Uncertainty, Risk and Related Concepts in Machine Learning. Machine learning is the science of making sense of data. It does not and cannot remove all risk and uncertainty. This project proposes to study the foundations of how machine learning uses, represents and communicates risk and uncertainty. It aims to do so by finding new theoretical connections between diverse notions that have arisen in allied disciplines. These include risk, uncertainty, scoring rules and loss functions, divergences, ....Uncertainty, Risk and Related Concepts in Machine Learning. Machine learning is the science of making sense of data. It does not and cannot remove all risk and uncertainty. This project proposes to study the foundations of how machine learning uses, represents and communicates risk and uncertainty. It aims to do so by finding new theoretical connections between diverse notions that have arisen in allied disciplines. These include risk, uncertainty, scoring rules and loss functions, divergences, statistics and different ways of aggregating information. By building a more complete theoretical map it is expected that new machine learning methods will be developed, but more importantly that machine learning will be able to be better integrated into larger socio-technical systems.Read moreRead less
Advanced Mixture Models for the Analysis of Modern-Day Data. Extracting key information from huge data sets is critical to the scientific successes of the future. This project will develop novel mixture models that can be used directly to analyse complex and high-dimensional data sets that may consist of thousands of variables observed on only a limited number of entities. In order to handle the challenging problems arising in the latter situation. This project develops mixtures of factor models ....Advanced Mixture Models for the Analysis of Modern-Day Data. Extracting key information from huge data sets is critical to the scientific successes of the future. This project will develop novel mixture models that can be used directly to analyse complex and high-dimensional data sets that may consist of thousands of variables observed on only a limited number of entities. In order to handle the challenging problems arising in the latter situation. This project develops mixtures of factor models with options for skew distributions that can be used to effectively analyse such data. Key applications include the domains of bioinformatics, biostatistics, business, data mining, economics, finance, image analysis, marketing, and personalised medicine, among many others.Read moreRead less
Joint clustering and matching of multivariate samples across objects. The project will provide a novel and very effective approach to the clustering of multivariate samples on objects, say patients, that automatically matches the sample clusters across the objects. A key application is the matching of biologically relevant cell subtypes across patients for use in the study and the clinical diagnosis and prognosis of cancer.
Machine learning in adversarial environments. Machine learning underpins the technologies driving the economies of both Silicon Valley and Wall Street, from web search and ad placement, to stock predictions and efforts in fighting cybercrime. This project aims to answer the question: How can machines learn from data when contributors act maliciously for personal gain?
Frontiers in inference about risk. The project aims to develop new methods for robust risk evaluation and minimisation under various constraints and scenarios. Risk evaluation, estimation and prediction using past data is a central activity in diverse areas such as finance, insurance, superannuation and environmental regulation. The project aims to propose and solve innovatively robust risk optimisation problems under constraints, taking into account the time dynamics. Applications include risk ....Frontiers in inference about risk. The project aims to develop new methods for robust risk evaluation and minimisation under various constraints and scenarios. Risk evaluation, estimation and prediction using past data is a central activity in diverse areas such as finance, insurance, superannuation and environmental regulation. The project aims to propose and solve innovatively robust risk optimisation problems under constraints, taking into account the time dynamics. Applications include risk management around natural catastrophes and long-term asset investment of pension funds. The solutions and outcomes are expected to deliver optimal resource allocation proposals and better management of risk exposure in practice.Read moreRead less
Expanding the role of mixture models in statistical analyses of big data. This project aims to develop theoretical procedures to scale inference and learning algorithms to analyse big data sets. It will develop analytic tools and algorithms to analyse big data sets which classical methods of inference cannot analyse directly due to the data’s complexity or size. This will accelerate the progress of scientific discovery and innovation, leading, for example, to new fields of inquiry; to an increas ....Expanding the role of mixture models in statistical analyses of big data. This project aims to develop theoretical procedures to scale inference and learning algorithms to analyse big data sets. It will develop analytic tools and algorithms to analyse big data sets which classical methods of inference cannot analyse directly due to the data’s complexity or size. This will accelerate the progress of scientific discovery and innovation, leading, for example, to new fields of inquiry; to an increase in understanding from studies on human and social processes and interactions; and to the promotion of economic growth and improved health and quality of life. Such applications should lead to breakthrough discoveries and innovation in science, engineering, medicine, commerce, education and national security.Read moreRead less
Theoretical Foundations of Ethical Machine Learning. The project aims to develop a systematic theory of ethical machine learning. Machine learning is a powerful and pervasive technology that is already having a huge impact on Australia. When applied to data about people there are a range of ethical harms that can arise (fairness, and privacy are two of them). The project aims to develop a rigorously grounded foundation for managing such ethical harms. For example it will allow the quantification ....Theoretical Foundations of Ethical Machine Learning. The project aims to develop a systematic theory of ethical machine learning. Machine learning is a powerful and pervasive technology that is already having a huge impact on Australia. When applied to data about people there are a range of ethical harms that can arise (fairness, and privacy are two of them). The project aims to develop a rigorously grounded foundation for managing such ethical harms. For example it will allow the quantification of the inevitable trade-offs between fairness and utility. The benefits of the project should include better ways of managing these trade-offs, a competitive advantage for Australian firms developing the technology, and will ensure that the country retains a social license to use the technology.Read moreRead less
Large-Scale Statistical Inference: Multiple Testing. Multiple testing procedures are among the most important statistical tools for the analysis of modern data. This project aims to develop new methods for providing more powerful simultaneous tests while controlling the proportion of false positive conclusions. They are proposed to be derived by the novel pooling of information in individual attribute based contrasts to produce a Weighted Individual attribute-Specific Contrast (WISC) based stati ....Large-Scale Statistical Inference: Multiple Testing. Multiple testing procedures are among the most important statistical tools for the analysis of modern data. This project aims to develop new methods for providing more powerful simultaneous tests while controlling the proportion of false positive conclusions. They are proposed to be derived by the novel pooling of information in individual attribute based contrasts to produce a Weighted Individual attribute-Specific Contrast (WISC) based statistic. They will also exploit contextual information. They are expected to be of direct application to the problem of testing for no differences between two or more classes, as in the detection of differential expression in bioinformatics. Other key applications are expected to include biomedicine, economics, finance, genetics, and neuroscience.Read moreRead less
A new approach to fast matrix factorization for the statistical analysis of high-dimensional data. Some form of dimension reduction is essential in order to extract meaningful information from huge data sets. For this purpose we provide a novel and very fast approach to the factorization of the data matrix. It has wide applicability for improving the quality and validity of research in science and medicine and in most industries in Australia.
Statistical methodology for events on a network, with application to road safety. This project develops new methods to analyse road traffic accident rates, aiming to identify accident black spots and to develop an evidence base for future road design and road safety management. These methods can be applied to other types of events on a network of roads, railways, rivers, electrical wires, communication networks or airline routes.