The min-max optimization problem, also known as the saddle point problem, is a classical optimization problem which is also studied in the context of zero-sum games. Given a class of objective functions, the goal is to find a value for the argument which leads to a small objective value even for the worst case function in the given class. Min-max optimization problems have recently become very popular in a wide range of signal and data processing applications such as fair beamforming, training generative adversarial networks (GANs), and robust machine learning, to just name a few. The overarching goal of this article is to provide a survey of recent advances for an important subclass of min-max problem, where the minimization and maximization problems can be non-convex and/or non-concave. In particular, we will first present a number of applications to showcase the importance of such min-max problems; then we discuss key theoretical challenges, and provide a selective review of some exciting recent theoretical and algorithmic advances in tackling non-convex min-max problems. Finally, we will point out open questions and future research directions.

The word'Monopoly' has ceased to exist in the current day business market. Every business which is prepared to disrupt the market holds a fair chance to rule the sector. Businesses that come backed with innovative technology sets that help them become preventative, reactive, and predictive are bound to replace the "giants". One such technology set that is helping business in the dot com economy break the bounds and emerge as the market leader is Artificial Intelligence. In this article, we are going to explore the impact of AI on businesses by diving into what makes AI a must-have technology incorporation from what it once was - a good to have tech addition.

We introduce a novel online multitask setting. In this setting each task is partitioned into a sequence of segments that is unknown to the learner. Associated with each segment is a hypothesis from some hypothesis class. We give algorithms that are designed to exploit the scenario where there are many such segments but significantly fewer associated hypotheses. We prove regret bounds that hold for any segmentation of the tasks and any association of hypotheses to the segments. In the single-task setting this is equivalent to switching with long-term memory in the sense of [Bousquet and Warmuth; 2003]. We provide an algorithm that predicts on each trial in time linear in the number of hypotheses when the hypothesis class is finite. We also consider infinite hypothesis classes from reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces for which we give an algorithm whose per trial time complexity is cubic in the number of cumulative trials. In the single-task special case this is the first example of an efficient regret-bounded switching algorithm with long-term memory for a non-parametric hypothesis class.

The purpose of this paper is to write a complete survey of the (spectral) manifold learning methods and nonlinear dimensionality reduction (NLDR) in data reduction. The first two NLDR methods in history were respectively published in Science in 2000 in which they solve the similar reduction problem of high-dimensional data endowed with the intrinsic nonlinear structure. The intrinsic nonlinear structure is always interpreted as a concept in manifolds from geometry and topology in theoretical mathematics by computer scientists and theoretical physicists. In 2001, the concept of Manifold Learning first appears as an NLDR method called Laplacian Eigenmaps purposed by Belkin and Niyogi. In the typical manifold learning setup, the data set, also called the observation set, is distributed on or near a low dimensional manifold $M$ embedded in $\mathbb{R}^D$, which yields that each observation has a $D$-dimensional representation. The goal of (spectral) manifold learning is to reduce these observations as a compact lower-dimensional representation based on the geometric information. The reduction procedure is called the (spectral) manifold learning method. In this paper, we derive each (spectral) manifold learning method with the matrix and operator representation, and we then discuss the convergence behavior of each method in a geometric uniform language. Hence, we name the survey Geometric Foundations of Data Reduction.

We've been hearing about the potential impacts Artificial Intelligence (AI) could have on the legal profession for several years now. Naysayers warn of waves of legal administration job losses and that IBM's Watson could supplant lawyers. Proponents laud AI's ability to transform the legal industry to a model of effectiveness and profitability never seen before. Neither side provides clear and direct evidence of how these things might actually come to pass. The AI discussion outside of legal operates on the same basic premises, but at a macro level.

Despite achieving tremendous success, existing deep learning models have exposed limitations in compositional generalization, the capability to learn compositional rules and apply them to unseen cases in a systematic manner. To tackle this issue, we propose the Neural-Symbolic Stack Machine (NeSS). It contains a neural network to generate traces, which are then executed by a symbolic stack machine enhanced with sequence manipulation operations. NeSS combines the expressive power of neural sequence models with the recursion supported by the symbolic stack machine. Without training supervision on execution traces, NeSS achieves 100% generalization performance in three domains: the SCAN benchmark of language-driven navigation tasks, the compositional machine translation benchmark, and context-free grammar parsing tasks.

Classifiers in machine learning are often brittle when deployed. Particularly concerning are models with inconsistent performance on specific subgroups of a class, e.g., exhibiting disparities in skin cancer classification in the presence or absence of a spurious bandage. To mitigate these performance differences, we introduce model patching, a two-stage framework for improving robustness that encourages the model to be invariant to subgroup differences, and focus on class information shared by subgroups. Model patching first models subgroup features within a class and learns semantic transformations between them, and then trains a classifier with data augmentations that deliberately manipulate subgroup features. We instantiate model patching with CAMEL, which (1) uses a CycleGAN to learn the intra-class, inter-subgroup augmentations, and (2) balances subgroup performance using a theoretically-motivated subgroup consistency regularizer, accompanied by a new robust objective. We demonstrate CAMEL's effectiveness on 3 benchmark datasets, with reductions in robust error of up to 33% relative to the best baseline. Lastly, CAMEL successfully patches a model that fails due to spurious features on a real-world skin cancer dataset.

Robots are becoming an important way to deliver health care, and personality is vital to understanding their effectiveness. Despite this, there is a lack of a systematic overarching understanding of personality in health care human robot interaction (H-HRI). To address this, the authors conducted a review that identified 18 studies on personality in H-HRI. This paper presents the results of that systematic literature review. Insights are derived from this review regarding the methodologies, outcomes, and samples utilized. The authors of this review discuss findings across this literature while identifying several gaps worthy of attention. Overall, this paper is an important starting point in understanding personality in H-HRI.

Reinforcement learning (RL) has been widely applied to game-playing and surpassed the best human-level performance in many domains, yet there are few use-cases in industrial or commercial settings. We introduce OR-Gym, an open-source library for developing reinforcement learning algorithms to address operations research problems. In this paper, we apply reinforcement learning to the knapsack, multi-dimensional bin packing, multi-echelon supply chain, and multi-period asset allocation model problems, as well as benchmark the RL solutions against MILP and heuristic models. These problems are used in logistics, finance, engineering, and are common in many business operation settings. We develop environments based on prototypical models in the literature and implement various optimization and heuristic models in order to benchmark the RL results. By re-framing a series of classic optimization problems as RL tasks, we seek to provide a new tool for the operations research community, while also opening those in the RL community to many of the problems and challenges in the OR field.

Session 1 was titled Democratizing Healthcare with AI. This was by far the most intriguing and interesting session, as it had lots of great insights on how to make high-level research available to all. Session 1 began by highlighting the gap between high-level research and the people who actually can benefit from the research. All speakers stressed the importance of developing products from the research that can truly help the field. Some advancements have been made, and some presented include smartphone-powered ultrasounds, smartwatch-based diagnosis of Afib, and even AI-powered dieting apps.