Decision-making problems of sequential nature, where decisions made in the past may have an impact on the future, are used to model many practically important applications. In some real-world applications, feedback about a decision is delayed and may arrive via partial rewards that are observed with different delays. Motivated by such scenarios, we propose a novel problem formulation called multi-armed bandits with generalized temporally-partitioned rewards. To formalize how feedback about a decision is partitioned across several time steps, we introduce $\beta$-spread property. We derive a lower bound on the performance of any uniformly efficient algorithm for the considered problem. Moreover, we provide an algorithm called TP-UCB-FR-G and prove an upper bound on its performance measure. In some scenarios, our upper bound improves upon the state of the art. We provide experimental results validating the proposed algorithm and our theoretical results.

Time series is the most prevalent form of input data for educational prediction tasks. The vast majority of research using time series data focuses on hand-crafted features, designed by experts for predictive performance and interpretability. However, extracting these features is labor-intensive for humans and computers. In this paper, we propose an approach that utilizes irregular multivariate time series modeling with graph neural networks to achieve comparable or better accuracy with raw time series clickstreams in comparison to hand-crafted features. Furthermore, we extend concept activation vectors for interpretability in raw time series models. We analyze these advances in the education domain, addressing the task of early student performance prediction for downstream targeted interventions and instructional support. Our experimental analysis on 23 MOOCs with millions of combined interactions over six behavioral dimensions show that models designed with our approach can (i) beat state-of-the-art educational time series baselines with no feature extraction and (ii) provide interpretable insights for personalized interventions. Source code: https://github.com/epfl-ml4ed/ripple/.

Abstract: We investigate the extent to which offline demonstration data can improve online learning. It is natural to expect some improvement, but the question is how, and by how much? We show that the degree of improvement must depend on the quality of the demonstration data. To generate portable insights, we focus on Thompson sampling (TS) applied to a multi-armed bandit as a prototypical online learning algorithm and model. The demonstration data is generated by an expert with a given competence level, a notion we introduce.

Abstract: Suppose we are given access to n independent samples from distribution μ and we wish to output one of them with the goal of making the output distributed as close as possible to a target distribution ν. In this work we show that the optimal total variation distance as a function of n is given by Θ (Df′(n)) over the class of all pairs ν,μ with a bounded f-divergence Df(ν μ) D. Previously, this question was studied only for the case when the Radon-Nikodym derivative of ν with respect to μ is uniformly bounded. We then consider an application in the seemingly very different field of smoothed online learning, where we show that recent results on the minimax regret and the regret of oracle-efficient algorithms still hold even under relaxed constraints on the adversary (to have bounded f-divergence, as opposed to bounded Radon-Nikodym derivative). Finally, we also study efficacy of importance sampling for mean estimates uniform over a function class and compare importance sampling with rejection sampling. Abstract: We initiate a study of computable online (c-online) learning, which we analyze under varying requirements for "optimality" in terms of the mistake bound.

This Professional Certificate is intended for data scientists with existing knowledge of Python and machine learning frameworks like Scikit-Learn, PyTorch, and Tensorflow, who want to build and operate machine learning solutions in the cloud. This Professional Certificate teaches learners how to create end-to-end solutions in Microsoft Azure. They will learn how to manage Azure resources for machine learning; run experiments and train models; deploy and operationalize machine learning solutions; and implement responsible machine learning. They will also learn to use Azure Databricks to explore, prepare, and model data; and integrate Databricks machine learning processes with Azure Machine Learning. This program consists of 5 courses to help prepare you to take the Exam DP-100: Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure.

Marketing data are complex and have dimensions that make analysis difficult. Large unstructured datasets are often too big to extract qualitative insights. Marketing datasets also often involve relational and connected and involve networks. This specialization tackles advanced advertising and marketing analytics through three advanced methods aimed at solving these problems: text classification, text topic modeling, and semantic network analysis. Each key area involves a deep dive into the leading computer science methods aimed at solving these methods using Python.

Python is considered to be one of the most popular programming languages on the planet. It is also a programming language in great demand in the field of information technology. If we add the fact that it is a programming language that is very easy to learn, then we already have several reasons to start our learning adventure immediately and without delays! This e-course is intended for students from 11 years old. Includes, among other tools, funny cartoon–style video clips, quizzes, crosswords, exercises, solutions to the exercises, educational games, projects, documents, and slides.

The recent literature on online learning to rank (LTR) has established the utility of prior knowledge to Bayesian ranking bandit algorithms. However, a major limitation of existing work is the requirement for the prior used by the algorithm to match the true prior. In this paper, we propose and analyze adaptive algorithms that address this issue and additionally extend these results to the linear and generalized linear models. We also consider scalar relevance feedback on top of click feedback. Moreover, we demonstrate the efficacy of our algorithms using both synthetic and real-world experiments.

Machine learning is a rapidly growing field that has gained a lot of attention in recent years.

Economic issues, such as inflation, energy costs, taxes, and interest rates, are a constant presence in our daily lives and have been exacerbated by global events such as pandemics, environmental disasters, and wars. A sustained history of financial crises reveals significant weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the foundations of modern economies. Another significant issue currently is people quitting their jobs in large numbers. Moreover, many organizations have a diverse workforce comprising multiple generations posing new challenges. Transformative approaches in economics and labour markets are needed to protect our societies, economies, and planet. In this work, we use big data and machine learning methods to discover multi-perspective parameters for multi-generational labour markets. The parameters for the academic perspective are discovered using 35,000 article abstracts from the Web of Science for the period 1958-2022 and for the professionals' perspective using 57,000 LinkedIn posts from 2022. We discover a total of 28 parameters and categorised them into 5 macro-parameters, Learning & Skills, Employment Sectors, Consumer Industries, Learning & Employment Issues, and Generations-specific Issues. A complete machine learning software tool is developed for data-driven parameter discovery. A variety of quantitative and visualisation methods are applied and multiple taxonomies are extracted to explore multi-generational labour markets. A knowledge structure and literature review of multi-generational labour markets using over 100 research articles is provided. It is expected that this work will enhance the theory and practice of AI-based methods for knowledge discovery and system parameter discovery to develop autonomous capabilities and systems and promote novel approaches to labour economics and markets, leading to the development of sustainable societies and economies.