Tuesday, March 23, 2010

4th SIPTA School on Imprecise Probabilities

[All our apologies for cross-posting.]

Fourth school of the Society for Imprecise Probability: Theories and
Applications (SIPTA), September 1-6, 2010, Durham, UK.

Dear colleagues,

The Society for Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications
(SIPTA) organizes the 4th edition of its school in Durham, UK, during
1-6 September 2010. The school will be held at the Department of
Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, close to the city centre of
Durham.

The aim of SIPTA schools is to introduce interested students and
researchers with the basics of imprecise probability topics, both
theoretical and applied. Some of the best specialists in different
aspects of imprecise probabilities lecture, during one week time, on
the main concepts and techniques associated to their area of
expertise, in a friendly environment favouring interactions between
participants.

Topics & Lecturers
------------------

When information is scarce, vague, or conflicting, a unique
probability distribution may be hard to identify. In that case,
imprecise probabilities aim to represent the really available
knowledge, and provides tools to model and work with weaker states of
information. The topics covered this year will include:

* general introduction to imprecise probability theory (Enrique Miranda)
* decision making (Matthias Troffaes)
* nonparametric predictive inference (Frank Coolen)
* Bayes linear methods (Ian Vernon and Jonathan Cumming)
* reliability (Lev Utkin and Frank Coolen)
* imprecise Markov chains (Damjan Skulj)
* inference and desirability (Erik Quaeghebeur)
* graphical models and classification (Alessandro Antonucci and Cassio
de Campos)

The last day of the school overlaps with the WPMSIIP workshop, and
will give all participants the possibility to present their work in a
seminar, with discussion time. We hope that several leading researchers
will be present for the discussions, and also that some of the topics
the students work on are of further interest to the WPMSIIP workshop
(http://www.maths.dur.ac.uk/users/matthias.troffaes/wpmsiip2010).

Pre-registration
----------------

Since the number of participants is limited, we recommend you to
inform us of your intention to participate to the school as soon as
possible, by following the registration instructions on our website:

http://www.maths.dur.ac.uk/users/matthias.troffaes/siptass10

Deadline for pre-registration: *15 April 2010*

The website also contains more information regarding the school.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Durham. We also welcome you
to circulate this announcement around you.


Best regards,

The organizing committee

Matthias Troffaes
Frank Coolen
Thomas Augustin
Gert de Cooman