Archive for UCL
London Meeting on Computational Statistics 28-29 April 2026, plus a UCL lecture by Lester Mackey
Posted in Books, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Augustus de Morgan, Britain, computational statistical physics, gradient flows, London, London Mathematical Society, Monte Carlo methods, Monte Carlo Statistical Methods, simulation-based inference, The Shard, UCL, UCL Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, United Kingdom, University College London, variational inference on February 6, 2026 by xi'an
OWABI Season VII
Posted in Statistics with tags ABC, approximate Bayesian inference, Bayesian inference, Bayesian neural networks, multi-level Monte Carlo, multifidelity, multilevel Monte Carlo, neural SBI, OWABI, simulation-based inference, UCL, University College London, University of Warwick, webinar on October 17, 2025 by xi'an
A new season of the One World Approximate Bayesian Inference (OWABI) Seminar is about to start!The 1st OWABI talk of the Season will be given by François-Xavier Briol (University College London). who will talk about “Multilevel neural simulation-based inference” on Thursday the 30th October at 11am UK time.AbstractNeural simulation-based inference (SBI) is a popular set of methods for Bayesian inference when models are only available in the form of a simulator. These methods are widely used in the sciences and engineering, where writing down a likelihood can be significantly more challenging than constructing a simulator. However, the performance of neural SBI can suffer when simulators are computationally expensive, thereby limiting the number of simulations that can be performed. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to neural SBI which leverages multilevel Monte Carlo techniques for settings where several simulators of varying cost and fidelity are available. We demonstrate through both theoretical analysis and extensive experiments that our method can significantly enhance the accuracy of SBI methods given a fixed computational budget.Keywords: Multifidelity, neural SBI, multi-level Monte Carlomultilevel Monte Carlo
post-Bayes workshop at UCL [15 & 16 May 2025]
Posted in pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags ABC, approximate Bayesian inference, England, generalised Bayesian inference, Great-Britain, Highlands, ICMS, Isle of Skye Brewery, martingale posterior, martingales, PAC, PAC-Bayes, post-Bayes inference, Scotland, Skye, UCL, University College London, workshop on April 4, 2025 by xi'an
University College London (UCL) is organising a workshop on post-Bayes inference and asked to post the announcement (despite my feeling that we have not entered the post-Bayes era!). So here it is:
Over the course of two days, they will host eight invited talks from leaders across the post-Bayesian landscape, spanning from PAC Bayes and generalised Bayes to predictive resampling and martingale posteriors. Alongside these, they will host six contributed talks, and a poster session to ignite discussion and innovation in our growing community. The workshop will complement the post-Bayesian seminar series.
Registration is now open, and they are actively accepting talk and poster submissions! (Deadline for submissions: April 11th, 2025.) Travel support for early career researchers will be available and announced closer to the date. See the website for more information. The workshop will take place in Bentham House, UCL, London.
[As a personal aside, we just learned that our proposal for an approximate(ly) Bayes workshop supported by ICMS (Edinburgh) and set on the magical Isle of Skye had been accepted! To be held in Spring 2026!]
francescoverdose [update]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures with tags abortion rights, anti-abortion organisations, Catholic Church, gender inequality, International Safe Abortion Day, Jorge Bergoglio, Louvain-la-Neuve, Marseille, media, patriarchy, pope, Protect Abortion, religions, reproductive rights, secularism, UCL, Université Catholique de Louvain, Vatican on October 12, 2024 by xi'an
“Peace requires before all else the defense of life, a good that today is jeopardized…through the promotion of an alleged ‘right to abortion’. No one, however, can claim rights over the life of another human being, especially one who is powerless and thus completely defenceless.” 09 Jan.
“I would like to emphasize one thing: It is very important that we have this meeting, this meeting between men and women, because today the worst danger is gender ideology, which erases differences.” 01 March
“A woman within the People of God is a daughter, a sister, a mother. Womanhood speaks to us of fruitful welcome, nurturing and life-giving dedication”. 28 Sept.
“On my return to Rome, I will open the process for the beatification of King Baudouin. His example as a man of faith may enlighten those in power. [I praise] the courage of this man who chose to leave his position as king in order not to sign [the 1990 abortion] law.” 28 Sept. (International Safe Abortion Day)
ABC in Warwick [Arena, Blended, Committed]
Posted in Kids, University life with tags curriculum, online lectures, pedagogy, screenshot, teaching, UCL, University of Warwick on February 20, 2022 by xi'an
Xi'an's Og 