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Motivated by the growing interest in correlation-robust stochastic optimization, we investigate stochastic selection problems beyond independence. Specifically, we consider the instructive case of pairwise-independent priors and matroid…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2024-03-19 Shaddin Dughmi , Yusuf Hakan Kalayci , Neel Patel

While statistics focusses on hypothesis testing and on estimating (properties of) the true sampling distribution, in machine learning the performance of learning algorithms on future data is the primary issue. In this paper we bridge the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2009-12-30 Marcus Hutter

We study the problem of designing consistent sequential two-sample tests in a nonparametric setting. Guided by the principle of testing by betting, we reframe this task into that of selecting a sequence of payoff functions that maximize the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2025-08-26 Shubhanshu Shekhar , Aaditya Ramdas

We consider the problem of robust polynomial regression, where one receives samples $(x_i, y_i)$ that are usually within $\sigma$ of a polynomial $y = p(x)$, but have a $\rho$ chance of being arbitrary adversarial outliers. Previously, it…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2017-08-11 Daniel Kane , Sushrut Karmalkar , Eric Price

We study the online fair division problem, where indivisible goods arrive sequentially and must be allocated immediately and irrevocably. Prior work establishes strong impossibility results for approximating classic notions such as…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-05-29 Davin Choo , Winston Fu , Derek Khu , Tzeh Yuan Neoh , Tze-Yang Poon , Nicholas Teh

There are $n$ independent Bernoulli random variables $I_{k}$ with parameters $p_{k}$ that are observed sequentially. We consider a generalization of the Last-Success-Problem considering $w_{k}$ positive payments if the player successfully…

Probability · Mathematics 2018-12-24 Jose Maria Grau ribas

We study concurrent graph games where n players cooperate against an opponent to reach a set of target states. Unlike traditional settings, we study distributed randomisation: team players do not share a source of randomness, and their…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-05-14 Léonard Brice , Thomas A. Henzinger , Alipasha Montaseri , Ali Shafiee , K. S. Thejaswini

Consider gambler's ruin with three players, 1, 2, and 3, having initial capitals $A$, $B$, and $C$ units. At each round a pair of players is chosen (uniformly at random) and a fair coin flip is made resulting in the transfer of one unit…

Probability · Mathematics 2021-04-20 Persi Diaconis , Stewart N. Ethier

We focus on a permutation betting market under parimutuel call auction model where traders bet on the final ranking of n candidates. We present a Proportional Betting mechanism for this market. Our mechanism allows the traders to bet on any…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2008-12-18 Shipra Agrawal , Zizhuo Wang , Yinyu Ye

We propose a new method, probabilistic divide-and-conquer, for improving the success probability in rejection sampling. For the example of integer partitions, there is an ideal recursive scheme which improves the rejection cost from…

Probability · Mathematics 2015-11-25 Richard Arratia , Stephen DeSalvo

Performative prediction characterizes environments where predictive models alter the very data distributions they aim to forecast, triggering complex feedback loops. While prior research treats single-agent and multi-agent performativity as…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-02-04 Zhixian Zhang , Xiaotian Hou , Linjun Zhang

We consider the problem of imitation learning from a finite set of expert trajectories, without access to reinforcement signals. The classical approach of extracting the expert's reward function via inverse reinforcement learning, followed…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-06-10 Ruohan Wang , Carlo Ciliberto , Pierluigi Amadori , Yiannis Demiris

Probabilistic programming provides a high-level framework for specifying statistical models as executable programs with built-in randomness and conditioning. Existing inference techniques, however, typically compute posterior distributions…

Programming Languages · Computer Science 2025-12-29 Peixin Wang , Jianhao Bai , Min Zhang , C. -H. Luke Ong

We study the repeated optimal stopping problem, in which the same optimal stopping instance with an unknown distribution is solved repeatedly over $T$ rounds. We aim to simultaneously achieve strong per-round performance guarantees relative…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-05-18 Tsubasa Harada , Yasushi Kawase , Hanna Sumita

We study a game theoretic model where a coalition of processors might collude to bias the outcome of the protocol, where we assume that the processors always prefer any legitimate outcome over a non-legitimate one. We show that the problems…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2018-05-16 Assaf Yifrach , Yishay Mansour

A conventional Bayesian approach to prediction uses the posterior distribution to integrate out parameters in a density for unobserved data conditional on the observed data and parameters. When the true posterior is intractable, it is…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-02-27 Lucas Kock , Scott A. Sisson , G. S. Rodrigues , David J. Nott

We study the nascent setting of online computation with imperfect advice, in which the online algorithm is enhanced by some prediction encoded in the form of a possibly erroneous binary string. The algorithm is oblivious to the advice…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-01-05 Spyros Angelopoulos , Shahin Kamali

Independent samples from an unknown probability distribution $\bf p$ on a domain of size $k$ are distributed across $n$ players, with each player holding one sample. Each player can communicate $\ell$ bits to a central referee in a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-05-24 Jayadev Acharya , Clément L. Canonne , Himanshu Tyagi

Traditionally, recommender systems operate by returning a user a set of items, ranked in order of estimated relevance to that user. In recent years, methods relying on stochastic ordering have been developed to create "fairer" rankings that…

Information Retrieval · Computer Science 2022-09-13 Amanda Bower , Kristian Lum , Tomo Lazovich , Kyra Yee , Luca Belli

Variational inference is a powerful approach for approximate posterior inference. However, it is sensitive to initialization and can be subject to poor local optima. In this paper, we develop proximity variational inference (PVI). PVI is a…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2017-05-26 Jaan Altosaar , Rajesh Ranganath , David M. Blei