 20, 2022), Speakers have the occasion to talk about
theoretical aspects of their work which cannot be discussed in a setting
where the majority of the audience consists of experimentalists. The
seminars, **held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET,**  are 45-50 min long followed
by a discussion. The talks are recorded with authorization of the speaker
and are available to everybody on our YouTube channel.*

ᐧ
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/pipermail/connectionists/attachments/20251026/543234b3/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: VVTNS.png
Type: image/png
Size: 41084 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu/pipermail/connectionists/attachments/20251026/543234b3/attachment.png>