---
OA_place: publisher
_id: '10799'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: "Because of the increasing popularity of machine learning methods, it is becoming
important to understand the impact of learned components on automated decision-making
systems and to guarantee that their consequences are beneficial to society. In
other words, it is necessary to ensure that machine learning is sufficiently trustworthy
to be used in real-world applications. This thesis studies two properties of machine
learning models that are highly desirable for the\r\nsake of reliability: robustness
and fairness. In the first part of the thesis we study the robustness of learning
algorithms to training data corruption. Previous work has shown that machine learning
models are vulnerable to a range\r\nof training set issues, varying from label
noise through systematic biases to worst-case data manipulations. This is an especially
relevant problem from a present perspective, since modern machine learning methods
are particularly data hungry and therefore practitioners often have to rely on
data collected from various external sources, e.g. from the Internet, from app
users or via crowdsourcing. Naturally, such sources vary greatly in the quality
and reliability of the\r\ndata they provide. With these considerations in mind,
we study the problem of designing machine learning algorithms that are robust
to corruptions in data coming from multiple sources. We show that, in contrast
to the case of a single dataset with outliers, successful learning within this
model is possible both theoretically and practically, even under worst-case data
corruptions. The second part of this thesis deals with fairness-aware machine
learning. There are multiple areas where machine learning models have shown promising
results, but where careful considerations are required, in order to avoid discrimanative
decisions taken by such learned components. Ensuring fairness can be particularly
challenging, because real-world training datasets are expected to contain various
forms of historical bias that may affect the learning process. In this thesis
we show that data corruption can indeed render the problem of achieving fairness
impossible, by tightly characterizing the theoretical limits of fair learning
under worst-case data manipulations. However, assuming access to clean data, we
also show how fairness-aware learning can be made practical in contexts beyond
binary classification, in particular in the challenging learning to rank setting."
alternative_title:
- ISTA Thesis
article_processing_charge: No
author:
- first_name: Nikola H
full_name: Konstantinov, Nikola H
id: 4B9D76E4-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Konstantinov
orcid: 0009-0009-5204-7621
citation:
ama: Konstantinov NH. Robustness and fairness in machine learning. 2022. doi:10.15479/at:ista:10799
apa: Konstantinov, N. H. (2022). Robustness and fairness in machine learning.
Institute of Science and Technology Austria. https://doi.org/10.15479/at:ista:10799
chicago: Konstantinov, Nikola H. “Robustness and Fairness in Machine Learning.”
Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2022. https://doi.org/10.15479/at:ista:10799.
ieee: N. H. Konstantinov, “Robustness and fairness in machine learning,” Institute
of Science and Technology Austria, 2022.
ista: Konstantinov NH. 2022. Robustness and fairness in machine learning. Institute
of Science and Technology Austria.
mla: Konstantinov, Nikola H. Robustness and Fairness in Machine Learning.
Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2022, doi:10.15479/at:ista:10799.
short: N.H. Konstantinov, Robustness and Fairness in Machine Learning, Institute
of Science and Technology Austria, 2022.
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2022-02-28T13:03:49Z
date_published: 2022-03-08T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-04-07T14:19:48Z
day: '08'
ddc:
- '000'
degree_awarded: PhD
department:
- _id: GradSch
- _id: ChLa
doi: 10.15479/at:ista:10799
ec_funded: 1
file:
- access_level: open_access
checksum: 626bc523ae8822d20e635d0e2d95182e
content_type: application/pdf
creator: nkonstan
date_created: 2022-03-06T11:42:54Z
date_updated: 2022-03-06T11:42:54Z
file_id: '10823'
file_name: thesis.pdf
file_size: 4204905
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checksum: e2ca2b88350ac8ea1515b948885cbcb1
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creator: nkonstan
date_created: 2022-03-06T11:42:57Z
date_updated: 2022-03-10T12:11:48Z
file_id: '10824'
file_name: thesis.zip
file_size: 22841103
relation: source_file
file_date_updated: 2022-03-10T12:11:48Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
keyword:
- robustness
- fairness
- machine learning
- PAC learning
- adversarial learning
language:
- iso: eng
month: '03'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
page: '176'
project:
- _id: 2564DBCA-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
call_identifier: H2020
grant_number: '665385'
name: International IST Doctoral Program
publication_identifier:
isbn:
- 978-3-99078-015-2
issn:
- 2663-337X
publication_status: published
publisher: Institute of Science and Technology Austria
related_material:
record:
- id: '10802'
relation: part_of_dissertation
status: public
- id: '10803'
relation: part_of_dissertation
status: public
- id: '6590'
relation: part_of_dissertation
status: public
- id: '8724'
relation: part_of_dissertation
status: public
status: public
supervisor:
- first_name: Christoph
full_name: Lampert, Christoph
id: 40C20FD2-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Lampert
orcid: 0000-0001-8622-7887
title: Robustness and fairness in machine learning
type: dissertation
user_id: ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd
year: '2022'
...