oceanographers in Les Houches

Þe first internal research workshop of our ERC Synergy project OCEAN is taking place in Les Houches, French Alps, this coming week with 15 researchers gathering for brain-storming on some of the themes at the core of the project, like algorithmic tools for multiple decision-making agents, along with Bayesian uncertainty quantification and Bayesian learning under constraints (scarcity, fairness, privacy). Due to the small size of the workshop (which is perfect for engaging into joint work), it could not be housed by the nearby, iconic, École de Physique des Houches but will take place instead in a local hotel.

On the leisurely side, I hope there will be enough snow left for some lunch-time ski breaks [with no bone fracture à la Adapski!] Or, else, that the running trails nearby will prove manageable.

sequential meetings in Edinburgh

There will be not one but two consecutive events in Edinburgh next May²⁴ on sequential Monte Carlo methods! Both hosted by the fantastic International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) in Edinburgh Olde Town. Within the Bayes Centre. And running distance to Arthur’s Seat. (Reminding me of my first ICMS workshop in 2001 run with Mike Titterington. May have been my first week long visit to Edinburgh as well…)

First, a Summer School on Bayesian filtering: fundamental theory and numerical methods (SSBF 2024), Edinburgh (UK), May 6-10, 2024. This summer (in the Scottish sense!) school will cover topics related to fundamental theory, state-of-the-art methodologies, and real-world applications.

Second, a Sequential Monte Carlo workshop (SMC 2024), the week later, on May 13-17, 2024. The workshop will cover topics related to sequential Monte Carlo and nearby fields, from theory to applications, following earlier workshops in the series. Including the one at CREST in 2015.

Thanks to Víctor Elvira, Jana de Wiljes, and Dan Crisan for this double deal (and the opportunity to return to Scotland for the first time since the pandemic).

trở về từ thành phố hồ chí minh

While fast and furious (!), the days I spent in Ho Chi Minh City (at UEH, the university of economics of HCMC) were most enjoyable, from running very early in the relatively cool morning, by the nearby canal, often with others, to the group breakfast at a small food stall, or another, with a huge variety of dishes, to multiple discussions at the coffee and lunch breaks (with an unknown [by me] fruit every day!), to question sessions, despite my massive infodump, especially  on the first lecture!, with the above picture taken during the ABC lecture, with Long Nguyen’s logical map between lectures, to group dinners with again a huge variety of dishes, and above all an incredibly friendly crowd of students and faculty that made days fly! The school was well-prepared with a reading program prior to it and a project dissertation posterior to it. Cảm ơn họ vì lòng tốt của họ!

Summer school on Bayesian statistics and computation

Prairie/MIAI Artificial Intelligence summer school [5-9 July 2021]