CS students co-author, publish paper

Harvey Mudd computer science students Jonathan Hayase '20, Julius Lauw '20, Dominique Macias '19, Akshay Trikha '21 and Julia Vendemiatti '21, together with Professor George Montanez, published a paper on learning algorithms titled "The Futility of Bias-Free Learning and Search." Learning algorithms are machines that turn data resources into predictions. Their paper showed that unless algorithms do this conversion in a biased way, predisposing their predictions toward predetermined outcomes, they cannot predict any more accurately than random guessing. The paper proved that finding a good bias for a given problem is difficult, when searching among any set of data resources that on average isn't itself positively biased. These results apply to machine learning algorithms, AI systems, genetic learning algorithms and many other forms of search and optimization.

Harvey Mudd College's computer science department seeks to provide students with a strong foundational background blending experimentation, theory and design. CS graduates are equally well-prepared for work in industry and graduate school. The capstone Clinic Program provides students with a year-long software design project and an active Research Program involves approximately 50 students in research, funded by grants and gifts from the National Science Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Rose-Hills and Baker Foundations.