Event

CCSP Seminar: Alankrita Bhatt, Universal Probability and Applications in Data Science

Thursday, November 9, 2023
4:45 p.m.
2168 AV Williams Bldg and online
Adway Patra
301-256-8157
apatra@umd.edu
http://ccsp.ece.umd.edu/

Communication, Control and Signal Processing Seminar
Universal Probability and Applications in Data Science

Alankrita Bhatt
California Institute of Technology

Zoom link: https://umd.zoom.us/s/7689613576

Abstract
In modern statistical and data science applications, the probability distribution generating the data in question is unknown (or even absent) and decisions must be taken in a purely data-driven manner. In this talk, the information-theoretic approach of universal probability is revisited and expanded upon. This approach gives us general principles and guidelines for assigning sequential probabilities to data (based on which a decision can then be made), and has been used successfully over the years to problems in compression, prediction and estimation among others. The utility of this approach is then demonstrated through the example of universal portfolio selection with side information.