Seminar by Jean-Bernard Lasserre, Director of Research, LAAS-CNRS, France, 3 Sept 2024, LT13

Seminar time: 4:30-5:30pm on 3rd September 2024 (Tuesday)

 Venue: LT13

Speaker: Jean-Bernard Lasserre, Director of Research, LAAS-CNRS, France

Title: The Christoffel function: Applications in data analysis, connections and extensions

Abstract:

We briefly describe the Christoffel-Darboux (CD) kernel and the Christoffel function (CF). While well-known tools in orthogonal polynomials and approximation theory, it only recently that CF's properties have been shown to be very useful and powerful (as well as easy to implement) to help solve some problems in data analysis where the underlying (empirical) measure is usually discrete, e.g. for outlier detection, support inference, density approximation. In addition, we will also describe some (in the author's opinion surprising) links of the CF with seemingly less disconnected areas (Pell equation, equilibrium measure, convex optimization and positivity certificates).

Speaker's biography: 

Jean-Bernard Lasserre is an eminent French researcher. He was honored with the 2015 John von Neumann Theory Prize by the INFORMS Society (an accolade previously awarded to luminaries like Turing laureates Richard M. Karp and Herbert A. Simon): https://tinyurl.com/44axbyjk 

With a career spanning several decades, Lasserre is widely recognized for his pioneering work in polynomial optimization, particularly through his development of the moment-SOS (Sum of Squares) approach; i.e., the "Lasserre hierarchy". His publications appear in SIAM J. Optim., NeurIPS, etc.: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Mh8pC5sAAAAJ