Mathematical Optimization for Data Science Group, Saarland University

Welcome to the homepage of the

Mathematical Optimization for Data Science Group

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Saarland University, Germany

Seminar on Computational Optimal Transport

Lecturer: Peter Ochs Winter Term 2024/2025 Seminar for Mathematics and Computer Science 7 ECTS Time: Tuesday 2 - 4 pm. First meeting: 29.10.2024, E1.1, room 4.12. Teaching Assistants: Shida Wang Language: English Prerequisites: Basics of Mathematics (e.g. Linear Algebra 1-2, Analysis 1-3, Mathematics 1-3 for Computer Science)	[Peyre and Cuturi 2020]

News	Description	Registration
Grading	Schedule

News

10.09.2024: Webpage is online.

Description

Optimal transport, originally introduced by Monge and further developed by Kantorovich, has broad applications in fields like economics, fluid mechanics, machine learning, computer vision, and data science. In this seminar, we will study a lecture note called "Computational Optimal Transport" by Gabriel Peyré with several related papers, covering topics from the classic "Wasserstein GAN" to more recent works on the applications of optimal transport in machine learning. By the end of the seminar, students will have a solid understanding of optimal transport theory and an overview of its recent use in machine learning.

Registration:

Register via the Seminar Assignment System at SIC Seminars.

For students from mathematics who cannnot register via this system, please write an eMail to Peter Ochs.

Requirements for Successful Participation:

Format: (in-person participation only)

Each student is assigned to three papers (assigned by us): one student gives the presentation on the paper, and the two other students take the role of moderators, i.e., they lead the discussion after the presentation.

Rules:

Presenter: Talk duration is 50 min (20 min on preliminaries + 30 minutes on the paper), plus 25 min for discussion. You may give a presentation using a projector and/or white/blackboard, optionally include experiments but not an obligation.
Moderator: Prepare meaningful questions and lead the discussion.
No Written summary is expected.
Regular attendance: You must attend all seminar meetings, except for provable important reasons (medical certificate).
Plagiarism: Adhere to the standards of scientific referencing and avoid plagiarism: Quotations and copied material (such as images) must be clearly marked as such, and a bibliography is required. Otherwise the seminar counts as failed.
Mandatory consultation: Talk preparation has to be presented to your seminar supervisor no later than one week before the talk is given. It is your responsibility to approach the supervisor timely and make your appointment.
Participation in discussions: The discussions after the presentations are a vital part of this seminar. This means that the audience (i.e. all participants) poses questions and tries to find positive and negative aspects of the proposed idea. This participation is part of your final grade.
Being in time: To avoid disturbing or interrupting the speaker, all participants have to be in the seminar room in time. Participants who turn out to be regularly late must expect a negative influence on their grade.

Documentation and Schedule:

The main reference for the seminar is:

Gabriel Peyré, Marco Cuturi: Computational Optimal Transport 2020.