Seminars

titre: Problèmes algorithmiques en théorie des groupes infinis
resumé:
Malgré le titre très général, il s'agira uniquement de problèmes concernant les sous-groupes de groupes infinis, et même juste les sous-groupes de groupes libres. Les résultats et méthodes que je présenterai sont issus de près de 40 ans de littérature et sont dûs à un grand nombre d'auteurs.

Je commencerai par poser le paysage, y compris pour ceux qui ne savent plus ce qu'est le groupe libre -- où l'on verra qu'on est, du point de vue algorithmique, dans une variante de la combinatoire des mots. Je présenterai ensuite l'outil central de la plupart des algorithmes efficaces sur les sous-groupes du groupe libre : la représentation de chaque sous-groupe finiment engendré par un graphe étiqueté et enraciné (disons : d'un automate :-)…) unique et facilement calculable à partir d'un ensemble de générateurs du sous-groupe considéré, qu'on appelle le graphe de Stallings.

Le jeu consiste ensuite à traduire les problèmes algorithmiques sur les sous-groupes en problèmes algorithmiques sur les graphes de Stallings, et à résoudre ces problèmes de la façon la plus efficace possible.

On considèrera notamment les problèmes suivants -- bon, juste le début de cette longue liste.
- Le problème du mot généralisé : étant donnés k+1 éléments du groupe libre (ce sont des mots), le dernier appartient-il au sous-groupe engendré par les k premiers ?
- Le problème de l'indice : étant donné un tuple d'éléments du groupe libre, le sous-groupe qu'ils engendrent est-il d'indice fini ?
- Le problème de la base : étant donné un tuple d'éléments du groupe libre, trouver le rang, et une base du sous-groupe qu'ils engendrent.
- Le problème de l'intersection : étant donnés deux tuples d'éléments du groupe libre, calculer l'intersection des sous-groupes qu'ils engendrent (ou calculer une base de cette intersection).
- Le problème de la conjugaison : étant donnés deux tuples d'éléments du groupe libre, engendrent-ils le même sous-groupe ? deux sous-groupes conjugués ?
- Et de nombreux autres problèmes (mots clés : minimalité de Whitehead, facteur libre, malnormalité, clôture par radical, clôture au sens de la topologie pro-p, etc…)


title: Algorithmic problems in the theory of infinite groups
abstract:
In spite of the very general title, we will talk only about problems on subgroups of infinite groups, and in fact, only on subgroups of free groups . The results and methods I will present have been obtained over the past 40 years and are due to many researchers.

I will start by setting the landscape, including for those who forgot what the free group is --- and we will see that we are dealing here, from the algorithmic point of view, with a variant of combinatorics on words. I will then present the tool that is central to most efficient algorithms on subgroups of free groups: the representation of each finitely generated subgroup by a labeled rooted graph (shall we say… an automaton?) which is unique and easily computable when a tuple of generators of the subgroup under consideration is given. This graph is called the Stallings graph.

The game consists, then, in translating algorithmic problems on subgroups into algorithmic problems on Stallings graphs, and in solving these problems as efficiently as possible.

We will discuss in particular the following problems (clearly: just the beginning of this long list).
- The generalized word problem: given k+1 elements of the free group (these are words), does the last one belong to the subgroup generated by the k first ones?
- The index problem: given a tuple of elements of the free group, does the subgroup they generate have finite index?
- The basis problem: given a tuple of elements of the free group, find the rank and a basis of the subgroup they generate.
- The intersection problem: given two tuples of elements of the free group, compute the intersection of the subgroups they generate (compute a basis of this intersection).
- The conjugacy problem: given two tuples of elements of the free group, are the subgroups they generate equal? conjugated?
- And many other problems (keywords: Whitehead minimality, free factors, malnormality, closure under radicals, closure in the sense of the pro-p topology, etc…)

Title: Theory and practice of learning-based compressed data structures

Presenter: Giorgio Vinciguerra

Abstract:
We revisit two fundamental and ubiquitous problems in data structure design:
predecessor search and rank/select primitives. We show that real data present a
peculiar kind of regularity based on geometric considerations. We name it
“approximate linearity”.
We thus expand the horizon of compressed data structures by presenting two
solutions for the problems above that discover, or “learn”, in a principled
algorithmic way, these approximate linearities. We provide a walkthrough of
these new theoretical achievements, also with a focus on open-source libraries
and their experimental improvements. We conclude by discussing the plethora of
research opportunities that these new learning-based approaches to data
structure design open up.

Zoom link: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064

Title: Foundations of Languages for Interpretability.

Abstract:
The area of interpretability in Machine Learning aims for the design of algorithms that we humans can understand and trust. One of the fundamental questions of interpretability is: given a classifier M, and an input vector x, why did M classify x as M(x)? In order to approximate an answer to this "why" question, many concrete queries, metrics and scores have emerged as proxies, and their complexity has been studied over different classes of models. Many of these analyses are ad-hoc, but they tend to agree on the fact that these queries and scores are hard to compute over Neural Networks, but easy to compute over Decision Trees. It is thus natural to think of a more general approach, like a query language in which users could write an arbitrary number of different queries, and that would allow for a generalized study of the complexity of interpreting different ML models. Our work proposes foundations for such a language, tying to First Order Logic, as a way to have a clear understanding of its expressiveness and complexity. We manage to define a minimalistic structure over FO that allows expressing many natural interpretability queries over models, and we show that evaluating such queries can be done efficiently for Decision Trees, in data-complexity.

Zoom link: univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95419000064

Titile: The BOLDR project
Abstract: I
n this presentation, I will give an account of the BOLDR project and
perspectives in the field of language integrated queries.

Several classes of solutions allow programming languages to express
queries: specific APIs such as JDBC, Object-Relational Mappings (ORMs)
such as Hibernate, and language-integrated query frameworks such as
Microsoft's LINQ. However, most of these solutions do not allow for
efficient cross-databases queries, and none allow the use of complex
application logic from the programming language in queries.

We study the design of a new language-integrated query
framework called BOLDR that allows the evaluation in databases of
queries written in general-purpose programming languages containing
application logic, and targeting several databases following different
data models. In this framework, application queries are translated to
an intermediate representation. Then, they are typed with a type
system extensible by databases in order to detect which database
language each subexpression should be translated to. This type system
also allows us to detect a class of errors before execution. Next,
they are rewritten in order to avoid query avalanches and make the
most out of database optimizations. Finally, queries are sent for
evaluation to the corresponding databases and the results are
converted back to the application. Our experiments show that the
techniques we implemented are applicable to real-world database
applications, successfully handling a variety of language-integrated
queries with good performances.

This talk will give an overview of what has been achieved so far (mainly
in the context of Julien Lopez' PhD Thesis) and will glimpse at preliminary
work that is being done in the context of a collaboration with Oracle Labs.