Publications | Empirical Inference - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

Independence of cause and mechanism in brain networks

Besserve, M.

DALI workshop on Networks: Processes and Causality, April 2015 (talk)

Besserve, M. Independence of cause and mechanism in brain networks DALI workshop on Networks: Processes and Causality, April 2015 (talk)

Information-Theoretic Implications of Classical and Quantum Causal Structures

Chaves, R., Majenz, C., Luft, L., Maciel, T., Janzing, D., Schölkopf, B., Gross, D.

18th Conference on Quantum Information Processing (QIP), 2015 (talk)

Web link (url) [BibTex]

Chaves, R., Majenz, C., Luft, L., Maciel, T., Janzing, D., Schölkopf, B., Gross, D. Information-Theoretic Implications of Classical and Quantum Causal Structures 18th Conference on Quantum Information Processing (QIP), 2015 (talk)

Web link (url) [BibTex]

Assessment of brain tissue damage in the Sub-Acute Stroke Region by Multiparametric Imaging using [89-Zr]-Desferal-EPO-PET/MRI

Castaneda, S. G., Katiyar, P., Russo, F., Disselhorst, J. A., Calaminus, C., Poli, S., Maurer, A., Ziemann, U., Pichler, B. J.

World Molecular Imaging Conference, 2015 (talk)

Castaneda, S. G., Katiyar, P., Russo, F., Disselhorst, J. A., Calaminus, C., Poli, S., Maurer, A., Ziemann, U., Pichler, B. J. Assessment of brain tissue damage in the Sub-Acute Stroke Region by Multiparametric Imaging using [89-Zr]-Desferal-EPO-PET/MRI World Molecular Imaging Conference, 2015 (talk)

Early time point in vivo PET/MR is a promising biomarker for determining efficacy of a novel Db(\alphaEGFR)-scTRAIL fusion protein therapy in a colon cancer model

Divine, M. R., Harant, M., Katiyar, P., Disselhorst, J. A., Bukala, D., Aidone, S., Siegemund, M., Pfizenmaier, K., Kontermann, R., Pichler, B. J.

World Molecular Imaging Conference, 2015 (talk)

Divine, M. R., Harant, M., Katiyar, P., Disselhorst, J. A., Bukala, D., Aidone, S., Siegemund, M., Pfizenmaier, K., Kontermann, R., Pichler, B. J. Early time point in vivo PET/MR is a promising biomarker for determining efficacy of a novel Db(\alphaEGFR)-scTRAIL fusion protein therapy in a colon cancer model World Molecular Imaging Conference, 2015 (talk)

The search for single exoplanet transits in the Kepler light curves

Foreman-Mackey, D., Hogg, D. W., Schölkopf, B.

IAU General Assembly, 22, pages: 2258352, 2015 (talk)

link (url) [BibTex]

Foreman-Mackey, D., Hogg, D. W., Schölkopf, B. The search for single exoplanet transits in the Kepler light curves IAU General Assembly, 22, pages: 2258352, 2015 (talk)

link (url) [BibTex]

2003

Learning Control and Planning from the View of Control Theory and Imitation

Peters, J., Schaal, S.

NIPS Workshop "Planning for the Real World: The promises and challenges of dealing with uncertainty", December 2003 (talk)

Abstract

Learning control and planning in high dimensional continuous state-action systems, e.g., as needed in a humanoid robot, has so far been a domain beyond the applicability of generic planning techniques like reinforcement learning and dynamic programming. This talk describes an approach we have taken in order to enable complex robotics systems to learn to accomplish control tasks. Adaptive learning controllers equipped with statistical learning techniques can be used to learn tracking controllers -- missing state information and uncertainty in the state estimates are usually addressed by observers or direct adaptive control methods. Imitation learning is used as an ingredient to seed initial control policies whose output is a desired trajectory suitable to accomplish the task at hand. Reinforcement learning with stochastic policy gradients using a natural gradient forms the third component that allows refining the initial control policy until the task is accomplished. In comparison to general learning control, this approach is highly prestructured and thus more domain specific. However, it seems to be a theoretically clean and feasible strategy for control systems of the complexity that we need to address.

2003

Peters, J., Schaal, S. Learning Control and Planning from the View of Control Theory and Imitation NIPS Workshop "Planning for the Real World: The promises and challenges of dealing with uncertainty", December 2003 (talk)

Recurrent neural networks from learning attractor dynamics

Schaal, S., Peters, J.

NIPS Workshop on RNNaissance: Recurrent Neural Networks, December 2003 (talk)

Abstract

Many forms of recurrent neural networks can be understood in terms of dynamic systems theory of difference equations or differential equations. Learning in such systems corresponds to adjusting some internal parameters to obtain a desired time evolution of the network, which can usually be characterized in term of point attractor dynamics, limit cycle dynamics, or, in some more rare cases, as strange attractor or chaotic dynamics. Finding a stable learning process to adjust the open parameters of the network towards shaping the desired attractor type and basin of attraction has remain a complex task, as the parameter trajectories during learning can lead the system through a variety of undesirable unstable behaviors, such that learning may never succeed. In this presentation, we review a recently developed learning framework for a class of recurrent neural networks that employs a more structured network approach. We assume that the canonical system behavior is known a priori, e.g., it is a point attractor or a limit cycle. With either supervised learning or reinforcement learning, it is possible to acquire the transformation from a simple representative of this canonical behavior (e.g., a 2nd order linear point attractor, or a simple limit cycle oscillator) to the desired highly complex attractor form. For supervised learning, one shot learning based on locally weighted regression techniques is possible. For reinforcement learning, stochastic policy gradient techniques can be employed. In any case, the recurrent network learned by these methods inherits the stability properties of the simple dynamic system that underlies the nonlinear transformation, such that stability of the learning approach is not a problem. We demonstrate the success of this approach for learning various skills on a humanoid robot, including tasks that require to incorporate additional sensory signals as coupling terms to modify the recurrent network evolution on-line.

Schaal, S., Peters, J. Recurrent neural networks from learning attractor dynamics NIPS Workshop on RNNaissance: Recurrent Neural Networks, December 2003 (talk)

Statistical Learning Theory

Machine Learning Summer School, August 2003 (talk)

Bousquet, O. Statistical Learning Theory Machine Learning Summer School, August 2003 (talk)

Remarks on Statistical Learning Theory

Machine Learning Summer School, August 2003 (talk)

Bousquet, O. Remarks on Statistical Learning Theory Machine Learning Summer School, August 2003 (talk)

Rademacher and Gaussian averages in Learning Theory

Universite de Marne-la-Vallee, March 2003 (talk)

Bousquet, O. Rademacher and Gaussian averages in Learning Theory Universite de Marne-la-Vallee, March 2003 (talk)

Bousquet, O., Schölkopf, B.

Statistical Learning Theory

March 2003 (talk)

Bousquet, O., Schölkopf, B. Statistical Learning Theory March 2003 (talk)

Concentration Inequalities and Data-Dependent Error Bounds

Uni. Jena, February 2003 (talk)

Bousquet, O. Concentration Inequalities and Data-Dependent Error Bounds Uni. Jena, February 2003 (talk)

Introduction: Robots with Cognition?

Franz, MO.

6, pages: 38, (Editors: H.H. Bülthoff, K.R. Gegenfurtner, H.A. Mallot, R. Ulrich, F.A. Wichmann), 6. T{\"u}binger Wahrnehmungskonferenz (TWK), February 2003 (talk)

Abstract

Using robots as models of cognitive behaviour has a long tradition in robotics. Parallel to the historical development in cognitive science, one observes two major, subsequent waves in cognitive robotics. The first is based on ideas of classical, cognitivist Artificial Intelligence (AI). According to the AI view of cognition as rule-based symbol manipulation, these robots typically try to extract symbolic descriptions of the environment from their sensors that are used to update a common, global world representation from which, in turn, the next action of the robot is derived. The AI approach has been successful in strongly restricted and controlled environments requiring well-defined tasks, e.g. in industrial assembly lines. AI-based robots mostly failed, however, in the unpredictable and unstructured environments that have to be faced by mobile robots. This has provoked the second wave in cognitive robotics which tries to achieve cognitive behaviour as an emergent property from the interaction of simple, low-level modules. Robots of the second wave are called animats as their architecture is designed to closely model aspects of real animals. Using only simple reactive mechanisms and Hebbian-type or evolutionary learning, the resulting animats often outperformed the highly complex AI-based robots in tasks such as obstacle avoidance, corridor following etc. While successful in generating robust, insect-like behaviour, typical animats are limited to stereotyped, fixed stimulus-response associations. If one adopts the view that cognition requires a flexible, goal-dependent choice of behaviours and planning capabilities (H.A. Mallot, Kognitionswissenschaft, 1999, 40-48) then it appears that cognitive behaviour cannot emerge from a collection of purely reactive modules. It rather requires environmentally decoupled structures that work without directly engaging the actions that it is concerned with. This poses the current challenge to cognitive robotics: How can we build cognitive robots that show the robustness and the learning capabilities of animats without falling back into the representational paradigm of AI? The speakers of the symposium present their approaches to this question in the context of robot navigation and sensorimotor learning. In the first talk, Prof. Helge Ritter introduces a robot system for imitation learning capable of exploring various alternatives in simulation before actually performing a task. The second speaker, Angelo Arleo, develops a model of spatial memory in rat navigation based on his electrophysiological experiments. He validates the model on a mobile robot which, in some navigation tasks, shows a performance comparable to that of the real rat. A similar model of spatial memory is used to investigate the mechanisms of territory formation in a series of robot experiments presented by Prof. Hanspeter Mallot. In the last talk, we return to the domain of sensorimotor learning where Ralf M{\"o}ller introduces his approach to generate anticipatory behaviour by learning forward models of sensorimotor relationships.

Franz, MO. Introduction: Robots with Cognition? 6, pages: 38, (Editors: H.H. Bülthoff, K.R. Gegenfurtner, H.A. Mallot, R. Ulrich, F.A. Wichmann), 6. T{\"u}binger Wahrnehmungskonferenz (TWK), February 2003 (talk)

Kernel methods and dimensionality reduction

Schölkopf, B.

2003 (talk)

GZIP [BibTex]

Schölkopf, B. Kernel methods and dimensionality reduction 2003 (talk)

GZIP [BibTex]

2002

Learning with Kernels: Support Vector Machines, Regularization, Optimization, and Beyond

Schölkopf, B., Smola, A.

pages: 644, Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, December 2002, Parts of this book, including an introduction to kernel methods, can be downloaded here. (book)

Abstract

In the 1990s, a new type of learning algorithm was developed, based on results from statistical learning theory: the Support Vector Machine (SVM). This gave rise to a new class of theoretically elegant learning machines that use a central concept of SVMs-kernelsfor a number of learning tasks. Kernel machines provide a modular framework that can be adapted to different tasks and domains by the choice of the kernel function and the base algorithm. They are replacing neural networks in a variety of fields, including engineering, information retrieval, and bioinformatics. Learning with Kernels provides an introduction to SVMs and related kernel methods. Although the book begins with the basics, it also includes the latest research. It provides all of the concepts necessary to enable a reader equipped with some basic mathematical knowledge to enter the world of machine learning using theoretically well-founded yet easy-to-use kernel algorithms and to understand and apply the powerful algorithms that have been developed over the last few years.

2002

Schölkopf, B., Smola, A. Learning with Kernels: Support Vector Machines, Regularization, Optimization, and Beyond pages: 644, Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, December 2002, Parts of this book, including an introduction to kernel methods, can be downloaded here. (book)

Transductive Learning: Motivation, Models, Algorithms

January 2002 (talk)

Bousquet, O. Transductive Learning: Motivation, Models, Algorithms January 2002 (talk)

2000

Advances in Large Margin Classifiers

Smola, A., Bartlett, P., Schölkopf, B., Schuurmans, D.

pages: 422, Neural Information Processing, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, October 2000 (book)

Abstract

The concept of large margins is a unifying principle for the analysis of many different approaches to the classification of data from examples, including boosting, mathematical programming, neural networks, and support vector machines. The fact that it is the margin, or confidence level, of a classification--that is, a scale parameter--rather than a raw training error that matters has become a key tool for dealing with classifiers. This book shows how this idea applies to both the theoretical analysis and the design of algorithms. The book provides an overview of recent developments in large margin classifiers, examines connections with other methods (e.g., Bayesian inference), and identifies strengths and weaknesses of the method, as well as directions for future research. Among the contributors are Manfred Opper, Vladimir Vapnik, and Grace Wahba.

2000

Smola, A., Bartlett, P., Schölkopf, B., Schuurmans, D. Advances in Large Margin Classifiers pages: 422, Neural Information Processing, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, October 2000 (book)