Reposted by School of Computer Science, University of Sydney
🎨 Calling artists! The University of Sydney’s School of Computer Science is hosting a four-month Artist-in-Residence program in Semester 1, 2027.
💰 A$1,000–15,000 funding available
🎓 Current students welcome
Learn more: www.writefutureslab.com/air
Led by Dr Katy Gero.
![Title: Entropy Equivalence Testing
Abstract: We introduce the problem of entropy equivalence testing for probability distributions, a relaxation of the well-studied closeness testing problem, where the distribution testing algorithm is now only required to distinguish, given samples from two unknown distributions p,q and a parameter ε∈(0,1/2], between p=q and |H(p)−H(q)|⩾ε (where H denotes the Shannon entropy). We provide a time- and sample-efficient algorithm for this task, showing that the optimal sample complexity for this task can be significantly lower than that of closeness testing. As an application, we leverage this result to provide the first non-trivial testing algorithm for (standard) closeness of low-degree Bayesian networks, which significantly improves on either the sample or time complexity of a baseline based on full learning.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:iuogym7jtbioyaq32ecf6aln/bafkreici33q52fcvybzs2nlwke7bprnbafvxc447u5kbxotkfb4u37mvye)
