ABS09 - 2009 Applied Bayesian Statistics School

BAYESIAN METHODOLOGY FOR CLUSTERING, CLASSIFICATION AND CATEGORICAL DATA ANALYSIS

Accademia Cusano, Bressanone/Brixen (BZ), Italy

June, 15-18, 2009

Bressanone



Last update: 11/6/2009

PLEASE NOTE:
  • To get from the train station to Accademia Cusano by foot or public transportation look here
  • Very few seats are left in ABS09: please contact us before registering
  • Trenitalia (Italian Railways Company) has published on June, 9th the FULL summer schedule. Please have a look here
  • ABS SCHOOLS

    The Applied Bayesian Statistics summer school has been organised since 2004 by

  • IMATI CNR
    Istituto di Matematica Applicata e Tecnologie Informatiche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
  • DEPMQ
    Dipartimento di Economia Politica e Metodi Quantitativi, Università di Pavia
  • The school aims to present state-of-the-art Bayesian applications, inviting leading experts in their field. Each year a different topic is chosen. Past editions were devoted to Gene Expression Genomics, Decision Modelling in Health Care, Spatial Data in Environmental and Health Sciences, Bayesian Methods and Econometrics and Bayesian Decision Problems in Biostatistics and Clinical Trials.

    TOPIC AND LECTURER

    The topic chosen for the 2009 school is Bayesian Methodology for Clustering, Classification and Categorical Data Analysis.

    The lecturer will be Dipak K. Dey, Department of Statistics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    He will be assisted by Luca La Rocca (University of Modena and Reggio, Italy).

    COURSE OUTLINE

    The purpose of this introductory short course is to present Bayesian methodology to provide an overview of current ideas in clustering, classification methods and categorical data analysis appropriate for various types of multivariate data. Special emphasis will be given to inferential methods with applications to problems arising in biostatistical and business problems. Participants in the course will be exposed to the relevant Bayesian methodology and computational techniques, including prior elicitation, hierarchical Bayesian methods, model comparisons, and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Discussion will center on various types of models, including soft clustering, longitudinal and clustered data, spatio temporal, and various types of link functions for categorical data. The methods and ideas will be applied to some case studies, which will include data from bank transactions, clinical trials and forestry. All the techniques will be illustrated with real data and, where possible, instructions on coding the techniques in Winbugs and R will be provided.

    The school will make use of lectures, practical sessions, software demonstrations, informal discussion sessions and presentations of research projects by school participants.

    The copy of the slides along with some papers will be available to all the students before the start of the course.

    INTENDED PARTICIPANTS AND PREREQUISITES

    The prerequisite for this course will include basic knowledge of Statistical Inference and Data Analysis. This course will be beneficial to graduate students, post-docs and researchers both from academia and industry whose area of activity is Statistics, Mathematics, Actuarial Science, Computer Science, Biostatistics and Genomics, Epidemiology, Engineering. Some knowledge of Bayesian Statistics is desirable. Prospective students may refer to the book Bayesian data analysis, 2nd Ed. by Andrew Gelman, John B. Carlin, Hal S. Stern and Donald B. Rubin (Chapman & Hall/CRC Texts in Statistical Science Series, 2004) and the book Bayesian Models for Categorical Data by Peter Congdon (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics, 2005).

    LOCATION AND SCHEDULE

    The 2009 school will be held at Accademia Cusano, located in the city of Bressanone (Brixen in German), in the Italian Alps, close to the Austrian border.

    In June 18-20, in the same place, there will be BISP6, Sixth Workshop on Bayesian Inference in Stochastic Processes.

    Please note that the number of available places is limited.

    The school will start on Monday, June, 15th, at 9.00 and it will end on Thursday, June, 18th, at 13.00. Welcome cocktail and farewell dinner are planned on June, 15th and 17th, respectively.

    FEES

    The registration fees are:

  • EUR 350 for students and postdocs
  • EUR 500 for people from academic and non-profit organisations
  • EUR 800 for all the others
  • including teaching materials and welcome cocktail. The social dinner will cost an extra 50 euros. It is possible to book a room at Accademia Cusano through the ABS09 Secretariat. Single rooms for 4 nights (arrival 14/6 and departure 18/6), including breakfast and Brixen Card, cost 170 euros per person.

    A 50 euros late registration fee will apply after April, 30th, 2009.

    Meals, snacks and drinks are available nearby and they are the participants' responsibility.

    AVAILABLE INFORMATION

  • lecturer
  • school directors and organising committee
  • participants
  • programme
  • participants' talks
  • reading
  • software
  • registration, deadlines and address for inquiries
  • full data on CNR and bank
  • registration form (.txt) or (.doc)
  • accommodations
  • Accademia Cusano
  • Bressanone/Brixen
  • weather in Bressanone/Brixen
  • how to get to Bressanone/Brixen
  • Past ABS Schools
  • BISP6, Sixth Workshop on Bayesian Inference in Stochastic Processes