Simons Institute Courses

Federated Optimization - Part II

Dive into advanced federated optimization techniques and collaborative learning methods in this comprehensive tutorial from KAUST's Peter Richtarik at Simons Institute.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 13 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Federated Optimization - Part I

Discover federated optimization fundamentals with expert insights on distributed machine learning algorithms and collaborative training methods.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 12 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

AI's Models of the World, and Ours

Explore how AI systems build internal representations of the world and how these differ from human understanding, examining potential mismatches through chess, navigation, and other tasks.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 27 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Operational Dosage - The Impact of Capacity Constraints on RCT Evaluation

Explore how capacity constraints in service interventions affect RCT outcomes, revealing why treatment effects can decrease as sample sizes grow beyond critical thresholds.

• YouTube
• 35 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Estimating the Value of Personalization

Discover how to quantify whether personalized interventions outperform universal approaches using a new statistical estimator across medicine, marketing, and social sciences.

• YouTube
• 35 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Role of Standardized Tests in Admissions - Predictions vs. Decisions

Explore how standardized test scores impact college admissions decisions through analysis of 16,000+ applications, revealing the gap between predictive accuracy and actual decision-making value.

• YouTube
• 34 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Individual Gaps in Prediction Generalization

Explore how prediction models fail to generalize across individuals and the gaps that emerge in social system interventions.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Beyond Prediction Performance - How Modeling Decisions Shape Fairness Outcomes in Statistical Profiling

Explore how modeling choices in machine learning systems affect fairness when moving from prediction to intervention, using German labor market data to reveal striking disparities.

• YouTube
• 28 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Decision Theoretic Foundations for Human-AI Collaboration

Discover how statistical decision theory and information economics optimize human-AI team decisions, addressing when to rely on AI predictions and designing principled explanations.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Feedback Loop of Statistical Discrimination

Explore how firms' hiring decisions create feedback loops that perpetuate discrimination, examining thresholds and interventions in dynamic employment models.

• YouTube
• 32 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Bridging Prediction and Intervention Problems in Social Systems

Discover how to bridge prediction and intervention problems in social systems through rigorous evaluation design methodologies.

• YouTube
• 29 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Automating the US Welfare State - Historical Experiments in Technological Federalism

Explore how technology has shaped America's welfare system through historical experiments in federal automation and administrative innovation.

• YouTube
• 36 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Recommendation in Equilibrium for the NYC High School Match

Explore how congestion-aware recommendations help NYC 8th graders discover high-performing schools while maintaining accurate admissions likelihood predictions in equilibrium.

• YouTube
• 33 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

On Machine Learning for Prediction and Prioritization in the Allocation of Scarce Societal Resources

Explore how machine learning can ethically allocate scarce societal resources through local justice theories, covering homelessness services, education, and eviction prevention.

• YouTube
• 35 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Challenge of Valid Evaluations in Predictive Algorithm Deployment

Explore principled evaluation methods for predictive algorithms in high-stakes settings, addressing bias, incomplete data, and distribution shift challenges.

• YouTube
• 33 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video