“From a Bag of Bagels to Bandit Data-Driven Optimization” - Ryan Shi, Carnegie Mellon University

4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Virtual (Zoom)

Ryan Shi, a doctoral candidate of societal computing in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and founder of 98Connect, will deliver “From a Bag of Bagels to Bandit Data-Driven Optimization” as part of CSRAI's Young Achievers Symposium.

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“From a Bag of Bagels to Bandit Data-Driven Optimization”

In this talk, Shi will start with his three-year collaboration with a large food rescue organization. His group developed a recommender system to selectively advertise available rescues to food rescue volunteers, which improves the notification system's hit rate from 44% to 78%. Motivated by the pain points experienced in this and other works, Shi proposes bandit data-driven optimization, a new learning paradigm that combines online bandit learning and offline predictive models to address the unique challenges that arise in machine learning projects for the public and nonprofit sectors.

About the Speaker

Ryan Shi is a doctoral candidate of societal computing in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and founder of 98Connect, an organization to promote open communication and sustainable collaboration between the technology and nonprofit worlds. He works with nonprofit organizations to address societal challenges in food security, wildlife conservation, and public health using AI. Some of his works have been adopted or slated for field tests. He organized the AI for Social Good Symposia in 2020 and 2021. He is the recipient of a Siebel Scholarship and a Carnegie Mellon Presidential Fellowship.

About the Young Achievers Symposium

The Young Achievers Symposium highlights early career researchers in diverse fields of AI for social impact. The symposium series seeks to focus on emerging research, stimulate discussions, and initiate collaborations that can advance research in artificial intelligence for societal benefit. All events in the series are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Penn State students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty with an interest in socially responsible AI applications are encouraged to attend.