Graduate Student Seminar I Supranta Sarma Boruah, Bayesian data analysis with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods

Thursday, May 14, 2020 2:30 pm - 2:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

MS Teams

Speaker

Supranta Sarma BoruahÌý| Applied Math, University of À¶Ý®ÊÓÆµ

Title

Bayesian data analysis with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methodsÌý

Abstract

Bayesian data analysis techniques have found a widespread applications in the scientific fields over the last few decades. In particular. Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods are widely used for statistical inference.Ìý

In this seminar series, I will introduce the concepts of Bayesian data analysis, in particular, using MCMC methods. I will start with the familiar example of linear regression, interpreted in the Bayesian language and then graduate to examples with real cosmological data. In the second part of the series, I will introduce MCMC algorithms beyond the usual Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, which are beginning to be used more extensively and diagnostic tests useful for analyzing properties of the MCMC runs. Finally, in the third part of the series, I will introduce the concept of Bayesian hierarchical modelling, which through its probabilistic modelling captures known relations between different variables.Ìý

The sessions will be a hands-on. Bringing laptops with jupyter notebook installed is encouraged.