Learning Management
Efficient Online Learning with Memory via Frank-Wolfe Optimization: Algorithms with Bounded Dynamic Regret and Applications to Control
Zhou, Hongyu, Xu, Zirui, Tzoumas, Vasileios
Projection operations are a typical computation bottleneck in online learning. In this paper, we enable projection-free online learning within the framework of Online Convex Optimization with Memory (OCO-M) -- OCO-M captures how the history of decisions affects the current outcome by allowing the online learning loss functions to depend on both current and past decisions. Particularly, we introduce the first projection-free meta-base learning algorithm with memory that minimizes dynamic regret, i.e., that minimizes the suboptimality against any sequence of time-varying decisions. We are motivated by artificial intelligence applications where autonomous agents need to adapt to time-varying environments in real-time, accounting for how past decisions affect the present. Examples of such applications are: online control of dynamical systems; statistical arbitrage; and time series prediction. The algorithm builds on the Online Frank-Wolfe (OFW) and Hedge algorithms. We demonstrate how our algorithm can be applied to the online control of linear time-varying systems in the presence of unpredictable process noise. To this end, we develop a controller with memory and bounded dynamic regret against any optimal time-varying linear feedback control policy. We validate our algorithm in simulated scenarios of online control of linear time-invariant systems.
Online Learning and Disambiguations of Partial Concept Classes
Cheung, Tsun-Ming, Hatami, Hamed, Hatami, Pooya, Hosseini, Kaave
In a recent article, Alon, Hanneke, Holzman, and Moran (FOCS '21) introduced a unifying framework to study the learnability of classes of partial concepts. One of the central questions studied in their work is whether the learnability of a partial concept class is always inherited from the learnability of some ``extension'' of it to a total concept class. They showed this is not the case for PAC learning but left the problem open for the stronger notion of online learnability. We resolve this problem by constructing a class of partial concepts that is online learnable, but no extension of it to a class of total concepts is online learnable (or even PAC learnable).
Student-centric Model of Learning Management System Activity and Academic Performance: from Correlation to Causation
Mandalapu, Varun, Chen, Lujie Karen, Shetty, Sushruta, Chen, Zhiyuan, Gong, Jiaqi
In recent years, there is a lot of interest in modeling students' digital traces in Learning Management System (LMS) to understand students' learning behavior patterns including aspects of meta-cognition and self-regulation, with the ultimate goal to turn those insights into actionable information to support students to improve their learning outcomes. In achieving this goal, however, there are two main issues that need to be addressed given the existing literature. Firstly, most of the current work is course-centered (i.e. models are built from data for a specific course) rather than student-centered; secondly, a vast majority of the models are correlational rather than causal. Those issues make it challenging to identify the most promising actionable factors for intervention at the student level where most of the campus-wide academic support is designed for. In this paper, we explored a student-centric analytical framework for LMS activity data that can provide not only correlational but causal insights mined from observational data. We demonstrated this approach using a dataset of 1651 computing major students at a public university in the US during one semester in the Fall of 2019. This dataset includes students' fine-grained LMS interaction logs and administrative data, e.g. demographics and academic performance. In addition, we expand the repository of LMS behavior indicators to include those that can characterize the time-of-the-day of login (e.g. chronotype). Our analysis showed that student login volume, compared with other login behavior indicators, is both strongly correlated and causally linked to student academic performance, especially among students with low academic performance. We envision that those insights will provide convincing evidence for college student support groups to launch student-centered and targeted interventions that are effective and scalable.
Online Learning for Equilibrium Pricing in Markets under Incomplete Information
Jalota, Devansh, Sun, Haoyuan, Azizan, Navid
The study of market equilibria is central to economic theory, particularly in efficiently allocating scarce resources. However, the computation of equilibrium prices at which the supply of goods matches their demand typically relies on having access to complete information on private attributes of agents, e.g., suppliers' cost functions, which are often unavailable in practice. Motivated by this practical consideration, we consider the problem of setting equilibrium prices in the incomplete information setting wherein a market operator seeks to satisfy the customer demand for a commodity by purchasing the required amount from competing suppliers with privately known cost functions unknown to the market operator. In this incomplete information setting, we consider the online learning problem of learning equilibrium prices over time while jointly optimizing three performance metrics -- unmet demand, cost regret, and payment regret -- pertinent in the context of equilibrium pricing over a horizon of $T$ periods. We first consider the setting when suppliers' cost functions are fixed and develop algorithms that achieve a regret of $O(\log \log T)$ when the customer demand is constant over time, or $O(\sqrt{T} \log \log T)$ when the demand is variable over time. Next, we consider the setting when the suppliers' cost functions can vary over time and illustrate that no online algorithm can achieve sublinear regret on all three metrics when the market operator has no information about how the cost functions change over time. Thus, we consider an augmented setting wherein the operator has access to hints/contexts that, without revealing the complete specification of the cost functions, reflect the variation in the cost functions over time and propose an algorithm with sublinear regret in this augmented setting.
Online Learning for Incentive-Based Demand Response
Muthirayan, Deepan, Khargonekar, Pramod P.
In this paper, we consider the problem of learning online to manage Demand Response (DR) resources. A typical DR mechanism requires the DR manager to assign a baseline to the participating consumer, where the baseline is an estimate of the counterfactual consumption of the consumer had it not been called to provide the DR service. A challenge in estimating baseline is the incentive the consumer has to inflate the baseline estimate. We consider the problem of learning online to estimate the baseline and to optimize the operating costs over a period of time under such incentives. We propose an online learning scheme that employs least-squares for estimation with a perturbation to the reward price (for the DR services or load curtailment) that is designed to balance the exploration and exploitation trade-off that arises with online learning. We show that, our proposed scheme is able to achieve a very low regret of $\mathcal{O}\left((\log{T})^2\right)$ with respect to the optimal operating cost over $T$ days of the DR program with full knowledge of the baseline, and is individually rational for the consumers to participate. Our scheme is significantly better than the averaging type approach, which only fetches $\mathcal{O}(T^{1/3})$ regret.
Using AI to Personalize Education for Everyone - The Tech Edvocate
Personalized learning is learning experience designed with each student's specific needs in mind. In personalized learning, learning components like pace of learning, content, sequence, technology, content, instructional approach, instructional content and other aspects are adjustable according to the needs and learning purpose of each student. The aim with this more tailored education is to provide relevant learning opportunities that support students as they progress through the learning material. The end aim is to have more students succeed in their studies. Artificial intelligence (AI) is able to capture, aggregate, and analyze data from several different sources to build a student learning profile.
AI in Education Market Size & Share, Forecast Report 2023-2032
AI in Education Market size valued at USD 4 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to witness over 10% CAGR from 2023 to 2032, owing to the growing inclination towards personalized learning. Increasing reliance on technological reinforcement and conventional techniques has rendered traditional education models no longer sufficient to sustain the sector. In order to fulfill the evolving demands of students and educators, edtech startups are transforming and improving the education sphere by disrupting traditional technologies and advancing existing learning methods. As of January 2023, there are 30 EdTech Unicorns worth $89 billion worldwide. The lack of skilled professionals is a major factor restricting the adoption of AI across the education industry.
Student Engagement Detection Using Emotion Analysis, Eye Tracking and Head Movement with Machine Learning
Sharma, Prabin, Joshi, Shubham, Gautam, Subash, Maharjan, Sneha, Khanal, Salik Ram, Reis, Manuel Cabral, Barroso, João, Filipe, Vítor Manuel de Jesus
With the increase of distance learning, in general, and e-learning, in particular, having a system capable of determining the engagement of students is of primordial importance, and one of the biggest challenges, both for teachers, researchers and policy makers. Here, we present a system to detect the engagement level of the students. It uses only information provided by the typical built-in web-camera present in a laptop computer, and was designed to work in real time. We combine information about the movements of the eyes and head, and facial emotions to produce a concentration index with three classes of engagement: "very engaged", "nominally engaged" and "not engaged at all". The system was tested in a typical e-learning scenario, and the results show that it correctly identifies each period of time where students were "very engaged", "nominally engaged" and "not engaged at all". Additionally, the results also show that the students with best scores also have higher concentration indexes.
How to Build Your Career in AI eBook - Andrew Ng Collected Insights
Andrew Ng is the Founder of DeepLearning.AI, Founder and CEO of Landing AI, Managing General Partner at AI Fund, Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera, and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University. As a pioneer both in machine learning and online education, Dr. Ng has changed countless lives through his work in AI, authoring or co-authoring over 200 research papers in machine learning, robotics, and related fields. He was also the founding lead of the Google Brain team, and Chief Scientist at Baidu, and through this work built the teams that led the AI transformation of two leading internet companies. He is also co-founder and Chairman of Coursera, which had started with his machine learning course. Dr. Ng now focuses his time primarily on his entrepreneurial ventures, looking for the best ways to accelerate responsible AI practices in the larger global economy.
10 Best Advanced Machine Learning Courses You Must Know in 2023
Are you looking for the Best Advanced Machine Learning Courses?… If yes, then this article is for you. In this article, you will find the 10 Best Advanced Machine Learning Courses. To gain Machine Learning skills, there are numerous courses available. So, without wasting your time, let's start finding the Best Advanced Machine Learning Courses– This is a Nanodegree Program offered by Udacity.