There will be a workshop organised by NIPS at the end of the year (there is a flat prior on the date!) in Spain, Sierra Nevada, on Bayesian nonparametrics. Here is the description:
Bayesian nonparametric methods are an expanding part of the machine learning landscape. Proponents of Bayesian nonparametrics claim that these methods enable one to construct models that can scale their complexity with data, while representing uncertainty in both the parameters and the structure. Detractors point out that the characteristics of the models are often not well understood and that inference can be unwieldy. Relative to the statistics community, machine learning practitioners of Bayesian nonparametrics frequently do not leverage the representation of uncertainty that is inherent in the Bayesian framework. Neither do they perform the kind of analysis — both empirical and theoretical — to set skeptics at ease. In this workshop we hope to bring a wide group together to constructively discuss and address these goals and shortcomings.
(I was a bit surprised by the location name, since Sierra Nevada is a mountain range, but Sierra Nevada is also the name of the skiing mountain station next to Granada. I remember driving there to ski with Peter Müller and Judith Rousseau during the objective Bayes meeting of December 2002 organised by Elias Moreno. Depending on the weather it should thus be possible to ski there. Even at night.)
Richard Everitt’s twitter account (@bayesian_stats) signaled this PGM 2012 conference in Granada next September. PGM stands for probabilist graphical models and is thus relevant for a lot of us. (Even though I seem to only know Jim Smith in the plethoric program committee.) The website is well-designed with plenty of pictures, but the above logo somehow put me off! (Quite a minor offence, really!!!)Indeed, if the connection with the Arab roots of Granada was to be made, the proper Arabic characters should have been used, at least for the figures, which would give ۲۰۱۲ instead of the above…
