Introduction to Inverse Problems in Applied Statistics

When: 

28 October 2016, 9 am - 1 pm

Where: 

University of Technology Sydney - School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

The focus of this workshop is on processes that can only be studied indirectly, such as remote sensing in environmental science or geophysics, electrical tomography in industrial process modelling or positron emission tomography in medical imaging. Each of these processes can be studied under the common framework of Inverse Problems, an exciting research frontier that combines advanced techniques from both statistical research and applied mathematics.

This half-day workshop will cover core components and fundamental concepts in a tutorial style (Session 1), and then build an understanding of state-of-the-art techniques through applications (Session 2). The workshop will draw upon almost 30 years’ experience of interdisciplinary research, using a holistic approach that addresses a broad range of mathematical, computational and applications-driven topics. In particular, linear problems in geophysics (magnetometry) and medicine (SPECT/PET), and nonlinear problems in engineering and medicine (electrical tomography) will be introduced and discussed. From a statistical point of view, these can be seen as multicollinear regression problems.

Important topics to be covered include statistical model construction, parameterization and prior specification in nonparametric statistics, posterior inference and computation with Markov chain Monte Carlo methods.