ML Seminar: User Friendly Submodular Maximization

Submodular functions model the intuitive notion of diminishing returns. Due to their far-reaching applications, they have been rediscovered in many fields such as information theory, operations research, statistical physics, economics, and machine learning. They also enjoy computational tractability as they can be minimized exactly or maximized approximately.  The goal of this talk is simple. We see how a little bit of randomness, a little bit of greediness, and the right combination can lead to pretty good methods for offline, streaming, and distributed solutions. I do not assume any background on submodularity and try to explain all the required details during the talk.