Bayesian Networks and Decision Graphs


Reykjavik University

Spring 2005

Content of course

Probabilistic networks (including Bayesian networks and decision graphs) have become an increasingly popular paradigm for knowledge representation and reasoning under uncertainty, addressing such tasks as diagnosis, prediction, decision making, classification, and data mining. In this course we will present the graphical languages underlying probabilistic networks, the basic probability and utility theory needed, methods for constructing, learning, analyzing, and evaluating probabilistic networks, as well as methods for making inference in these kinds of models. See the lecture plan below for details.

Instructors

Finn V. Jensen.
Uffe B. Kjærulff.

Textbook

Finn V. Jensen (2001), Bayesian Networks and Decision Graphs, Springer-Verlag, 2001.

Lecture plan

Topic

Date & time

Causal networks and Bayesian probability calculus Tue 26 Apr 10:00

Construction of Bayesian networks Wed 27 Apr 10:00

Workshop on construction of Bayesian networks Thu 28 Apr 10:00

Analyses in Bayesian networks Fri 29 Apr 10:00

Decisions, utilities and decision trees Mon 2 May 10:00

Troubleshooting and influence diagrams Tue 3 May 10:00

Solution of influence diagrams Wed 4 May 10:00

Methods for analysing an ID specified decision scenario Fri 6 May 10:00

Workshop on construction of influence diagrams Mon 9 May 10:00

10 

Learning parameters from data Tue 10 May 10:00

11 

Bayesian networks as classifiers Wed 11 May 10:00

12 

Learning the structure of Bayesian networks Thu 12 May 10:00

13 

Continuous variables Fri 13 May 10:00

NB: The two workshops have a duration of 4 hours. The lecture plan is subject to changes.

Examination

To pass the course the students are required to

Home assignments/exercises

HUGIN Tool

A number of the exercises require access to the HUGIN Tool. You can download a free copy of the tool for Windows or for Linux. To install the HUGIN Tool on a Windows platform, you must enter following information during the installation process:

User name: EVAL
Organization: Reykjavik UNI
Serial number: 9FKI-VY39

To install the HUGIN Tool on a Linux platform, please read the README file. Please note the license to this free copy expires on 31st of May 2005. For more information about the suite of tools provided by Hugin Expert A/S please visit the company's web-pages.

This page is maintained by Uffe Kjærulff.
Last updated 2 May 2005.