EBES: Easy Benchmarking for Event Sequences

Event Sequences (EvS) refer to sequential data characterized by irregular sampling intervals and a mix of categorical and numerical features. Accurate classification of these sequences is crucial for various real-life applications, including healthcare, finance, and user interaction. Despite the popularity of the EvS classification task, there is currently no standardized benchmark or rigorous evaluation protocol. This lack of standardization makes it difficult to compare results across studies, which can result in unreliable conclusions and hinder progress in the field. To address this gap, we present EBES, a comprehensive benchmark for EvS classification with sequence-level targets. EBES features standardized evaluation scenarios and protocols, along with an open-source PyTorch library that implements 9 modern models. Additionally, it includes the largest collection of EvS datasets, featuring 10 curated datasets, including a novel synthetic dataset and real-world data with the largest publicly available banking dataset. The library offers user-friendly interfaces for integrating new methods and datasets. Our benchmarking results highlight the unique properties of EvS compared to other sequential data types, provide a performance ranking of modern models with GRU-based models achieving the best results and reveal the challenges associated with robust EvS learning. The goal of EBES is to facilitate reproducible research, expedite progress in the field, and increase the real-world impact of EvS classification techniques.