<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><font style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><b>When:</b>    </font></font><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><font style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)">    Wednes</font><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)">day, February 12,<span class="gmail_default"> </span>2025</span><font style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> at</font><b><font color="#000000" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> </font><u><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)">11:30</font></u></b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)"><font color="#000000"><b><u><font face="arial, sans-serif"> am</font></u></b><b><font face="arial, sans-serif"><u> CT</u> </font><font style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"> </font><font style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"> </font></b></font></span></font></font></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><p style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:normal;margin:0px"><b><font color="#500050" face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></b></p><p style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:normal;margin:0px"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b><font color="#500050">Where:       </font></b><font color="#000000">Talk will be given </font><font color="#000000" style="font-weight:bold"><u>live, in-person</u></font><font style="font-weight:bold"> </font>at<br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;color:rgb(80,0,80);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"><font color="#500050">               </font><font color="#000000">    TTIC, 6045 S. Kenwood Avenue</font></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;color:rgb(80,0,80);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">                   5th Floor, Room 530<b> </b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;color:rgb(80,0,80);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"><b><span style="color:black"><br></span></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><b style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(60,64,67);letter-spacing:0.2px">Virtually:</b><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(60,64,67);letter-spacing:0.2px">  </span><span style="letter-spacing:0.2px"><font color="#0000ff" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b> </b></font></span><span style="color:rgb(60,64,67);font-family:arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.2px"> </span><i style="color:rgb(60,64,67);font-family:arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.2px">via panopto: </i><a href="https://uchicago.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b3cf547c-b2ed-49a8-a81c-b27c00337cb6" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.2px" target="_blank"><b>livestream</b></a><span style="color:rgb(60,64,67);font-family:arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.2px"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(80,0,80);line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><b style="color:rgb(34,34,34);letter-spacing:0.2px"><font size="1" face="tahoma, sans-serif">                         </font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(80,0,80);line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="color:rgb(60,64,67);letter-spacing:0.2px"><b><font face="arial, sans-serif">                     </font></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;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"><font style="color:rgb(80,0,80);vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><b>Who: </b> <font color="#500050">    </font><font color="#000000"><font color="#500050">    </font></font></font></font></font>Sidhanth Mohanty, MIT</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><br></p><div style="border-top:none;border-right:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:2.25pt solid rgb(11,118,159);padding:0in 0in 1pt"></div><div><br></div><b>Title:</b>          A Quest for an Algorithmic Theory for High-Dimensional Statistical Inference<br><br><b>Abstract:</b> When does a statistical inference problem admit an efficient algorithm?</div><div class="gmail_default"><br></div><div class="gmail_default">There is an emergent body of research that studies this question by trying to understand the power and limitations of various algorithmic paradigms in solving statistical inference problems; for example, convex programming, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, and message passing algorithms to name a few.</div><div class="gmail_default"><br>Of these, MCMC algorithms are easy to adapt to new inference problems and have shown strong performance in practice, which makes them promising as a universal algorithm for inference.  However, provable guarantees for MCMC have been scarce, lacking even for simple stylized models of inference.<br><br>In this talk, I will survey some recent strides that I have made with my collaborators on achieving provable guarantees for MCMC in inference, and some new tools we introduced for analyzing the behavior of slow-mixing Markov chains.<br><br><b>Bio: </b>Sidhanth is broadly interested in theoretical computer science and probability theory, and his primary interests are on the algorithms and complexity of statistical inference, and spectral graph theory.<br><br>Sidhanth is currently a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, hosted by Sam Hopkins. Previously, he received his PhD in Computer Science at UC Berkeley in 2023 where he was advised by Prasad Raghavendra.  </div></div><div class="gmail_default"><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default"><b style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Host: </b><a href="mailto:madhurt@ttic.edu" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif" target="_blank"><b>Madhur Tulsiani</b></a></div></div><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default"></div></div><div><br></div><br clear="all"></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small">Mary C. Marre</span><br></div><div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">Faculty Administrative Support</font></div><div><i><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#3d85c6" size="1"><b>Toyota Technological Institute</b></font></i></div><div><i><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#3d85c6" size="1">6045 S. Kenwood Avenue, Rm 517</font></i></div><div><font size="1"><i><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#3d85c6">Chicago, IL  60637</font></i><br></font></div><div><font size="1"><i><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#3d85c6">773-834-1757</font></i></font></div><div><b><i><a href="mailto:mmarre@ttic.edu" target="_blank"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">mmarre@ttic.edu</font></a></i></b></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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