Important:
The seminar is at 11 am EDT
Europe moved to Winter Time on Sunday, October 26, 2025
 US will move to Winter Time next Sunday, November 2
This week 11 am EDT= 4pm CET
Check the time where you are 
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https://www.wwtns.online - on twitter: wwtns@TheoreticalWide

You are cordially invited to the sixth season opening lecture of  the online VVTNS series

Andrew Barto 

University of Massachusetts

Amherst


 on the topic of 

What is So Interesting About Reinforcement Learning?

The lecture will be held on zoom on October 29, 2025, at 11:00 am EDT     
To receive the link: https://www.wwtns.online/register-page 
 
 
Abstract: This talk aims to answer these questions along four dimensions.  First is history. RL was the basis of AI long before the term AI was introduced in 1956. The first machine learning (ML) systems were based on RL even before digital computers existed. Despite notable early successes of ML based on RL, RL essentially disappeared from ML until relatively recently. A second reason for renewed interest in RL is the clarification of some misunderstandings that have been prevalent in the ML community. A third, and most important, reason for this resurgence is that new, or rediscovered, algorithms and connections to well developed mathematical and engineering methods have been worked out. Finally, a fourth reason for the renewed interest in RL is its strong links to animal reward systems, in particular, to the role that dopamine plays in motivation and learning.

About VVTNS : Launched as the World Wide  Theoretical Neuroscience Seminar (WWTNS) in November 2020 and renamed in homage to Carl van Vreeswijk in Memoriam (April 20, 2022), Speakers have the occasion to talk about theoretical aspects of their work which cannot be discussed in a setting where the majority of the audience consists of experimentalists. The seminars, held on Wednesdays at 11 am ET,  are 45-50 min long followed by a discussion. The talks are recorded with authorization of the speaker and are available to everybody on our YouTube channel.

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