Graduate seminar on domain adaptation and generalization in time series data.
Machine learning models often assume that the data used for training and the data seen during deployment come from the same distribution. However, in the real world, this assumption rarely holds. The process of adapting models to perform well despite such shifts is known as domain adaptation. In the context of time series, these shifts can arise due to changes in environments, tasks, or sensor configurations, leading to challenges in generalization and robustness. This course explores methods for domain adaptation in time series, with a focus on how machine learning models can generalize across individuals, environments, tasks, and measurement conditions. We will investigate a range of approaches, ranging from classical methods to modern strategies such as parameter-efficient tuning, few-shot learning, and test-time adaptation. Special attention will be given to the unique challenges posed by time series data, such as distributional drift and heterogeneity across individuals, devices, or recording setups. Students will discuss recent literature and develop a hands-on research project applying these methods to real-world time series problems.
Instructor: Eva Dyer (eva.dyer@seas.upenn.edu)
Teaching Assistants:
Divyansha Lachi (div11@seas.upenn.edu)
Shivashriganesh Mahato (smahato@seas.upenn.edu)
This schedule will be updated throughout the semester.
| Date | Type | Topic | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday, Jan 15 | Lecture | Course overview | slides |
| Tuesday, Jan 20 | Interactive | Time Series: Introduction, Generalization, and Domain Shift | notebook |
| Thursday, Jan 22 | Projects | Project planning session | padlet · slides |
| Thursday, Jan 29 | Lecture, Projects |
Time series backbones and inductive biases, Work on project proposals |
lecture slides
project slides |
| Tuesday, Feb 3 | Interactive | Inductive biases in different architectures for time series | notebook · leaderboard |
| Thursday, Feb 5 | Projects | Work on project proposals | |
| Tuesday, Feb 10 | Paper Discussion | Paper #1: "Handling Out-of-Distribution Data: A Survey" (Tamang et al., 2025) | paper |
| Thursday, Feb 12 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #1 | |
| Tuesday, Feb 17 | Paper Discussion |
Paper #2:
"A Kernel Two-Sample Test"
(Gretton et al., 2012) |
paper |
| Thursday, Feb 19 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #2 | |
| Tuesday, Feb 24 | Paper Discussion |
Paper #3:
"Optimal Transport for Domain Adaptation"
(Courty et al., 2016) |
paper |
| Thursday, Feb 26 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #3 | |
| Tuesday, Mar 3 | Paper Discussion |
Paper #4:
"Boosting Transferability and Discriminability for Time Series Domain Adaptation"
(Liu et al., 2024) |
paper |
| Thursday, Mar 5 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #4 | |
| Tuesday, Mar 17 | Paper Discussion | Paper #5: TBD | |
| Thursday, Mar 19 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #5 | |
| Tuesday, Mar 24 | Paper Discussion | Paper #6: TBD | |
| Thursday, Mar 26 | Projects | Project check-ins | |
| Tuesday, Mar 31 | Paper Discussion | Paper #7: TBD | |
| Thursday, Apr 2 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #6 | |
| Tuesday, Apr 7 | Paper Discussion | Paper #8: TBD | |
| Thursday, Apr 9 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #7 | |
| Tuesday, Apr 14 | Paper Discussion | Paper #9: TBD | |
| Thursday, Apr 16 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #8 | |
| Tuesday, Apr 21 | Paper Discussion | Paper #10: TBD | |
| Thursday, Apr 23 | ML | Mini-lecture Session #9 | |
| Tuesday, Apr 28 | Projects | Final project presentations | |
| Thursday, Apr 30 | Projects | Final project presentations |