Algorithmic Foundations of Data Science

Abstract

This course provides rigorous theoretical foundations for the design and mathematical analysis of efficient algorithms that can solve fundamental tasks relevant to data science.

Objective

We consider various statistical models for basic data-analytical tasks, e.g., (sparse) linear regression, principal component analysis, matrix completion, community detection, and clustering. Our goal is to design efficient (polynomial-time) algorithms that achieve the strongest possible (statistical) guarantees for these models. Toward this goal we learn about a wide range of mathematical techniques from convex optimization, linear algebra (especially, spectral theory and tensors), and high-dimensional statistics. We also incorporate adversarial (worst-case) components into our models as a way to reason about robustness guarantees for the algorithms we design.

Content

Strengths and limitations of efficient algorithms in (robust) statistical models for the following (tentative) list of data analysis tasks: - (sparse) linear regression - principal component analysis and matrix completion - clustering and Gaussian mixture models - community detection

Resources