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+++ education [2023/10/23 14:48] (current)
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-  * [[education/ca_2018|Concurrent Algorithms]] (theory & practice)
+  * [[education/ca_2023|Concurrent Algorithms]] (theory & practice)
-  * [[education/da|Distributed Algorithms]] (theory & practice)
+  * [[education/da_2023|Distributed Algorithms]] (theory & practice)
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 The lab taught in the past the following courses:
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   * **[[cryptocurrencies|Cryptocurrencies]]**: We have several project openings as part of our ongoing research on designing new cryptocurrency systems. Please contact [[rachid.guerraoui@epfl.ch|Prof. Rachid Guerraoui]].
-  * **Probabilistic Byzantine Resilience**:  Development of high-performance, Byzantine-resilient distributed systems with provable probabilistic guarantees. Two options are currently available, both building on previous work on probabilistic Byzantine broadcast: (i) a theoretical project, focused the correctness of probabilistic Byzantine-tolerant distributed algorithms; (ii) a practical project, focused on numerically evaluating of our theoretical results. Please contact [[matteo.monti@epfl.ch|Matteo Monti]] to get more information.
+  * **Tackling data heterogeneity in Byzantine-robust ML**: Context: Distributed ML is a very effective paradigm to learn collaboratively when all users correctly follow the protocol. However, some users may behave adversarially and measures should be taken to protect against such Byzantine behavior [ [[https://papers.nips.cc/paper/2017/hash/f4b9ec30ad9f68f89b29639786cb62ef-Abstract.html|1]], [[https://proceedings.mlr.press/v162/farhadkhani22a.html|2]] ]. In real-world settings, users have different datasets (i.e. non-iid), which makes defending against Byzantine behavior challenging, as was shown recently in  [ [[https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2021/hash/d2cd33e9c0236a8c2d8bd3fa91ad3acf-Abstract.html|3]], [[https://openreview.net/forum?id=jXKKDEi5vJt|4]] ]. Some defenses were proposed to tackle data heterogeneity, but their performance is suboptimal on simple learning tasks. Goal: Develop defenses with special emphasis on empirical performance and efficiency in the heterogeneous setting. Contact [[https://people.epfl.ch/youssef.allouah?lang=en|Youssef Allouah]] for more information.
+  * **Benchmark to certify Byzantine-robustness in ML**: Context: Multiple attacks have been proposed to instantiate a Byzantine adversary in distributed ML [ [[https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2019/hash/ec1c59141046cd1866bbbcdfb6ae31d4-Abstract.html|1]], [[https://proceedings.mlr.press/v115/xie20a.html|2]] ]. While these attacks have been successful against known defenses, it remains unknown whether stronger attacks exist. As such, a strong benchmark is needed, to go beyond the cat-and-mouse game illustrating the existing research. Ideally, similar to other ML subfields such as privacy-preserving ML or adversarial examples, the desired benchmark should guarantee that no stronger attack exists. Goal: Develop a strong benchmark for attacks in Byzantine ML. Contact [[https://people.epfl.ch/youssef.allouah?lang=en|Youssef Allouah]] for more information.
-  * **Distributed computing using RDMA and/or NVRAM**: contact [[https://people.epfl.ch/igor.zablotchi|Igor Zablotchi]] for more information.
-  * **[[Distributed ML|Distributed Machine Learning]]**: contact [[http://people.epfl.ch/georgios.damaskinos|Georgios Damaskinos]] for more information.
-  * **Robust Distributed Machine Learning**: With the proliferation of big datasets and models, Machine Learning is becoming distributed. Following the standard parameter server model, the learning phase is taken by two categories of machines: parameter servers and workers. Any of these machines could behave arbitrarily (i.e., said Byzantine) affecting the model convergence in the learning phase. Our goal in this project is to build a system that is robust against Byzantine behavior of both parameter server and workers. Our first prototype, AggregaThor(https://www.sysml.cc/doc/2019/54.pdf), describes the first scalable robust Machine Learning framework. It fixed a severe vulnerability in TensorFlow and it showed how to make TensorFlow even faster, while robust. Contact [[https://people.epfl.ch/arsany.guirguis|Arsany Guirguis]] for more information.
+  * **Topology-aware mempool for cryptocurrencies**: The mempool is a core component of cryptocurrency systems. It disseminates user transactions to the miner nodes before they reach consensus.Current mempools assume an homogeneous network topology where all machines have the same bandwidth and latency.This unrealitic assumption forces the system to progress at the same speed as the slowest node in the system. This project aims at implementing a mempool which exploits the heterogeneity of the network to speed up data dissemination for cryptocurrency systems. This is a practical project which requires good knowledge in network programming, either Go or C++, distributed algorithms. Contact Gauthier Voron <gauthier.voron@epfl.ch> for more information.
-  * **Stochastic gradient: (artificial) reduction of the ratio variance/norm for adversarial distributed SGD**: One computationally-efficient and non-intrusive line of defense for adversarial distributed SGD (e.g. 1 parameter server distributing the gradient estimation to several, possibly adversarial workers) relies on the honest workers to send back gradient estimations with sufficiently low variance; assumption which is sometimes hard to satisfy in practice. One solution could be to (drastically) increase the batch-size at the workers, but doing so may as well defeat the very purpose of distributing the computation. \\ In this project, we propose two approaches that you can choose to explore (also you may propose a different approach) to (artificially) reduce the ratio variance/norm of the stochastic gradients, while keeping the benefits of the distribution. The first proposed approach, speculative, boils down to "intelligent" coordinate selection. The second makes use of some kind of "momentum" at the workers. \\ [1] [[https://papers.nips.cc/paper/6617-machine-learning-with-adversaries-byzantine-tolerant-gradient-descent|"Machine Learning with Adversaries: Byzantine Tolerant Gradient Descent" ]]  \\ [2] [[https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.05492|"Federated Learning: Strategies for Improving Communication Efficiency"]] \\ Contact  [[https://people.epfl.ch/sebastien.rouault|Sébastien Rouault]] for more information.
+  * **Robust mean estimation**: In recent years, many algorithms have been proposed to perform robust mean estimation, which has been shown to be equivalent to robust gradient-based machine learning. A new concept has been proposed to define the performance of a robust mean estimator, called the [[https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.00742|averaging constant]] (along with the Byzantine resilience). This research project consists of computing the theoretical averaging constant of different proposed robust mean estimators, and to study their empirical performances on randomly generated vectors. Contact [[https://people.epfl.ch/sadegh.farhadkhani?lang=en|Sadegh Farhadkhani]] for more information.
-  * **Consistency in global-scale storage systems**: We offer several projects in the context of storage systems, ranging from implementation of social applications (similar to [[http://retwis.redis.io/|Retwis]], or [[https://github.com/share/sharejs|ShareJS]]) to recommender systems, static content storage services (à la [[https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/osdi10/tech/full_papers/Beaver.pdf|Facebook's Haystack]]), or experimenting with well-known cloud serving benchmarks (such as [[https://github.com/brianfrankcooper/YCSB|YCSB]]); please contact [[http://people.epfl.ch/dragos-adrian.seredinschi|Adi Seredinschi]] or [[https://people.epfl.ch/karolos.antoniadis|Karolos Antoniadis]]  for further information.
+  * **Accelerate Byzantine collaborative learning**: [[https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.00742|Our recent NeurIPS paper]] proposed algorithms for collaborative machine learning in the presence of Byzantine nodes, which have been proved to be near optimal with respect to optimality at convergence. However, these algorithms require all-to-all communication at every round, which is suboptimal. This research consists of designing a practical solution to Byzantine collaborative learning, based on the idea of a random communication network at each round, with both theoretical guarantees and practical implementation. Contact [[https://people.epfl.ch/sadegh.farhadkhani?lang=en|Sadegh Farhadkhani]] for more information.
+  * **Probabilistic Byzantine Resilience**:  Development of high-performance, Byzantine-resilient distributed systems with provable probabilistic guarantees. Two options are currently available, both building on previous work on probabilistic Byzantine broadcast: (i) a theoretical project, focused the correctness of probabilistic Byzantine-tolerant distributed algorithms; (ii) a practical project, focused on numerically evaluating of our theoretical results. Please contact [[matteo.monti@epfl.ch|Matteo Monti]] to get more information.
+  * **Microsecond-scale dependable systems.** Modern networking technologies such as RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) allow for sub-microsecond communication latency. Combined with emerging data center architectures, such as disaggregated resources pools, they open the door to novel blazing-fast and resource-efficient systems. Our research focuses on designing such microsecond-scale systems that can also tolerate faults. Our vision is that tolerating network asynchrony as well as faults (crash and/or Byzantine) is a must, but that it shouldn't affect the overall performance of a system. We achieve this goal by devising and implementing novel algorithms tailored for new hardware and revisiting theoretical models to better reflect modern data centers. Previous work encompasses microsecond-scale (BFT) State Machine Replication, Group Membership Services and Key-Value Stores (OSDI'20, ATC'22 and ASPLOS'23). Overall, if you are interested in making data centers faster and safer, contact [[https://people.epfl.ch/athanasios.xygkis|Athanasios Xygkis]] and [[https://people.epfl.ch/antoine.murat|Antoine Murat]] for more information.
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 ===== Semester Projects =====
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 If the subject of a Master Project interests you as a Semester Project, please contact the supervisor of the Master Project to see if it can be considered for a Semester Project.
-EPFL I&C duration, credits and workload information are available [[https://www.epfl.ch/schools/ic/education/|here]]. Don't hesitate to contact the project supervisor if you want to complete your Semester Project outside the regular semester period.
+EPFL I&C duration, credits and workload information are available on [[https://www.epfl.ch/schools/ic/education/master/semester-project-msc/|https://www.epfl.ch/schools/ic/education/master/semester-project-msc/]].