Computer vision is the science and technology of making machines that see. It is concerned with the theory, design and implementation of algorithms that can automatically process visual data to recognize objects, track and recover their shape and spatial layout. The International Computer Vision Summer School - ICVSS was established in 2007 to provide both an objective and clear overview and an in-depth analysis of the state-of-the-art research in Computer Vision. The courses are delivered by world renowned experts in the field, from both academia and industry, and cover both theoretical and practical aspects of real Computer Vision problems. The school is organized every year by University of Cambridge (Computer Vision and Robotics Group) and University of Catania (Image Processing Lab). Different topics are covered each year. A summary of the past Computer Vision Summer Schools can be found at: http://www.dmi.unict.it/icvss This edited volume contains a selection of articles covering some of the talks and tutorials held during the last editions of the school. The chapters provide an in-depth overview of challenging areas with key references to the existing literature.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Mining in Pattern Recognition, MLDM 2014, held in St. Petersburg, Russia in July 2014. The 40 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 128 submissions. The topics range from theoretical topics for classification, clustering, association rule and pattern mining to specific data mining methods for the different multimedia data types such as image mining, text mining, video mining and Web mining.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Genetic Programming, EuroGP 2013, held in Vienna, Austria, in April 2013 co-located with the Evo* 2013 events, EvoMUSART, EvoCOP, EvoBIO, and EvoApplications.
The 18 revised full papers presented together with 5 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 47 submissions. The wide range of topics in this volume reflects the current state of research in the field, including different genres of GP (tree-based, linear, grammar-based, Cartesian), theory, novel operators, and applications.

The field of machine learning has matured to the point where many sophisticated learning approaches can be applied to practical applications. Thus it is of critical importance that researchers have the proper tools to evaluate learning approaches and understand the underlying issues. This book examines various aspects of the evaluation process with an emphasis on classification algorithms. The authors describe several techniques for classifier performance assessment, error estimation and resampling, obtaining statistical significance as well as selecting appropriate domains for evaluation. They also present a unified evaluation framework and highlight how different components of evaluation are both significantly interrelated and interdependent. The techniques presented in the book are illustrated using R and WEKA, facilitating better practical insight as well as implementation. Aimed at researchers in the theory and applications of machine learning, this book offers a solid basis for conducting performance evaluations of algorithms in practical settings.

This book introduces machine learning methods in finance. It presents a unified treatment of machine learning and various statistical and computational disciplines in quantitative finance, such as financial econometrics and discrete time stochastic control, with an emphasis on how theory and hypothesis tests inform the choice of algorithm for financial data modeling and decision making. With the trend towards increasing computational resources and larger datasets, machine learning has grown into an important skillset for the finance industry. This book is written for advanced graduate students and academics in financial econometrics, mathematical finance and applied statistics, in addition to quants and data scientists in the field of quantitative finance. Machine Learning in Finance: From Theory to Practice is divided into three parts, each part covering theory and applications. The first presents supervised learning for cross-sectional data from both a Bayesian and frequentist perspective. The more advanced material places a firm emphasis on neural networks, including deep learning, as well as Gaussian processes, with examples in investment management and derivative modeling. The second part presents supervised learning for time series data, arguably the most common data type used in finance with examples in trading, stochastic volatility and fixed income modeling. Finally, the third part presents reinforcement learning and its applications in trading, investment and wealth management. Python code examples are provided to support the readers' understanding of the methodologies and applications. The book also includes more than 80 mathematical and programming exercises, with worked solutions available to instructors. As a bridge to research in this emergent field, the final chapter presents the frontiers of machine learning in finance from a researcher's perspective, highlighting how many well-known concepts in statistical physics are likely to emerge as important methodologies for machine learning in finance.

Reinforcement learning is a mathematical framework for developing computer agents that can learn an optimal behavior by relating generic reward signals with its past actions. With numerous successful applications in business intelligence, plant control, and gaming, the RL framework is ideal for decision making in unknown environments with large amounts of data. Supplying an up-to-date and accessible introduction to the field, Statistical Reinforcement Learning: Modern Machine Learning Approaches presents fundamental concepts and practical algorithms of statistical reinforcement learning from the modern machine learning viewpoint. It covers various types of RL approaches, including model-based and model-free approaches, policy iteration, and policy search methods. Covers the range of reinforcement learning algorithms from a modern perspective Lays out the associated optimization problems for each reinforcement learning scenario covered Provides thought-provoking statistical treatment of reinforcement learning algorithms The book covers approaches recently introduced in the data mining and machine learning fields to provide a systematic bridge between RL and data mining/machine learning researchers. It presents state-of-the-art results, including dimensionality reduction in RL and risk-sensitive RL. Numerous illustrative examples are included to help readers understand the intuition and usefulness of reinforcement learning techniques. This book is an ideal resource for graduate-level students in computer science and applied statistics programs, as well as researchers and engineers in related fields.

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Simulated Evolution and Learning, SEAL 2012, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in December 2012. The 50 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 91 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on evolutionary algorithms, theoretical developments, swarm intelligence, data mining, learning methodologies, and real-world applications.

The ability to learn is one of the most fundamental attributes of intelligent behavior. Consequently, progress in the theory and computer modeling of learn ing processes is of great significance to fields concerned with understanding in telligence. Such fields include cognitive science, artificial intelligence, infor mation science, pattern recognition, psychology, education, epistemology, philosophy, and related disciplines. The recent observance of the silver anniversary of artificial intelligence has been heralded by a surge of interest in machine learning-both in building models of human learning and in understanding how machines might be endowed with the ability to learn. This renewed interest has spawned many new research projects and resulted in an increase in related scientific activities. In the summer of 1980, the First Machine Learning Workshop was held at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In the same year, three consecutive issues of the Inter national Journal of Policy Analysis and Information Systems were specially devoted to machine learning (No. 2, 3 and 4, 1980). In the spring of 1981, a special issue of the SIGART Newsletter No. 76 reviewed current research projects in the field. . This book contains tutorial overviews and research papers representative of contemporary trends in the area of machine learning as viewed from an artificial intelligence perspective. As the first available text on this subject, it is intended to fulfill several needs."

Data analysis, machine learning and knowledge discovery are research areas at the intersection of computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics and statistics. They cover general methods and techniques that can be applied to a vast set of applications such as web and text mining, marketing, medicine, bioinformatics and business intelligence. This volume contains the revised versions of selected papers in the field of data analysis, machine learning and knowledge discovery presented during the 36th annual conference of the German Classification Society (GfKl). The conference was held at the University of Hildesheim (Germany) in August 2012.

The problem of inducing, learning or inferring grammars has been studied for decades, but only in recent years has grammatical inference emerged as an independent field with connections to many scientific disciplines, including bio-informatics, computational linguistics and pattern recognition. This book meets the need for a comprehensive and unified summary of the basic techniques and results, suitable for researchers working in these various areas. In Part I, the objects of use for grammatical inference are studied in detail: strings and their topology, automata and grammars, whether probabilistic or not. Part II carefully explores the main questions in the field: What does learning mean? How can we associate complexity theory with learning? In Part III the author describes a number of techniques and algorithms that allow us to learn from text, from an informant, or through interaction with the environment. These concern automata, grammars, rewriting systems, pattern languages or transducers.

Professor Richard S. Michalski passed away on September 20, 2007. Once we learned about his untimely death we immediately realized that we would no longer have with us a truly exceptional scholar and researcher who for several decades had been inf- encing the work of numerous scientists all over the world - not only in his area of exp- tise, notably machine learning, but also in the broadly understood areas of data analysis, data mining, knowledge discovery and many others. In fact, his influence was even much broader due to his creative vision, integrity, scientific excellence and excepti- ally wide intellectual horizons which extended to history, political science and arts. Professor Michalski's death was a particularly deep loss to the whole Polish sci- tific community and the Polish Academy of Sciences in particular. After graduation, he began his research career at the Institute of Automatic Control, Polish Academy of Science in Warsaw. In 1970 he left his native country and hold various prestigious positions at top US universities. His research gained impetus and he soon established himself as a world authority in his areas of interest - notably, he was widely cons- ered a father of machine learning.

Comprehensive Coverage of the Entire Area of ClassificationResearch on the problem of classification tends to be fragmented across such areas as pattern recognition, database, data mining, and machine learning. Addressing the work of these different communities in a unified way, Data Classification: Algorithms and Applications explores the underlying algorithms of classification as well as applications of classification in a variety of problem domains, including text, multimedia, social network, and biological data. This comprehensive book focuses on three primary aspects of data classification: Methods: The book first describes common techniques used for classification, including probabilistic methods, decision trees, rule-based methods, instance-based methods, support vector machine methods, and neural networks. Domains: The book then examines specific methods used for data domains such as multimedia, text, time-series, network, discrete sequence, and uncertain data. It also covers large data sets and data streams due to the recent importance of the big data paradigm. Variations: The book concludes with insight on variations of the classification process. It discusses ensembles, rare-class learning, distance function learning, active learning, visual learning, transfer learning, and semi-supervised learning as well as evaluation aspects of classifiers.

This book presents an exciting new synthesis of directed and undirected, discrete and continuous graphical models. Combining elements of Bayesian networks and Markov random fields, the newly introduced hybrid random fields are an interesting approach to get the best of both these worlds, with an added promise of modularity and scalability. The authors have written an enjoyable book---rigorous in the treatment of the mathematical background, but also enlivened by interesting and original historical and philosophical perspectives. -- Manfred Jaeger, Aalborg Universitet The book not only marks an effective direction of investigation with significant experimental advances, but it is also---and perhaps primarily---a guide for the reader through an original trip in the space of probabilistic modeling. While digesting the book, one is enriched with a very open view of the field, with full of stimulating connections. [...] Everyone specifically interested in Bayesian networks and Markov random fields should not miss it. -- Marco Gori, Universita degli Studi di Siena Graphical models are sometimes regarded---incorrectly---as an impractical approach to machine learning, assuming that they only work well for low-dimensional applications and discrete-valued domains. While guiding the reader through the major achievements of this research area in a technically detailed yet accessible way, the book is concerned with the presentation and thorough (mathematical and experimental) investigation of a novel paradigm for probabilistic graphical modeling, the hybrid random field. This model subsumes and extends both Bayesian networks and Markov random fields. Moreover, it comes with well-defined learning algorithms, both for discrete and continuous-valued domains, which fit the needs of real-world applications involving large-scale, high-dimensional data.

This volume constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the International Workshop on Adaptive and Learning Agents, ALA 2011, held at the 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS 2011, in Taipei, Taiwan, in May 2011. The 7 revised full papers presented together with 1 invited talk were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on single and multi-agent reinforcement learning, supervised multiagent learning, adaptation and learning in dynamic environments, learning trust and reputation, minority games and agent coordination.

This important work describes recent theoretical advances in the study of artificial neural networks. It explores probabilistic models of supervised learning problems, and addresses the key statistical and computational questions. Chapters survey research on pattern classification with binary-output networks, including a discussion of the relevance of the Vapnik Chervonenkis dimension, and of estimates of the dimension for several neural network models. In addition, Anthony and Bartlett develop a model of classification by real-output networks, and demonstrate the usefulness of classification with a "large margin." The authors explain the role of scale-sensitive versions of the Vapnik Chervonenkis dimension in large margin classification, and in real prediction. Key chapters also discuss the computational complexity of neural network learning, describing a variety of hardness results, and outlining two efficient, constructive learning algorithms. The book is self-contained and accessible to researchers and graduate students in computer science, engineering, and mathematics.

Machine learning has finally come of age. With H2O software, you can perform machine learning and data analysis using a simple open source framework that's easy to use, has a wide range of OS and language support, and scales for big data. This hands-on guide teaches you how to use H20 with only minimal math and theory behind the learning algorithms. If you're familiar with R or Python, know a bit of statistics, and have some experience manipulating data, author Darren Cook will take you through H2O basics and help you conduct machine-learning experiments on different sample data sets. You'll explore several modern machine-learning techniques such as deep learning, random forests, unsupervised learning, and ensemble learning. Learn how to import, manipulate, and export data with H2O Explore key machine-learning concepts, such as cross-validation and validation data sets Work with three diverse data sets, including a regression, a multinomial classification, and a binomial classification Use H2O to analyze each sample data set with four supervised machine-learning algorithms Understand how cluster analysis and other unsupervised machine-learning algorithms work

The research in content-based indexing and retrieval of visual information such as images and video has become one of the most populated directions in the vast area of information technologies. Social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, FileMobile, and DailyMotion host and supply facilities for accessing a tremendous amount of professional and user generated data. The areas of societal activity, such as, video protection and security, also generate thousands and thousands of terabytes of visual content. This book presents the most recent results and important trends in visual information indexing and retrieval. It is intended for young researchers, as well as, professionals looking for an algorithmic solution to a problem.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference, MLDM 2012, held in Berlin, Germany in July 2012. The 51 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 212 submissions. The topics range from theoretical topics for classification, clustering, association rule and pattern mining to specific data mining methods for the different multimedia data types such as image mining, text mining, video mining and web mining.

With the rapid rise in the ubiquity and sophistication of Internet technology and the accompanying growth in the number of network attacks, network intrusion detection has become increasingly important. Anomaly-based network intrusion detection refers to finding exceptional or nonconforming patterns in network traffic data compared to normal behavior. Finding these anomalies has extensive applications in areas such as cyber security, credit card and insurance fraud detection, and military surveillance for enemy activities. Network Anomaly Detection: A Machine Learning Perspective presents machine learning techniques in depth to help you more effectively detect and counter network intrusion. In this book, you'll learn about: Network anomalies and vulnerabilities at various layers The pros and cons of various machine learning techniques and algorithms A taxonomy of attacks based on their characteristics and behavior Feature selection algorithms How to assess the accuracy, performance, completeness, timeliness, stability, interoperability, reliability, and other dynamic aspects of a network anomaly detection system Practical tools for launching attacks, capturing packet or flow traffic, extracting features, detecting attacks, and evaluating detection performance Important unresolved issues and research challenges that need to be overcome to provide better protection for networks Examining numerous attacks in detail, the authors look at the tools that intruders use and show how to use this knowledge to protect networks. The book also provides material for hands-on development, so that you can code on a testbed to implement detection methods toward the development of your own intrusion detection system. It offers a thorough introduction to the state of the art in network anomaly detection using machine learning approaches and systems.

Professor Richard S. Michalski passed away on September 20, 2007. Once we learned about his untimely death we immediately realized that we would no longer have with us a truly exceptional scholar and researcher who for several decades had been inf- encing the work of numerous scientists all over the world - not only in his area of expertise, notably machine learning, but also in the broadly understood areas of data analysis, data mining, knowledge discovery and many others. In fact, his influence was even much broader due to his creative vision, integrity, scientific excellence and exceptionally wide intellectual horizons which extended to history, political science and arts. Professor Michalski's death was a particularly deep loss to the whole Polish sci- tific community and the Polish Academy of Sciences in particular. After graduation, he began his research career at the Institute of Automatic Control, Polish Academy of Science in Warsaw. In 1970 he left his native country and hold various prestigious positions at top US universities. His research gained impetus and he soon established himself as a world authority in his areas of interest - notably, he was widely cons- ered a father of machine learning.

Human and machine discovery are gradual problem-solving processes of searching large problem spaces for incompletely defined goal objects. Research on problem solving has usually focused on searching an `instance space' (empirical exploration) and a `hypothesis space' (generation of theories). In scientific discovery, searching must often extend to other spaces as well: spaces of possible problems, of new or improved scientific instruments, of new problem representations, of new concepts, and others. This book focuses especially on the processes for finding new problem representations and new concepts, which are relatively new domains for research on discovery. Scientific discovery has usually been studied as an activity of individual investigators, but these individuals are positioned in a larger social structure of science, being linked by the `blackboard' of open publication (as well as by direct collaboration). Even while an investigator is working alone, the process is strongly influenced by knowledge and skills stored in memory as a result of previous social interactions. In this sense, all research on discovery, including the investigations on individual processes discussed in this book, is social psychology, or even sociology.

This book helps readers understand the mathematics of machine learning, and apply them in different situations. It is divided into two basic parts, the first of which introduces readers to the theory of linear algebra, probability, and data distributions and it's applications to machine learning. It also includes a detailed introduction to the concepts and constraints of machine learning and what is involved in designing a learning algorithm. This part helps readers understand the mathematical and statistical aspects of machine learning. In turn, the second part discusses the algorithms used in supervised and unsupervised learning. It works out each learning algorithm mathematically and encodes it in R to produce customized learning applications. In the process, it touches upon the specifics of each algorithm and the science behind its formulation. The book includes a wealth of worked-out examples along with R codes. It explains the code for each algorithm, and readers can modify the code to suit their own needs. The book will be of interest to all researchers who intend to use R for machine learning, and those who are interested in the practical aspects of implementing learning algorithms for data analysis. Further, it will be particularly useful and informative for anyone who has struggled to relate the concepts of mathematics and statistics to machine learning.

Although governments worldwide have invested significantly in intelligent sensor network research and applications, few books cover intelligent sensor networks from a machine learning and signal processing perspective. Filling this void, Intelligent Sensor Networks: The Integration of Sensor Networks, Signal Processing and Machine Learning focuses on the close integration of sensing, networking, and smart signal processing via machine learning. Based on the world-class research of award-winning authors, the book provides a firm grounding in the fundamentals of intelligent sensor networks, including compressive sensing and sampling, distributed signal processing, and intelligent signal learning. Presenting recent research results of world-renowned sensing experts, the book is organized into three parts: Machine Learning-describes the application of machine learning and other AI principles in sensor network intelligence-covering smart sensor/transducer architecture and data representation for intelligent sensors Signal Processing-considers the optimization of sensor network performance based on digital signal processing techniques-including cross-layer integration of routing and application-specific signal processing as well as on-board image processing in wireless multimedia sensor networks for intelligent transportation systems Networking-focuses on network protocol design in order to achieve an intelligent sensor networking-covering energy-efficient opportunistic routing protocols for sensor networking and multi-agent-driven wireless sensor cooperation Maintaining a focus on "intelligent" designs, the book details signal processing principles in sensor networks. It elaborates on critical platforms for intelligent sensor networks and illustrates key applications-including target tracking, object identification, and structural health monitoring. It also includes a paradigm for validating the extent of spatiotemporal associations among data sources to enhance data cleaning in sensor networks, a sensor stream reduction application, and also considers the use of Kalman filters for attack detection in a water system sensor network that consists of water level sensors and velocity sensors.

This three-volume set LNAI 6911, LNAI 6912, and LNAI 6913 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases: ECML PKDD 2011, held in Athens, Greece, in September 2011. The 121 revised full papers presented together with 10 invited talks and 11 demos in the three volumes, were carefully reviewed and selected from about 600 paper submissions. The papers address all areas related to machine learning and knowledge discovery in databases as well as other innovative application domains such as supervised and unsupervised learning with some innovative contributions in fundamental issues; dimensionality reduction, distance and similarity learning, model learning and matrix/tensor analysis; graph mining, graphical models, hidden markov models, kernel methods, active and ensemble learning, semi-supervised and transductive learning, mining sparse representations, model learning, inductive logic programming, and statistical learning. a significant part of the papers covers novel and timely applications of data mining and machine learning in industrial domains.