UAI 2010 Approximate Inference Evaluation – Preliminary Call for Participation

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PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE
2010 UAI APPROXIMATE INFERENCE EVALUATION
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We are pleased to announce an upcoming evaluation of probabilistic
inference algorithms, as part of the UAI conference this July.
All researchers working on inference in graphical models are
encouraged to participate.

The evaluation will focus on the following computational tasks: calculating
MAP/MPE assignments, calculating partition functions (i.e., probability of
evidence), and calculating marginals. Submitted algorithms can compete in
some or all of these tasks.

NEW FEATURES in this year’s competition:

* There will be separate tracks for approximate algorithms that
provide upper or lower bound guarantees and those that do not.
Exact algorithms are of course invited to participate in any
of these tracks.

* A special track will assess the merit of the submitted inference
algorithms when used as a black box for parameter learning.

* Participants will receive automated performance reports
and will be able to submit improvements during the
entire competition period.

We look forward to your participation,

The organizers

DATES
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May 3 – Dataset and submission format announced.
May 10 – Submissions accepted on website.
June 25 – Final deadline for submissions.
July 1 – Final results and winners announced.
July 8-11 – Results reported at the UAI conference.

ORGANIZERS
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Gal Elidan – Hebrew University
Amir Globerson – Hebrew University

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
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Jeff Bilmes – Univ. of Washington
Rina Dechter – UC Irvine
Peter Grunwald – CWI
Isabelle Guyon – Clopinet
Peter Spirtes – CMU