2013-14: LDHD: Opening Workshop: September 8-12, 2013

Location

The Opening Workshop for this program was held Sunday – Thursday, September 8 – 12, 2013, at the Radisson Hotel Research Triangle Park, NC. The hotel is in close proximity to SAMSI.

Description

On Sunday, September 8 there were tutorial lectures by leading researchers. From Monday to Wednesday, invited speakers addressed specific research topics relevant to Working Groups in the program, which were formed on Wednesday, September 11. A poster session and reception took place on Monday, September 9.

Immediately following the workshop, on Thursday and Friday, the Working Groups convened at SAMSI. In these meetings, each working group identified initial research activities and relevant datasets for the program year. These foci will, of course, evolve over the year, and Working Groups may either merge or emerge as research progresses.

The Opening Workshop provided an overview of the core topics relevant to the LDHD program, which is devoted to the development of methodological, theoretical, and computational treatment of high-dimensional mathematical and statistical models. For a more detailed description of the topics to be covered, see the LDHD homepage.


Schedule and Supporting Media

Sunday, September 8, 2013
Radisson RTP, Room H

Time Description Speaker Slides Videos
8:30-8:50 Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:50-9:00 Welcome
9:00-10:00 Tutorial 1 – Learning Heteroscedastic Models by Convex Programming under Group Sparsity Arnak Dalalyan, ENSAE/CREST  
10:00-10:30 Break
10:30-11:30 Tutorial 2 – Recent Advances in High Dimensional Covariance Matrix Estimation Ming Yuan, Georgia Institute of Technology    
11:30-1:00 Lunch (provided at the Radisson)
1:00-2:00 Tutorial 3 – Universal Gradient Methods Yurii Nesterov, Catholic University of Louvain    
2:00-2:30 Break
2:30-3:30 Tutorial 4 – Bayesian Learning of LDHD David Dunson, Duke University    
3:30-4:00 Break
4:00-5:00 Tutorial 5 – An Introduction to Sparse Approximation Anna Gilbert, University of Michigan    

Monday, September 9, 2013
Radisson RTP, Room H

Time Description Speaker Slides Videos
8:30-8:55 Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:55-9:00 Welcome
9:00-9:40 Modeling Visual Cortex V4 in Naturalistic Conditions with Invariant and Sparse Image Representations Bin Yu, Univ. of California-Berkeley
9:40-10:00 Break
10:00-10:40 Estimation and Variable Selection with Exponential Weights Karim Lounici, Georgia Institute of Technology  
10:40-11:00 Break
11:00-11:40 Low Dimensional Topology in Complex Processes Sayan Mukherjee, Duke University
11:40-1:00 Lunch (provided at the Radisson)
1:00-1:40 Living on the Edge: A Geometric Theory of Phase Transitions in Convex Optimization Joel Tropp, California Institute of Technology  
1:40-2:00 Break
2:00-2:40 Sparse PCA: Optimal Rates and Adaptive Estimation Tony Cai, University of Pennsylvania
2:40-3:00 Break
3:00-3:40 Effective Representations for High Dimensional Visual Data John Wright, Columbia University  
3:40-4:00 Break
4:00-5:00 Discussion
5:00-6:30 Poster Session and Reception

Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Radisson RTP, Room H

Time Description Speaker Slides Videos
8:30-9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00-9:40 Robust Subspace Modeling Gilad Lerman, University of Minnesota  
9:40-10:00 Break
10:00-10:40 Sparse Inverse Covariance Estimation for a Million Variables Inderjit Dhillon, University of Texas  
10:40-11:00 Break
11:00-11:40 Sample Size Requirement for Some Low-Dimensional Estimation Problems Cun-Hui Zhang, Rutgers University  
11:40-1:00 Lunch (provided at the Radisson)
1:00-1:40 Binary Matrix Completion Yaniv Plan, University of Michigan  
1:40-2:00 Break
2:00-2:40 Mixed and Covariate-Dependent Graphical Models Liza Levina, University of Michigan
2:40-3:00 Break
3:00-4:00 Discussion
4:00 Adjourn for the day

Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Radisson RTP, Room H

Time Description Speaker Slides Videos
8:30-9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00-9:40 High Dimensional Data from Biology and Art History Ingrid Daubechies, Duke University
9:40-10:00 Break
10:00-10:40 Unsupervised Ranking and Ensemble Learning Boaz Nadler, Weizmann Institute of Science
10:40-11:00 Break
11:00-11:40 Efficient Tracking in Dynamic Environments Rebecca Willett, University of Wisconsin-Madison
11:40-12:00 Break
12:00-12:45 Discussion
12:45-2:15 Lunch (provided at the Radisson)
2:15-4:00 Working Group Formation and Initial Meetings

Thursday, September 12, 2013
at SAMSI

Time Description Speaker Slides Videos
9:00-12:00 p.m. Working Group Meetings
12:00-2:00 Lunch (provided at SAMSI)
2:00-5:00 Working Group Meetings