MLOSS 2015 - 2015 Workshop on Machine Learning Open Source Software: Open Ecosystems

Machine learning open source software (MLOSS) is one of the cornerstones of open science and reproducible research. Along with open access and open data, it enables free reuse and extension of current developments in machine learning. The mloss.org site exists to support a community creating a comprehensive open source machine learning environment, mainly by promoting new software implementations. This workshop aims to enhance the environment by fostering collaboration with the goal of creating tools that work with one another. Far from requiring integration into a single package, we believe that this kind of interoperability can also be achieved in a collaborative manner, which is especially suited to open source software development practices.
The workshop is aimed at all machine learning researchers who wish to have their algorithms and implementations included as a part of the greater open source machine learning environment. Continuing the tradition of well received workshops on MLOSS at NIPS 2006, NIPS 2008, ICML 2010 and NIPS 2013, we plan to have a workshop that is a mix of invited speakers, contributed talks and discussion/activity sessions. For 2015, we focus on building open ecosystems. Our invited speakers will illustrate the process for Python and Julia through presenting modern high-level high-performance computation engines, and we encourage submissions that showcase the benefits of multiple tools in the same ecosystem. All software presentations are required to include a live demonstration. The workshop will also include an active session (“hackathon”) for planning and starting to develop infrastructure for measuring software impact.
We have two confirmed invited speakers
John Myles White (Facebook), lead developer of Julia statistics and machine learning (confirmed): “Julia for machine learning: high-level syntax with compiled-code speed”.
Matthew Rocklin (Continuum Analytics), developer of Python computational tools, in particular Blaze (confirmed): “Blaze, a modern numerical engine with out-of-core and out-of-order computations”.
Tentative Programme
2 hours of invited talks consisting of 30 minute tutorial (Gaël Varoquaux) and 2*45 min invited talks (John Myles White and Matthew Rocklin). Both invited speakers have confirmed that they will attend.
2 hours of submitted projects (contributed talks including a demo or spotlights + parallel demo session, depending on the number of high quality submissions)
1 hour unconference-style open discussion (topics voted by workshop participants)
1 hour hackathon/activity session on developing measurement of software impact
2*30 minute coffee breaks