MetaSel 2014 - International Workshop on Meta-learning & Algorithm Selection

This ECAI-2014 workshop will provide a platform for discussing the nature of algorithm selection which arises in many diverse domains, such as machine learning, data mining, optimization and satisfiability solving, among many others.
Algorithm Selection and configuration are increasingly relevant today. Researchers and practitioners from all branches of science and technology face a large choice of parameterized machine learning algorithms, with little guidance as to which techniques to use. Moreover, data mining challenges frequently remind us that algorithm selection and configuration are crucial in order to achieve the best performance, and drive industrial applications.
Meta-learning leverages knowledge of past algorithm applications to select the best techniques for future applications, and offers effective techniques that are superior to humans both in terms of the end result and especially in the time required to achieve it. In this workshop we will discuss different ways of exploiting meta-learning techniques to identify the potentially best algorithm(s) for a new task, based on meta-level information and prior experiments. We also discuss the prerequisites for effective meta-learning systems such as recent infrastructure such as OpenML.org.
Many problems of today require that solutions be elaborated in the form of complex systems or workflows which include many different processes or operations. Constructing such complex systems or workflows requires extensive expertise, and could be greatly facilitated by leveraging planning, meta-learning and intelligent system design. This task is inherently interdisciplinary, as it builds on expertise in various areas of AI.
The workshop will include invited talks, presentations of peer-reviewed papers and panels. The invited talks will be by Lars Kotthoff and Frank Hutter (to be confirmed).
The target audience of this workshop includes researchers (Ph.D.’s) and research students interested to exchange their knowledge about:
problems and solutions of algorithm selection and algorithm configuration
how to use software and platforms to select algorithms in practice
how to provide advice to end users about which algorithms to select in diverse domains, including optimization, SAT etc. and incorporate this knowledge in new platforms.
We specifically aim to attract researchers in diverse areas that have encountered the problem of algorithm selection and thus promote exchange of ideas and possible collaborations.
Junior participants of the workshop who have less experience in the area could could consider assisting a related ECAI tutorial on the same topic MetaSel - Meta-learning & Algorithm Selection.
Topics
Algorithm Selection & Configuration
Planning to learn and construct workflows
Applications of workflow planning
Meta-learning and exploitation of meta-knowledge
Exploitation of ontologies of tasks and methods
Exploitation of benchmarks and experimentation
Representation of learning goals and states in learning
Control and coordination of learning processes
Meta-reasoning
Experimentation and evaluation of learning processes
Layered learning
Multi-task and transfer learning
Learning to learn
Intelligent design
Performance modeling
Process mining