Archive for University of Warwick
Warwickshire honey fungus [by Birmingham]
Posted in Books, pictures, Travel with tags BBC, Birmingham, Britain, Coventry, fungus, gardening, honey fungus, International Garden Photographer of the Year, International Garden Photographer of the Year competition 2023, landscape photography, Midlands, Monks Park Wood, picture, University of Warwick, Warwickshire on April 9, 2024 by xi'an
step-dads with Bayesian design [One World ABC’minar, 21 March]
Posted in Books, Statistics, University life with tags ABC, ABC World seminar, Approximate Bayesian computation, approximate Bayesian inference, Bayesian deep learning, Bayesian design, Bayesian learning, Canadian geese, experimental design, George Casella, One World ABC Seminar, statistical design, University of Oxford, University of Warwick on March 18, 2024 by xi'an
The next One World ABC seminar is taking place (on-line, requiring pre-registration) on Thursday 21 March, 9:00am UK time, with Desi Ivanova (University of Oxford), speaking about Step-DAD: Semi-Amortized Policy-Based Bayesian Experimental Design:
We develop a semi-amortized, policy-based, approach to Bayesian experimental design (BED) called Step-wise Deep Adaptive Design (Step-DAD). Like existing, fully amortized, policy-based BED approaches, Step-DAD trains a design policy upfront before the experiment. However, rather than keeping this policy fixed, Step-DAD periodically updates it as data is gathered, refining it to the particular experimental instance. This allows it to improve both the adaptability and the robustness of the design strategy compared with existing approaches.
(Which reminded me of George’s book on design in 2008.)
postdoctoral research positions at PariSanté
Posted in pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags #ERCSyG, ABC, Bayesian decision theory, data privacy, ERC, ERC Synergy Grant, European Research Council, federated learning, French universities, game theory, MCMC, multi-agent decision theory, Ocean, Paris, PariSanté campus, postdoctoral position, recommendation, Université Paris Dauphine, University of California Berkeley, University of Warwick on March 7, 2024 by xi'an
Thanks to the 2023-2029 ERC Synergy grant OCEAN (On intelligenCE And Networks: Synergistic research in Bayesian Statistics, Microeconomics and Computer Sciences), I am seeking one or two postdoctoral researchers with an interest in Bayesian federated learning, distributed MCMC, approximate Bayesian inference and computing, and data privacy.
The project is based at Université Paris Dauphine, on the new PariSanté Campus. The postdocs will join the OCEAN teams of researchers directed by Éric Moulines and myself (Christian P Robert) to work on the above themes with multiple possibilities of focus from statistical theory, to Bayesian methodology, to decision theory, to algorithms, to medical applications. Collaborations with the OCEAN teams of researchers directed by Michael Jordan (Berkeley) and Gareth Roberts (Warwick) will further be encouraged and related travel will be supported.
Qualifications
The candidates should hold a doctorate in applied maths, statistics or machine learning, with demonstrated skills in Bayesian analysis, game theory, Monte Carlo methodology or numerical probability, an excellent record of publications in these domains, and an interest in working as part of an interdisciplinary international team. Scientific maturity and research autonomy are a must for applying. There is no deadline for the positions, which will be filled when a suitable candidate is selected.
Funding
Besides a 2 year postdoctoral contract at Université Paris Dauphine (with possible extension for another year), at a salary of 31K€ per year, the project will fund travel to OCEAN partners’ institutions (University of Warwick or University of Berkeley) and participation to yearly summer schools and conferences. Standard French university benefits are attached to the position and no teaching duty is involved, as per ERC rules.
The starting date of the postdoctoral positions is negotiable depending on the applicants’ availability.
Application Procedure
- To apply, please send the following entries in one pdf file to Christian Robert (bayesianstatistics@gmail.com).
- a letter of application,
- a CV,
Letters of recommendation are to be sent directly by their author.
Bayesian score calibration at One World ABC’minar [only comes every 1462 days]
Posted in Books, Statistics, University life with tags ABC, Approximate Bayesian computation, approximate Bayesian inference, approximate models, Bayesian calibration, IMS, leap year, One World ABC Seminar, seminar, University of Warwick, webinar on February 22, 2024 by xi'an
the academic integrity flow chart
Posted in Kids, pictures, University life with tags academic integrity, academic misconduct, dissertation, flowchart, module leader, plagiarism, simulations, survey, University of Warwick on January 24, 2024 by xi'an
This year, I received a summer project dissertation at Warwick (among several I supervised) that was a direct aggregation of three main papers on the project topic, including advanced simulations that were clearly beyond the reach of a summer project. Especially when the perpetrator only attended a very few supervision sessions among those I proposed.
With the help of a colleague we found rather easily the three papers, which had been rewritten to some extent into the project, while keeping the plan of the originals. And then I later a fourth paper corresponding to the numerical illustrative component of the project, which was the original reason for suspecting foul play. With graphs redrawn! Meaning that a plagiarism detector was only achieving an 18% agreement with the available literature, but still flagging plagiarism as “highly likely.”
I thus referred the case to the colleague in charge of academic integrity in the department. 
And this initiated a very involved process summarised by the attached flowchart… Starting with the academic conduct panel, which also concluded at plagiarism.
Xi'an's Og 