4th SIPTA School on Imprecise Probabilities: 1st announcement

[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.

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: *31 March 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

====================================================

WPMSIIP 2010: 1st Announcement

The Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, organizes
a workshop on principles and methods of statistical inference with
interval probability, jointly with the interval probability research
group of Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. The workshop runs
from Monday 6 September until Friday 10 September 2010. This workshop
is a follow-up to two earlier WPMSIIPs held in Durham, UK, May 2008,
and Munich, Germany, September 2009.

The major aim of the WPMSIIP workshop is to stimulate discussion of
ongoing research in imprecise/interval probability theories. The first
day of WPMSIIP overlaps with the SIPTA summer school and will be a day
of research presentations (by summerschool participants) aimed at a
general audience. For the remainder of the week, we intend to have two
consecutive days for presentations and discussions on imprecise
classification, where we will also invite practitioners with
interesting classification problems with the idea to set out an agenda
for future research. The topic for one further day will be prior-data
conflict, which naturally requires imprecise probability for a proper
treatment, and raises interesting fundamental questions. The final day
of the workshop is reserved for participants to present work on open
topics, with emphasis on challenging open questions and with ample
time reserved for discussions.

Everyone, including PhD students, is welcome to participate and/or to
present their views on one or more of the above topics, on one or more
days! If you want to join the workshop, please send an email to Frank
Coolen ([log in to unmask]) with a brief explanation of your
intended contribution, before Friday 18 April 2010. We ask a small fee
of 10 pounds for covering the costs of the lunch at the Department on
the first day, to be paid on the Monday morning.

For more information, visit:

http://www.maths.dur.ac.uk/users/matthias.troffaes/wpmsiip2010/

Best wishes,

The organizing committee

Thomas Augustin
Frank Coolen
Richard Crossman
Matthias Troffaes
Gero Walter

You may leave the list at any time by sending the command

SIGNOFF allstat

to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank.