Bansky in the loo

The Fry Building [Bristol maths]

While I had heard of Bristol maths moving to the Fry Building for most of the years I visited the department, starting circa 1999, this last trip to Bristol was the opportunity for a first glimpse of the renovated building which has been done beautifully, making it the most amazing maths department I have ever visited.  It is incredibly spacious and luminous (even in one of these rare rainy days when I visited), while certainly contributing to the cohesion and interactions of the whole department. And the choice of the Voronoi structure should not have come as a complete surprise (to me), given Peter Green’s famous contribution to their construction!

in Bristol for the day

I am in Bristol for the day, giving a seminar at the Department of Statistics where I had not been for quite a while (and not since the Department has moved to a beautifully renovated building). The talk is on ABC-Gibbs, whose revision is on the verge of being resubmitted. (I also hope Greta will let me board my plane tonight…)

we have never been unable to develop a reliable predictive model

An alarming entry in The Guardian about the huge proportion of councils in the UK using machine-learning software to allocate benefits, detect child abuse or claim fraud. And relying blindly on the outcome of such software, despite their well-documented lack of reliability, uncertainty assessments, and warnings. Blindly in the sense that the impact of their (implemented) decision was not even reviewed, even though a portion of the councils does not consider renewing the contracts. With the appalling statement of the CEO of one software company reported in the title. Blaming further the lack of accessibility [for their company] of the data used by the councils for the impossibility [for the company] of providing risk factors and identifying bias, in an unbelievable newspeak inversion… As pointed out by David Spiegelhalter in the article, the openness should go the other way, namely that the algorithms behind the suggestions (read decisions) should be available to understand why these decisions were made. (A whole series of Guardian articles relate to this as well, under the heading “Automating poverty”.)

research position in Bristol

Christophe Andrieu is seeking a senior research associate (reference ACAD103715) at the University of Bristol to work on new approaches to Bayesian data science. The selected candidate would work with Prof. Christophe Andrieu (School of Mathematics) and Prof. Mark Beaumont (Life Science) on new approaches to tackle Bayesian inference in complex statistical models arising in particular in the area of Health Science, with a focus on genetics and/or epidemiological aspects. The position is associated with a £3M programme funded by EPSRC, Bayes4Health, and brings together research groups from the Universities of Lancaster, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford and Warwick. Active collaboration across the partner institutions, other project partners and the programme grant CoSInES is expected. The position is for up to four years.

The position is for a duration of four years and interviews will take place in early October. Applicants with strong methodological and computational skills and are looking to put together a team of researchers with skills that cover theoretical, methodological and applied statistics should contact Christophe Andrieu at the earliest.