Machine Learning Coffee seminar "Statistical Ecology with Gaussian Processes"

Jarno Vanhatalo, Assistant Professor in Statistics, University of Helsinki

On Priors and Bayesian Variable Selection in Large p, Small n Regression

Abstract: Ecology studies the distribution and abundance of species, and their interactions with other species and the environment. Key questions in ecology include what are the environmental factors and interspecies dependencies that drive species distributions, how these processes together affect species community structures and how environmental changes, such as climate change, affect species distribution and species communities. These questions are essentially about variable selection and causal and predictive inference. Hence, statistics has a central role in answering them. The species distribution models (SDMs) used for these analyses are traditionally based on generalized linear and additive models. In this talk I will present how Gaussian processes (GPs) can be used in SDMs and what benefits and challenges this provides. I will present recent results on GP based species distribution modeling in the Baltic Sea and Great Barrier Reef, Australia. I will discuss the potential future development and current challenges related to computation and model building.

Machine Learning Coffee seminars are weekly seminars held jointly by the Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. The seminars aim to gather people from different fields of science with interest in machine learning. Talks will begin at 9:15 am and porridge and coffee will be served from 9:00 am.

Next talks:

June 12, Otaniemi: Zhirong Yang: Learning Data Representation by Large-Scale Neighbor Embedding
--after June 12, we'll have a summer break and continue on September 4, 2017--

Welcome!