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PhD in Conformal Prediction and Credal Probabilistic Machine Learning

by Michele Caprio

Dear SIPTian, Are you a Master's student in ML, AI, Statistics, Engineering, or Applied Mathematics and you're interested in a new paradigm for Uncertainty Quantification? Are you an expert in Conformal Prediction and you want to explore its relationship with model-based approaches? Then consider applying to work with me on these topics <https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/relationship-between-conformal-predic…> for your PhD! You'd be part of the UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training <https://ai-decisions-cdt.github.io/hugo-pages/#about> (CDT) in Decision Making for Complex Systems, a newly-established joint CDT between the University of Manchester and Cambridge University. Collaborations are possible and encouraged between students, supervisors <https://ai-decisions-cdt.github.io/hugo-pages/#people>, and members of the Manchester Centre for AI Fundamentals <https://www.idsai.manchester.ac.uk/research/centre-for-ai-fundamentals/>. You should apply through the official university's website <https://www.se.manchester.ac.uk/phds-science-engineering/?utm_source=course…> and create an account. You should then apply for the PhD Artificial Intelligence CDT program (see attached picture). When asked about "Research details", you can use the project details that you can find here <https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/relationship-between-conformal-predic…>. You don't need to submit a new research proposal. I hope to hearing from you soon, Yours, Michele Caprio

March 8, 2024

PhD @Idsia in Counterfactual Fairness and Causal Explainability

by Antonucci Alessandro

Ph.D. Position @Idsia in the area of Counterfactual Fairness and Causal Explainability Deadline: March 28, 2024 The Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA, idsia.ch) of Lugano (Switzerland) has an open position for a PhD student. This is a full-time (100%) position for a student active in the area of Counterfactual Fairness and Causal Explainability. The PhD research focuses on the fairness, explainability, and robustness of machine learning systems within the framework of causal counterfactual analysis using formalisms from probabilistic graphical models, probabilistic circuits, and structural causal models. The successful candidate holds a Master’s degree in Engineering or another STEM field (obtained or close to being obtained). Experience with Pytorch and proficiency in Python are optional but desirable skills. The starting date is May 2024 (or as can be arranged by mutual agreement). For further information, please get in touch with Alessandro Antonucci (alessandro(a)idsia.ch) and Alessandro Facchini (alessandro.facchini(a)idsia.ch) The link for the application is https://www.supsi.ch/en/bando2008. Applications should be submitted by March 28th, 2024.

March 6, 2024

IPMU 2024 last call ! (extended deadline: March 8th)

by Christophe Marsala

Dear Sir, Could you, please, forward this announcementof the next IPMU conference to your ISIPTA mailing list? I thank you in advance, Best regards, Christophe Marsala ------------------------------------------------------------- Due to several requests, and to let you enough time to prepare you submission, the deadline to submit papers is extended for the last time to *March 8th, 2024*. Don't miss the opportunity to attend IPMU in Lisboa ! Best regards, Christophe Marsala ----------------------------------------------- *20th International Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems IPMU 2024,* Lisbon, Portugal, July 22–26, 2024 https://ipmu2024.inesc-id.pt/ The IPMU conference is organized every two years with the focus of bringing together scientists working on methods for the management of uncertainty and aggregation. It also provides a forum for the exchange of ideas between theoreticians and practitioners in these and related areas. The 2024 edition of IPMU will take place at Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal, located in a vibrant renovated area 10 minutes from downtown. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and full of stories to tell. A city where you feel safe wandering around day or night, where you'll find hotels, restaurants and nightlife to suit every taste, budget and requirement. A city full of authenticity, where old customs and ancient history intermix with cultural entertainment and hi-tech innovation. Lisbon is ageless, but it loves company, being famous for its hospitality and the family-like way it welcomes visitors. Lisbon has been elected World's Leading City Destination at the 2018 World Travel Awards. *Topics and Scope of the Conference **/Theory, Methods and Tools:/* Uncertainty, Computational Intelligence, Bayesian and Probabilistic Methods, Information Theory, Measures of Information and Uncertainty, Evidence and Possibility Theory, Utility Theory, Fuzzy Sets and Fuzzy Logic, Fuzzy Control, Rough Sets, Multiple Criteria Decision Methods, Aggregation Methods, Knowledge Representation, Approximate Reasoning, Non-classical Logics, Default Reasoning, Belief Revision, Argumentation, Ontologies, Uncertainty in Cognition, Graphical Models, Knowledge Acquisition, Interpretable Machine Learning, Evolutionary Computation, Neural Networks, Data Analysis/Data Science, Explainable AI. /*Application Fields: */Intelligent Systems and Information Processing, Decision Support, Database and Information Systems, Information Retrieval and Fusion, Speech and Natural Language Processing, Image Processing, Multi-Media, Agents, Pattern Recognition, Medicine and Bioinformatics, Finance, Software Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Big Data. /IPMU'2024 solicits original research contributions of theoretical and methodological nature as well as application-oriented work./ *IPMU'24 keynote speakers * * Judea Pearl (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) * Keeley Crocket (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) * Mário Figueiredo (IT / Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal) * Ruth Byrne (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland) * Thierry-Marie Guerra (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, France) *IMPORTANT DATES* - Special session proposals: December 4th, 2023 - Notification of acceptance special sessions: December 11th, 2023 - Paper submission: *March 8th, 2024*/(last extension)/ - Notification of acceptance: April 5th, 2024 - Camera-ready paper submission: April 30th, 2024 - Early/author registration: April 30th, 2024 - Conference: July 22nd-26th, 2024 /General Chair /João Paulo Carvalho (Portugal)/ Program Chairs/ Marek Reformat (Canada) Marie-Jeanne Lesot (France) Susana Vieira (Portugal) /Publication Chair/ Fernando Batista (Portugal) /Special Session Chair:/ Anna Wilbik (Netherlands) /Publicity Chair/ Christophe Marsala (France) /Executive Directors/ Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier (France) Ronald R. Yager (USA) ----------------------------------------------

March 1, 2024

Call for paper: SUM 2024 conference in Palermo (November 27-29)

by sdesterc

*** please disseminate this call to whomever may be interested. We apologise in case you received multiple copies *** =================================== Conference announcement + key dates =================================== The 15th International Conference on Scalable Uncertainty Management (SUM 2022) will be held in Palermo, Italy from November 27-29, 2024. See: https://sum2024.unipa.it/ Key dates (CET 23:59): Abstract Submission (optional but useful to organizers): June 17, 2024 Paper Submission: June 24, 2024 Notification: August 31, 2024 Camera-ready copies: September 15, 2024 Conference: Nov. 27-29, 2024 ============= Description ============= Established in 2007, the SUM conferences are annual events which aim to gather researchers with a common interest in managing and analyzing imperfect information from a wide range of fields, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Databases, Information Retrieval and Data Mining, the Semantic Web and Risk Analysis, and with the aim of fostering collaboration and cross-fertilization of ideas from the different communities. An originality of the SUM conferences is their care for dedicating a large space of their program to tutorials covering a wide range of topics related to uncertainty management. Each tutorial provides a survey of one of the research areas in the scope of the conference. ===================== Topics of Interest ===================== We solicit papers on the management of large amounts of complex kinds of uncertain, incomplete, or inconsistent information. We are particularly interested in papers that focus on bridging gaps, for instance between different communities, between numerical and symbolic approaches, or between theory and practice. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Imperfect information in databases - Methods for modeling, indexing, and querying uncertain databases - Top-k queries, skyline query processing, and ranking - Approximate, fuzzy query processing - Uncertainty in data integration and exchange - Uncertainty and imprecision in geographic information systems - Probabilistic databases and possibilistic databases? - Data provenance and trust - Data summarization - Very large datasets Imperfect information in information retrieval and semantic web applications - Approximate schema and ontology matching - Uncertainty in description logics and logic programming - Learning to rank, personalization, and user preferences - Probabilistic language models - Combining vector-space models with symbolic representations - Inductive reasoning for the semantic web Imperfect information in artificial intelligence - Statistical relational learning, graphical models, probabilistic inference Argumentation, defeasible reasoning, belief revision - Weighted logics for managing uncertainty - Reasoning with imprecise probability, Dempster-Shafer theory, possibility theory - Approximate reasoning, similarity-based reasoning, analogical reasoning - Planning under uncertainty, reasoning about actions, spatial and temporal reasoning - Incomplete preference specifications - Learning from data Risk analysis - Aleatory vs. epistemic uncertainty - Uncertainty elicitation methods - Uncertainty propagation methods - Decision analysis methods - Tools for synthesizing results ======================== Submission Guidelines ======================== SUM 2020 solicits original papers in the following three categories: - Long papers (at most 14 pages, references excluded): technical papers reporting original research or survey papers - Short papers (between 4 and 7 pages, references excluded): papers reporting promising work-in-progress, system descriptions, position papers on controversial issues, or survey papers providing a synthesis of some current research trends - Extended abstracts (2 pages) of recently published work in a relevant journal or top-tier conference All SUM submissions must be formatted according to the LNCS/LNAI guidelines:https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-pro… Papers should be submitted via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sum2024 ============= Publication ============= Accepted long (at most 14 pages) and short papers (2-7 pages) will be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) series. Authors of an accepted long or short paper will be expected to sign copyright release forms, and one author is expected to give a presentation at the conference. Authors of accepted abstracts (2 pages) will be expected to present their work during the conference, but the extended abstracts will not be published in the LNCS/LNAI proceedings (they will be made available in a separate booklet) ========================================================================================= Organization ========================================================================================= Sébastien Destercke (Université de technologie de Compiègne), PC Co Chair Maria Vanina Martinez (IIIA-CSIC), PC Co Chair Giuseppe Sanfilippo, (University of Palermo), General/Local Chair

March 1, 2024

CFP: BELIEF 2024, Belfast, UK, Sept 4-6, 2024

by Thierry Denoeux

****** Call for Papers ****** https://bfasociety.org/Belief2024/ <https://antiphishing.vadesecure.com/v4?f=SnpNUUNxek1BTWh6ZFZjaXX1rV-mm6_xB2…> The 8th International Conference on Belief Functions (BELIEF 2024) Dates: September 4th-6th, 2024 Location: Belfast, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, UK * April 15, 2024: Paper submission deadline * May 31, 2024: Author notification * June 30, 2024: Camera-ready copy due ================================================================ Early Bird Registration Open Until: 22nd July 2024 Early Bird Registration: £325 (€380) Regular Registration: £375 (€440) Early Bird Student Registration: £225 (€265) Student Registration: £275 (€325) ================================================================ The theory of belief functions, also referred to as evidence theory or Dempster-Shafer theory, was first introduced by Arthur P. Dempster in the context of statistical inference, and was later developed by Glenn Shafer as a general framework for modeling epistemic uncertainty generalizing Bayesian probability theory. These early contributions have been the starting points of many important theoretical and practical developments. The theory of belief functions is now well established as a general framework for reasoning with uncertainty, and with applications in machine learning, statistical inference, information fusion, knowledge representation, risk analysis, etc. It has well understood connections with other frameworks such as probability, possibility and imprecise probability theories. The biennial BELIEF conferences (sponsored by the Belief Functions and Applications Society https://www.bfasociety.org/ <https://antiphishing.vadesecure.com/v4?f=SnpNUUNxek1BTWh6ZFZjaXX1rV-mm6_xB2…>) are dedicated to the confrontation of ideas, the reporting of recent achievements and the presentation of the wide range of applications of this theory. Previous editions of this conference series were held in Brest, France (2010); in Compiègne, France (2012); in Oxford, UK (2014); in Prague, Czech Republic (2016); in Compiègne, France (2018); in Shanghai, China (2021); and in Paris, France (2022). The Eighth International Conference on Belief Functions (BELIEF 2024) will be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, on September 4th-6th, 2024. To support cross-fertilization among researchers working in different subfields of AI and related disciplines, tutorials and special sessions will be proposed and dedicated to the links between machine learning and uncertain reasoning, including topics such as quantification of prediction uncertainty, fusion rules for ensemble learning, belief propagation over deep neural networks, links with explainable and symbolic AI, etc. Submissions of papers combining several of these topics, or more generally at the cross-road of belie functions and other AI methods or uncertainty theories, along with relevant applications, are welcome. =========== Proceedings =========== Proceedings of the previous editions of BELIEF have been published by Springer-Verlag as volumes of the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) series and indexed by: ISI Web of Science; EI Engineering Index; ACM Digital Library; dblp; Google Scholar; IO-Port; MathSciNet; Scopus; Zentralblatt MATH. The Springer-Verlag has confirmed that the BELIEF2024’s proceedings will be continually published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI). ================== IJAR Special issue ================== Authors of selected papers from the BELIEF 2024 conference will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers for possible inclusion in a special issue of the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning. ======================================= BELIEF 2024 Program Committee co-chairs ======================================= Dr Yaxin Bi (y.bi(a)ulster.ac.uk <mailto:y.bi@ulster.ac.uk>), Ulster University, UK Dr Anne-Laure Jousselme (anne-laure.jousselme(a)csgroup.eu <mailto:anne-laure.jousselme@csgroup.eu>), CS Group, France ---------- Prof. Thierry Denoeux Université de technologie de Compiègne Institut universitaire de France Rue Roger Couttolenc, CS 60319 60203 Compiègne cedex, France https://www.hds.utc.fr/~tdenoeux

March 1, 2024

On the necessity of causality

by Marco Zaffalon

Dear SIPTAnts, There’s this new paper that looks really cool and fundamental: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.10877.pdf. Loosely speaking, it shows that causal models are somewhat of a necessary consequence of being robust to a variety of conditions. Enjoy the read, Marco

Feb. 26, 2024

Special session on imprecise probabilities at SMPS 2024

by Van Camp, Arthur

Call for papers Special Session on THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ASPECTS OF IMPRECISE PROBABILITIES to be held at the 11th International Conference on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics (SMPS 2024) https://www.smps2024.com Salzburg (Austria), September 3-6, 2024 Session topic and goal This session is devoted to Imprecise Probability Theory. This theory involves all the mathematical models that can be used as more flexible tools than usual Probability Theory when the available information is scarce, vague or incomplete. It includes lower previsions, n-monotone capacities, belief functions, possibility measures, or non-additive measures, among others. This special session aims to include papers related to Imprecise Probabilities that either present a significant advance in the foundations or show potential applications in real problems. In addition, papers where the connection between imprecise probability theory and other fields such as fuzzy sets or game theory is emphasized are also welcome. Theoretical topics of interest include (but are not limited to): • (coherent) uncertainty models • non-additive set functions • choice functions • sets of desirable gambles • qualitative reasoning about uncertainty • limit laws for imprecise probabilities • philosophical foundations • elicitation and inference • robust statistics • decision making • algorithmic issues Applications include (but are not limited to): • data mining • classification and machine learning • risk and reliability analysis • finance • life sciences • system control and design Dates Extended paper submission deadline: March 17, 2024 Author notification: April 21, 2024 Conference: September 3-6, 2024 Submissions Please select the Invited Session “Theoretical and applied aspects of imprecise probabilities” when submitting your paper in the conference management tool www.conftool.net/smps2024/<http://www.conftool.net/smps2024/>. Papers submitted should be between 6 and 8 pages. Required LaTeX style etc., a link to the submission platform, and additional information can be found on the conference homepage https://www.smps2024.com. Elsevier will sponsor SMPS 2024 with a best paper award of €1000. Additionally, there will be a special issue related to the conference in the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning. Organizers We would be obliged if you would let us know in case you intend to submit a paper to this session, at your earliest convenience. Any questions or remarks can be addressed to: Arthur Van Camp (a.van.camp(a)tue.nl<mailto:a.van.camp@tue.nl>), Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) Enrique Miranda (mirandaenrique(a)uniovi.es<mailto:mirandaenrique@uniovi.es>), University of Oviedo (Spain)

Feb. 26, 2024

CFP: special session on imprecise probabilities at IPMU'2022 (deadline extended to march 1)

by IGNACIO MONTES GUTIERREZ

Dear Siptians, Please, find attached the 2nd CFP for the special session on IP at IPMU conference. Note that the submission deadline has been extended. Best regards %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% **Apologies for multiple copies** Special Session on "THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ASPECTS OF IMPRECISE PROBABILITIES" to be held at the 20th International Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems (IPMU 2024) https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://ipmu2024.inesc-id.pt/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!R…<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/ipmu2024.inesc-id.pt/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!Rv…> Lisbon (Portugal), July 22-26, 2024 Important Dates Paper submission (extended!): March 1, 2024 Notification of Acceptance: March 29, 2024 Conference: July 22-26, 2024 Session topic and goal This session is devoted to Imprecise Probability Theory. This theory involves all the mathematical models that can be used as more flexible tools than usual Probability Theory when the available information is scarce, vague or incomplete. It includes lower previsions, n-monotone capacities, belief functions, possibility measures, or non-additive measures, among others. This special session aims to include papers related to Imprecise Probabilities that either present a significant advance in the foundations or show potential applications in real problems. In addition, papers where the connection between imprecise probability theories and other fields such as fuzzy sets or game theory is emphasized are also welcome. Theoretical topics of interest include (but are not limited to): * (coherent) uncertainty models * non-additive set-functions * qualitative reasoning about uncertainty * limit laws for imprecise probabilities * philosophical foundations * elicitation and inference * robust statistics * decision making * algorithmic issues Applications include (but are not limited to): * data mining * classification and machine learning * risk and reliability analysis * finance * life sciences * system control and design Organizers We would be obliged if you would let us know in case you intend to submit a paper to this session, at your earliest convenience. Any questions or remarks can be addressed to: Enrique Miranda (mirandaenrique(a)uniovi.es<mailto:mirandaenrique@uniovi.es>), University of Oviedo (Spain) Ignacio Montes (imontes(a)uniovi.es<mailto:imontes@uniovi.es>), University of Oviedo (Spain)

Feb. 14, 2024

PhD Opportunity

by Michele Caprio

Dear SIPTian, Are you a Master's student in ML, AI, Statistics, Engineering, or Applied Mathematics and you're interested in a new paradigm for Uncertainty Quantification? Are you an expert in Conformal Prediction and you want to explore its relationship with model-based approaches? Then consider applying to work with me on these topics <https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/relationship-between-conformal-predic…> for your PhD! You'd be part of the UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training <https://ai-decisions-cdt.github.io/hugo-pages/#about> (CDT) in Decision Making for Complex Systems, a newly-established joint CDT between the University of Manchester and Cambridge University. Collaborations are possible and encouraged between students, supervisors <https://ai-decisions-cdt.github.io/hugo-pages/#people>, and members of the Manchester Centre for AI Fundamentals <https://www.idsai.manchester.ac.uk/research/centre-for-ai-fundamentals/>. I hope to hearing from you soon, Yours, Michele Caprio

Feb. 8, 2024

Special Session on ML under Weakly Structured Information at SMPS 2024

by Jansen, Christoph

Call for papers Special Session on Machine learning and decision making under weakly structured information at the 11th International Conference on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics (SMPS 2024) Salzburg (Austria), September 4-6, 2024 Session topic and goal This session deals with machine learning problems that appear under weak information structures and, therefore, fail to be handled by traditional methods. The reason for the weak structure can be manifold, ranging from complex data and non-typical scales of measurement to generalized uncertainty models such as imprecise probabilities. In particular, the topics of the session include (but are not limited to): * Imprecise probabilities in ML and statistics * Preferences in ML and statistics * Decision theoretic approaches in ML and statistics * Formal concept analysis in ML and statistics * Non-standard data (e.g. ordinal data, mixed-scaled data) * (Generalized) Bayesian methods in ML and statistics * Uncertainty quantification in ML and statistics * Robustness in decision theory * Robust statistics Dates Paper submission deadline: February 29, 2024 Author notification: April 21, 2024 Conference: September 4-6, 2024 Submissions When submitting the paper, choose the session Machine learning and decision making under weakly structured information in the conference management tool. Papers should be 6-8 pages. All required information can be found on the conference homepage www.smps2024.com<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smps20…>. Organizers Please let us know if you plan to submit a contribution to this session as soon as possible. Questions or comments can be addressed to: Thomas Augustin, Christoph Jansen, Georg Schollmeyer Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany) {thomas.augustin,christoph.jansen,georg.schollmeyer}(a)stat.uni-muenchen.de

Feb. 8, 2024