Tracking the Curve: Analyzing the Emotional Response to COVID-19 1 min read · Tue, Jun 2 2020 Spotlight News Artificial Neural Network epidemiology artificial intelligence machine learning Hashtags like #covid19 and #coronavirus help us stay up to date on the developments of the new coronavirus pandemic. But beyond breaking news, tweets also offer a glimpse into the emotional side of the COVID-19 crisis.
Training agents to walk with purpose 1 min read · Sun, May 31 2020 News statistics big data Computer science By training a search agent to make smarter exploratory decisions, relational data can be classified more accurately and efficiently.
6G: The time is now! 1 min read · Sun, May 17 2020 News wireless telecommunication technology 6G While 5G companies and opponents are competing over the deployment of the first 5G platforms, the next generation of wireless telecommunication technology is being concocted right now in laboratories all around the world.
KAUST startup Edama Organic Solutions has been featured in Arab News 1 min read · Tue, Apr 21 2020 News Edama Throughout the world, organic waste generation is posing serious challenges, threatening food security and water purity and availability. Saudi Arabia is no exception.
CEMSE Division student spotlight: Gaurav Agarwal 1 min read · Thu, Apr 16 2020 News spatial statistics Environmental Statistics Gaurav Agarwal firmly believes in the age-old adage that patience is a virtue. Without patience, life’s challenges cannot be overcome, and a steadfast belief in perseverance has served the statistics Ph.D. student well throughout his academic career.
Flattening the sentimental curve 1 min read · Sun, Apr 12 2020 News machine learning artificial intelligence -By Meres J. Weche, KAUST News As municipal, regional and national governments have mandated longer and more restrictive isolation time periods to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and "flatten the curve," KAUST Associate Professor of Computer Science Xiangliang Zhang works on flattening the "emotional curve." Zhang's research focuses on developing reliable algorithms to analyze complex data sets through machine learning and artificial intelligence. Her research group specifically uses computer models to analyze social media posts on Twitter to study people's interests. When the
Unlocking coronavirus' secrets through cellphone data and social media 1 min read · Sun, Apr 12 2020 News Dr. Paula Moraga is part of a multidisciplinary KAUST research team that applies models to COVID-19. She has worked on projects examining malaria in Africa and leptospirosis in Brazil, and the models she develops rely on in-depth knowledge about each disease. "With malaria, for example, we know that it's transmitted by mosquitoes," said Moraga. "So, if some regions have a high density of mosquitoes, are close to bodies of water or have a lot of humidity, we know that we are going to probably see a high risk of this disease." Into the unknown In many places, malaria and leptospirosis
CEMSE Division startups in focus: Peregrine Genomics 1 min read · Tue, Mar 24 2020 News precision medicine big data artificial intelligence The future has already arrived when it comes to the most exciting and promising field of modern medicine—precision medicine.
Approximating a kernel of truth 1 min read · Tue, Mar 10 2020 News artificial intelligence machine learning Machine learning tasks using very large data sets can be sped up significantly by estimating the kernel function that best describes the data.
Wanfang Chen wins ASA ENVR Student Paper Award 1 min read · Mon, Feb 17 2020 News ENVR Wanfang Chen, a Ph.D. candidate in statistics, and member of Distinguished Professor Marc Genton’s Spatio-Temporal Statistics & Data Science (STSDS) research group, recently won a Student Paper Award sponsored by the Section on Statistics and the Environment (ENVR) of the American Statistical Association (ASA).
Internet of underground things to reveal buried vistas 1 min read · Sun, Feb 9 2020 News fuel-resources communications electrical engineering Pinpoint mesh of smart underground objects could give real-time 3D readout of fossil fuel reserves.
Distinguished Professor Marc Genton selected as the 2020 Georges Matheron Lecturer of the IAMG 1 min read · Tue, Jan 21 2020 Spotlight News IAMG Marc Genton, chair, and distinguished professor of the KAUST Statistics Program, was recently selected as the 2020 Georges Matheron Lecturer of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG).
Gaurav Agarwal wins IISA best student paper award 1 min read · Sun, Jan 19 2020 News Spotlight IISA Award Gaurav Agarwal, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in KAUST Associate Professor Ying Sun’s Environmental Statistics (ES) research group, recently won the best student paper award at the International Indian Statistical Association (IISA) 2019 Student Paper Competition for his paper titled “Bivariate Functional Quantile Envelopes with Application to Radiosonde Wind Data.”
Using Statistical Models to Solve Environmental Problems 1 min read · Wed, Jan 15 2020 Spotlight News spatio-temporal statistics computational methods Joining the faculty of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) six years ago gave statistics Professor Ying Sun a unique career opportunity: the chance to build and lead her own research group solving real-world problems.
KAUST STAT Students Launch First ASA Chapter Outside of the U.S. 1 min read · Mon, Jan 6 2020 News This October, Zhuo Qu, a Ph.D. candidate in statistics, along with several of her fellow Statistics (STAT) Program students launched the first-ever American Statistical Association (ASA) student chapter outside of the United States.
ActivityNet is featured in the 2019 Artificial Intelligence Index 1 min read · Sun, Dec 15 2019 News artificial intelligence Video Understanding ActivityNet is featured in the AI Index as the benchmark for the algorithms that can recognize human actions and activities from videos.
Drones deliver on internet connectivity 1 min read · Thu, Dec 12 2019 News communications electrical engineering IoT Hovering airborne vehicles could connect smart sensors to the internet of things.
2019 Statistics and Data Science Workshop 1 min read · Wed, Dec 11 2019 News data science statistics From November 18 to 20 the KAUST CEMSE Division has hosted the 2019 Statistics and Data Science Workshop. The workshop, organized by Workshop Chair Professor Ying Sun from the KAUST Environmental Statistics Group, featured 17 keynote talks from eminent data science researchers from Asia, Europe, North America and on-campus. Talks included: personalized recommendation by learning from heterogeneous graph data; dynamic spatial panel models; networks, common shocks, and sequential exogeneity; unbiased Markov chain Monte Carlo, plus many more.
A second wind for turbine design 1 min read · Sun, Dec 8 2019 News renewable energy wind energy statistics Better prediction of extreme winds at sparsely observed locations could help optimize the design of wind farms.
Testing barley's salt tolerance is a numbers game 1 min read · Mon, Dec 2 2019 News salinity tolerance statistics future food Factors influencing the tolerance of barley to saline soils have been uncovered using an advanced robust statistical technique.
CEMSE New Faculty: Ajay Jasra, Professor, Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences 1 min read · Wed, Nov 27 2019 News Bayesian Statistics Marko Chain Theory Ajay Jasra is a professor of applied mathematics and computational sciences who recently joined the KAUST CEMSE Division in July 2019.
Machine learning models gather momentum 1 min read · Sun, Nov 24 2019 News algorithms machine learning Computer science New methods for training machine learning models are quicker and more accurate than current approaches, previously considered state-of-the-art.
CEMSE New Faculty: David Bolin, Associate Professor of Mathematical Statistics 1 min read · Tue, Nov 19 2019 News spatial statistics spatio-temporal modeling David Bolin is an associate professor of mathematical statistics who joined the KAUST Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) Division earlier this month from the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. Before joining KAUST, Bolin received both his Ph.D. degree in mathematical statistics and M.S.c in engineering mathematics from Lund University, Sweden, in 2012 and 2007, respectively. Upon completing his Ph.D., he spent one year at Umeå University, Sweden, working as a postdoctoral fellow before moving to the Chalmers University of Technology. In 2016, Bolin became an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Gothenburg, where a year later he received the title of Docent in mathematical statistics.
CEMSE New Faculty: Joaquín Ortega Sánchez, Instructional Professor, Statistics 1 min read · Mon, Nov 4 2019 News Stochastic processes Gaussian processes functional data analysis Joaquín Ortega Sánchez is an instructional professor of statistics who joins the KAUST CEMSE Division after spending the last sixteen years working at the Mathematics Research Center (CIMAT) in Guanajuato, Mexico. Born in Venezuela, Ortega completed his postgraduate and graduate studies in London, where he studied mathematics at King’s College London, before obtaining his Ph.D. in Probability Theory across the city at Imperial College London. After his time in the U.K., he returned to his native Venezuela where he worked for over 20 years at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas. Over the course of his career, Ortega’s research work has focused on stochastic processes, specifically Gaussian processes and time series with applications in oceanography and biostatistics. And more recently his work has focused on functional data analysis.
AI reveals nature of RNA-protein interactions 1 min read · Wed, Oct 30 2019 News artificial intelligence Computer science A deep learning tool could help in structure-based drug discovery.
Shaking up the landslide model 1 min read · Thu, Oct 24 2019 News disaster management Environmental Statistics statistics Areas without earthquake monitoring systems could model the tremors by using data from local landslides.
Less chat leads to more work for machine learning 1 min read · Wed, Oct 16 2019 News machine learning Computer science Deep analysis of the way information is shared among parallel computations increases efficiency to accelerate machine learning at scale.
KAUST professors receive Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers 1 min read · Sun, Oct 6 2019 Awards Spotlight News uncertainty quantification bayesian inference computational fluids mechanics Mohamed Eddaoudi, KAUST distinguished professor of chemical science and director of the University's Advanced Membrane & Porous Materials Center, recently received the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers for Renewable Energy, an award presented annually by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation. Omar Knio, KAUST professor of applied mathematics and computational science, was also honored by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation this year as a joint recipient of the Shoman Award for Mathematical Modeling with Dr. Shaher Mohammed Ahmad Momani.
3 Faculty Positions in Statistics 2020 at KAUST 1 min read · Tue, Oct 1 2019 News statistics The 3 faculty positions are in the Statistics Program (http://stat.kaust.edu.sa) within the Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division. Currently, the Statistics Program has 7 core faculty and 10 affiliated faculty. We are primarily interested in applicants with strong background in one of the following areas: (1) Statistical Data Science and AI, including network data analysis and high-dimensional statistics (https://apply.interfolio.com/69165); (2) Statistical Climatology, with expertise in statistical analysis of climate model output data, in particular regional climate models, and in physical systems (https://apply.interfolio.com/69167); (3) Statistics for Public Health, including smart health data analysis, personalized medicine, and disease mapping (https://apply.interfolio.com/69168).
Expanding the scale of dangerous weather prediction 1 min read · Sun, Sep 29 2019 News Environmental Statistics A more accurate and efficient method of capturing the local factors that lead to extreme rainfall enables better flood prediction across larger regions.
KAUST Ph.D. student receives environmetrics best poster award 1 min read · Tue, Sep 24 2019 News Spotlight Environmental Statistics Ghulam Qadir, a third-year Ph.D. student in KAUST Associate Professor Ying Sun's Environmental Statistics research group, recently received a best poster award from the Italian Environmetrics Society (GRASPA) and the International Environmetrics Society (TIES) at the GRASPA 2019 conference held from July 15 to 16 in Pescara, Italy.
Honing in on hotspots in spatial data 1 min read · Sun, Sep 15 2019 News statistics Environmental Statistics More accurate detection of hotspot clusters provides new insights into the behavior of air pollution.
KAUST Professor Peter Richtárik wins Distinguished Speaker Award 1 min read · Sun, Sep 15 2019 Awards Spotlight News optimization machine learning big data Peter Richtárik, KAUST professor of computer science, recently received a Distinguished Speaker Award at the Sixth International Conference on Continuous Optimization (ICCOPT 2019) held in Berlin from August 3 to 8. ICCOPT 2019 was organized by the Mathematical Optimization Society and was hosted this year by the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics.
Marc Genton received an ISI Service Award 2019 1 min read · Sun, Sep 15 2019 Awards Spotlight News statistics visualization computational predictions Marc Genton, Chair and Distinguished Professor of the Statistics Program of KAUST and Head of the Spatio-Temporal Statistics and Data Science Research Group, received an International Statistical Institute (ISI) Service Award 2019 for his efforts and leadership as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Stat. Professor Genton received his award at the Awards Ceremony during the World Statistical Congress (WSC) 2019 held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 18-23 August 2019.
KAUST Assistant Professor Raphaël Huser receives American Statistical Association award 1 min read · Tue, Sep 3 2019 News Statistics of extremes spatio-temporal statistics copulas KAUST Assistant Professor Raphaël Huser recently received the American Statistical Association's (ASA) 2019 Section on Statistics and the Environment (ENVR) Early Investigator Award for his outstanding contributions to environmental statistics. He accepted the award at the 2019 Joint Statistical Meetings held in Denver, Colorado, U.S., from July 27 to August 1.
R-INLA used to accurately predict forest fires in Portugal 1 min read · Wed, Aug 28 2019 News Professors Maria Antónia da Conceição Abrantes Amaral Turkman and Kamil Feridum Turkman, from the University of Lisbon used the INLA methodology and specifically SPDE's (using R-INLA), to do the official risk assessment for forest fire prediction in Portugal for 2018. The prediction s turned out to be very accurate and a new study is on the way for updating the predictions for 2020 with more detailed data.
Measuring solar stores of the Arabian Peninsula 1 min read · Tue, Aug 20 2019 News meteorology climate science solar energy supercomputing earth science and engineering Mapping variations in sunlight across the Arabian Peninsula reveals a bright future for solar energy in the region.
Statistics plot pollution to inform policy 1 min read · Sun, Aug 18 2019 News Environmental Statistics climate science pollution The spatial variation in different air pollution components helps identify possible targets for pollution control.
A breath of fresh information to help diagnosis 1 min read · Sun, Aug 4 2019 News communication networks wireless networks energy harvesting cognitive radio systems A communications concept could pinpoint a person infected with a deadly, contagious virus in the middle of a crowded airport.
Epilepsy study shows the shape of things to come 1 min read · Sun, Jul 21 2019 News brain science bioscience statistics Pyramidal graphs resulting from statistical analyses of EEG recordings can improve our understanding of epileptic seizures.
Teamwork pays off at startup Insyab 1 min read · Mon, Jul 8 2019 News robot drones wireless connectivity algorithm Energy-efficient wireless multihop networks Cross-layer protocol design Insyab, a technology startup specializing in smart solutions allowing robots and drones to collaborate on the execution of common tasks, resulted from three years of its founders' dedicated research at KAUST.
Red Sea temperatures to cool in coming decades 1 min read · Sun, Jul 7 2019 News geophysical fluid systems Bayesian Estimation uncertainty quantification Exploring the links between natural climate cycles and the sea-surface temperature of the Red Sea reveals a cooling trend during the next few decades.
Accelerating the grapevine effect 1 min read · Sun, Jul 7 2019 News optimization machine learning big data By looking at classical gossip algorithms from a novel perspective, KAUST Professor Peter Richtarik has found a way to significantly speed up gossip-based information sharing, and in the process, he discovered new applications for this efficient mathematical approach. Gossip involves the sharing of information between individuals in a network and can be applied mathematically in both human social networks and data networks, such as distributed sensors. “A network is a collection of nodes, each connected to other nodes via links,” explains Richtarik. “In social networks, for instance
New paper accepted in JGR - Earth Surface 1 min read · Tue, Jun 25 2019 Spotlight News Statistics of extremes Bayesian Statistics New accepted paper: Lombardo, L., Bakka, H., Tanyas, H., van Westen, C., Mai, P. M., and Huser, R. (2019+), Geostatistical modeling to capture seismic-shaking patterns from earthquake-induced landslides, Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface [ PDF preprint]
New paper accepted in JABES 1 min read · Tue, Jun 25 2019 Spotlight News extreme weather spatio-temporal statistics Statistics of extremes New accepted paper: Castro-Camilo, D., Huser, R., and Rue, H. (2019+), A spliced Gamma-generalized Pareto model for short-term extreme wind speed probabilistic forecasting, Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, to appear [ PDF preprint]
Simulating Red Sea water exchanges 1 min read · Sun, Jun 23 2019 News oceanography Red Sea earth science and engineering Powerful computer simulations are revealing new insights into water exchanges between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Changing how we predict coral bleaching 1 min read · Tue, Jun 18 2019 News algorithm coral bleaching climate science earth science and engineering A remote sensing algorithm offers better predictions of Red Sea coral bleaching and can be fine tuned for use in other tropical marine ecosystems.
Remote sensing of toxic algal blooms 1 min read · Thu, Jun 13 2019 News Red Sea environment marine science earth science and engineering Algal blooms in the Red Sea can be detected with a new method that accounts for dust storms and aerosols.
Study finds Red Sea may be cooling rather than warming 1 min read · Thu, May 30 2019 News Bayesian Estimation Geophysical Fluid Modeling uncertainty quantification A recent study by a team including KAUST Earth scientists and oceanographers revealed that surface temperatures in the Red Sea may be cooling rather than rising. Analysis of long-term data sets shows that the current high warming rates of the Red Sea appear to be a combined effect of global warming and natural long-duration changes in sea surface temperature. "Our study has revealed a sequence of alternating positive and negative trends in Red Sea surface temperatures. Over the next decades, the trends indicate a cooling phase that may counter the effects of global warming," stated Ibrahim
Taking aim at outliers 1 min read · Sun, May 5 2019 News statistics Environmental Statistics Automatic detection of uncharacteristic data sequences could change the way data is processed and analyzed.
