Archive for Bangalore
off to Bengaluru!
Posted in Books, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bangalore, Bengaluru, conference, IISA, India, Indian Institute of Science, Indian Statistics, Karnataka, south Indian cuisine on December 25, 2022 by xi'an
Jubilee at the University of Calcutta
Posted in Books, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bangalore, Bengal, C.R. Rao, ISBA, Kolkata, Mahalanobis distance, R.A. Fisher, Sankhya, University of Calcutta, Varanasi on January 2, 2017 by xi'an
The main reason for my trip to India was taking part in the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Department of Statistics at the University of Calcutta and of the 100th anniversary of the birth of P.K. Bose (whom I did not know before visiting Kolkata). The Department of Statistics was created in 1941 by Mahalanobis, the very first statistics department in Asia. (Mahalanobis was also instrumental in creating the ISI in 1932. And Sankhyā in 1933.) Fisher visited Calcutta very often and was very supportive of Mahalanobis’ efforts: in the corridor, the above picture of Fisher is displayed, with him surrounded by faculties and graduates from the Department when he came in 1941.
Although I missed the first two days of the conference (!), I enjoyed very much the exchanges I had with graduate students there, about my talk on folded MCMC and other MCMC and Bayesian issues. (With The Bayesian Choice being an easy conversational bridge-way between us as it is their Bayesian textbook.) The setting reminded me of the ISBA conference in Varanasi four years ago, with the graduate students being strongly involved and providing heavy support in the organisation, as well as eager to discuss academic and non-academic issue. (Plus offering us one evening an amazing cultural show of songs and dances.) Continue reading
À l’Observatoire de Paris
Posted in Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags astrostatistics, Bangalore, biking, Forêt de Meudon, French-Prussian war, Kolkata, Meudon, mountain bike, Observatoire de Paris, Paris, running, San Francisco half-marathon on July 5, 2016 by xi'an
This Monday, I made a most pleasant trip to the Observatoire de Paris, which campus is located in Meudon and no longer in Paris. (There also is an Observatoire de Paris campus in downtown Paris, created in 1667, where no observation can take place.) Most pleasant for many reasons. First, I was to meet with Frédéric Arenou and two visiting astrostatisticians from Kolkata, India, whom I met in Bangalore two years ago. Working on a neat if no simple issue of inverted mean estimation. Second, because the place is beautiful, with great views of Paris (since the Observatoire is on a ridge), and with a classical-looking building actually made of recycled castle parts after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, and because Frédéric gave us a grand tour of place. And third, because I went there by bike through the Forêt de Meudon which I did not suspect was that close to home and which I crossed on downhill muddy trails that made me feel far away from Paris! And giving me the opportunity to test the mettle of a new mountain bike elsewhere than again Parisian SUVs. (This was the first day of a relatively intense biking week, which really helped with the half-marathon training: San Francisco ½ is in less than a month!!! And I am in wave 2!)
the god delusion [statistically speaking]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags atheism, Bangalore, India, Philosophy of religions, Philosophy of Science, Richard Dawkins on August 22, 2014 by xi'an
While in Bangalore, I spotted Richard Dawkins’ The God delusion in the [fantastic if chaotic] campus bookstore and bought the Indian edition for a nominal amount. I read most of it during my week in Boston. And finished by the lake in Maine. While I agree with most of the points made in Dawkins’ book about the irrationality of religions, and of their overall negative impact on human societies, I found the first part rather boring in that I see little appeal in dissecting so minutely the [infinitely many] incoherences of religious myths and beliefs, as this will likely miss the intended target [i.e., literal believers]. Similarly, the chapter on evolution versus intelligent design made valuable points, albeit I had already seen them before. Nothing wrong with repeating those, in particular that evolution has little to do with chance, but again unlikely to convince the [fundamentalist] masses. Overall, the book mostly focus on the Judeo-Christian-Muslim branch of religions, which may reflect on the author’s own culture and upbringing but also misses the recent attempts of Buddhism to incorporate science into their picture.
“A universe in which we are alone except for other slowly evolved intelligences is a very different universe from one with an original guiding agent whose intelligent design is responsible for its very existence.” (p.85)
What is most interesting in the book (for me) is when Dawkins tries to set the God hypothesis as a scientific hypothesis and to apply scientific methods to validate or invalidate this hypothesis. Even though there is no p-value or quantitative answer at the end. Despite the highly frequent use of “statistical” and “statistically improbable” in the corresponding chapter. What’s even more fascinating is Dawkins’ take at Bayesian arguments! Either because it is associated with a reverent or because it relies on subjective prior assessments, Bayesian statistics does not fit as a proper approach. Funny enough, Dawkins himself relies on subjective prior probabilities when discussing the likelihood of find a planet such as Earth. Now, into the details [with the Devil1] in a rather haphazard order or lack thereof: Continue reading
Bangalore workshop [ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರ] and new book
Posted in Books, pictures, R, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bangalore, book review, CHANCE, EM, IFCAM, Indian Institute of Science, INRIA, Kolkata, Marc Lavielle, MCMC, mixed effect models, Monolix, SAEM on August 13, 2014 by xi'an
On the last day of the IFCAM workshop in Bangalore, Marc Lavielle from INRIA presented a talk on mixed effects where he illustrated his original computer language Monolix. And mentioned that his CRC Press book on Mixed Effects Models for the Population Approach was out! (Appropriately listed as out on a 14th of July on amazon!) He actually demonstrated the abilities of Monolix live and on diabets data provided by an earlier speaker from Kolkata, which was a perfect way to start initiating a collaboration! Nice cover (which is all I saw from the book at this stage!) that maybe will induce candidates to write a review for CHANCE. Estimation of those mixed effect models relies on stochastic EM algorithms developed by Marc Lavielle and Éric Moulines in the 90’s, as well as MCMC methods.
