Da: peter.jacko@gmail.com [peter.jacko@gmail.com] per conto di Peter Jacko [p.jacko@lancaster.ac.uk] Oggetto: Multi-armed Bandit Workshop 2016 at STOR-i, Lancaster University, UK -------- Multi-armed Bandit Workshop 2016 at STOR-i, Lancaster University, UK Dates: 11-12 January 2016 Webpage: http://www.stor-i.lancs.ac.uk/research/Workshops/Multi-armed-Bandit-Workshop The STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training, which is a joint venture of the Operational Research group at the Department of Managment Science and the Statistics group at the Department of Mathematics at Lancaster University with strong links to the industry, will be holding a specialist workshop on multi-armed bandits. Lancaster university has a long tradition of research on this topic and several STOR-i PhD students have contributed to it. The multi-armed bandit problem has become classic because of its extreme difficulty. Researchers from different fields, especially statistics, operational research, applied probability and computer science, have made theoretical contributions that in the recent years started gaining wider popularity in practice due to the huge modelling power of this problem. This workshop will provide a forum for stimulating discussions, especially across the approaches that have developed independently of each other. The list of invited speakers includes recognised experts on reinforcement learning bandits, restless bandits, non-parametric bandits, Bayesian bandits, etc., covering both theoretical advances and applications in information technology, business & management, communications networks, health care, etc. We are grateful to EPSRC for support of the series of specialed workshops at STOR-i and to the London Mathematical Society for additional support for this workshop, in particular for significantly enhanced support for UK PhD students. Important Dates Friday 20th November 2015: Abstract submission and student bursaries request deadline Monday 14th December 2015: Registration deadline Monday 11th - Tuesday 12 January 2016: Workshop Invited Speakers (confirmed) Alexandra Carpentier - University of Potsdam, Germany Chris Gamble - Google UK Kevin Glazebrook - Lancaster University, UK Michael N. Katehakis - Rutgers University, USA Emilie Kaufmann - DYOGENE-INRIA, France Odalric Maillard - INRIA France Remi Munos - Google DeepMind, UK Yevgeny Seldin - University of Copenhagen, Denmark Sofia S. Villar - MRC Biostatistics Unit, UK Abstract Submission We invite researchers and practitioners to present their work on multi-armed bandits by submitting an abstract below. Please, send your name, e-mail, affiliation, title and abstract including a list of co-authors in a one-page PDF format by e-mail to stor-i-bandits@lancaster.ac.uk<mailto:stor-i-bandits@lancaster.ac.uk> by Friday 20th November 2015. We will aim at accommodating all the accepted abstracts as talks, but some may be accepted as posters. The topics of the workshop include, but are not limited to, the following: - multi-armed bandit formulations: classic, adversial, non-parametric, Bayesian, restless, stochastic, infinitely-armed, many-armed, arm-aquiring bandits, best-arm identification, etc. - theoretical aspects of exploration–exploitation tradeoff in sequential experimental design - optimality and convergence of randomised algorithms, index rules, and myopic policies - characterisation, computation, approximation and learning of (near-)optimal policies - applications of multi-armed bandit models in practice Student bursaries We have funding to support UK PhD students to attend the workshop. To apply, please email stor-i-bandits@lancaster.ac.uk<mailto:stor-i-bandits@lancaster.ac.uk> by Friday 20th November with a description of your current research topic and why the workshop is important to you. Registration To register, please go to the registration page: http://online-payments.lancaster-university.co.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&deptid=6&catid=464&prodid=3043 . The registration fee is £100 to be paid by Monday 14th December. Registration for STOR-i students is free, but is required by Monday 7th December. The conference fee includes access to the workshop presentations, meals and the conference dinner, but you will need to book your own accommodation. Programme The workshop will be held on Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th January 2016, from 9:00 - 18:00. The workshop dinner will be held on Monday. Detailed program of accepted presentations will be announced in early December 2015 Organisers David Leslie, Steffen Grunewalder, Peter Jacko. Location Postgraduate Statistics Centre Lancaster University Lancaster United Kingdom LA1 4YF -- ------------------------------------- Peter Jacko ------------------------------------- Lecturer in Management Science Department of Management Science Lancaster University Management School Lancaster, LA1 4YX, UK p.jacko@lancaster.ac.uk<mailto:p.jacko@lancaster.ac.uk> | +44-15245 94035 | Office B57 scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ym1nWHEAAAAJ<http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ym1nWHEAAAAJ> http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/people/peter-jacko -------------------------------------