Tuesdays 1:30pm - 2:20pm, Math Tower (MW) 154

Organizer: Gary Kennedy (kennedy@math.ohio-state.edu)

The seminar was started last quarter by Linda Chen (lchen@math.ohio-state.edu), and I have taken over much of the following from her previous seminar web page.


Description:

(written by Linda Chen)

Algebraic Statistics is concerned with problems that lie at the intersection of algebra, geometry, combinatorics, and statistics. Methods from algebra and geometry can be used to make statistical inferences; many statistical models for discrete random variables can be represented by classical algebraic varieties, e.g. secant varieties and toric varieties.

The goal of this seminar will be to understand this connection and its statistical consequences, for example, in maximum likelihood estimation. We will also discuss applications to computational biology, in particular to genome sequence analysis. Further topics will be determined by the interests of the participants.

One of the goals of this seminar is to foster interactions between the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI) and the Department of Mathematics. Graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members of all fields are welcome. No expertise in algebraic geometry, statistics, or math biology will be assumed.


Some references:


Schedule:

The schedule is subject to change. Check every week for updated listings. For the Autumn 2007 schedule see Chen's page.

Date Speaker Title
January 8 Gary Kennedy Phylogenetic trees and Segre varieties
January 15 discussion Simultaneous alignment and phylogeny
January 22 discussion Aligning three sequences
January 29 (no meeting)
February 5 discussion Pearl-Kubatko modelling ideas
February 12 (no meeting)
February 19 discussion Pearl-Kubatko modelling ideas (continued)
February 26 discussion Pearl-Kubatko modelling ideas (continued)
March 4 Pearl-Kubatko modelling ideas (continued)