Abstract
Modern online systems for user modeling and recommendation need to continuously deal with complex data streams generated by users at very fast rates. This can be overwhelming for systems and algorithms designed to train recommendation models in batches, given the continuous and potentially fast change of content, context and user preferences or intents. Therefore, it is important to investigate methods able to transparently and continuously adapt to the inherent dynamics of user interactions, preferably for long periods of time. Online models that continuously learn from such flows of data are gaining attention in the recommender systems community, given their natural ability to deal with data generated in dynamic, complex environments. User modeling and personalization can particularly benefit from algorithms capable of maintaining models incrementally and online. The objective of this workshop is to foster contributions and bring together a growing community of researchers and practitioners interested in online, adaptive approaches to user modeling, recommendation and personalization, and their implications regarding multiple dimensions, such as evaluation, reproducibility, privacy, fairness and transparency.

Abstract
We introduce Fed-VFDT, a federated adaptation of the Very Fast Decision Tree (VFDT) algorithm for classification over streaming data. While VFDT is a widely adopted online learning algorithm, its sequential and order-sensitive nature poses challenges in federated settings, marked by statistical heterogeneity and communication constraints. Fed-VFDT addresses these issues by having each client incrementally train a local VFDT and report split statistics to a central server when a leaf satisfies the Hoeffding criterion. The server selects a global splitting feature by aggregating clients' proposals according to a configurable strategy: quorum, merit-based selection, or majority voting. Once a feature is selected, it is broadcast to all clients, which apply the split at the corresponding tree path using their locally computed thresholds. We evaluate Fed-VFDT against its centralized counterpart using predictive and structural metrics, demonstrating that it maintains comparable performance while reducing communication and preserving synchronized tree growth. © 2025 IEEE.