Archive for UK
ERC postdoc position on scalable experimental design, in Oxford, UK
Posted in Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bayesian deep learning, Britain, data-driven algorithms, ERC, ERC Starting Grant, European Research Council, experimental design, Horizon Europe, LLM, machine learning, postdoctoral position, scalable MCMC, simulation-based inference, UK, UKRI, uncertainty quantification, University of Oxford on August 8, 2025 by xi'an
2024 ERC Starting Grants announced
Posted in Kids, pictures, Running, Travel, University life with tags applied mathematics, Belgium, Brussels, conflict of interest, data science, ERC, ERC Starting Grant, EU grants, EU Horizon Europe programme, Europe, European Commission, European Research Council, European Union, Horizon Europe, panel, Paris Sciences et Lettres, PE1, PSL, pure mathematics, scientific computing, Statistics, UK, University of Warwick on September 22, 2024 by xi'an
Today the European Research Council (ERC) has made public which Starting Grants proposals were selected this year, for a total amount of €780m. Congrats to all recipients!
These include 14 grants for the PE1 panel in which I sat earlier this year for the fourth and final time. (The PE1 panel stands within the Physical Sciences and Engineering domain and covers pure maths, applied maths, mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics, and statistics.) I have found the whole experience highly interesting, from getting a snapshot of on-going directions in the broad field (for topics I could understand) to interacting constructively with colleagues from different fields and cultures, to appreciating the clear protocols and instructions provided by the ERC and its highly efficient officers, if representing a significant time investment over these years.
This round of selections saw the return of UK applications, following the long-delayed agreement between the EU and the UK, with Warwick Thomas Berrett’s proposal among the winners. (Whose evaluation I obviously took no part whatsoever, following ERC rules governing conflicts of interest. Ditto for applications from PSL.)
psyclepaths….
Posted in Running, Travel with tags bike accident, Coventry, cycle path, Daily Mail, Garmin, Kenilworth, law, London, Porte de Versailles, psychopath, road accidents, road safety, sculpture, UK, UK Government, UK politics, urban cycling, Valencia conferences on August 31, 2024 by xi'an
“In the six days since a law to prosecute dangerous cyclists was announced, somewhere close to 30 people will have been killed on UK roads, none of them struck by bikes. About 500 more will have suffered serious, potentially life-changing injuries, with pretty much all connected to motor vehicles. Again, going on the statistical averages, over those same six days, slightly more than 1,600 people across the UK will have died due to illnesses associated with physical inactivity. Riding a bike cuts your likelihood of developing such conditions by about half.” Peter Walker, Bike blog, The Guardian, 21 May 2024
Indeed, the UK Government is creating a new offence of “causing death or serious injury by dangerous, careless or inconsiderate cycling”! Where dangerous remains to be properly defined and assessed. (As most cyclists have no speedometer, and the remaining ones may prove more dangerous checking their speed on their Garmin watch! As I am when going downhill to Porte de Versailles around 40km/h…, if not 52mph as hilariously denounced by the predictably cyclophobic Daily Mail!) Another illustration of overreaction, cheap fear-mongering, and electoralist populism based on a single horrific deadly accident, and mostly missing the elephant in the room, that is, the lack of proper uninterrupted bike lanes and other infrastructures that should not be shared with pedestrians, cars, or buses. And the intentionally hidden disproportion between car-caused and cycle-caused deaths. (Of course, I am totally biased towards cycling, while some will consider my running managing red lights wanton and furious! But I stand by the fact that cycling usually gets the worst of car and pedestrian regulations.)
As an aside, the pun in the title first came to me as a joke told by Tony O’Hagan, presumably told at a Valencia meeting decades ago. Apparently it is popular enough to be adopted by cycling enthusiasts.
air shame [cover]
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags Amnesty International, asylum, Brexit, Conservatives, cover, deportation, flight, Human Rights, immigration, Libé, Parliament, Refugee Convention, Rwanda, UK, UK politics on April 25, 2024 by xi'an
off to Bristol
Posted in Statistics with tags Bristol, Clifton suspension bridge, COVID-19, England, FIMI 2024, functional inference, Greta Thunberg, lockdown, machine intelligence, machine learning, protest, UK, University of Bristol, workshop on March 24, 2024 by xi'an
