Learning By Doing: Controlling a Dynamical System using Control Theory, Reinforcement Learning, or Causality + Q&A

Control theory, reinforcement learning, and causality are all ways of mathematically describing how the world changes when we interact with it. Each field offers a different perspective with its own strengths and weaknesses. In this competition, we aim to bring together researchers from all three fields to encourage cross-disciplinary discussions. The competition is constructed to readily fit into the mathematical frameworks of all three fields and participants of any background are encouraged to participate. We designed two tracks that consider a dynamical system for which participants need to find controls/policies to optimally interact with a target process: an open loop/bandit track and a closed loop/online RL track.