9-12 July 2008
Helsinki, Finland
CALL FOR PAPERS
The 21st Annual Conference on Learning Theory
Helsinki, Finland, July 9-12, 2008
Submission deadline: February 20, 2008
The 21st Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT 2008) will take place on
July 9-12, 2008, in Helsinki, Finland, in coordination with the
International Conference on Machine learning (ICML) and Uncertainty in
Artificial Intelligence (UAI). We invite submissions of papers addressing
the theoretical modeling and analysis of all aspects of learning and
empirical inference. We strongly support a broad definition of learning
theory, including:
* Analysis of learning algorithms and their generalization ability
* Computational complexity of learning
* Bayesian analysis
* Statistical mechanics of learning systems
* Optimization procedures for learning
* Inductive inference
* Boolean function learning
* Unsupervised and semi-supervised learning and clustering
* On-line learning and relative loss bounds
* Learning in planning and control (including reinforcement learning)
* Mathematical analysis of learning in related fields (e.g. game theory,
natural language processing, neuroscience, bioinformatics, privacy and
security, machine vision, data mining, information retrieval, etc.)
We also welcome theoretical papers about learning that do not fit into the
above categories. We are particularly interested in papers that include
viewpoints that are new to the COLT community. While the primary focus of
the conference is theoretical, papers can be strengthened by the inclusion
of relevant experimental results. We also welcome experimental and
algorithmic papers provided they are relevant to the focus of the conference
by elucidating theoretical results in learning.
All papers will appear in the proceedings. The proceedings will appear both
as a printed book and in a full-text electronic version, thus we require
electronic submissions. Papers that have previously appeared in journals or
at other conferences, or that are being submitted to other conferences, are
not appropriate for COLT. Papers that include work that has already been
submitted for journal publication may be submitted to COLT, as long as the
papers have not been accepted for publication by February 20 2008 and the
paper is not expected to be published before the COLT conference (July
2008).
PAPER FORMAT: Submissions should include the title, authors' names, postal
and email addresses, and a 200-word summary of the paper suitable for the
conference program. Submissions should not exceed 12 pages (including
bibliography) in a two-column format; a style file will be posted on the
conference website soon. Papers should include a clear definition of the
theoretical model used and a clear description of the results, as well as a
discussion of their significance, including comparison to other work. Submit
papers electronically in pdf or ps format (detailed instructions will be
available soon on the conference website). While it is not expected that
all full proofs can be included in the paper, authors should strive to at
least present partial proofs which will enable the reviewers to understand
the main ideas and methods used. The paper should also attempt to be as
self-contained as possible.
MARK FULK AWARD: This award is for the best paper authored or coauthored by
a student. Eligible authors who wish to be considered for this prize should
indicate this on their submission's title page.
PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIRS:
Rocco Servedio (Columbia University, USA)
Tong Zhang (Rutgers University, USA)
PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
Dana Angluin (Yale University)
Jean-Yves Audibert (Ecole Nationale des Ponts) Peter Auer (University of
Leoben)
Peter Bartlett (UC Berkeley) Mikhail Belkin (Ohio State University)
Shai Ben-David (University of Waterloo) Stephane Boucheron (Universit
Paris-Diderot)
Nader Bshouty (Technion) Sanjoy Dasgupta (UC San Diego)
Ran El-Yaniv (Technion)
Vitaly Feldman (IBM Research)
Sham M. Kakade (Toyota Technology Institute)
Adam Kalai (Georgia Tech)
Vladimir Koltchinskii (Georgia Tech)
Sanjay Jain (National University of Singapore)
John Langford (Yahoo Research)
Ping Li (Cornell University)
Shie Mannor (McGill University)
Mehryar Mohri (New York University)
Massimiliano Pontil (University College, London)
Rob Schapire (Princeton University)
Shai Shalev-Shwartz (Hebrew University)
Alex Smola (National ICT Australia) Nati Srebro (Toyota Technological
Institute)
Ingo Steinwart (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Nicolas Vayatis, (Ecole Normale Suprieure de Cachan) Volodya Vovk (Royal
Holloway, University of London) Bob Williamson (Australian National
University)
LOCAL CHAIR: Jyrki Kivinen (University of Helsinki, Finland)
OPEN PROBLEMS SESSION: We also invite submission of open problems (see
separate call). These should be constrained to two pages. There is a shorter
reviewing period for the open problems. Accepted contributions will be
allocated short presentation slots in a special open problems session and
will be allowed two pages each in the proceedings.
INVITED SPEAKERS: TBA
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Will become available in early December
at the conference website.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Electronic submission of papers: February 20, 2008 (5:59pm PST)
Electronic submission of two-page open problems: March 14, 2008
Notification of acceptance or rejection: April 14, 2008
Final submission of all papers: April 28, 2008
Conference dates: July 9-12, 2008