Projects

Our research is generously supported by NSF and University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.

CRII: CIF: Dynamic Network Event Detection with Time-Series Data Sole PI June 1, 2020-May 31, 2022 CIF: Small: Reinforcement Learning with Function Approximation: Convergent Algorithms and Finite-sample Analysis Sole PI October 1, 2020-September 30, 2023 Collaborative Research: CIF: Medium: Emerging Directions in Robust Learning and Inference PI (at Buffalo), with V. Veeravalli (Lead, UIUC) and G. Atia (UCF) June 1, 2021-May 30 2025 CCSS: Collaborative Research: Quickest Threat Detection in Adversarial Sensor Networks PIs: Shaofeng Zou (Lead, UB), Ruizhi Zhang (UNL) September 1, 2021-August 31, 2024

Publications

Book Chapters

1. Data-Driven Approaches for Detecting and Identifying Anomalous Data Streams
   S. Zou, Y. Liang, H. V. Poor, X. Shi
     Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Biomedical Big Data, edited by Ervin Sejdic and Tiago Falk, CRC Press, 2018.

2. A Broadcast Approach to Fading Channels under Secrecy Constraints
   S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, H. V. Poor, S. Shamai
   to appear in Information-Theoretic Perspectives on 5G Systems and Beyond, Edited by Ivana Maric, Osvaldo Simeone, Shlomo Shamai (Shitz), Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Journal Publications and Preprints

1. Population Risk Improvement with Model Compression: An Information-Theoretic Approach
   Y. Bu W. Gao S. Zou and V. V. Veeravalli
   Entropy, Sept. 2021.

2. Sequential Moving Anomaly Detection with Anonymized Samples
   Z. Sun, S. Zou
   submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Dec. 2020

3. Robust Sequential Hypothesis Testing in Adversarial Environments
   S. Cao, R. Zhang, S. Zou
   submitted to INFORMS Journal on Data Science, 2021

4. Quickest Change Detection in Anonymous Heterogeneous Sensor Networks
   Z. Sun, S. Zou, R. Zhang, Q. Li
   submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Nov. 2020

5. Sequential Change Detection: Classical Results and New Directions
   L. Xie, S. Zou, Y. Xie, V. V. Veeravalli
   IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory, 2021.

6. Tightening Mutual Information Based Bounds on Generalization Error
   Y. Bu, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
   IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory, May 2020.

7. Sequential Algorithms for Moving Anomaly Detection in Networks
   G. Rovatsos, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
   Sequential Analysis, 2020.

8. Quickest Detection of Dynamic Events in Networks
   S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli, J. Li, D. Towsley
   IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 2020.

9. Linear-Complexity Exponentially-Consistent Tests for Universal Outlying Sequence Detection
   Y. Bu, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
   IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 67, no. 8, pp. 2115-2128, April 15, 2019.

10. Quickest Change Detection under Transient Dynamics: Theory and Asymptotic Analysis
    S. Zou, G. Fellouris, V. V. Veeravalli
    IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 1397-1412, March 2019.

11. Estimation of KL Divergence: Optimal Minimax Rate
    Y. Bu*, S. Zou*, Y. Liang, V. V. Veeravalli
    IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 2648-2674, April 2018. (Bu and Zou contributed equally).

12. Degraded Broadcast Channel with Secrecy Outside a Bounded Range
    S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, H. V. Poor, S. Shamai (Shitz)
    IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 2104-2120, Mar. 2018.

13. Nonparametric Detection of Anomalous Data Streams
    S. Zou, Y. Liang, H. V. Poor, X. Shi
    IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 65, no. 21, pp. 5785-5797, Nov. 2017.

14. Nonparametric Detection of Geometric Structures over Networks
    S. Zou, Y. Liang, H. V. Poor
    IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 65, no. 19, pp. 5034-5046, Oct. 2017.

15. Broadcast Networks with Layered Decoding and Layered Secrecy: Theory and Applications
    S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, H. V. Poor, S. Shamai (Shitz)
    Proceedings of the IEEE, vol.103, no.10, pp.1841-1856, Oct. 2015.

16. An Information Theoretic Approach to Secret Sharing
    S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, S. Shamai (Shitz)
    IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol.61, no.6, pp.3121-3136, June 2015.

Conference Publications

2021

• Online Robust Reinforcement Learning with Model Uncertainty
  Y. Wang, S. Zou
  Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Virtual, Dec 2021. (acceptance rate: 26%)

• Non-Asymptotic Analysis for Two Time-scale TDC with General Smooth Function Approximation
  Y. Wang, Y. Zhou, S. Zou
  Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Virtual, Dec 2021. (acceptance rate: 26%)

• Quickest Detection of Series Arc Faults on DC Microgrids
  K. Gajula, V. Le, X. Yao, S. Zou, L. Herrera
  IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2021

• A Data-Driven Approach to Robust Hypothesis Testing Using Kernel MMD Uncertainty Sets
  Z. Sun, S. Zou
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2021

• Quickest Dynamic Anomaly Detection in Anonymous Heterogeneous Sensor Networks
  Z. Sun, S. Zou
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2021

• A Computationally Efficient Algorithm for Quickest Change Detection in Anonymous Heterogeneous Sensor Networks
  Z. Sun, Q. Li, R. Zhang, S. Zou
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2021

• Greedy-GQ with Variance Reduction: Finite-time Analysis and Improved Complexity
  S. Ma, Y. Zhou, S. Zou
  International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2021 (acceptance rate: 28.7%)

• Learning Graph Neural Networks with Approximate Gradient Descent
  Q. Li, S. Zou, W. Zhong
  AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Virtual Conference, Feb. 2021 (acceptance rate: 21%)

2020

• Variance-Reduced Off-Policy TDC Learning: Non-Asymptotic Convergence Analysis
  S. Ma, Y. Zhou, S. Zou
  Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Vancouver CA, Dec 2020. (acceptance rate: 20.1%)
  

• Finite-sample Analysis of Greedy-GQ with Linear Function Approximation under Markovian Noise
  Y. Wang, S. Zou
  Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), Aug. 2020 (acceptance rate: 27.6%)

• A Game-Theoretic Approach to Sequential Detection in Adversarial Environments
  R. Zhang, S. Zou
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), June 2020.

• Quickest Change Detection in Anonymous Heterogeneous Sensor Networks
  Z. Sun, S. Zou, Q. Li
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Barcelona, Spain, May. 2020.

• Information-Theoretic Understanding of Population Risk Improvement with Model Compression
  Y. Bu, W. Gao, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
  AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), New York, USA, Feb. 2020 (acceptance rate: 20.6%)
  Poster

2019

• Finite-Sample Analysis for SARSA with Linear Function Approximation
  S. Zou, T. Xu, Y. Liang
  Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Vancouver CA, Dec 2019. (acceptance rate: 21%)
  Poster
  Slides

• Two Time-scale Off-Policy TD Learning: Non-asymptotic Analysis over Markovian Samples
  T. Xu, S. Zou, Y. Liang
  Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Vancouver CA, Dec 2019. (acceptance rate: 21%)
  Poster

• A Consensus-based Approach for Distributed Quickest Detection of Significant Events in Networks
  J. Li, D. Towsley, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli and G. Ciocarlie
  Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Pacific Grove, CA, USA, 2019.

• Tightening Mutual Information Based Bounds on Generalization Error
  Y. Bu, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), June 2019.

• Quickest Detection of a Moving Target in a Sensor Network
  G. Rovatsos, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), June 2019.

• Distributed Quickest Detection of Significant Events in Networks
  S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli, J. Li, D. Towsley, A. Swami
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2019.

2018

• Quickest Detection of Significant Events in Structured Networks
  S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli, J. Li, D. Towsley
  Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Oct. 2018.

• Stochastic Control of Power Supply in Data Centers
  G. Rovatsos, S. Zou, A. Dominguez-Garcia, V. V. Veeravalli
  Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Oct. 2018.

• Quickest Detection of Dynamic Events in Sensor Networks
  S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Alberta, Canada, April. 2018.

2017

• Gaussian Fading Channel with Secrecy Outside a Bounded Range
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, S. Shamai
  IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS): The Workshop on Physical-Layer Methods for Wireless Security, Las Vegas, USA Oct. 2017.

• Asymptotic Optimality of D-CuSum for Quickest Change Detection under Transient Dynamics
  S. Zou, G. Fellouris, V. V. Veeravalli
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Aachen, Germany, June 2017.

• Linear-Complexity Exponentially-Consistent Tests for Universal Outlying Sequence Detection
  Y. Bu, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Aachen, Germany, June 2017.

• Quickest Change Detection under Transient Dynamics
  G. Rovatsos, S. Zou, V. V. Veeravalli
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), New Orleans, USA, Mar. 2017.

2016

• K-User Degraded Broadcast Channel with Secrecy Outside a Bounded Range
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, H. V. Poor, S. Shamai (Shitz)
  IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW), Cambridge, Sept. 2016.

• Estimation of KL Divergence Between Large-Alphabet Distributions
  Y. Bu, S. Zou, Y. Liang, V. V. Veeravalli
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Barcelona, Jul. 2016.

• Universal Outlying Sequence Detection for Continuous Observations
  Y. Bu, S. Zou, Y. Liang, V. V. Veeravalli
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Shanghai, Mar. 2016.

• Nonparametric Detection of an Anomalous Disk over a Two-Dimensional Lattice Network
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, H. V. Poor
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Shanghai, Mar. 2016.

• Recent Results on Broadcast Networks with Layered Decoding and Secrecy: an Overview
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, H. V. Poor, S. Shamai (Shitz)
  International Zurich Seminar on Communications (IZS), Zurich, Mar. 2016.

2015

• Rate Splitting and Sharing for Degraded Broadcast Channel with Secrecy Outside a Bounded Range
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, S. Shamai (Shitz)
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Hongkong, Jun. 2015.

• Degraded Broadcast Channel: Secrecy Outside of a Bounded Range
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, S. Shamai (Shitz)
  IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW), Jerusalem, Apr. 2015.

2014

• Unsupervised Nonparametric Anomaly Detection: A Kernel Method
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, H. V. Poor, X. Shi
  52th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Monticello, IL, Oct. 2014.

• A Kernel-Based Nonparametric Test for Anomaly Detection over Line Network
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, H. V. Poor
  IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP), Reims, Sept. 2014.

• Kernel-Based Nonparametric Anomaly Detection
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, H. V. Poor, X. Shi
  IEEE 15th Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications (SPAWC), Toronto, Jun. 2014.

• Layered Decoding and Secrecy over Degraded Gaussian MIMO Broadcast Channels and Application in Secret Sharing
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, S. Shamai (Shitz)
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Honolulu, Jun. 2014.

2013

• Layered Decoding and Secrecy over Degraded Broadcast Channels
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, L. Lai, S. Shamai (Shitz)
  IEEE 14th Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications (SPAWC), Darmstadt, Jun. 2013.

• Multiple Access Channel with State Uncertainty at Transmitters
  S. Zou, Y. Liang, S. Shamai (Shitz)
  IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Istanbul, Jun. 2013.