Consequential Associations

On 22 April 2019, Preferred.AI minted a new PhD. Trong Le passed the defense of his PhD dissertation, entitied “Modeling Sequential and Basket-Oriented Associations for Top-K Recommendation”.

Trong Le getting ready to commence his thesis presentation

In his research, he develops models for arriving at a list of K items (products or services) to be recommended to users. Whereas the majority of works in the literature are preoccupied with the relationship between users and items, his perspective focuses on the associations among items themselves. These associations may be sequential (items ordered over time) or basket-oriented (items co-occurring together).

Trong explaining the various types of item-item associations that might take place within a basket (published in IJCAI-2017)

Beyond individual types of associations, he further explores formulations where sequential and basket-oriented associations come together in a seamless way, showing that leveraging both associations result in performance improvements.

When there are multiple contemporaneous basket sequences, the information from the supporting sequence could be helpful towards the recommendation performance in the target sequence (published in IJCAI-2018).

The dissertation is the fruit of a five-year labour. Trong Le began his PhD study at SMU School of Information Systems in August 2014. Our associations over these years have been consequential. Not only do his publications appear in the top AI conferences, but he has also been a sympathetic presence in the group.

Group outing in October 2014 during Trong Le’s first year of PhD (left to right: Son, Maksim, Hady, Trong Le, Tuan Le, Trong Nguyen)

In euphoria upon an achievement unlocked, and anticipation of the future that awaits, we celebrated in a moment of fellowship over two towers (that magically turned to three) at King Ohmii@Robertson Quay, a few days before his return to Hanoi.

Gathering in April 2019 (clockwise from foreground: Chong Cher, Rong Sheng, Hoang, Tuan Truong, Trong Le, Jingyao, Binh, Aghiles, Ween Jiann, Zhang Ce, Andrew, Hady, Son, Maksim, Minh)

Wait a minute ~ “fellowship”, “two towers”, “King”, “return”? These words could have leapt out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Well, that’s probably quite fitting. After all, PhD study is just as long and heroic a saga, and the association forged in our journey together is the ring that binds us all.

Congratulations Trong Le on your PhD graduation!