Inaugural workshop

This event took place on 20-21 August 2012 in Blackett Lecture Theatre 3, Imperial College London.

The ICIC is a newly formed centre that aims to address the statistical challenges posed by massive and complex data streams in astrophysics, astroparticle physics, and cosmology. It is a collaborative effort between the Astrophysics Group and the Statistics Section at Imperial College London. The ICIC will host its Inaugural Workshop on 20 and 21 August 2012.

Advances in astrophysics and cosmology are driven by large and complex data sets, which can only be analyzed, interpreted, and understood by using refined statistical methods. In recent years, technological advances have dramatically increased the quality and quantity of data available to astronomers. Newly launched or soon-to-be launched space-based telescopes such as Planck, Fermi, and Euclid are tailored to challenges associated with specific scientific goals.

These surveys provide massive catalogues containing terabytes of data, high-resolution spectrography and imaging across the electromagnetic spectrum, and incredibly detailed movies of dynamic and explosive processes in the solar atmosphere. At the other end of the spectrum, astroparticle dark matter searches are looking for rare signals hidden in dominating large backgrounds. The range of new instruments is helping scientists make impressive strides in our understanding of the physical universe, but at the same time it is generating enormous data-analytic and data-mining challenges. Thus, statistics has become an essential part of the scientific method that allows correct connections between data and physical models.

The ICIC Inaugural Workshop will focus on a number of extended discussions on current grand data analytic challenges in astronomy, astroparticle physics, and cosmology.

Talks

Invited discussion topics

Statistical Challenges in Dark Energy Searches, Ofer Lahav, University College London
Hierarchical Bayesian Models for Type Ia Supernova Light Curves, Spectra, Dust and Distances - Hierarchical Bayesian Models doc, Kaisey Mandel, Imperial College London
New Approaches to Cosmological Inference from Probes of the Large Scale Structure of the Universe - New Approaches doc, Ben Wandelt, IAP, Sorbonne University
Global Fits Beyond the Standard Model with Astroparticle Data‌, Pat Scott, McGill University
I Have More Data, My Model is More Reﬁned, but my Estimator is Getting Worse! Am I Just Dumb? - I have more data doc, Xiao-Li Meng, Harvard University
Probabilistic Source Detection‌, Farhan Feroz, University of Cambridge
Analyzing Astronomical Data Sets Using Non-linear Random Effects Models, Brandon Kelly, University of California, Santa Barbara
Bayesian Multilevel Modelling of Cosmic Populations, Tom Loredo, Cornell University

Snapshot presentations

Sparsity and Compressed Sensing in 3D Weak Lensing‌, Adrienne Leonard, CEA Saclay
Functional Marginalisation for Cosmology, Tom Kitching, University of Edinburgh
Accelerating MCMC by Interweaving Multiple Parameterisations - Accelerating doc, Yaming Yu, University of California, Irvine
Bayesian Estimation of Flux Distributions‌, Paul Baines, University of California, Davis

Speakers

Farhan Feroz (Cambridge)
Brandon Kelly (Santa Barbara)
Ofer Lahav (UCL)
Tom Loredo (Cornell)
Kaisey Mandel (Imperial)
Xiao-Li Meng (Harvard)
Pat Scott (McGill)
Benjamin Wandelt (IAP Paris)

Programme

The workshop programme is now available.

SOC

Alan Heavens
Daniel Mortlock
Roberto Trotta
David van Dyk (chair)

Social dinner

A social dinner will be held on the evening of Mon 20th starting at 19.30 at Zaika, a local Indian restaurant. The social dinner is included in the registration fee.

Please get in touch with the SOC if you require a vegetarian option.

Confirmed participants

1 Dr Peter Freeman (Carnegie Mellon University)
2 Miss Catherine Watkinson (Imperial College London)
3 Dr Adrienne Leonard (CEA Saclay)
4 Mr Daniel Machado (CEA Saclay)
5 Dr Aneta Siemiginowska (Center for Astrophysics)
6 Dr Thomas Loredo (Cornell University)
7 Mr Alexander Blocker (Harvard University)
8 Mr David Jones (Harvard University)
9 Mr Nathan Stein (Harvard University)
10 Prof XIAOLI MENG (Harvard University)
11 Dr Andreas Zezas (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
12 Prof Benjamin Wandelt (IAP, Sorbonne University)
13 Dr Aliakbar Dariush (Imperial College London)
14 Dr Jonathan Pritchard (Imperial College London)
15 Prof Alan Heavens (Imperial College London)
16 Dr Axel Gandy (Imperial College London)
17 Dr Daniel Mortlock (Imperial College London)
18 Dr Roberto Trotta (Imperial College London)
19 Prof David van Dyk (Imperial College London)
20 Dr Fabrizia Guglielmetti (Max Planck Institute)
21 Dr Pat Scott (McGill University)
22 Dr Vinay Kashyap (SAO)
23 Dr Enn Saar (Tartu Observatory)
24 Mr JIN XU (University of California, Irvine) - NO LONGER ATTENDING
25 Dr Hiranya Peiris (University College London)
26 Dr Jason McEwen (University College London)
27 Dr Walter dos Santos (University College London)
28 Mr Stephen Feeney (University College London)
29 Prof Ofer Lahav (University College London)
30 Dr Angel Berihuete (University of Cadiz)
31 Dr Paul Baines (University of California-Davis)
32 Dr Farhan Feroz (University of Cambridge)
33 Mr Eli Kasai (University of Portsmouth)
34 Dr Brandon Kelly (University of California, Santa Barbara)
35 Dr Thomas Kitching (Royal Observatory Edinburgh )
36 Dr Yaming Yu (University of California, Irvine)
37 Miss Charlotte Strege (Imperial College London)
38 Mr Boris Leistedt (University College London)
39 Mr David Stenning (University of California, Irvine)
40 Mr Shandong Zhao (University of California, Irvine) - NO LONGER ATTENDING
41 Mrs Emma Chapman (University College London)
42 Ms Sarah Bridle (University College London)
43 Prof Andrew Jaffe (Imperial College London)
44 Prof Raul Jimenez (ICREA Barcelona)
45 Dr Kaisey Mandel (Imperial College London)
46 Mr Rafal Szepietowski (ICG, University of Portsmouth)
47 Prof Taeyoung Park (Yonsei University)
48 Dr Andrew Friedman (MIT)
49 Dr Andreas Zezas (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
50 Miss Xiyun Jiao (Imperial College London)
51 Johannes Buchner (Max Planck Institute)
52 Dr Dave Clements (Imperial College London)