Keynote Speakers

Michael Houle

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Title: From Intrinsic Dimensionality to Chaos and Control: Towards a Unified Theoretical View

Abstract:

Researchers have long considered the analysis of similarity applications in terms of the intrinsic dimensionality (ID) of the data. Although traditionally ID has been viewed as a characterization of the complexity of discrete datasets, more recently a local model of intrinsic dimensionality (LID) has been extended to the case of smooth growth functions in general, and distance distributions in particular, from its first principles in terms of similarity, features, and probability. Since then, LID has found applications — practical as well as theoretical — in such areas as similarity search, data mining, and deep learning. LID has also been shown to be equivalent under transformation to the well-established statistical framework of extreme value theory (EVT). In this presentation, we will survey some of the wider connections between ID and other forms of complexity analysis, including EVT, power-law distributions, chaos theory, and control theory, and show how LID can serve as a unifying framework for the understanding of these theories. Finally, we will reinterpret recent empirical findings in the area of deep learning in light of these connections.

Bio:

Michael Houle obtained his PhD degree in 1989 from McGill University in Canada, in the area of computational geometry. Since then, he developed research interests in algorithmics, data structures, and relational visualization, first at Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo in Japan, and from 1992 at the University of Newcastle and the University of Sydney in Australia. From 2001 to 2004, while at IBM Japan's Tokyo Research Laboratory, he first began working on approximate similarity search and shared-neighbor clustering methods for data mining applications. From 2004, at the National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, his research interests expanded to include dimensionality and scalability in the context of fundamental AI / machine learning / data mining tasks such as search, clustering, classification, and outlier detection. In 2021, he relocated to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Currently he is with the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ, USA, and divides his time between Newark and Vancouver.

Yury Malkov

VerSe Innovation

Title:The Rise of HNSW: Understanding Key Factors Driving the Adoption of Search Libraries in Machine Learning

Abstract:

As representation learning and large language models continue to evolve, the need for efficient similarity search techniques has grown exponentially in the last few years. HNSW has emerged as a leading algorithm for nearest neighbor search, finding applications in a diverse range of products such as Weavite, Qdrant, Vespa, Milvus, Zilliz, Faiss, Elasticsearch, Redis and others. In this talk, we will explore the core principles and development of HNSW, as well as the key design decisions and factors that have contributed to its widespread adoption beyond its high performance. Through these insights, we aim to guide developers in creating innovative libraries and solutions to address the ever-increasing demand for efficient search libraries and machine learning tools in general.

Juilo Gonzalo

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain

Title:To be announced.