Probabilistic structure discovery in time series data

Existing methods for structure discovery in time series data construct interpretable, compositional kernels for Gaussian process regression models. While the learned Gaussian process model provides posterior mean and variance estimates, typically the structure is learned via a greedy optimization procedure. This restricts the space of possible solutions and leads to over-confident uncertainty estimates. We introduce a fully Bayesian approach, inferring a full posterior over structures, which more reliably captures the uncertainty of the model.

Black-Box Policy Search with Probabilistic Programs

In this work, we explore how probabilistic programs can be used to represent policies in sequential decision problems. In this formulation, a probabilistic program is a black-box stochastic simulator for both the problem domain and the agent. We relate classic policy gradient techniques to recently introduced black-box variational methods which generalize to probabilistic program inference. We present case studies in the Canadian traveler problem, Rock Sample, and a benchmark for optimal diagnosis inspired by Guess Who. Each study illustrates how programs can efficiently represent policies using moderate numbers of parameters.

Path Finding under Uncertainty through Probabilistic Inference

We introduce a new approach to solving path-finding problems under uncertainty by representing them as probabilistic models and applying domain-independent inference algorithms to the models. This approach separates problem representation from the inference algorithm and provides a framework for efficient learning of path-finding policies. We evaluate the new approach on the Canadian Traveler Problem, which we formulate as a probabilistic model, and show how probabilistic inference allows high performance stochastic policies to be obtained for this problem.

Output-Sensitive Adaptive Metropolis-Hastings for Probabilistic Programs

We introduce an adaptive output-sensitive Metropolis-Hastings algorithm for probabilistic models expressed as programs, Adaptive Lightweight Metropolis-Hastings (AdLMH). The algorithm extends Lightweight Metropolis-Hastings (LMH) by adjusting the probabilities of proposing random variables for modification to improve convergence of the program output. We show that AdLMH converges to the correct equilibrium distribution and compare convergence of AdLMH to that of LMH on several test problems to highlight different aspects of the adaptation scheme. We observe consistent improvement in convergence on the test problems.

A Compilation Target for Probabilistic Programming Languages

Forward inference techniques such as sequential Monte Carlo and particle Markov chain Monte Carlo for probabilistic programming can be implemented in any programming language by creative use of standardized operating system functionality including processes, forking, mutexes, and shared memory. Exploiting this we have defined, developed, and tested a probabilistic programming language intermediate representation language we call probabilistic C, which itself can be compiled to machine code by standard compilers and linked to operating system libraries yielding an efficient, scalable, portable probabilistic programming compilation target. This opens up a new hardware and systems research path for optimizing probabilistic programming systems.

Asynchronous Anytime Sequential Monte Carlo

We introduce a new sequential Monte Carlo algorithm we call the particle cascade. The particle cascade is an asynchronous, anytime alternative to traditional particle filtering algorithms. It uses no barrier synchronizations which leads to improved particle throughput and memory efficiency. It is an anytime algorithm in the sense that it can be run forever to emit an unbounded number of particles while keeping within a fixed memory budget. We prove that the particle cascade is an unbiased marginal likelihood estimator which means that it can be straightforwardly plugged into existing pseudomarginal methods.

Tempering by Subsampling

In this paper we demonstrate that tempering Markov chain Monte Carlo samplers for Bayesian models by recursively subsampling observations without replacement can improve the performance of baseline samplers in terms of effective sample size per computation. We present two tempering by subsampling algorithms, subsampled parallel tempering and subsampled tempered transitions. We provide an asymptotic analysis of the computational cost of tempering by subsampling, verify that tempering by subsampling costs less than traditional tempering, and demonstrate both algorithms on Bayesian approaches to learning the mean of a high dimensional multivariate Normal and estimating Gaussian process hyperparameters.