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UID:915@fds.yale.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260415T130000
DTSTAMP:20260407T163836Z
URL:https://fds.yale.edu/events/fds-colloquium-ellen-vitercik-stanford/
SUMMARY:FDS Colloquium: Ellen Vitercik (Stanford)\, "Machine Learning for D
 iscrete Optimization: Theoretical Foundations"
DESCRIPTION:\nAbstract: Many of the most important optimization problems in
  practice are massive in scale\, mathematically complex\, and involve nume
 rous unknown parameters. Machine learning offers a powerful way to address
  these challenges by uncovering hidden structure and improving decision qu
 ality\, but integrating predictions into algorithms raises fundamental que
 stions: which architectures align with combinatorial structure\, and how c
 an we ensure robustness to error? This talk presents two case studies. Fir
 st\, we show how graph neural networks can approximate the optimal dynamic
  program for online matching\, yielding algorithms that generalize across 
 graph sizes and achieve strong empirical performance. Second\, we introduc
 e calibration as a principled interface between machine learning and decis
 ion-making\, demonstrating through rent-or-buy and job scheduling problems
  that calibrated predictions yield both theoretical guarantees and practic
 al improvements. This is joint work with Alexandre Hayderi\, Amin Saberi\,
  Anders Wikum\, and Judy Hanwen Shen.\n\n\n\nSpeaker Bio: Ellen Vitercik i
 s an Assistant Professor at Stanford University with a joint appointment b
 etween the Management Science &amp\; Engineering department and the Comput
 er Science department. Her research interests include machine learning\, a
 lgorithm design\, discrete and combinatorial optimization\, and the interf
 ace between economics and computation. Before joining Stanford\, she spent
  a year as a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley and received a PhD 
 in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. Her research has been
  recognized with a Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Early Career Fellowship\, an NS
 F CAREER award\, the SIGecom Doctoral Dissertation Award\, and the CMU Sch
 ool of Computer Science Distinguished Dissertation Award\, among other hon
 ors.\n\n\n\n\n
CATEGORIES:Fellows Events,FDS Events,Colloquium
LOCATION:Yale Institute for Foundations of Data Science & Webcast\, 219 Pro
 spect Street\, 13th Floor\, New Haven\, CT\, 06511\, United States
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=219 Prospect Street\, 13th 
 Floor\, New Haven\, CT\, 06511\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=
 Yale Institute for Foundations of Data Science & Webcast:geo:0,0
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DTSTART:20260308T030000
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