Steve Hanneke

Contact Information:
Email: steve.hanneke@gmail.com
Mobile Phone: (412) 973-3007
Location: Princeton, NJ USA


I am an independent scientist, working on topics in statistical learning theory.

In spring 2018, I am teaching a statistical learning theory course at Princeton.

Research Interests:
My general research interest is in systems that can improve their performance with experience, a topic known as machine learning. My focus is on the statistical analysis of machine learning. The essential questions I am interested in answering are "what can be learned from empirical observation and/or interaction," and "how much observation and/or interaction is necessary to learn it?" This overall topic intersects with several academic disciplines, including statistical learning theory, artificial intelligence, statistical inference, algorithmic and statistical information theories, probability theory, philosophy of science, and epistemology.

Brief Bio:
From 2009 to 2012, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University, also affiliated with the Machine Learning Department. I have recently been taking time away from formal employment to focus entirely on research. I received my PhD in 2009 from the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University, co-advised by Eric Xing and Larry Wasserman. My thesis work was on the theoretical foundations of active learning. From 2002 to 2005, I was an undergraduate studying Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where I worked on semi-supervised learning with Prof. Dan Roth and the students in the Cognitive Computation Group. Prior to that, I studied Computer Science at Webster University in St. Louis, MO, where I played around with neural networks and classic AI a bit.

Recent News and Activities:

• Fall 2018 I will be joining the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC) as a Research Assistant Professor.
• Spring 2018 I am teaching ORF 525 "Statistical Learning and Nonparametric Estimation" at Princeton University.
• My ICML 2007 paper "A Bound on the Label Complexity of Agnostic Active Learning" received Honorable Mention for the ICML 2017 Test of Time Award.
• Program Committee Chair (with Lev Reyzin) for the 28^th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT 2017), held October 15-17 in Kyoto, Japan. See our published proceedings.
• New manuscript "Learning Whenever Learning is Possible: Universal Learning under General Stochastic Processes" posted to the arXiv.
• Presentation at the Simons Institute Workshop on Interactive Learning. See the video.
• Presentation at the Lorentz Center Workshop on Theoretical Foundations for Learning from Easy Data.

Teaching:
Spring 2018: ORF 525, Statistical Learning and Nonparametric Estimation.
Spring 2012: 36-752, Advanced Probability Overview.
Fall 2011: 36-755, Advanced Statistical Theory I.
Spring 2011: 36-752, Advanced Probability Overview.
Fall 2010 Mini 1: 36-781, Advanced Statistical Methods I: Active Learning
Fall 2010 Mini 2: 36-782, Advanced Statistical Methods II: Advanced Topics in Machine Learning Theory
Spring 2010: 36-754, Advanced Probability II: Stochastic Processes.
Fall 2009: 36-752, Advanced Probability Overview.
At ALT 2010 and the 2010 Machine Learning Summer School in Canberra, Australia, I gave a tutorial on the theory of active learning. [slides]

A Survey of Theoretical Active Learning:

Theory of Active Learning. [pdf][ps]

This is a survey of some of the recent advances in the theory of active learning, with particular emphasis on label complexity guarantees for disagreement-based methods.
I will be updating and expanding this survey every few years as this area continues to develop; the current version (v1.1) was updated on September 22, 2014.
A few relevant recent active learning papers not yet discussed in the survey: [ZC14], [WHE-Y15], [HY15].
An abbreviated version of this survey appeared in the Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning series, Volume 7, Issues 2-3, 2014.

Selected Recent Works:

Hanneke, S. (2017). Learning Whenever Learning is Possible: Universal Learning under General Stochastic Processes. Under Review.

Hanneke, S. (2016). The Optimal Sample Complexity of PAC Learning. Journal of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 17 (38), pp. 1-15.

Hanneke, S. and Yang, L. (2015). Minimax Analysis of Active Learning. Journal of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 16 (12), pp. 3487-3602.

Hanneke, S. (2012). Activized Learning: Transforming Passive to Active with Improved Label Complexity. Journal of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 13 (5), pp. 1469-1587.

Articles in Preparation:

Surrogate Losses in Passive and Active Learning. [pdf][ps][arXiv]. Joint work with Liu Yang.

Nonparametric Active Learning, Part 1: Smooth Regression Functions. [pdf][ps].

Nonparametric Active Learning, Part 2: Smooth Decision Boundaries.

Learning Whenever Learning is Possible: Universal Learning under General Stochastic Processes. [pdf][ps][arXiv].

Active Learning with Identifiable Mixture Models. Joint work with Vittorio Castelli and Liu Yang.

Optimality of SVM: Novel Proofs and Tighter Bounds. [pdf][ps]. Joint work with Aryeh Kontorovich.

Localization of VC Classes: Beyond Local Rademacher Complexities. Joint work with Nikita Zhivotovskiy. (Invited TCS-SI journal version of our ALT16 paper).

Sample Compression for Real-Valued Learners. [pdf][ps][arXiv]. Joint work with Aryeh Kontorovich and Menachem Sadigurschi.

A New Lower Bound for Agnostic Learning with Sample Compression Schemes. [pdf][ps][arXiv]. Joint work with Aryeh Kontorovich.

Statistical Learning under Nonstationary Mixing Processes. [pdf][ps][arXiv]. Joint work with Liu Yang.

All Publications: (authors are listed in alphabetical order here).

2018

Hanneke, S. and Yang, L. (2018). Testing Piecewise Functions. Theoretical Computer Science (To Appear). [pdf][ps][journal page][arXiv]

Hanneke, S., Kalai, A., Kamath, G., and Tzamos, C. (2018). Actively Avoiding Nonsense in Generative Models. In Proceedings of the 31^st Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT). [arXiv]

Carbonell, J., Hanneke, S., and Yang, L. (2018). Bounds on the Minimax Rate for Estimating a Prior over a VC Class from Independent Learning Tasks. Theoretical Computer Science, Vol. 716, pp. 124-140. [pdf][ps][journal page][arXiv]
(Special Issue for ALT 2015; Invited)

2016

Hanneke, S. and Zhivotovskiy, N. (2016). Localization of VC Classes: Beyond Local Rademacher Complexities. In Proceedings of the 27^th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT). [pdf][ps][arXiv]

Hanneke, S. (2016). Refined Error Bounds for Several Learning Algorithms. Journal of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 17 (135), pp. 1-55. [pdf][ps][arXiv][journal page]

Hanneke, S. (2016). The Optimal Sample Complexity of PAC Learning. Journal of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 17 (38), pp. 1-15. [pdf][ps][arXiv][journal page]

2015

Hanneke, S. and Yang, L. (2015). Minimax Analysis of Active Learning. Journal of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 16 (12), pp. 3487-3602. [pdf][ps][arXiv][journal page]

Hanneke, S., Kanade, V., and Yang, L. (2015). Learning with a Drifting Target Concept. In Proceedings of the 26^th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT). [pdf][ps][arXiv]
See also this note on a result for the sample complexity of efficient agnostic learning implicit in the above concept drift paper: [pdf]

Carbonell, J., Hanneke, S., and Yang, L. (2015). Bounds on the Minimax Rate for Estimating a Prior over a VC Class from Independent Learning Tasks. In Proceedings of the 26^th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT). [pdf][ps][arXiv]

El-Yaniv, R., Hanneke, S., and Wiener, Y. (2015). A Compression Technique for Analyzing Disagreement-Based Active Learning. Journal of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 16 (4), pp. 713-745. [pdf][ps][arXiv][journal page]

2014

Hanneke, S. (2014). Theory of Disagreement-Based Active Learning. Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning, Vol. 7 (2-3), pp. 131-309. [official] [Amazon] 
There is also an extended version, which I update from time to time.

2013

Hanneke, S. and Yang, L. (2013). Activized Learning with Uniform Classification Noise. In Proceedings of the 30^th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). [pdf][ps][appendix pdf][appendix ps]

Carbonell, J., Hanneke, S., and Yang, L. (2013). A Theory of Transfer Learning with Applications to Active Learning. Machine Learning, Vol. 90 (2), pp. 161-189. [pdf][ps][journal page]

2012

Balcan, M.-F. and Hanneke, S. (2012). Robust Interactive Learning. In Proceedings of the 25^th Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT).[pdf][ps][arXiv]

Hanneke, S. (2012). Activized Learning: Transforming Passive to Active with Improved Label Complexity. Journal of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 13 (5), pp. 1469-1587. [pdf][ps][arXiv][journal page]
Related material: extended abstract, Chapter 4 in my thesis, and various presentations [slides][video].

2011

Carbonell, J., Hanneke, S., and Yang, L. (2011). Identifiability of Priors from Bounded Sample Sizes with Applications to Transfer Learning. In Proceedings of the 24^th Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT).[pdf][ps]

Carbonell, J., Hanneke, S., and Yang, L. (2011). The Sample Complexity of Self-Verifying Bayesian Active Learning. In Proceedings of the 14^th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS).[pdf][ps]

Hanneke, S. (2011). Rates of Convergence in Active Learning. The Annals of Statistics, Vol. 39 (1), pp. 333-361. [pdf][ps][journal page]

2010

Carbonell, J., Hanneke, S., and Yang, L. (2010). Bayesian Active Learning Using Arbitrary Binary Valued Queries. In Proceedings of the 21^st International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT).[pdf][ps]
Also available in information theory jargon. [pdf][ps]

Fu, W., Hanneke, S., and Xing, E.P. (2010). Discrete Temporal Models of Social Networks. The Electronic Journal of Statistics, Vol. 4, pp. 585-605. [pdf][journal page]

Hanneke, S. and Yang, L. (2010). Negative Results for Active Learning with Convex Losses. Proceedings of the 13^th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS). [pdf][ps]

Balcan, M.-F., Hanneke, S., and Wortman Vaughan, J. (2010). The True Sample Complexity of Active Learning. Machine Learning, Vol. 80 (2-3), pp. 111-139. [pdf][ps]
(Special Issue for COLT 2008; Invited)

2009

Hanneke, S. (2009). Theoretical Foundations of Active Learning. Doctoral Dissertation. Machine Learning Department. Carnegie Mellon University. [pdf][ps][defense slides]

Hanneke, S. (2009). Adaptive Rates of Convergence in Active Learning. In Proceedings of the 22^nd Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT).[pdf][ps][slides]
Also available in expanded journal version.

Hanneke, S. and Xing, E.P. (2009). Network Completion and Survey Sampling. In Proceedings of the 12^th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS).[pdf][ps][slides]

2008

Balcan, M.-F., Hanneke, S., and Wortman, J. (2008). The True Sample Complexity of Active Learning. In Proceedings of the 21^st Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT). [pdf][ps][slides]
Winner of the Mark Fulk Best Student Paper Award.
Also available in an extended journal version.

2007

Balcan, M.-F., Even-Dar, E., Hanneke, S., Kearns, M., Mansour, Y., and Wortman, J. (2007). Asymptotic Active Learning. NIPS Workshop on Principles of Learning Problem Design. [pdf][ps][spotlight slide]
Also available in improved conference version and expanded journal version.

Hanneke, S. and Xing, E.P. (2007). Network Completion and Survey Sampling. NIPS Workshop on Statistical Network Models.
See our later conference publication.

Hanneke, S. (2007). Teaching Dimension and the Complexity of Active Learning. In proceedings of the 20^th Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT). [pdf][ps][slides]

Hanneke, S. (2007). A Bound on the Label Complexity of Agnostic Active Learning. In proceedings of the 24^th Annual International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). [pdf][ps][slides]
Honorable Mention for the ICML 2017 Test of Time Award.

Fu, W., Guo, F., Hanneke, S., and Xing, E.P. (2007). Recovering Temporally Rewiring Networks: A Model-based Approach. In proceedings of the 24^th Annual International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). [pdf]
Also see our related earlier work.

Hanneke, S. (2007). The Complexity of Interactive Machine Learning. KDD Project Report (aka Master's Thesis). Machine Learning Department, Carnegie Mellon University. [pdf][ps][slides]
Includes some interesting results from a class project on The Cost Complexity of Interactive Learning, in addition to my COLT07 and ICML07 papers.

2006

Hanneke, S. and Xing, E.P. (2006). Discrete Temporal Models of Social Networks. In Proceedings of the ICML Workshop on Statistical Network Analysis. [pdf][ps][slides]
Also available in an extended journal version

Hanneke, S. (2006). An Analysis of Graph Cut Size for Transductive Learning. In Proceedings of the 23^rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). [pdf][ps][slides ppt][slides pdf]