Computational Mechanics Group Meetings: 2006

Last update: December 16th, 2006


2006:

February Meetings: Feb 8th  Feb 15th  Feb 22nd  

March Meetings: Mar 1st  Mar 8th  Mar 15th  Mar 22nd  Mar 29th 

April Meetings: Apr 5th  Apr 12th  Apr 19th  Apr 26th 

May Meetings: May 3rd  May 10th  May 16th  May 24th  May 31st 

June Meetings: Jun 7th  Jun 14th  Jun 21st  Jun 28th 

July Meetings: Jul 5th  Jul 12th  Jul 19th  Jul 26th 

August Meetings: Aug 2nd  Aug 9th  Aug 16th  Aug 23rd  Aug 30th 

September Meetings: Sep 6th  Sep 13th  Sep 20th  Sep 27th 

October Meetings: Oct 4th  Oct 11th  Oct 18th  Oct 25th 

November Meetings: Nov 1st  Nov 8th  Nov 15th  Nov 22nd  Nov 29th 

December Meetings: Dec 6th  Dec 13th  Dec 20th - cancelled! 

2006 February

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Feb. 8th, 2006

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Bayesian Inference of Markov Chains, Part 1
Christopher C. Strelioff

Feb. 15th, 2006

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Bayesian Inference of Markov Chains, Part 2
Christopher C. Strelioff

Feb. 22nd, 2006

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Computation in Finitary Quantum Processes, Part 1
Karoline Wiesner

2006 March

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Mar. 1st, 2006

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Computation in Finitary Quantum Processes, Part 2
Karoline Wiesner

Mar. 8th, 2006

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Computation in Finitary Quantum Processes, Part 3
Karoline Wiesner

Mar. 15th, 2006

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Organizational Meeting

Mar. 22nd, 2006

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No Meeting
Karoline, Jim and Chris talk about SMS project?
2-3pm, 1106 MSB.

Mar. 29th, 2006

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No Meeting

Note: This is the day for the MSB open house.

2006 April

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Apr 5th, 2006

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Computation in Finitary Quantum Processes, Part 4
Karoline Wiesner
3-4 pm, 1106 MSB.

Apr 12th, 2006

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Clustering Methods
Paper discussion, led by Chris.
3-4 pm, 1106 MSB.

We will be discussing the following paper:

N. Gershenfeld, B. Schoner and E. Metois
Cluster-weighted modelling for time-series analysis,
Nature 397:329-332 (1999).

Link to paper.

Apr 19th, 2006

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Tree Merging Method for Epsilon Machine Reconstruction
Sean Whalen.
3-4 pm, 1106 MSB.

Apr 26th, 2006

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No presentation, short planning meeting.

2006 May

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May 3rd, 2006

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Type Theory & Asymptotic Equipartion Property
Discussion, led by Christopher Strelioff.
3-4 pm, 1106 MSB.

» Slides. «

Reading:

May 10th, 2006

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Overview of robot development.
Benny Brown.
3-4 pm, 1106 MSB.

May 16th, 2006

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NOTE: Time change to Tuesday May 16th, 2pm!!!

Practice qual talk.
Sean Whalen.
2-(4?) pm, 1106 MSB.

May 24th, 2006

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Computational complexity.
Discussion led by Raissa D'Souza.
3-4 pm, 1106 MSB.

Reading:

J. Machta
Complexity, parallel computation and statistical physics,
cond-mat/0510809 (2005).

» Link to paper. «

May 31st, 2006

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»»POSTPONED - NO MEETING THIS WEEK.««
updated May 29th, 2006.

Clustering
Discussion led by Sean Whalen and Christopher Strelioff.
3-4 pm, 1106 MSB.

Reading:

A.K. Jain, M.N. Murty, and P.J. Flynn
Data Clustering: A Review,
ACM Computing Surveys 31(3): 264-323 (1999).

» Link to paper. «

2006 June

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June 7th, 2006

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Plans for summer meetings...
~ 3:10pm, 1106 MSB.

June 14th, 2006

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The connectivity structure of neuronal networks grown in vitro
Luis M. A. Bettencourt (Theoretical Division, LANL).
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.
Abstract:

We apply an information theoretic treatment of action potential time series measured with multi-electrode arrays to estimate the detailed connectivity of mammalian neuronal cell assemblies grown in vitro. We infer causal correlations between neurons both through standard linear time correlations and more generally via the mutual information between their spike trains. In addition we implement the mutual information between any two spike trains conditional on the response of a third cell, as a means to identify and distinguish classes of correlations among three neurons. The conditional three-cell information measures the extent to which consideration of a third cell's activity increases (synergy) or not (redundancy or independence) knowledge of the statistical state of the pair under study. The use of a conditional three-cell measure leads to greater accuracy and sheds light into the functional connectivity arrangements of any three cells. We quantify the structure of the resultant connectivity graphs in the light of other complex networks and demonstrate that, despite their ex vivo development the connectivity maps derived from cultured neural assemblies display nontrivial structure in clustering coefficient, path length and assortative mixing relative to randomized graphs with the same average connectivity.

June 21st, 2006

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Toward a solution to a problem of Poincar\'e: A Macro-analysis of geometric variation of high-dimensional dynamics
Dave Albers (Max Planck Institute for Mathematical Sciences Leipzig, Germany).
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.
Abstract:

Around the turn of the 20th century, Poincar\'e formulated the idea of studying nature via the qualitative, geometric study of spaces of mappings we use to model nature. Since then, much of mathematical dynamics as well as nonlinear dynamics in many applied fields has worked to achieve partial solution to this problem. In this talk I will discuss a construction that provides both a means of attacking Poincar\'e's original problem as well as providing a language for mathematical and scientific results to "speak" to each other. In a practical way, this goal will be achieved using a function space (neural networks) that admits a measure. Using the chosen function space, a Monte Carlo analysis relative to this measure of the macroscopic geometric features will be presented. In particular, the geometric quantification will consist of analyzing a function that measures the number of positive Lyapunov exponents (and hence expanding directions) with parameter variation. This function is then rescaled to remove a dependence on dimension and the number of parameters such that an analysis can be performed in the asymptotic limit of a large number of dimensions.

June 28th, 2006

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A discussion on Python Coding
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

2006 July

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July 5th, 2006

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Hidden Markov Model algorithms, part 1.
Chris Ellison.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

» Slides from Chris E. «  updated: Jul 17, 2006.

July 12th, 2006

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Hidden Markov Model algorithms, part 2.
Chris Ellison.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

Slides available above.

July 19th, 2006

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Identifying Hierarchical Structure in Sequences: A linear-time algorithm
Sean Whalen.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

A discussion of the paper available at: link to paper.

» Slides from Sean «

Links from Sean:

» java implementation of sequitur
» hierarchical representation of music

Sean also said he would be willing to share his implementation of the algorithm with those in the group who are interested.

July 26th, 2006

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Discuss: 'Computation in Finitary Quantum Processes'
Karoline Wisner, James P. Crutchfield.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

Bring your comments and ideas on the paper to the meeting:

» If possible, have comments in writing for Karoline and Jim - thanks! «

2006 August

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Aug 2nd, 2006

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Continue...   Discuss: 'Computation in Finitary Quantum Processes'
Karoline Wisner, James P. Crutchfield.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

Aug 9th, 2006

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Paper discussion:
'A review of symbolic analysis of experimental data'
C.S. Daw, C.E.A. Finney and E.R. Tracy.
Review of Scientific Instruments, 74(2): 915-930.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

The paper is available online - doi: 10.1063/1.1531823.

Aug 16th, 2006

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Paper discussion:
'Estimating Good Discrete Partitions from Observed Data: Symbolic False Nearest Neighbors'
Matthew B. Kennel and Michael Buhl.
Physical Review Letters, 91(8): 084102.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

The paper is available online - doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.084102.

Aug 23rd, 2006

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Paper Discussion:
Validity of Threshold-Crossing Analysis of Symbolic Dynamics from Chaotic Time Series
Erik M. Bollt, Theodore Stanford, Ying-Cheng Lai, and Karol Zyczkowski.
Physical Review Letters, 85(16): 3524-3527.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

The paper is available online - doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.3524.

Aug 30th, 2006

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No meeting this week.

September 2006

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Sep 6th, 2006

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Paper discussion:
Chaos in learning a simple two-person game
Yuzuru Sato, Eizo Akiyama, and J. Doyne Farmer.
PNAS, 99(7):4748-4751.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

The paper is available online - http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/99/7/4748.

Sep 13th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
Discuss chapters 1-2.
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

We will be going over primarily chapter 2, but chapter 1 offers some explanations, background terminology, and history. It's not necessary to read all of chapter 1, but for background, I would suggest sections 1.1 and 1.3. Both chapters are available online at

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

It is a fair amount of reading (although not terribly mathy), so we will probably be going over chapter 2 for the next couple of meetings.

--Benny.

Sep 20th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
Discuss chapters 2-(3?).
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

Continue discussion from last week, starting at section 2.4.

We might start on Chapter 3 if time allows. Benny will put this chapter up sometime this week:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

Sep 27th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
11am - noon, 1106 MSB.

Continue discussion from last week, starting at section 2.8 and possibly continuing into Chapter 3. Chapters are still available at the link below:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

Dr. Richard Sutton also has a website for the book at:

http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/%7Esutton/book/the-book.html

This site is of particular interest because there is Lisp code which was used to generate some of the plots from the book. Also, the full text is available in html format. This might be useful to those of us who don't mind reading online.

October 2006

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Oct 4th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

--> Don't forget the new meeting time. <--

Continue discussion from last week, starting at chapter 3. Chapters are still available at the link below:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

Oct 11th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

Continue discussion from last week, starting at chapter 3. Chapters are still available at the link below:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

Oct 18th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

Continue discussion from last week, starting at (approximately) section 3.6.

Chapters are still available at the link below:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

Oct 25th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

Chapters are still available at the link below:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

November 2006

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Nov 1st, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

Ongoing discussion will start from section 3.8 this week. Chapters are still available at the link below:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

Nov 8th, 2006

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No Meeting
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

There is no group meeting this week. Please attend

Dr. Sergey Gavrilets - The dynamics of Machiavellian intelligence

For further details see CSE website http://cse.ucdavis.edu/calendars

Nov 15th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

We will start the meeting with a discussion of an optimal policy for a simple task designed by Benny: [ pdf ].

Given time, discussion will then continue on to chapter 4. Chapters 4 and 5 are now available at the link below:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

Nov 22nd, 2006

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No Meeting!

Have a nice Thanksgiving break.

Nov 29th, 2006

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Bayesian Inference and Model Comparison for Markov Chains
Christopher C. Strelioff
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

In these group meetings I will walk us through the methods of Bayesian inference of k-th order Markov chains from finite data samples. In addition to inference of parameters for a particular order k, I will discuss model comparison for a range of orders, selecting the order which best describes the data. Finally, I will discuss connections between inference, statistical mechanics and information theory. This connection allows us to estimate entropy rates of the process which created the data sample under consideration.

Things to read/skim in advance:

December 2006

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Dec 6th, 2006

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"Reinforcement Learning", by Sutton & Barto
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

Ongoing discussion will start from section 4.2 this week. Chapters are still available at the link below:

http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~brown/reinforce

Dec 13th, 2006

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Bayesian Inference and Model Comparison for Markov Chains
Christopher C. Strelioff
1:30-2:30pm, 1106 MSB.

In these group meetings I will walk us through the methods of Bayesian inference of k-th order Markov chains from finite data samples. In addition to inference of parameters for a particular order k, I will discuss model comparison for a range of orders, selecting the order which best describes the data. Finally, I will discuss connections between inference, statistical mechanics and information theory. This connection allows us to estimate entropy rates of the process which created the data sample under consideration.

Things to read/skim in advance:

Dec 20th, 2006

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Meeting Cancelled
-- Have a nice break!