{"id":14,"date":"2019-03-15T15:11:20","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T15:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2021-07-30T20:06:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T20:06:23","slug":"recent-news","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/recent-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent News"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>2021<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li data-stringify-indent=\"0\"><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/agentzel.github.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/agentzel.github.io\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Amanda Gentzel<\/a>\u00a0presented\u00a0\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"http:\/\/proceedings.mlr.press\/v139\/gentzel21a\/gentzel21a.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"http:\/\/proceedings.mlr.press\/v139\/gentzel21a\/gentzel21a.pdf\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">How and Why to Use Experimental Data to Evaluate Methods for Observational Causal Inference<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/icml.cc\/Conferences\/2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/icml.cc\/Conferences\/2021\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">ICML 2021<\/a>. Work with <a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/purvapruthi.github.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/purvapruthi.github.io\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Purva Pruthi,<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/jensen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/jensen\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">David Jensen<\/a>. (7\/21\/2021)<\/li>\n<li data-stringify-indent=\"0\"><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/purvapruthi.github.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/purvapruthi.github.io\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Purva Pruthi<\/a>\u00a0successfully passed her portfolio exam and entered into candidacy in our PhD program. (5\/3\/2021)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~agentzel\">Amanda Gentzel<\/a> successfully defended her dissertation. (2\/22\/2021)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenney.dev\/\">Jack Kenney<\/a> joined KDL. (January 2021)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 id=\"2020\">2020<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/samwitty.github.io\/\">Sam Witty<\/a> successfully passed his portfolio exam and entered into candidacy in our PhD program. (12\/13\/2020)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/samwitty.github.io\/\">Sam Witty<\/a> presented &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/1910.14124.pdf\">Bayesian Causal Inference via Probabilistic Program Synthesis<\/a>&#8221; at <a href=\"https:\/\/probprog.cc\/2020\/\">ProbProg 2020<\/a>. (10\/23\/2020) Work with <a href=\"http:\/\/alexlew.net\/\">Alex Lew<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/bcs.mit.edu\/\">MIT<\/a>,\u00a0equal contribution), <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/probcomp.csail.mit.edu\/principal-investigator\/\">Vikash Mansinghka<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/bcs.mit.edu\/\">MIT<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>Erica Cai, Kate Avery and Pracheta Amaranath joined KDL. (Fall 2020)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/emmatosch.com\/\">Emma Tosch<\/a> successfully defended her dissertation. (8\/26\/2020)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/samwitty.github.io\/\">Sam Witty<\/a> presented &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/proceedings.mlr.press\/v119\/witty20a\/witty20a.pdf\">Causal Inference using Gaussian Processes with Structured Latent Confounders<\/a>&#8221; at <a href=\"https:\/\/icml.cc\/Conferences\/2020\">ICML 2020<\/a>. (7\/16\/2020) Work with <a href=\"https:\/\/kenta426.github.io\/\">Kenta Takatsu<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/probcomp.csail.mit.edu\/principal-investigator\/\">Vikash Mansinghka<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/bcs.mit.edu\/\">MIT<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/purvapruthi.github.io\/\">Purva Pruthi<\/a> joined KDL. (June 2020)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~aatrey\">Akanksha Atrey<\/a>\u00a0presented <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1912.05743\">&#8220;Exploratory not Explanatory: Counterfactual Analysis of Saliency Maps for Deep RL&#8221;<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/iclr.cc\">ICLR 2020<\/a>. (4\/27\/2020) Work with <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~kclary\">Kaleigh Clary<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/kenta426.github.io\/\">Kenta Takatsu<\/a> and Andy Zane joined KDL. (January 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 id=\"2019\">2019<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~aatrey\">Akanksha Atrey<\/a> presented &#8220;Evaluating Saliency Maps Using Interventions&#8221; at the NeurIPS 2019 Women in Machine Learning workshop. (12\/9\/2019) Work with <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~kclary\">Kaleigh Clary<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\/\">David Jensen<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~agentzel\">Amanda Gentzel<\/a> presented <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1910.05387\">The Case for Evaluating Causal Models Using Interventional Measures and Empirical Data<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/nips.cc\/\">NeurIPS 2019<\/a>. (12\/10\/2019) Work with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielgarant\">Daniel Garant<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cswg.com\">C&amp;S Wholesale Grocers<\/a>) and <a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\/\">David Jensen<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~etosch\">Emma Tosch<\/a>&#8216;s work on Planalyzer was featured in <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.acolyer.org\/2019\/11\/22\/planalyzer\/\">The morning paper<\/a>. (11\/22\/2019)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~etosch\">Emma Tosch<\/a> presented <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1909.13649\">PlanAlyzer: Assessing Threats to the Validity of Online Experiments<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/conf.researchr.org\/track\/splash-2019\/splash-2019-oopsla\">OOPSLA 2019<\/a>. (10\/23\/2019) Work with <a href=\"https:\/\/eytan.github.io\/\">Eytan Bakshy<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emeryberger.org\/\">Emery Berger<\/a>, <a href=\"cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~moss\/\">Eliot Moss<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~agentzel\">Amanda Gentzel<\/a> successfully defended her dissertation proposal. (10\/10\/2019)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~etosch\">Emma Tosch<\/a> successfully defended her dissertation proposal. (9\/23\/2019)<\/li>\n<li><a>Justin Clarke<\/a> joined KDL. (Fall 2019)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a> presented <a href=\"http:\/\/auai.org\/uai2019\/proceedings\/papers\/393.pdf\">Object Conditioning for Causal Inference<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/auai.org\/uai2019\/\">UAI 2019<\/a>. (7\/25\/2019) Work with <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=mHJ1sIwAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">Javier Burroni<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cics.umass.edu\/people\/rattigan-matthew\">Matt Rattigan<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~aatrey\">Akanksha Atrey<\/a> presented <a href=\"https:\/\/epubs.siam.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1137\/1.9781611975673.22\">Identifying When Effect Restoration Will Improve Estimates of Causal Effect<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.siam.org\/conferences\/cm\/conference\/sdm19\">SDM 2019<\/a>. (5\/3\/2019) Work with <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=Cz3CwJAAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">H\u00fcseyin Oktay<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~aatrey\">Akanksha Atrey<\/a> received an honorable mention for her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsfgrfp.org\/\">NSF GRFP<\/a> application. (April 2019)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 id=\"2018\">2018<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Four KDL submissions were presented at NeurIPS workshops (12\/7-12\/8\/18):\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~agentzel\">Amanda Gentzel<\/a> presented <a href=\"https:\/\/kdl.cs.umass.edu\/recent_news.html\">The Case for Evaluating Causal Models Using Interventional Measures and Empirical Data<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/nips2018causallearning\/home\">Causality Workshop<\/a>. Work with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielgarant\">Daniel Garant<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cswg.com\">C&amp;S Wholesale Grocers<\/a>) and <a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\/\">David Jensen<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~kclary\">Kaleigh Clary<\/a> presented <a href=\"https:\/\/kdl.cs.umass.edu\/recent_news.html\">Let\u2019s Play Again: Variability of Deep Reinforcement Learning Agents in Atari Environments<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/ml-critique-correct.github.io\">Critiquing and Correcting Trends in Machine Learning Workshop<\/a>. Work with <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~etosch\">Emma Tosch<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/jjfoley.me\">John Foley<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/smith.edu\">Smith College<\/a>), and <a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\/\">David Jensen<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~switty\">Sam Witty<\/a> presented <a href=\"https:\/\/kdl.cs.umass.edu\/recent_news.html\">Generalization in Deep Reinforcement Learning<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/ml-critique-correct.github.io\">Critiquing and Correcting Trends in Machine Learning Workshop<\/a>. Work with <a href=\"http:\/\/junkilee.github.io\">Jun Ki Lee<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/cs.brown.edu\">Brown University<\/a>), <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~etosch\">Emma Tosch<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~aatrey\">Akanksha Atrey<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.brown.edu\/~mlittman\/\">Michael Littman<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/cs.brown.edu\">Brown University<\/a>), and <a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~etosch\">Emma Tosch<\/a> presented <a href=\"https:\/\/kdl.cs.umass.edu\/recent_news.html\">Toybox: Better Atari Environments for Testing Reinforcement Learning Agents<\/a> at the <a href=\"http:\/\/learningsys.org\/nips18\/index.html\">Systems for Machine Learning Workshop<\/a>. Work with <a href=\"http:\/\/jjfoley.me\">John Foley<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/smith.edu\">Smith College<\/a>), <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~kclary\">Kaleigh Clary<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~switty\">Sam Witty<\/a> presented \u201cCausal Graphs versus Causal Programs: The Case of Conditional Branching\u201d at <a href=\"https:\/\/probprog.cc\">ProbProg 2018<\/a>. (10\/5\/2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~etosch\">Emma Tosch<\/a> presented \u201cMocking Atari for Deep Reinforcement Learning\u201d at <a href=\"https:\/\/researcher.watson.ibm.com\/researcher\/view_group.php?id=9595\">IBM AI Systems Day<\/a>. (10\/3\/2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a> presented \u201cToward Learning Causal models of Complex Phenomena\u201d at the <a href=\"https:\/\/researcher.watson.ibm.com\/researcher\/view_group.php?id=9676\">IBM Causal Inference Workshop<\/a>. (10\/3\/2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~rngrant\">Reilly Grant<\/a> joins KDL. (September 2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\">David Jensen<\/a> was appointed as Director of the UMass Computational Social Science Institute. (July 2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~aatrey\">Akanksha Atrey<\/a> received the Lori A. Clarke Scholarship in Computer Science 2018 from CICS, UMass Amherst. (June 2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~kclary\">Kaleigh Clary<\/a> was selected to participate in this year\u2019s class of fellows at the <a href=\"https:\/\/dssg.uchicago.edu\">Data Science for Social Good (DSSG)<\/a> Summer Program at the University of Chicago. (March 2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~aatrey\">Akanksha Atrey<\/a> was selected to attend the CRA-W Grad Cohort for Women Workshop in April.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\/\">David Jensen<\/a> gave a talk at CMU\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heinz.cmu.edu\/\">Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy<\/a> on \u201cExplainable Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and Challenges for Public Policy.\u201d (2\/19\/2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\/\">David Jensen<\/a> gave a distinguished lecture at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccd.pitt.edu\/\">Center for Causal Discovery<\/a> at the University of Pittsburgh on \u201cThe Case for Empirical Evaluation of Methods for Causal Modeling.\u201d (2\/15\/2018)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/javierburroni\/\">Javier Burroni<\/a> presented our poster on \u201cInteractive Writing and Debugging of Bayesian Probabilistic Programs\u201d at the <a href=\"https:\/\/popl18.sigplan.org\/track\/pps-2018\">Workshop on Probabilistic Programming Languages, Semantics, and Systems<\/a>. (1\/9\/2018)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 id=\"2017\">2017<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/%7Ekclary\/\">Kaleigh Clary<\/a> successfully passed her portfolio exam and entered into candidacy in our PhD program. (12\/13\/2017)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~switty\">Sam Witty<\/a> gave a tutorial on \u201cCausal Inference with Graphical Models\u201d for the <a href=\"http:\/\/gridclub.io\">UMass Graduate Researchers in Data<\/a> (11\/29\/2017).<\/li>\n<li>KDL\u2019s work on explainable artificial intelligence was noted in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/11\/21\/magazine\/can-ai-be-taught-to-explain-itself.html\">New York Times Magazine article<\/a> (11\/21\/2017)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/huseyin-oktay-715aa915\/\">H\u00fcseyin Oktay<\/a> successfully defended his dissertation (11\/20\/2017).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~switty\">Sam Witty<\/a> gave an invited talk for the <a href=\"http:\/\/probcomp.csail.mit.edu\">MIT Probabilistic Computing Project<\/a> on \u201cComputational Representations of Causality\u201d (11\/2\/2017).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cs.umass.edu\/~aatrey\">Akanksha Atrey<\/a> presented her paper \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/wp.comminfo.rutgers.edu\/vsingh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/110\/2017\/10\/ACMMM_Singh_Diversity_Smile.pdf\">Do Individuals Smile More in Diverse Social Company? Studying Smiles and Diversity Via Social Media Photos<\/a>\u201d at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.acmmm.org\/2017\/\">ACM Multimedia 2017<\/a> (10\/26\/17).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/katerina-marazopoulou\/\">Katerina Marazopoulou<\/a> successfully defended her dissertation (7\/28\/2017).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\/\">David Jensen<\/a> gave a keynote talk at <a href=\"http:\/\/tacits.stevens.edu\">Time and Causality in the Sciences<\/a>, June 7-9 at Stevens Institute of Technology on \u201cOvercoming the Poverty of Mechanism in Causal Models.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.umass.edu\/~jensen\/\">David Jensen<\/a> and KDL Alum <a href=\"https:\/\/people.llnl.gov\/gallagher23\">Brian Gallagher<\/a>, along with UMass colleagues John Burgess and Brian Levine, received the <a href=\"http:\/\/infocom2017.ieee-infocom.org\/content\/awards\">IEEE INFOCOM 2017 Test of Time Paper Award<\/a> for their 2006 paper <a href=\"https:\/\/kdl.cs.umass.edu\/papers\/jensen-et-al-infocom2006.pdf\">MaxProp: Routing for Vehicle-Based Disruption-Tolerant Networks<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/darbour.github.io\">David Arbour<\/a> successfully defended his dissertation (2\/16\/2017).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2021 Amanda Gentzel\u00a0presented\u00a0\u00a0How and Why to Use Experimental Data to Evaluate Methods for Observational Causal Inference\u00a0at\u00a0ICML 2021. Work with Purva Pruthi,\u00a0and\u00a0David Jensen. (7\/21\/2021) Purva Pruthi\u00a0successfully passed her portfolio exam and entered into candidacy in our PhD program. (5\/3\/2021) Amanda Gentzel successfully defended her dissertation. (2\/22\/2021) Jack Kenney joined KDL. (January 2021) 2020 Sam Witty successfully &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/recent-news\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Recent News&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","hfeed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.cs.umass.edu\/kdl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}