Hierarchical bayesian modeling: efficient inference and applications

Appropriate tools for managing large-scale data, like online texts, images and user profiles, are becoming increasingly important. Hierarchical Bayesian models provide a natural framework for building these tools due to their flexibility in modeling real-world data. In this thesis, we describe a suite of efficient inference algorithms and novel models under the hierarchical Bayesian modeling framework. We first present a novel online inference algorithm for the hierarchical Dirichlet process. The hierarchical Dirichlet process (HDP) is a Bayesian nonparametric model that can be used to model mixed-membership data with a potentially infinite number of components. Our online variational inference algorithm is easily applicable to massive and streaming data and significantly faster than traditional inference algorithms. Second, we present a generic approximation framework for variational inference in a large family of nonconjugate models. For example, this includes multi-level logistic regression/generalized linear models and correlated topic models. With this, developing variational inference algorithm for many nonconjugate models is much easier. Finally, we describe two novel models for real-world applications. This first application is about simultaneous image classification and annotation. We show that image classification and annotation can be integrated together using the same underlying probabilistic model. The second application is to better disseminate scientific information using recommendations. Compared with traditional recommendation algorithms, our algorithm not only improves the recommendation accuracy, but also provides interpretable structure of users and scientific articles. This interpretability provides lots of potential for designing better recommender systems.