- SIPTA News - lists.sipta.org

congratulations to Michael Beer and possibility to join European Safety and Reliability Association
by Kreinovich, Vladik 31 Aug '22

31 Aug '22

Dear Colleagues, Our colleague Michael Beer from Germany - whose research is in uncertainty, including imprecise probabilities -- has just been elected Chair of the European Safety and Reliability Association ESRA https://esrahomepage.eu/ He will be the association chair for 2 years, with the possibility to be reelected for one more 2-year term. Congratulations to Michael! This organization sponsors annual conferences ESREL'XX. While this association is officially called European, it has been, in effect, a world-wide association, its conferences attract people from all over the world, and Michael - who has a lot of international contacts and collaborations - plans to actively continue enhancing the international status of his organization. The association accepts international institutions as members, the cost is only 115 Euros per year, and it brings discounts and other advantages -- see Michael's email below. Please contact Michael if your organization is interested in joining. I am sending him a copy of this message. From: Michael Beer [mailto:beer@irz.uni-hannover.de] Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2022 12:02 AM my appointment is for the next 2y term and can be extended by another 2 years. I will use this position to interconnect communities in the field globally and to tie in more leading experts from the field worldwide. ESRA is accepting membership from international institutions. The membership is for the entire institution. The annual membership fee is only 115 Euros. In return, participants of the ESREL conferences from the member institution get a discount of usually 100 Euros on fees. That is, when 2+ participants from the institution attend, it already pays off. If 5 participants come, it counts down 500 Euros, which is about one free ticket. Furthermore, membership would involve you in the developments and give you a nice exposure in the community. Michael

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Fall 2022 topics course: Imprecise-Probabilistic Foundations of Statistics & Data Science
by Ryan Martin 11 Aug '22

11 Aug '22

Dear SIPTA community, This coming Fall 2022 semester (starting August 23rd), I'll be teaching an advanced special topics course for Statistics PhD students at North Carolina State University entitled "Imprecise-Probabilistic Foundations of Statistics & Data Science". It's a typical, in-person lecture course, but the lectures will be recorded and made publicly available so, in principle, anyone who is interested can -- and is welcome to -- follow along or even participate in a non-credit-earning capacity. The course website, with some information about what I plan to do, is here https://wordpress-courses2223.wolfware.ncsu.edu/st-790-001-fall-2022/ This is where the lecture videos and other relevant materials will be posted. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions. Sincerely, Ryan Martin Professor Department of Statistics North Carolina State University Email: rgmarti3(a)ncsu.edu Web: https://www4.stat.ncsu.edu/~rmartin

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DA2PL 2022 - 2nd call for papers
by Sébastien Destercke 04 Aug '22

04 Aug '22

*** please disseminate this information to possibly interested persons *** ===========C A L L F O R P A P E R S============ DA2PL 2022: From Multiple Criteria Decision Aid to Preference Learning Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France November 17-18, 2022 https://da2pl.pre.utc.fr/ ======== AIM ======== DA2PL 2022 (From Multiple Criteria Decision Aid to Preference Learning) aims to bring together researchers from decision analysis and machine learning. It provides a forum for discussing recent advances and identifying new research challenges in the intersection of both fields, thereby supporting a cross-fertilisation of these disciplines. Following the five previous editions of this workshop, which took place in Mons in 2012, Paris in 2014, Paderborn in 2016, Poznan in 2018, and Trento (virtually) in 2020, DA2PL 2022 will be held at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France, the 17 and 18 november. =================== Keynote SPEAKERS =================== We are delighted to announce that the following persons have accepted to give a keynote speech at the conference: * Denis Bouyssou, Université Paris Dauphine, LAMSADE * Nicolas Usunier, Facebook AI research * Thomas Augustin, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich =================== AMAI special issue =================== We are also happy to announce that, in partnership with the journal "Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence", we will propose to authors of selected papers to submit an extended version of their submission to an AMAI special issue focusing on recent advances of preference handling. ================= Important dates ================= May 1st: submissions open September 15th: paper submission deadline (extended and final) October 10th: author notification November 3rd: Camera-ready version of papers November 17-18: Conference ======================== DA2PL 2022 vs COVID-19 ======================== We expect DA2PL to be mainly a physical event. We will provide a virtual option for participants wishing to be there remotely, but will request at least one full registration per submitted paper. ======== TOPICS ======== DA2PL 2022 solicits contributions to the usage of theoretically supported preference models and formalisms in preference learning as well as communications devoted to innovative preference learning methods in decision analysis and multicriteria decision aiding. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - quantitative and qualitative approaches to modelling preferences, user feedback and training data; - preference representation in terms of graphical models, logical formalisms, and soft constraints; - dealing with incomplete and uncertain preferences; - preference aggregation and disaggregation; - learning utility functions using regression-based approaches; - preference elicitation and active learning; - preference learning in combinatorial domains; - learning relational preference models and related regression problems; - classification problems, such as ordinal and hierarchical classification; - inducing monotonic decision models for preference representation; - comparison of different preference learning paradigms (e.g., monolithic vs. decomposition); - ranking problems, such as object ranking, instance ranking and label ranking; - complementarity of preference models and hybrid methods; - explanation of recommendations; - applications of preference learning, such as web search, information retrieval, electronic commerce, games, personalization, recommender systems, … ============= Submissions ============= Submissions must be written in English and formatted according to the electronic template that is available at https://da2pl.pre.utc.fr/wp-content/uploads/sites/70/2022/03/DA2PL22_templa… The page limit is 8 for full papers, although extended abstracts (maximum two pages) are welcome, too. As usual for DA2PL, submissions are NOT anonymous. According to the template, names of authors should be stated in the manuscript. All submissions will be reviewed by at least two referees. Submissions must be submitted through EasyChair at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=da2pl Following a successful experience from the latest editions, DA2PL will provide a special opportunity for doctoral students to explore and develop their research interests. A special session at the conference will be devoted to PhD students, for presenting and discussing their ongoing research work. Therefore, we specifically encourage young researchers to submit their work (as full paper or extended abstract, depending on the maturity of the PhD project); the submission site will provide the option to mark a submission as a student paper. =========================== Organization and contacts =========================== General chairs Khaled Belahcene, Université de Technologie de Compiègne (khaled.belahcene(a)hds.utc.fr) Sébastien Destercke, Université de Technologie de Compiègne (sebastien.destercke(a)utc.fr)

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Call for online participation: "Reasoning and uncertainty: probabilistic, logical, and psychological perspectives" (Aug. 9-10, 2022)
by Niki Pfeifer 02 Aug '22

02 Aug '22

The aim of this interdisciplinary workshop is to bring together philosophers, probability theorists, logicians, artificial intelligence researchers, and psychologists to discuss selected problems in the broad domains of reasoning and uncertainty, including inferences about conditionals, inconsistency, and coherence, how to argue and make decisions rationally, and how to represent and manage uncertainty and incomplete knowledge. We also aim to discuss philosophical foundations and methodological questions concerning reasoning research. For example, whether and how combining conceptual, formal (like (non-classical) logic, (coherence-based) probability logic, artificial intelligence models), and empirical research methods may cross-fertilise reasoning research on normative and descriptive dimensions. Workshop website: https://go.ur.de/reasunc2022 Speakers Andrea Capotorti (University of Perugia, Italy) Nicole Cruz (University of Innsbruck, Austria) Chris Fermüller (TU Wien, Austria) Sabine Frittella (INSA Centre Val de Loire, France) Angelo Gilio (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) Anthony Hunter (University College London, UK) Gianluigi Oliveri (University of Palermo, Italy) David Over (Durham University, UK) Romina Schmid (University of Regensburg, Germany) Leon Schöppl (University of Regensburg, Germany) Bart Verheij (University of Groningen, Netherlands) Organizers: Niki Pfeifer (University of Regensburg, Germany) Hans Rott (University of Regensburg, Germany) Giuseppe Sanfilippo (University of Palermo, Italy) The workshop will be held in presence. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, we offer the possibility for online participation. Please register (for free) here: https://forms.gle/B1iEiA8JGK8Y5v8M6 The Zoomlink for online participation will be sent to registered participants shortly before the workshop starts. --- Dr. Dr. Niki Pfeifer | Department of Philosophy, University of Regensburg | https://go.ur.de/np ---

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ECONVN'23: deadline extended to August 31, 2022
by Kreinovich, Vladik 31 Jul '22

31 Jul '22

FYI, economics-related applications of imprecise probabilities are always welcome at this series of conferences *********************************************************** CALL FOR PAPERS The Sixth International Econometric Conference of Vietnam - ECONVN2023 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, January 9-11, 2023 https://hcm-hn.conference-econ-buh-bav-rist.vn/ Main theme: OPTIMAL TRANSPORT STATISTICS FOR ECONOMICS AND RELATED TOPICS The first Conference ECONVN2018 focused on the main theme "Econometrics for Financial Applications"; selected papers were published in the Springer Series in Computational Intelligence, # 760, 2018. The main theme of the second Conference ECONVN2019 was "Beyond Traditional Probabilistic Methods in Economics"; selected papers were published in the Springer series in Computational Intelligence, # 908, 2019. The main theme of the third Conference ECONVN2020 was "Data Science for Financial Econometrics"; selected papers were published in the Springer series in Computational Intelligence, # 898, 2020. The main theme of the fourth conference ECONVN2021 was "Prediction and Causality in Econometrics and Related Topics"; selected papers were published in the Springer series in Computational Intelligence, # 983, 2021 The main theme of the fifth conference ECONVN2022 was "Financial Econometrics: Bayesian Analysis, Quantum Uncertainty, and Related Topics"; selected papers will also appear in the new Springer series "Studies in Systems, Decision, and Control", 2022. The main theme of the sixth conference ECONVN2023 is "Optimal Transport Statistics for Economics and Related Topics". Selected papers will be published in the Springer series "Studies in Systems, Decision, and Control" (Scopus, DBLP, WTI Frankfurt eG, zbMATH, SCImago) and will be submitted for consideration in Web of Science (ISI). Venue: Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City, 36 Ton That Dam Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Conference Date: January 9-11, 2023 Conference Website: hcm-hn.conference-econ-buh-bav-rist.vn Point of Contact: vietnam.buh.econvn(a)gmail.com<mailto:vietnam.buh.econvn@gmail.com> Tel: (84) 28.382.102.38 The Conference welcomes research contributions to all aspects of financial econometrics, with special emphasis on, but not limited to different techniques: * Optimal Transport Statistics * Bayesian Analysis; * Predictive Modeling; * Causal Inference; * Machine Learning; * Artificial Intelligence * Intelligent Data Analysis; * Big Data Techniques; and their applications to: * Economics and international economics; * Money market and capital market; * Public and corporate finance. Publications: Accepted papers must be presented at the Conference which will be published (few months after the conference dates) in the Springer Volume, Series: STUDIES IN SYSTEMS, DECISION AND CONTROL (Economics, Social and Life Science Classifications) Indexed by SCOPUS, SCImago (submitted for Web of Science) Important Dates: * Paper submission deadline: August 31, 2022. * Notification of acceptance: October 1, 2022. * Camera-Ready Manuscript: October 31, 2022. Instructions for Submissions: * Get your account on EasyChair (then click on Conferences, on ECONVN2023) and submit your PDF files to EasyChair. Link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=econvn2023 * Make sure your PDF files have Authors' EMAILS on them for correspondence. Registration Fee 1. Presenters * Presenter + publication USD 200 (non-residents)/VND 9,600,000 (residents) * Student + publication USD 100 (non-residents)/VND 4,800,000 (residents) 2. Participants: * General USD 100 (non-residents)/VND 2,300,000 (residents) * Student USD 30 (non-residents)/VND 1,000,000 (residents) Authors from Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City and Co-organizers are discounted by 50%. Plenary Invited Speakers (Tentative) * Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier (France) * Vladik Kreinovich (USA) * Hung T. Nguyen (USA & Thailand) * Tonghui Wang (USA) * John Harding (USA) * William Briggs (USA) * Mark Schaffer (UK) * Polina Khrennikova (UK) * Woraphon Yamaka (Thailand) * Daniel S. Hain (Denmark) * Katsuhiro Sugita (Japan) * Vyacheslav Yukalov (Russia) General Chair Doan Thanh Ha (Chair) Nguyen Duc Trung (Co-chair) Nguyen Tran Phuc Ha Thi Thieu Dao Organizing Committee CHAIR: NGUYEN NGOC THACH Secretary: Pham Thi Thuy Diem Scientific Committee CHAIR: HUNG T. NGUYEN (USA & THAILAND) Members: Vladik Kreinovich (USA) Nguyen Duc Trung (Vietnam) Nguyen Thi Canh (Vietnam) Nguyen Trong Hoai (Vietnam) Tonghui Wang (USA) William Briggs (USA) Mark Schaffer (UK) Janusz Kacprzyk (Poland) Emmanuel Haven (Canada) Polina Khrennikova (UK) Woraphon Yamaka (Thailand) Nguyen Ngoc Thach (Vietnam) Duan Jin-Chuan (Singapore) Poom Kumam (Thailand) Bernadette Bouchon-Meunier (France) John Harding (USA) Cathy Chen (Taiwan) Boris Choy (Australia) Ying Chen (Singapore) Akira Namatame (Japan) Marc Paolella (Switzerland) Michael Wolf (Switzerland) Sa-At Nipong (Thailand) Radim Jirousek (Czech Republic) Vilem Novak (Czech Republic) Irina Perfilieva (Czech Republic) Galit Shmueli (Taiwan) Michio Sugeno (Japan) David Trafimov (USA) Boualem Dejhiche (Sweden) Vyacheslav Yukalov (Russia) Niels Haldrup (Denmark) Daniel Schmidt (Australia) Michael Eichter (Netherlands) Daniel Hain (Denmark) Rakesh Gupta (Australia) Paulo Fraga Martins Maio (Finland) Asian Journal of Economics and Banking (AJEB)

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First post in a series of interviews on the SIPTA blog
by Alexander Erreygers 08 Jul '22

08 Jul '22

Dear IP aficionados Do you know who in the SIPTA community would describe themselves as "jack of all trades, gamer and conversationalist" and has, to their own surprise, encountered the sequence of Pell numbers <http://oeis.org/A000129> in their research? Find out in SIPTA's latest blog post <https://sipta.org/blog/interview-sebastien/>, which is the first instalment in a new blog series of interviews with members of the SIPTA community on their career so far, their thoughts on imprecise probabilities, and more. The series is curated by our blog editors Henna Bains and Diego Estrada. Interested in writing a post for the SIPTA blog? Get in touch with Henna and Diego at blog(a)sipta.org. Every good wish Alexander Erreygers SIPTA's Executive Editor

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PhD student opportunity - Prognostics and Health Management solutions for Reliable Autonomous Systems
by Joxe Inaxio Aizpurua 06 Jul '22

06 Jul '22

*Prognostics and Health Management solutions for* *Reliable Autonomous Systems* *Description* The revolution in robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) is unstoppable. The advance of autonomous system applications, such as autonomous transport [1, 2] and autonomous inspections [3], generate multiple benefits for the industry and society, including the improved driving security in autonomous transport, and improved reliability of critical and remote infrastructure through specialized robots and drones. However, the reliability assurance of RAS is a complex challenge, as it requires incorporating advanced intelligence that should evolve according to run-time operation [4]. The challenging yet exciting, operation context of RAS, hampers the reliability assurance of RAS, which decelerates the acceptance and everyday use of RAS. Different technological solutions have emerged to improve the design and reliability of RAS [5]. Most of the technological configurations include a combination of mechanical and electrical components, along with onboard software intelligence to adopt decisions without direct human intervention. In this context, using the ever-increasing prognostics and health management solutions, it is possible to develop a prognostics modelling approach for RAS health monitoring using reliability, machine learning, uncertainty modelling and optimization methods [6]. The project’s objective is to develop novel prognostics methods for RAS, which can accurately inform about the model’s confidence in the decisions in real-time and the way to mitigate the existing problem via optimization methods, and always, provide a worst-case estimate on its predictions by using a proper modelling and update of the different sources of uncertainty. In particular, the work will focus on the integration of uncertainties to make prognostic predictions robust, using concepts such as adversarial learning, combined with statistical learning and artificial intelligence methods. The models developed in this project will be validated with the data collected from industry partners that work with autonomous robots focusing on (i) autonomous remote inspections for renewable energy and (ii) automotive industry. The project will be developed in <https://www.mondragon.edu/en/home>Mondragon Unibertsitatea within the Electronics and Computer Science Department, in collaboration between the Data Analytics and Signal Processing and Communications groups. Throughout the thesis, the student will engage continuously with industry and stays at different universities and/or research centers will be pursued. Interested applicants, send your CV and a short motivation letter to: jiaizpurua(a)mondragon.edu and ezugasti(a)mondragon.edu Application deadline. Review of applications will begin July 1st and continue until the position is filled. *Requirements* - M.Sc. degree in telecommunications, electronics, computer science, mathematics, embedded systems or a related area. - Programming skills: Matlab, Python, R, or C++ (samples from prior projects or a GitHub repository are preferred) - Statistics/mathematics, data science/AI/ML - Knowledge/experience with autonomous systems is a plus. - Knowledge/experience with reliability and/or diagnostics/health management methods is a plus. - Experience with artificial intelligence / optimization methods is a plus. *References* [1] Feng, S., Yan, X., Sun, H. et al. Intelligent driving intelligence test for autonomous vehicles with naturalistic and adversarial environment. *Nature Communications* 12, 748 (2021). <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21007-8> https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21007-8 [2] Ellefsen, A. L., Æsøy, V., Ushakov, S., & Zhang, H. (2019). A comprehensive survey of prognostics and health management based on deep learning for autonomous ships. IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 68(2), 720-740 [3] Floreano, D., & Wood, R. J. (2015). Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones. *nature*, *521*(7553), 460-466. [4] Aslansefat, K., Kabir, S., Abdullatif, A., Vasudevan, V., & Papadopoulos, Y. (2021). Toward Improving Confidence in Autonomous Vehicle Software: A Study on Traffic Sign Recognition Systems. *Computer*, *54*(8), 66-76. [5] Elghazel, W., Bahi, J., Guyeux, C., Hakem, M., Medjaher, K., & Zerhouni, N. (2015). Dependability of wireless sensor networks for industrial prognostics and health management. Computers in Industry, 68, 1-15. [6] Aizpurua, J. I., Catterson, V. M., Papadopoulos, Y., Chiacchio, F., & Manno, G. (2017). Improved dynamic dependability assessment through integration with prognostics. *IEEE Transactions on Reliability*, *66*(3), 893-913. -- *Joxe Aizpurua.*

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Second SIPTA seminar: 29th of June, at 15:00 CEST, Ruobin Gong talking about "Imprecise probabilities in modern data science: challenges and opportunities"
by Sébastien Destercke 17 Jun '22

17 Jun '22

Dear SIPTiAns and IP enthusiasts, We are delighted to announce our second SIPTA online seminar on imprecise probabilities (IP). These monthly events are open to anyone interested in IP, and will be followed by a Q&A and open discussion. They also provide an occasion for the community to meet, keep in touch and exchange between in-person events. For this second seminar, we are very happy to have Ruobin Gong as our speaker. After a PhD at Harvard, she is now assistant professor at Rutgers, working at the crossroad of imprecise probabilities, statistics and data science. On the 29th of June, at 15:00 CEST (up to 17:00 CEST, with a talk duration of 45min/1h), she will talk about "Imprecise probabilities in modern data science: challenges and opportunities”. Curious? Then check out the abstract on the webpage of the SIPTA seminars: sipta.org/events/sipta-seminars. The zoom link for attending the seminar will appear on that same page shortly before the event. So please mark your calendars on the 29th of June, 15:00 CEST, and join us for the occasion. And for those who missed the previous seminar and want to catch up, or simply want to see it again and again, it is now online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPER8Dfil66KZCYlsK86XCQ/featured. See you at the seminar! Sébastien, Enrique and Jasper

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Looking for test cases for imprecise/conditional probabilistic satisfiability/coherence checking
by Quaeghebeur, Erik 15 Jun '22

15 Jun '22

Dear SIPTA list, After having lain dormant, research on the CONEstrip algorithms [*] has awakened again. These algorithms are essentially meant for checking coherence of general sets of desirable gambles. This is very closely related to checking coherence of imprecise or conditional probability assessments and probabilistic satisfiability (PSAT). The classical CONEstrip algorithm assumes gambles are directly specified (as vectors); this corresponds to having an explicit description of the possibility space. The propositional CONEstrip algorithm assumes gambles are expressed as linear combinations of propositional sentences; this corresponds to specifying (imprecise/conditional) probabilities for events and relationships between events, but leaving the underlying possibility space implicit. A collaborator is working with my support on creating implementations and evaluating these. For the evaluation, we want to use realistic test cases. These are nontrivial to construct, certainly for the propositional context. Therefore, we are looking for such test cases. So I would like to ask you to send me any information you may have about existing test cases of this kind (or ones that are ‘close enough’). This can be in the form of pointers to papers with a description of one or more problems that may function as test cases or as pointers to files containing test cases encoded in some documented format. I am grateful for any input. Best regards, Erik [*] https://ac.erikquaeghebeur.name/?search=conestrip -- https://ac.erikquaeghebeur.name

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[UAI 2022] Call for Participation: Registration open & student scholarships available
by De Campos, Cassio 07 Jun '22

07 Jun '22

Dear all, We are excited to announce that the 38th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI 2022) will be held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, on August 1-5, 2022. The conference accepted 36 papers for oral presentation and 194 for poster presentation and will be single-track. Below we would like to share with you some updates: 1. Registration for UAI 2022 is open: https://www.auai.org/uai2022/registration. The early bird registration deadline is June 21st. When you register, you can choose to sign up as a potential discussant for an oral presentation. Being a discussant is a great way to learn about papers and to engage with other people at the conference. For more information, please see https://www.auai.org/uai2022/discussants. 2. Students are encouraged to apply for UAI 2022 student scholarships. The deadline for this is June 15. For more information, please see https://www.auai.org/uai2022/student_scholarships. 3. We are delighted to have Danilo J. Rezende, Eric P. Xing, Finale Doshi-Velez, Mihaela van der Schaar, Peter Spirtes, and Zeynep Akata as our keynote speakers, who will share with you exciting advances in many directions pertinent to UAI. 4. We are delighted to announce that the UAI 2022 competition (https://www.auai.org/uai2022/uai2022_competition) is starting soon. We hope to see many of you at UAI 2022, either in-person or online! Best regards, Marloes Maathuis & Cassio de Campos UAI 2022 General Chairs and James Cussens & Kun Zhang UAI 2022 Program Chairs

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