abstract.txt

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where there were multiple courses of action with different potential outcomes? How do you decide what to do? In this talk, Eric Cotner will discuss Markov decision processes (MDP's); a quantitative framework for determining an optimal sequence of actions. We'll learn how to set up an MDP, what kinds of situations they can be applied to, some of the math behind it, and finally an easy way to solve simple MDP's using the python package `pymdptoolbox`. If you're interested in applying optimal decision making to your life or work, you won't want to miss this!