Probability Seminar: Difference between revisions

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(Replaced content with "__NOTOC__ Back to Probability Group * '''When''': Thursdays at 2:30 pm * '''Where''': 901 Van Vleck Hall * '''Organizers''': Hongchang Ji, Ander Aguirre, Hai-Xiao Wang * '''To join the probability seminar mailing list:''' email probsem+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu. * '''To subscribe seminar lunch announcements:''' email lunchwithprobsemspeaker+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu Past Seminars == Fall 2025 == <b>Thursdays at 2:30 PM either in 901 V...")
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* '''When''': Thursdays at 2:30 pm  
* '''When''': Thursdays at 2:30 pm  
* '''Where''': 901 Van Vleck Hall  
* '''Where''': 901 Van Vleck Hall  
* '''Organizers''': Hanbaek Lyu, Tatyana Shcherbyna, David Clancy
* '''Organizers''': Hongchang Ji, Ander Aguirre, Hai-Xiao Wang
* '''To join the probability seminar mailing list:''' email probsem+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu.  
* '''To join the probability seminar mailing list:''' email probsem+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu.  
* '''To subscribe seminar lunch announcements:''' email lunchwithprobsemspeaker+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu
* '''To subscribe seminar lunch announcements:''' email lunchwithprobsemspeaker+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu
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[[Past Seminars]]
[[Past Seminars]]


== Fall 2025 ==


= Spring 2025 =
<b>Thursdays at 2:30 PM either in 901 Van Vleck Hall or on Zoom</b>
<b>Thursdays at 2:30 PM either in 901 Van Vleck Hall or on Zoom</b>


We usually end for questions at 3:20 PM.
We usually end for questions at 3:20 PM.
== January 23, 2025: ==
No seminar 
== January 30, 2025: Promit Ghosal (UChicago) ==
'''Bridging Theory and Practice in Stein Variational Gradient Descent: Gaussian Approximations, Finite-Particle Rates, and Beyond''' 
Stein Variational Gradient Descent (SVGD) has emerged as a powerful interacting particle-based algorithm for nonparametric sampling, yet its theoretical properties remain challenging to unravel. This talk delves into two complementary perspectives about SVGD. First, we explore Gaussian-SVGD, a framework that projects SVGD onto the family of Gaussian distributions via a bilinear kernel. We establish rigorous convergence results for both mean-field dynamics and finite-particle systems, demonstrating linear convergence to equilibrium in strongly log-concave settings and unifying recent algorithms for Gaussian variational inference (GVI) under a single framework. Second, we analyze the finite-particle convergence rates of SVGD in Kernelized Stein Discrepancy (KSD) and Wasserstein-2 metrics. Leveraging a novel decomposition of the relative entropy time derivative, we achieve near-optimal rates with polynomial dimensional dependence and extend these results to bilinear-enhanced kernels.
== February 6, 2025: Subhabrata Sen (Harvard) ==
TBD 
== February 13, 2025: ==
TBD 
== February 20, 2025: Mustafa Alper Gunes (Princeton) ==
TBD 
== February 27, 2025: Souvik Dhara (Purdue) ==
TBD
== March 6, 2025: Alexander Meehan (UW-Madison, Department of Philosophy) ==
'''What conditional probability could (probably) be'''
According to orthodox probability theory, when B has probability zero, the conditional probability of A given B can depend on the partition or sub-sigma-field that B is relativized to. This relativization to sub-sigma-fields, a hallmark of Kolmogorov's theory of conditional expectation, is traditionally seen as appropriate in a treatment of conditioning with continuous variables, and it is what allows the theory to preserve Total Disintegrability, a generalization of the Law of Total Probability to uncountable partitions. In this talk, I will argue that although the relativization of conditional probability to sub-sigma-fields has advantages, it also has an underrecognized cost: it leads to puzzles for the treatment of ''iterated conditioning''. I will discuss these puzzles and some possible implications for the foundations of conditional probability.
This talk is based on joint work with Snow Zhang (UC Berkeley).
== March 13, 2025: Klara Courteaut (Courant) ==
TBD 
== March 20, 2025: Ewain Gwynne (UChicago) ==
TBD 
== March 27, 2025: SPRING BREAK ==
No seminar 
== April 3, 2025: Jimme He (OSU) ==
TBD 
== April 10, 2025: Evan Sorensen (Columbia) ==
TBD 
== April 17, 2025: ==
TBD 
== April 24, 2025: William Leep (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) ==
TBD 
== May 1, 2025: ==
No seminar

Latest revision as of 14:44, 22 August 2025

Back to Probability Group

  • When: Thursdays at 2:30 pm
  • Where: 901 Van Vleck Hall
  • Organizers: Hongchang Ji, Ander Aguirre, Hai-Xiao Wang
  • To join the probability seminar mailing list: email probsem+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu.
  • To subscribe seminar lunch announcements: email lunchwithprobsemspeaker+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu

Past Seminars

Fall 2025

Thursdays at 2:30 PM either in 901 Van Vleck Hall or on Zoom

We usually end for questions at 3:20 PM.