Abstract: Many existing literature on bandits and reinforcement learning assume a linear reward/value function, but what happens if the reward is non-linear? Two curious phenomena arise for non-linear bandits: first, in addition to the "learning phase" with a standard \Theta(\sqrt(T)) regret, there is an "initialization phase" with a fixed cost determined by the reward function;…

ABSTRACT Recent advances in data collection have made sports an attractive testing ground for new analyses and algorithms, and a fascinating controlled microcosm in which to explore social interactions. In this talk I will describe two studies in this arena: one related to public health and the pandemic and one related to decision-making in basketball.…

Abstract: In this work, we develop a comparison procedure for the Modified log-Sobolev Inequality (MLSI) constants of two reversible Markov chains on a finite state space. As an application, we provide a sharp estimate of the MLSI constant of the switch chain on the set of simple bipartite regular graphs of size n with a fixed degree d. Our…