Thank you for attending MMLS 2018!

Conference booklet is here!
Exit survey is here!
Congratulations to our poster prize winners: Bowen Shi (TTI-C), Cesar Uribe (UIUC), Daniel Vial (UMICH).

The Midwest ML Symposium (MMLS) aims to convene regional machine learning researchers for stimulating discussions and debates, to foster cross-institutional collaboration, and to showcase the collective talent of machine learning researchers at all career stages.

Date: June 6-7, 2018.
Location: Logan Center @ UChicago.
Parking: There will be street parking available; please see here for more information.
Accommodation: A block of double-occupancy dorm rooms has been reserved on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, and will be offered to MMLS participants, free of charge, on a first-come, first-served basis. Complimentary shuttle transportation will also be provided between the UIC and UChicago campuses in the mornings and evenings.
Registration: We are grateful to the 400+ current registrants; we look forward to seeing all of you soon! Unfortunately, we are at capacity, and closing registration!
Posters: In 2017, we were very happy to have ~50 posters; three of which received best poster prizes. In 2018, we have roughly as many posters; we have selected 10 spotlight talks, and will award three $1000 prizes, graciously sponsored by 3M! Please see below for details!
Contact: For any questions or concerns, please write to midwestml2018@gmail.com.

Plenary speakers.

Cornell University

MSR NYC

Purdue

Amazon

Invited speakers.

Iowa State

UChicago

UW-Madison

Google

Mesrob Ohannessian

TTIC

UIUC

Determined AI

Northwestern

OSU

Posters.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted posters. Unfortunately, the deadline has passed and we have closed poster submission. Please see the list of accepted posters and spotlights in the schedule below.

We will still select, from the spotlights, three best poster prizes (each accompanied by $1000), graciously sponsored by 3M!

Congratulations to our poster prize winners:

Authors: Bowen Shi (TTIC), Aurora Martinez del Rio, Jon Michaux, Greg Shakhnarovich, Daine Brentari, Karen Livescu.
Title: Fingerspelling recognition in the wild.
Authors: Cesar Uribe (UIUC), Soomin Lee, Alexander Gasnikov, Angelia Nedic.
Title: A dual approach for optimal algorithms in distributed optimization over networks.
Authors: Daniel Vial (UMich), Vijay Subramanian.
Title: Personalized PageRank dimensionality and algorithmic implications.

Schedule.

Wednesday, June 6.

Time	Event
8-8:50 am	Breakfast
8:50-9 am	Opening remarks
9-9:50 am	Plenary talk: [+- Alice Zheng ]
9:50-10:30 am	[+- Poster spotlights ]
10:30-11:30 am	Coffee break, [+- Poster session ] Title: A dual approach for optimal algorithms in distributed optimization over networks Authors: Cesar Uribe (UIUC), Soomin Lee, Alexander Gasnikov, Angelia Nedic Title: Constrained deep learning using conditional gradient and applications in computer vision Authors: Sathya Ravi (UW-Madison), Tuan Dinh, Vishnu Lokhande, Vikas Singh Title: Personalized PageRank dimensionality and algorithmic implications Authors: Daniel Vial (University of Michigan), Vijay Subramanian Title: Block structure based models for graph sequences Authors: Mehrnaz Amjadi (University of Illinois at Chicago), Theja Tulabandhula Title: Neural network solutions to optimal transport Authors: Yucheng Chen (UIUC), Bolton Bailey, Daniel Hsu, Jian Peng, Matus Telgarsky Title: Underdamped Langevin MCMC Authors: Niladri S. Chatterji (UC Berkeley), Xiang Cheng, Peter Bartlett, Michael Jordan Title: Cross-domain transfer in deep reinforcement learning using policy adaptation Authors: Girish Joshi (UIUC), Girish Chowdhary Title: Soft parameter sharing for deep neural networks Authors: Pedro Savarese (TTIC), Michael Maire Title: Fingerspelling recognition in the wild Authors: Bowen Shi (TTIC), Aurora Martinez del Rio, Jon Michaux, Greg Shakhnarovich, Daine Brentari, Karen Livescu Title: Parametrized accelerated methods free of condition number Authors: Chaoyue Liu (Ohio State University), Mikhail Belkin Title: Simplifying the sky: Mitigating baryonic effects in cosmological weak lensing measurements Author: Antigoni Georgiadou (Florida State University) Title: Contextual bandits for spacecraft magnetometer interference cancellation Authors: Aniket Anand Deshmukh (University of Michigan), Srinagesh Sharma, Clayton Scott, James W. Cutler, Mark Moldwin Title: An order-invariant structure learning method for molecule classification Authors: Shengchao Liu (UW-Madison), Thevaa Chandereng, Yingyu Liang Title: Stein's estimator for single-index varying coefficient model Authors: Sen Na (University of Chicago), Mladen Kolar, Zhuoran Yang, Zhaoran Wang Title: Variable selection in functional linear concurrent regression Authors: Rahul Ghosal (North Carolina State University), Arnab Maity, Timothy Clark, Stefano Longo Title: "Real" high-dimensional data clustering Authors: Mireille Boutin (Purdue), Tarun Yellamraju Title: Coarse ranking with smart clustering Authors: Sumeet Katariya (UW-Madison), Robert Nowak Title: A realistic online algorithm to learn buyer behavior Authors: Debjyoti Saharoy (University of Illinois at Chicago), Theja Tulabandhula Title: Robust budget allocation Authors: Ashley Hou (UW-Madison), Po-Ling Loh Title: Gaze estimation under severe power and energy constraints Authors: Yunyang Xiong (UW-Madison), Hyunwoo J. Kim, Vijayaraghavan Thiruvengadam, Kathikeyan Sankaralingam, Vikas Singh Title: Learning the base distribution in implicit generative models Authors: Cem Subakan (UIUC), Oluwasanmi Koyejo, Paris Smaragdis Title: On large-batch training for deep learning: A theoretical understanding of the generalization gap Authors: Xiaowu Dai (UW-Madison), Yuhua Zhu
11:30-12:10 pm	Invited talks: [+- Wei Xu , Chinmay Hegde ]
12:10-1:30 pm	Lunch
1:30-2:50 pm	[+- Sponsored talks, Q&A ]
2:50-3:30 pm	Invited talks: [+- Mesrob Ohannessian , Alex Schwing ]
3:30-4:30 pm	Coffee break, [+- poster session ] Title: A dual approach for optimal algorithms in distributed optimization over networks Authors: Cesar Uribe (UIUC), Soomin Lee, Alexander Gasnikov, Angelia Nedic Title: Constrained deep learning using conditional gradient and applications in computer vision Authors: Sathya Ravi (UW-Madison), Tuan Dinh, Vishnu Lokhande, Vikas Singh Title: Personalized PageRank dimensionality and algorithmic implications Authors: Daniel Vial (University of Michigan), Vijay Subramanian Title: Block structure based models for graph sequences Authors: Mehrnaz Amjadi (University of Illinois at Chicago), Theja Tulabandhula Title: Neural network solutions to optimal transport Authors: Yucheng Chen (UIUC), Bolton Bailey, Daniel Hsu, Jian Peng, Matus Telgarsky Title: Underdamped Langevin MCMC Authors: Niladri S. Chatterji (UC Berkeley), Xiang Cheng, Peter Bartlett, Michael Jordan Title: Cross-domain transfer in deep reinforcement learning using policy adaptation Authors: Girish Joshi (UIUC), Girish Chowdhary Title: Soft parameter sharing for deep neural networks Authors: Pedro Savarese (TTIC), Michael Maire Title: Fingerspelling recognition in the wild Authors: Bowen Shi (TTIC), Aurora Martinez del Rio, Jon Michaux, Greg Shakhnarovich, Daine Brentari, Karen Livescu Title: Parametrized accelerated methods free of condition number Authors: Chaoyue Liu (Ohio State University), Mikhail Belkin Title: Learning approximate inference networks for structured prediction Authors: Lifu Tu (TTIC), Kevin Gimpel Title: Causal discovery with unobserved confounding and non-Gaussian data Authors: Y. Samuel Wang (University of Chicago), Mathias Drton Title: Statistical inference for high-dimensional differential networks Authors: Byol Kim (University of Chicago), Song Liu, Mladen Kolar Title: Learning dynamics across similar spatiotemporally evolving systems Authors: Joshua Whitman (UIUC), Girish Chowdhary Title: An inexact subsampled proximal Newton-type method under generalized self-concordance Authors: Hongsheng Liu (UNC Chapel Hill), Tianxiao Sun Title: Application of the n-TARP binary clustering method to survey data Authors: Taylor V. Williams (Purdue), Tarun Yellamraju, Kerrie A. Douglas, Mireille Boutin Title: Comprehensive validation of naive Bayes algorithm through qualitative methods Authors: David Waller (Purdue), Hillary Merzdorf, Nathan Hicks, Dan Goldwasser, Kerrie Douglas Title: POLAR: Private Optimization and Learning Algorithm Authors: Shripad Gade (UIUC), Nitin Vaidya Title: PULasso: High-dimensional variable selection with presence-only data Authors: Hyebin Song (UW-Madison), Garvesh Raskutti Title: Theoretical support of machine learning debugging via weighted M-estimation Authors: Xiaomin Zhang (UW-Madison), Xuezhou Zhang, Xiaojin Zhu, Po-Ling Loh Title: Robust estimation in high-dimensional heteroscedastic regression with graph trend filtering Authors: Duzhe Wang (UW-Madison), Po-Ling Loh Title: Local optimality and generalization guarantees for the Langevin algorithm via empirical metastability Authors: Belinda Tzen (UIUC), Tengyuan Liang, Maxim Raginsky
4:30-5:20 pm	Plenary talk: [+- Robert Schapire ]
5:30 pm	Reception (graciously sponsored by ServiceNow!)

Thursday, June 7.

Time	Event
8-9 am	Breakfast
9-9:50 am	Plenary talk: [+- Jon Kleinberg ]
9:50-10:30 am	Invited talks: [+- Evan Sparks , Yingyu Liang ]
10:30-11:30 am	Coffee break, [+- poster session ] Title: Automated noisy image removal for online food image collection Authors: Runyu Mao (Purdue), Shaobo Fang, Sri Kalyan Yarlagadda, Fengqing Zhu Title: Multiresolution representations of graphs using random forests Authors: Jonathan Eskreis-Winkler (University of Chicago), Risi Kondor Title: RoCKET: Robust Classification and Knowledge Extraction from Text Authors: Glenn Fung (American Family Insurance), Devin Conathan, Sukrat Gupta, Luisa Polania Title: Recovery of simultaneous low rank and two-way sparse coefficient matrices, a nonconvex approach Authors: Ming Yu (University of Chicago), Zhaoran Wang, Varun Gupta, Mladen Kolar Title: Coefficient tree regression for discovering hidden structure Authors: Ozge Surer (Northwestern University), Daniel Apley, Edward C. Malthouse Title: Comprehensive qualitative validation of topic modeling results for open-ended survey questions Authors: Nathan Hicks (Purdue), Hillary Merzdorf, David Waller, Gaurav Nanda, Dan Goldwasser, Kerrie Douglas Title: Robust blind deconvolution via mirror descent Authors: Sathya Ravi (UW-Madison), Ronak Mehta, Vikas Singh Title: Generalization error bounds for noisy, iterative algorithms Authors: Ankit Pensia (UW-Madison), Varun Jog, Po-Ling Loh Title: The power of interpolation: Understanding the effectiveness of SGD in modern over-parametrized learning Authors: Siyuan Ma (Ohio State University), Raef Bassily, Mikhail Belkin Title: Globally consistent algorithms for mixture of experts Authors: Ashok Makkuva (UIUC), Sreeram Kannan, Pramod Viswanath Title: Active and adaptive sequential learning Authors: Yuheng Bu (UIUC), Jiaxun Lu, Venugopal V. Veeravalli Title: A progressive batching L-BFGS method for machine learning Authors: Hao-Jun Shi (Northwestern University), Raghu Bollapragada, Dheevatsa Mudigere, Jorge Nocedal, Peter Ping Tak Tang Title: Data profiling methods for interactive data cleaning Authors: Zhihan Guo (UW-Madison), Theodoros Rekatsinas Title: Properties of best subset selection and implications for practitioners Author: Maya Lozinski (University of Chicago) Title: Sampling-free uncertainty estimation in gated recurrent units with exponential families Authors: Seong Jae Hwang (UW-Madison), Ronak Mehta, Vikas Singh Title: Fairness-aware recommendation systems Authors: Nasim Sonboli (DePaul University), Robin Burke Title: Feasible arm identification Authors: Julian Katz-Samuels (University of Michigan), Clayton Scott Title: Continuation methods for deep neural networks Authors: Pedro Savarese (TTIC), Nathan Srebro Title: Learning instructional policy from demonstration Authors: Harshal Maske (UIUC), Girish Chowdhary Title: Localization, approximations, and nonlinear consensus for distributed non-convex optimization Authors: Hsu Kao (University of Michigan), Vijay Subramanian Title: Graph-based ascent algorithms for function maximization Authors: Muni Sreenivas Pydi (UW-Madison), Varun Jog, Po-Ling Loh Title: Domain adaptation with conditional distribution matching with applications Authors: Yunyang Xiong (UW-Madison), Hao Zhou, Vishnu Lokhande, Vikas Singh
11:30-12:30 pm	Invited talks: [+- Ermin Wei , Mladen Kolar , Jeff Naughton ]
12:30-1:40 pm	Lunch
1:40-2:30 pm	Plenary talk: [+- Patrick Wolfe ]
2:30-3 pm	Coffee break
3-4 pm	Panel: MMLS advisory board
4-4:10 pm	Closing remarks

Panelists.

Ben Zhao (moderator; UChicago).
Avrim Blum (TTI-C).
Laura Balzano (UMich).
Misha Belkin (OSU).
Jeff Naughton (Google).
Rob Nowak (UW-Madison).
Nati Srebro (TTI-C).
Grace Wahba (UW-Madison).

Sponsors.

The Midwest ML Symposium is only possible thanks to extremely generous gifts from the following sponsors!

Platinum sponsors.

Gold sponsors.

Organizers.

To reach the organizers, please write to midwestml2018@gmail.com.

Po-Ling Loh (co-chair; UW-Madison).
Matus Telgarsky (co-chair; UIUC).
Stanley Chan (Purdue).
Mike Franklin (UChicago).
Suriya Gunasekar (TTI-C).
Ambuj Tewari (UMich).