<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:small"><div><div class="gmail_default"><div><font face="georgia, serif"><b style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">When:</b><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">         Friday, October 21st at </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,0)"><b>12:30pm CT</b></span></font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif"> <br><b>Where:</b><b>  </b>     Talk will be given <font style="font-weight:bold"><u style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)">live, in-person</u></font><font style="font-weight:bold"> </font>at</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif">                       TTIC, 6045 S. Kenwood Avenue</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif">                       5th Floor, Room 530<b>              </b>   </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif"> </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif"><b>Virtually:</b>    via Panopto (<a href="https://uchicago.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=cb67daa4-5852-479e-9b9b-af1801346ce1" target="_blank">Livestream</a>) </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif"><b>Who:</b><b> </b>           Aadirupa Saha, TTIC</font></p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="0" style="width:0in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;border-collapse:collapse"><tbody><tr><td style="padding:0in"></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif"> </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif"><font color="#000000"><b>Title:</b><b> </b>           Dueling-Opt: Convex Optimization with Relative Feedback</font></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><b><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><b>Abstract:    </b>In this talk we will discuss an unconventional version of the standard bandit convex optimization (BCO) problem with preference (dueling) feedback---Like the traditional optimization objective, the goal is to find the minimizer of a convex function with the least possible query complexity, however, without the luxury of even zeroth-order feedback; here instead, at each round, the learner can only observe a single noisy 0/1 win-loss feedback for a pair of queried points (based on their underlying function values). The problem is certainly of great practical relevance in any real-world system with potentially large (or even infinite) decision spaces.</font></p><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br>The main difficulty in this framework is that any `gradient-descent’ based technique is bound to fail as it is impossible to estimate gradient information at any point from a single bit comparison preference feedback which does not reveal any magnitude information of the underlying cost function at the queried points. We overcome this challenge by designing a normalized gradient descent based algorithms and showed near-optimal convergence rates for smooth and strongly convex functions. Towards the end, we will consider this problem for a very general class of preference functions which includes all monotonic functions that can be approximated by finite degree polynomials. We will conclude the talk with plethora of open questions led by this general direction of optimization with `unconventional feedback' which can help bridging the gaps between theory and practice in many real world applications.<br><br>[Based on joint works with Tomer Koren (Tel Aviv Univ and Google), Yishay Mansour (Tel Aviv Univ and Google)]</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"> </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><b>Bio:     </b> Aadirupa is visiting faculty at TTI Chicago. Before this, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research New York City. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, advised by Aditya Gopalan and Chiranjib Bhattacharyya. Aadirupa was an intern at Microsoft Research, Bangalore, Inria, Paris, and Google AI, Mountain View.</font></p><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000">Her research interests include Bandits, Reinforcement Learning, Optimization, Learning theory, Algorithms. Off late, she is also very interested in working on problems in the intersection of ML and Game theory, Algorithmic fairness, and Privacy.</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br><b>Website:</b> <a href="https://aadirupa.github.io/">https://aadirupa.github.io/</a></font></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"> </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><b><font color="#000000" face="georgia, serif">*********************************************************************************************</font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;margin:0in 0in 8pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;line-height:15.6933px"><b><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">Presence at TTIC requires being fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or having a TTIC or UChicago-approved exemption. Masks are optional in all common areas. Full visitor guidance is available at <a href="http://ttic.edu/visitors" target="_blank">ttic.edu/visitors</a>.</font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;margin:0in 0in 12pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;line-height:15.6933px"><b><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">*********************************************************************************************</font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><b><i><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">Research at TTIC Seminar Series</font></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000"> </font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;margin:0in;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font color="#000000" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">TTIC is hosting a weekly seminar series presenting the research currently underway at the Institute. Every week a different TTIC faculty member will present their research.  The lectures are intended both for students seeking research topics and advisors and for the general TTIC and University of Chicago communities interested in hearing what their colleagues are up to.</font></p></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><b style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#3d85c6">Brandie Jones </font></b><div><div><i><b style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#3d85c6">Administrative Assistant</font></b></i></div><div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#3d85c6">Toyota Technological Institute</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#3d85c6">6045 S. Kenwood Avenue</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#3d85c6">Chicago, IL  60637</font></span></div></div><div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#3d85c6"><a href="http://www.ttic.edu" target="_blank">www.ttic.edu</a> </font></span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#3d85c6"><br></font></span></div><div><font color="#3d85c6"><div style="background-color:rgb(238,238,238)">Working Remote on Tuesdays</div></font></div></div></div></div>