Systems | Information | Learning | Optimization
 

The big (brain) data cometh: Low-dimensional models for understanding neural systems

The recent investment in neurotechnology development has spurred tremendous excitement about the potential to uncover the operating principles of biological neural circuits. However, a storm is brewing. If the neuroengineering community is able to achieve their goals of developing technologies that increase the number of interfaced neurons by orders of …

Quasi-Newton Trust-Region Methods

Quasi-Newton methods are viable alternatives to Newton’s method for solving optimization problems because they do not require computing and solving with the potentially very large Hessian matrix while still maintaining a superlinear convergence rate. Systems of linear equations arising from quasi-Newton methods can be solved efficiently using the compact representation …

A Modified Logistic Regression Markov Chain Model for Forecasting the College Football Playoff

Selecting the teams for the College Football Playoff for NCAA Division IA men’s football is a controversial process performed by the selection committee. We present a method for forecasting the four team playoff weeks before the selection committee makes this decision. Our method uses a modified logistic regression/Markov chain model …

Linear Dueling Bandits

Dueling bandits is a variant of the multi-armed bandit problem where instead of playing an arm and observing the reward at each instant, you duel two arms (pairwise comparison) and observe the winner among the two. Linear bandits is a special case of contextual bandits where the reward of an …

Multi-Resolution Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Atmospheric Contamination

In a typical atmospheric contamination, “gas leaks” for instance, people are able to identify a deliberate pungent odor and the system responsible for the contamination contents have other various safe guards in place to protect environmental contamination. What happens when the contamination is deliberate and none of the safe guards …