  These are notes from the lecture of Devavrat Shah given at the autumn school
"Statistical Physics, Optimization, Inference, and Message-Passing Algorithms",
that took place in Les Houches, France from Monday September 30th, 2013, till
Friday October 11th, 2013. The school was organized by Florent Krzakala from
UPMC & ENS Paris, Federico Ricci-Tersenghi from La Sapienza Roma, Lenka
Zdeborova from CEA Saclay & CNRS, and Riccardo Zecchina from Politecnico
Torino. This lecture of Devavrat Shah (MIT) covers the basics of inference and
learning. It explains how inference problems are represented within structures
known as graphical models. The theoretical basis of the belief propagation
algorithm is then explained and derived. This lecture sets the stage for
generalizations and applications of message passing algorithms.
