CDT x EDG seminar series #8: Prof. Tom Dietterich

Exceptional seminar: The Conservation Decisions Team (CSIRO) and Environmental Decisions group (UQ) are pleased to announce Prof. Tom Dietterich, Tuesday 1^st of July, 1pm, Room GA603, EcoSciences Precinct.

Title: New Artificial Intelligence Tools for Modeling and Managing Ecosystems

This talk will review three problems in modeling and managing ecosystems: (a) constructing a dynamical model of bird migration from bird watcher data, (b) managing the spread of the invasive Tamarisk in river networks, and (c) managing wildfire in Ponderosa Pine forests. We are developing new modeling and optimization tools for these problems. For bird migration, we have developed a new kind of probabilistic model, called the Collective Graphical Model, that is designed for fitting dynamical models when only aggregate, anonymous count data are observed (i.e., as opposed to observing tracks of marked animals). For the invasive species and wildfire problems, we are developing algorithms for finding near-optimal management policies when the dynamics are only available in the form of a computationally-expensive simulator. This is joint work with Dan Sheldon (Univ. of Massachusetts), Claire Montgomery (Oregon State Univ.), H. Jo Albers (Oregon State Univ.), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Steve Kelling and his team), and several undergraduate and graduate students.

About Tom Dietterich: http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/people/dietterich

Opportunities to see Prof. Tom Dietterich presenting in Australia are rare, don’t miss it. if you are overseas at that day, we are organizing a google+ hangout of the event (+onair record on youtube), such that people like you can watch it on google+, ask/answer questions on live, or even watch the record on youtube after. See the link to the Google+ hangout on air here (please share it as much as you can):

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/100043371354950367036/events/cvlt38q7scm09d0tdlujqjjmfq8