{"639285":{"#nid":"639285","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Molei Tao\u2019s First Research Paper on Machine Learning Takes Top Honors at AI Conference","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis story was originally published by \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mlatgt.blog\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Machine Learning\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EA mathematician by trade,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/people.math.gatech.edu\/~mtao8\/\u0022\u003EMolei Tao\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;typically uses mathematics to design algorithms and solve physical science problems like how planets move. Recently, he became attracted to machine learning, an area that according to him, contains numerous interesting problems that are mathematically exciting and can benefit from modern mathematical tools.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis year, Tao, an associate professor in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Mathematics\u003C\/a\u003E, published his first machine learning conference paper, and this work was awarded the best paper award at the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.aistats.org\/\u0022\u003E23\u003Csup\u003Erd\u003C\/sup\u003E\u0026nbsp;International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHis paper,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/proceedings.mlr.press\/v108\/tao20a.html\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EVariational Optimization on Lie Groups with Examples of Leading (Generalized) Eigenvalue Problems\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, details a natural way for adding momentum to the gradient descent optimization in non-flat spaces. In flat spaces, the approach of adding momentum for accelerating the training of machine learning models has already been tremendously successful, and this new progress expands the applicability of the popular and powerful idea.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETao felt fortunate to win this recognition. He and his co-author,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/personal.utdallas.edu\/~tomoki\/\u0022\u003ETomoki Ohsawa\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.utdallas.edu\/\u0022\u003EUniversity of Texas at Dallas\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;had read many classical works from previous proceedings of AISTATS. Impressed with the quality of work, the authors chose to submit their first draft to it.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We really did not think of winning the award at all. The completion of our work was around the AISTATS submission deadline, so we just submitted happily,\u0026rdquo; said Tao. \u0026ldquo;This submission confirmed to me how vibrant the machine learning community is. They are open to new ideas and many people made real efforts to understand this theoretical work and ask good questions.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETao was also encouraged by the collaborative and interdisciplinary environment provided by the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ml.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EMachine Learning Center at Georgia Tech (ML@GT)\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;where Tao is also a faculty member.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Georgia Tech is full of leaders in machine learning with different areas of expertise. We are proud of how Molei continues to innovate and further connect machine learning to real-world problems, both physically and computationally, and look forward to his future accomplishments\u0026rdquo; said\u0026nbsp;Irfan Essa, ML@GT executive director.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETao stated that winning this award encouraged him, and hopefully other mathematicians and scientists, to continue searching for fusion of ideas and creating new venues of applications.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"School of Math associate professor gets top honor at international artificial intelligence conference "}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMolei Tao\u0026#39;s recent interest in machine learning has paid off for the School of Math researcher, as his first paper on the subject won top honors at the\u0026nbsp;23rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"School of Math associate professor gets top honor at international artificial intelligence conference "}],"uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2020-09-18 15:20:14","changed_gmt":"2020-09-18 20:22:51","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-09-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-09-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"639286":{"id":"639286","type":"image","title":"Molei Tao ","body":null,"created":"1600442893","gmt_created":"2020-09-18 15:28:13","changed":"1600442893","gmt_changed":"2020-09-18 15:28:13","alt":"","file":{"fid":"243067","name":"Molei Tao.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Molei%20Tao.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Molei%20Tao.png","mime":"image\/png","size":279802,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Molei%20Tao.png?itok=Cp1Egh99"}}},"media_ids":["639286"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/news\/nsf-career-awarded-professors-shahaf-nitzan-molei-tao-and-yao-yao","title":"NSF CAREER Awarded to Professors Shahaf Nitzan, Molei Tao, and Yao Yao"},{"url":"https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/news\/get-know-school-mathematics-prof-molei-tao","title":"Get to Know the School of Mathematics Prof: Molei Tao"},{"url":"https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/news\/recent-promotions-som-1","title":"Recent Promotions in SoM"}],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1279","name":"School of Mathematics"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"168854","name":"School of Mathematics"},{"id":"170130","name":"Molei Tao"},{"id":"9167","name":"machine learning"},{"id":"185887","name":"AISTATS"},{"id":"173647","name":"_for_math_site_"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERenay San Miguel\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCommunications Officer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCollege of Sciences\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n404-894-5209\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["renay.san@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}