CALL FOR PAPERS

The 21st Annual Conference on Learning Theory

Helsinki, Finland, July 9-12, 2008

Submission deadline:  February 20, 2008


The 21st Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT 2008) will take place on
July 9-12, 2008, in Helsinki, Finland, in coordination with the International
Conference on Machine learning (ICML) and Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence
(UAI).  We invite submissions of papers addressing the theoretical modeling and
analysis of all aspects of learning and empirical inference. We strongly support
a broad definition of learning theory, including:

    * Analysis of learning algorithms and their generalization ability
    * Computational complexity of learning
    * Bayesian analysis
    * Statistical mechanics of learning systems
    * Optimization procedures for learning
    * Inductive inference
    * Boolean function learning
    * Unsupervised and semi-supervised learning and clustering
    * On-line learning and relative loss bounds
    * Learning in planning and control (including reinforcement learning)
    * Mathematical analysis of learning in related fields (e.g. game theory, 
    natural language processing, neuroscience, bioinformatics, privacy and 
    security, machine vision, data mining, information retrieval, etc.)

We also welcome theoretical papers about learning that do not fit into the 
above categories. We are particularly interested in papers that include
viewpoints that are new to the COLT community. While the primary focus of the
conference is theoretical, papers can be strengthened by the inclusion of
relevant experimental results. We also welcome experimental and algorithmic
papers provided they are relevant to the focus of the conference by elucidating
theoretical results in learning.

All papers will appear in the proceedings.  The proceedings will appear both as
a printed book and in a full-text electronic version, thus we require electronic
submissions. Papers that have previously appeared in journals or at other
conferences, or that are being submitted to other conferences, are not
appropriate for COLT. Papers that include work that has already been submitted
for journal publication may be submitted to COLT, as long as the papers have not
been accepted for publication by February 20 2008 and the paper is not expected
to be published before the COLT conference (July 2008).


PAPER FORMAT: Submissions should include the title, authors' names, postal and
email addresses, and a 200-word summary of the paper suitable for the conference
program.  Submissions should not exceed 12 pages (including bibliography) in a
two-column format; a style file will be posted here soon.  Papers should include
a clear definition of the theoretical model used and a clear description of the
results, as well as a discussion of their significance, including comparison to
other work. Submit papers electronically in pdf or ps format (detailed
instructions will be available soon on the conference website).  While it is not
expected that all full proofs can be included in the paper, authors should
strive to at least present partial proofs which will enable the reviewers to
understand the main ideas and methods used. The paper should also attempt to be
as self-contained as possible.


MARK FULK AWARD: This award is for the best paper authored or coauthored by a
student. Eligible authors who wish to be considered for this prize should
indicate this on their submission's title page.


PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIRS:

Rocco Servedio (Columbia University, USA)
Tong Zhang (Rutgers University, USA)


PROGRAM COMMITTEE:

Dana Angluin (Yale University)
Jean-Yves Audibert (Ecole Nationale des Ponts) 
Peter Auer (University of Leoben)
Peter Bartlett (UC Berkeley) 
Mikhail Belkin (Ohio State University)
Shai Ben-David (University of Waterloo) 
Stephane Boucheron (Université Paris-Diderot)
Nader Bshouty (Technion) Sanjoy Dasgupta (UC San Diego)
Ran El-Yaniv (Technion)
Vitaly Feldman (IBM Research)
Sham M. Kakade (Toyota Technology Institute)
Adam Kalai (Georgia Tech)
Vladimir Koltchinskii (Georgia Tech)
Sanjay Jain (National University of Singapore)
John Langford (Yahoo! Research)
Ping Li (Cornell University)
Shie Mannor (McGill University)
Mehryar Mohri (New York University)
Massimiliano Pontil (University College, London)
Rob Schapire (Princeton University)
Shai Shalev-Shwartz (Hebrew University)
Alex Smola (National ICT Australia) 
Nati Srebro (Toyota Technological Institute)
Ingo Steinwart (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Nicolas Vayatis, (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan) 
Volodya Vovk (Royal Holloway, University of London) 
Bob Williamson (Australian National University)


LOCAL CHAIR: Jyrki Kivinen (University of Helsinki, Finland)

OPEN PROBLEMS SESSION: We also invite submission of open problems (see separate
call). These should be constrained to two pages. There is a shorter reviewing
period for the open problems. Accepted contributions will be allocated short
presentation slots in a special open problems session and will be allowed two
pages each in the proceedings.

INVITED SPEAKERS:  TBA

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Will become available in early December at
the conference website.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Electronic submission of papers:  February 20, 2008 (5:59pm PST)

Electronic submission of two-page open problems:  March 14, 2008

Notification of acceptance or rejection:  April 14, 2008

Final submission of all papers:  April 28, 2008

Conference dates:  July 9-12, 2008