Description of Course

The aim of this course is to explore advanced techniques in probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) and statistical machine learning (ML) more broadly. Students will develop the ability to apply these techniques to their own research. Students will learn to perform statistical inference and reasoning in complex probabilistic statistical models. The course will survey state-of-the-art ML research including: variational inference, Bayesian Deep Learning, representation learning, and uncertainty quantification. Upon conclusion of this course students will be capable of developing new methods and advancing the state-of-the-art in ML and PGM research.

Course Management

D2L: https://d2l.arizona.edu/d2l/home/1205997
Piazza: https://piazza.com/arizona/fall2022/csc696h1

Instructor and Contact Information:

Instructor: Jason Pacheco, GS 724, Email: pachecoj@cs.arizona.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 3:30-4:30pm, Fridays (Zoom) 3:30-4:30pm
Instructor Homepage: http://www.pachecoj.com

Date Topic Readings Presenter / Slides
1/10 Introduction + Course Overview (slides)
1/15 Martin Luther King Jr Day : No Classes
1/17 Probability and Statistics : Probability Theory PRML : Sec. 1.2.1-1.2.4

(slides)
1/22 Probability and Statistics : Bayesian Statistics Why Isn't Everyone a Bayesian?
Efron, B. 1986
Objections to Bayesian Statistics
Gelman, A. 2008

(slides)
1/24 Probability and Statistics : Bayesian Statistics (Cont'd)
1/29 Inference : Monte Carlo Methods Introduction to Monte Carlo Methods
MacKay, D. J. C . Learning in Graphical Models. Springer, 1998
(slides)
1/31 Inference : Monte Carlo Methods (Cont'd)
2/5 Inference : Variational Inference Variational Inference: A Review for Statisticians
Blei, D., et al., J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 2017

Optional:
PRML : Sec. 10.1-10.4
(slides)
2/7 Inference: Approximate Bayesian Computation Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC)
Sunnaker, M. et al. PLoS Computational Biology, 2013
James
(slides)
2/12 Inference: Bayesian Conditional Density Estimation Fast ε-free Inference of Simulation Models with Bayesian Conditional Density Estimation
Papamakarios, G. and Murray, I. NeurIPS, 2016
Varun
(slides)
2/14 Bayesian Deep Learning: Introduction Weight Uncertainty in Neural Networks
Blundel, C. et al. ICML, 2015
Cameron
(slides)
2/19 Bayesian Deep Learning: Monte Carlo Dropout Dropout as a Bayesian Approximation: Representing Model Uncertainty in Deep Learning
Gal, Y. and Ghahramani, Z. ICML, 2016
Miki
(slides)
2/21 Bayesian Deep Learning: Variational Dropout Variational Dropout and the Local Reparameterization Trick
Kingma, D. P. et al. NeurIPS, 2015
Brenda
(slides)
2/26 Bayesian Deep Learning: Information Bottleneck Deep Variational Information Bottleneck
Alemi, A. A. et al. ICLR, 2016
Projects Info
Kayla
(slides)
2/28 Bayesian Deep Learning: Representation Learning InfoGAN: Interpretable Representation Learning by Information Maximizing Generative Adversarial Nets
Chen, X. et al. NeurIPS 2016
Daniel
(slides)
3/4 Spring Recess : No Classes
3/6 Spring Recess : No Classes
3/11 Bayesian Deep Learning : Representation Learning Information Dropout: Learning Optimal Representations Through Noisy Computation
Achille, A. and Soatto, S. PAMI, 2018
Thang
(slides)
3/13 Generative Models : Variational Autoencoder Auto-encoding Variational Bayes
Kingma and Welling, ArXiv, 2014

Optional Reference:
Kingma, D. P. and Welling, M. ArXiv, 2019
Natnael
(slides)
3/18 Generative Models : Diffusion Probabilistic Models Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models
Ho et al., NeurIPS, 2020
Varun
(slides)
3/20 Generative Models : Diffusion Implicit Models Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models
Song et al., ICLR, 2021
Kayla
(slides)
3/25 Generative Models : Score-Based Generative Modeling Score-Based Generative Modeling Through Stochastic Differential Equations

Song et al., ICLR, 2021
Natnael
(slides)
3/27 Generative Models : Energy-Based Models Implicit Generation Modeling with Energy-Based Models
Du and Mordatch, NeurIPS, 2019
Brenda
(slides)
4/1 Generative Models : Energy-Based Models How to Train Your Energy-Based Models
Song and Kingma, ArXiv, 2021
Daniel
(slides)
4/3 Uncertainty Quantification : Variational BOED Variational Bayesian Optimal Experimental Design
Foster et al., NeurIPS, 2019
Miki
(slides)
4/8 Uncertainty Quantification : Variational MI Bounds On Variational Bounds of Mutual Information
Poole et al., ICML, 2019
Alonso
(slides)
4/10 Uncertainty Quantification : MINE Mutual Information Neural Estimation
Belghazi et al., ICML, 2018
Cameron
(slides)
4/15 Uncertainty Quantification : DAD Deep Adaptive Design: Amortizing Sequential BOED
Foster et al., ICML, 2021
James
(slides)
4/17 Uncertainty Quantification : Contrastive Predictive Coding Representation Learning with Contrastive Predictive Coding
van den Oord et al., arXiv, 2018
Thang
(slides)
4/22 Uncertainty Quantification : Bayesian Experimental Design Modern Bayesian Experimental Design
Rainforth et al., Statistical Science, 2024
Alonso
(slides)
4/24 Project Presentations Alonso, Daniel, Thang
4/29 Project Presentations James, Cameron, Nate
5/1 Project Presentations Kayla, Brenda, Varun

© Jason Pacheco, 2022