The Art of Gaussian Processes: Classical and Contemporary

Gaussian processes (GP) are Bayesian nonparametric models for continuous functions which allow for uncertainty quantification, interpretability, and the incorporation of expert knowledge. The theory and practice of GPs have flourished in the last decade, where researchers have looked into the expressiveness and efficiency of GP-based models and practitioners have applied them to a plethora of disciplines. This tutorial presents both the foundational theory and modern developments of data modelling using GPs, following step by step intuitions, illustrations and real-world examples. The tutorial will start with emphasis on the building blocks of the GP model, to then move onto the choice of the kernel function, cost-effective training strategies and non-Gaussian extensions. The second part of the tutorial will showcase more recent advances, such as latent variable models, deep GPs, current trends on kernel design and connections between GPs and deep neural networks. We hope that this exhibition, featuring classic and contemporary GP works, inspires attendees to incorporate GPs into their applications and motivates them to continue learning and contributing to the current developments in the field.