401-3620-16L  Seminar in Statistics: Learning Blackjack

SemesterFrühjahrssemester 2016
DozierendeJ. Peters, P. L. Bühlmann, M. H. Maathuis, N. Meinshausen, S. van de Geer
Periodizitätjährlich wiederkehrende Veranstaltung
LehrspracheEnglisch
KommentarNumber of participants limited to 18.

Mainly for students from the Mathematics Bachelor and Master Programmes who, in addition to the introductory course unit 401-2604-00L Probability and Statistics, have heard at least one core or elective course in statistics


KurzbeschreibungIn this seminar, we study different methods that can be applied to the problem of finding a good strategy to play Blackjack. Since the machine does not know the rules of Blackjack, it adopts (and modifies) random strategies. The data for learning will be the games that have been played. Some parts of the seminar will be devoted to implementing these methods in python.
LernzielAfter this seminar, you should know
- the problem of reinforcement learning,
- inverse probability weighting and its relation to causality,
- Q-learning,
- contextual multi-armed bandits and
- the optimal strategy of playing BlackJack.
Voraussetzungen / BesonderesWe require at least one course in statistics in addition to the 4th semester course Introduction to Probability and Statistics and basic knowledge in computer programming.

Topics will be assigned during the first meeting.