Seminars
WCPM hosts regular seminars where we invite speakers working both in fundamental methodology and on applications of predictive modelling and UQ.
From October 2016, the seminars are on Mondays, 1pm and joint with the Centre for Scientific Computing, with a focus on all aspects of research involving significant computational resource. Venues are alternating between PS0.17a (Physical Sciences) and D2.02 (Engineering), and a sandwich lunch is available from 12:45pm.
If you would like to be kept informed of upcoming seminars, please do sign up here or send an email to wcpm-seminar-join at listserv dot csv dot warwick dot ac dot uk.
Details of past presentations are below.
Upcoming Seminars
Ozsel Kilinc (WMG)
Multi-agent Deep Reinforcement Learning with Extremely Noisy Observations
Reinforcement Learning (RL) is concerned with enabling agents, i.e. decision makers, to learn how to accomplish a task by taking sequential actions in a given stochastic environment and relies on Markov Decision Processes (MDP). In recent years, Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), which leverages RL approaches using Deep Neural Network based function approximators, has been proved to achieve human-level performance in a number of applications requiring an individual agent, mostly gaming environments. Many real-world applications, on the other hand, can be modelled as multi-agent systems, e.g. autonomous driving, energy management, fleet control, trajectory planning, and network packet routing. Straightforward applications of single-agent DRL methodologies for learning a multi-agent policy are not well suited due to severe non-stationarity and partial observability issues inherently existing in multi-agent systems. In this talk, we will first discuss these problems and briefly introduce the existing multi-agent RL (MARL) approaches in the literature. Then, we will consider a particularly challenging multi-agent learning problem whereby most agents' observations are both partial and extremely noisy, hence the existing MARL techniques fail to learn an optimal policy. We will present a multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm enhanced by a communication medium (MADDPG-M) which implements a two-level, concurrent learning mechanism to overcome the extremely partial observability and the accompanying non-stationarity. In this model, an agent's policy depends on its own private observations as well as those explicitly shared by others through a communication medium. As we consider a medium with limited capacity, at any given point in time, each agent must decide whether its own observations are sufficiently informative to be shared with others. Our experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm performs well in six highly non-stationary environments of progressively higher complexity, and offers substantial performance gains compared to the existing MARL baselines in the literature.
Past Seminars (2019/20)
| Date | Speaker | Presentation | |
| 20 Jan 2020 |  |
UK Atomic Energy Authority, |
Microscopic Models for Macroscopic Effects of Irradiation |
| 13 Jan 2020 |  |
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, STFC |
The Role of Computer Simulations in Large Scale Experiments: the Case of Muons |
| 2 Dec 2019 |  |
University College London
|
Modelling dynamics and thermodynamics of conformational transitions during the assembly of molecular crystalline materials |
| 25 Nov 2019 |
University of Warwick |
Computational approaches to study membrane proteins structures |
|
| 18 Nov 2019 |  |
The University of Manchester |
Course-grained modelling of complex systems: from molecular fluids to colloidal particles |
| 11 Nov 2019 |  |
Department of Chemistry |
A Dichotomy: Opposing partial charge representations for ionic liquids |
| 4 Nov 2019 |  |
CERMICS |
Self-consistency in density functional theory |
| 28 Oct 2019 |  |
ICAMS |
Extended timescales simulations of structural phase transformations in materials |
| 21 Oct 2019 |  |
Mathematics Institute |
Making a splash: designing a new framework for water collection efficiency on aircraft surfaces |
| 14 Oct 2019 |
|
School of Engineering |
Quantum and phonon interference enhanced molecular-scale thermoelectricity |
| 7 Oct 2019 |
|
Department of Physics & School of Engineering |
Learning atomic and electronic interactions from microscopic observables |
| 30 Sept 2019 |
|
Institute for Solid State Physics |
Rational Design of Hybrid Interfaces For Organic Electronics |
Past Seminars (2018/19)
| Date | Speaker | Presentation | |
| 24 June 2019 |
|
Theory & Simulation of Condensed Matter Group, Physics, King's College London |
Size and shape dependence of activity of metallic nanoparticles
|
| 17 June 2019 |  |
School of Computing, University of Leeds |
Interactive visualization for the design, prototyping and development of research software
|
| 10 June 2019 |
|
College of Engineering, Swansea University |
Mechanics of geometrically disordered cellular materials
|
| 03 June 2019 |
|
Department of Psychology, University of Warwick |
A Bayesian and Frequentist Multiverse Pipeline for Multinomial Processing Tree Models – Applications to Recognition Memory
|
| 20 May 2019 |
|
Institute for Future Transport and Cities, |
Atomic Scale Modelling of Diffusion in Energy Materials
|
| 13 May 2019 | |
Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick |
Physics+data-driven interatomic potentials based on permutation-invariant polynomials
|
| 29 April 2019 |
|
University of Leeds |
Atomistic spin dynamics with a quantum thermostat
|
| 11 March 2019 |
|
Fritz-Haber Institute, Berlin |
Nuclear quantum effects in weakly bonded systems
|
| 4 March 2019 |
|
Warwick Medical School |
The light microscopy imaging pipeline at Warwick Medical School
|
| 25 Feb 2019 |
|
Institute for Risk and Uncertainty, Liverpool |
Connections between Rare-Event Simulation and Bayesian Inference
|
| 18 Feb 2019 |
|
John Huber – University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science. Ananya Renuka Balakrishna – University of Minnesota, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics |
Phase field methods for simulating ferroelectrics and other materials
|
 |
|||
| 11 Feb 2019 |  |
CEA Saclay, France |
Free energy landscape of point defects in body centered cubic metals |
| 4 Feb 2019 |
|
Warwick Manufacturing Group |
Multi-agent Deep Reinforcement Learning with Extremely Noisy Observations
|
| 28 Jan 2019 |
|
Babraham Institute, Cambridge |
Modelling of Chromosome Structure and Function
|
| 21 Jan 2019 |
|
Warwick Mathematics Institute / Turing Institute |
Predicting risk of hospital admission and readmission of Scottish population; Measuring Sample Quality with diffusions
|
| 14 Jan 2019 | |
Elementary Particle Physics Group, Warwick Physics |
Reconstruction of neutrino-induced events in Liquid-Argon Time-Projection Chamber (LArTPC) Detectors
|
| 3 Dec 2018 |
|
Institute for the Physics of Living Systems, University College London |
Minimal coarse-grained models for biological assembly
|
| 26 Nov 2018 |
|
School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Stochastic Simulation of Reaction-Diffusion Systems
|
| 19 Nov 2018 |
|
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Materials, Imperial College |
Simulating charged defects in 2d materials: how we taught electronic screening to machines
|
| 12 Nov 2018 |
|
Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling, School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Modifying the bandstructure of half-Heuslers to improve their thermoelectric power factor
|
| 05 Nov 2018 |
|
Faculty Research Centre in Flow Measurement and Fluid Mechanics, Coventry University |
Monte Carlo methods for massively parallel architectures
|
| 29 Oct 2018 |
|
Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling, University of Warwick |
Electron-spin mediated distortion in metallic systems
|
| 15 Oct 2018 |
|
Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling, University of Warwick |
First principles design of new multiferroic materials
|
| 08 Oct 2018 | |
Andrew Davis UK Atomic Energy Authority, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Abingdon |
High Performance and CAD based Radiation Transport
|
Past Seminars (2017/18)
| Date | Speaker | Presentation | |
| 25 June 2018 |
|
School of Mathematics and Physics |
Variations on kernel density estimation |
| 18 June 2018 |
|
Department of Mathematical Sciences |
A performance portable framework for molecular simulations |
| 11 June 2018 |
|
Physics Department |
A predilection for precise prediction: trying to model materials reliably |
|
21 May 2018 |
|
School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) |
Modelling aggregation-induced emission in organic crystals |
| 16 May 2018 |
|
University of Texas at Austin |
Correlating structure and function for nanoparticle catalysts Abstract Slides |
| 30 Apr 2018 |
|
Chemical and Process Engineering |
Multiscale modelling of surfaces and interfaces |
| 30 Apr 2018 |
|
Warwick Mathematics Institute |
Predicting Rare Events via Large Deviations Theory: Rogue Waves and Motile Bacteria Abstract Slides |
| 12 Mar 2018 |
|
Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling, School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Large-scale real-space electronic structure calculations Abstract Slides |
| 05 Mar 2018 |
|
Department of Statistics, University of Oxford |
Biologically inspired de novo protein structure prediction Abstract Slides |
| 26 Feb 2018 |
|
Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA |
Large-scale real-space electronic structure calculations Abstract Slides |
| 19 Feb 2018 |
|
Tribology and Wear, Fraunhofer IWM, Freiburg |
Tribology of diamond and silicon: atomic-scale insights from computers simulations Abstract Slides |
| 12 Feb 2018 |
|
Department of Aeronautics, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London |
Uncertainty Quantification and Aircraft Engines Abstract Slides |
| 05 Feb 2018 |
|
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield |
Unusual Dynamic Processes in Polymer Nanocomposites Abstract Slides |
| 29 Jan 2018 |
|
Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling, School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Transport in two-dimensional materials Abstract Slides |
| 22 Jan 2018 |
|
Met Office |
Modelling clouds for weather, climate and beyond… Abstract Slides |
| 15 Jan 2018 |
|
Faculty of Engineering, University of Bristol |
Multi-scale cellular automata finite element (CAFE) framework for fracture in heterogeneous materials: to exascale via coarrays/MPI hybrid programming Abstract Slides |
| 4 Dec 2017 |  |
Ben Chapman |
Ion cyclotron emission as a diagnostic of the time evolution |
|
Demetris Marnerides WCPM/WMG |
Deep Learning for the High Dynamic Range Imaging Pipeline |
|
| 27 Nov 2017 |  |
Magnus Richardson Zeeman Mathematical Biology Institute, Warwick |
Neurons, Synapses and neuromodulators |
| 23 Nov 2017 |
|
Bálint Aradi |
DFTB+, the fast way of doing quantum mechanics Abstract Slides |
| 06 Nov 2017 |  |
Felix Hofmann Department of Engineering Science University of Oxford |
Atomic Scale Defects: Probing Structure and Function Abstract Slides |
| 30 Oct 2017 | |
Laura Ratcliff, Imperial College |
Upscaling DFT Capabilities for the Many Thousand Atoms Regime |
|
Jolyon Aarons, Warwick Physics |
Metallic DFT On Nanoparticles with Thousands of Atoms |
|
|
Luigi Genovese, L_Sim, CEA Grenoble |
Opportunities from Accurate and Efficient Density Functional Theory |
|
| 23 Oct 2017 |  |
Juergen Branke Warwick Business School |
|
| 16 Oct 2017 |  |
Reinhard Maurer Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick |
Controlled Self-Assembly, Switching, and Catalysis: |
| 9 Oct 2017 |  |
Gabriele Sosso Department of Chemistry, Unviersity of Warwick |
Predicting Crystal Nucleation Rates via Atomistic Simulations: The Case of Ice Nucleation Abstract Slides |
Past Seminars (WCPM & CSC, 2016/17)
| Date | Speaker | Presentation | |
| 26 June 2017 |
|
WCPM & School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Modular Bayesian uncertainty assessment for structural health monitoring
|
|
|
WCPM & School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Quantum transport simulations for understanding the thermoelectric effect in nanocomposites
|
|
| 19 June 2017 |
|
Research Software Engineering, University of Sheffield |
Bad software and how it's ruining your research
|
| 12 June 2017 |
|
Mathematics Institute and Center for Complexity Science, University of Warwick |
Oscillatory kinetics in cluster-cluster aggregation
|
| 05 June 2017 |
|
Department of Chemistry, University of Memphis |
The role of transition metals in the structure and reactivity of astrochemicals
|
| 22 May 2017 |
|
Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London |
Cracking me softly – the mechanics of hyperelastic Kirigami structures
|
| 15 May 2017 |
|
Physical Sciences, University of Kent |
First principles design of new multiferroic materials
|
| 13 Mar 2017 |
|
Warwick Life Sciences |
Design principles of cellular systems from evolutionary and systems dynamics perspectives |
| 6 Mar 2017 |
|
Reading Chemistry |
Computational thermodynamics: how to calculate phase diagrams without the fuss |
| 27 Feb 2017 |
|
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology |
Contact and cavitation: Computer models for tribological processes |
| 20 Feb 2017 |
|
Warwick Physics |
The dynamics and flexibility of biomedically important proteins: a combined computational/experimental approach to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
|
| 13 Feb 2017 |
|
Warwick Maths / WMG |
Computational and mathematical modelling of acoustic linears in aircraft engines
|
| 6 Feb 2017 |
|
Head of Research Software Development, UCL |
Computational Science As A Service: A new institutional model for research software engineering
|
| 30 Jan 2017 |
|
University of Bristol |
What is good research software, how can it be engineered, and is it deliverable within the constraints of academic projects?
|
| 23 Jan 2017 |
|
Connected Systems Research Group, School of Engineering, Warwick |
Exploring the Potential for FPGA Scientific Computing Research at Warwick
|
| 16 Jan 2017 |
|
James Elliot |
Interfacial barriers to thermal transport in carbon nanomaterials and polymer-nanotube composites: a molecular modelling study
|
| 5 Dec 2016 |
|
Christopher Robertson |
Diabatization strategies for non-adiabatic dynamics: photodissociation of acetylene and NO/Au 3 scattering
Abstract  |
| 28 Nov 2016 |
|
Ali Raeini |
|
| 21 Nov 2016 |
|
David Packwood |
|
| 14 Nov 2016 |
|
Steve Fitzgerald |
|
| 07 Nov 2016 |
|
Mikhail Poluektov |
|
| 31 Oct 2016 |
|
Paola Carbone |
|
| 24 Oct 2016 |
|
David Quigley |
|
| 17 Oct 2016 |  |
Tom Hudson Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick |
|
Past Seminars 2015/2016
| Date | Speaker | Presentation | |
| 31 May 2016 |  |
Ben Graham Department of Statistics, University of Warwick |
|
| 24 May 2016 |   |
Duncan Lockerby School of Engineering, University of Warwick David Stephenson School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Accelerating a multiscale continuum-particle fluid dynamics model
with on-the-fly machine learning
|
| 17 May 2016 |
 |
Gareth Conduit
Department of Physics, University of Cambridge |
|
| 10 May 2016 |
 |
Torgyn Shaikhina
School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Machine Learning for predictive modelling based on small biomedical and clinical data
Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 3 May 2016 |
 |
Department of Statistics, University of Warwick
|
Bayesian inference and model selection for stochastic
epidemics and other coupled hidden Markov models
(with special attention to epidemics of
|
| 26 Apr 2016 |
 |
Ariel Lozano
Basque Centre for Applied Mathematics |
Bond-selective chemical reactivity from first principles:
|
| 8 Mar 2016 |
 |
Predictive Multi-scale Modelling - an Interdisciplinary
Perspective and the Case of Density Embedding Methods
|
|
| 1 Mar 2016 |
 |
Department of Physics, University of Warwick
|
Quantum Engineering for electrons and spins
|
| 16 Feb 2016 |
 |
Igor Khovanov
School of Engineering, University of Warwick |
Dynamics of Large Fluctuations: from Chaotic Attractors to Ion Channels |
| 9 Feb 2016 |
 |
University of Warwick
|
Image clustering based on camera fingerprints |
| 2 Feb 2016 |  |
Scott Habershon Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick |
Progress and perils in predictive computational catalysis Abstract (PDF) |
| 26 Jan 2016 |
 |
Charles Gadd
Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling, University of Warwick |
Uncertainty Quantification with Gaussian Process Latent
Variable Models |
| 19 Jan 2016 |
 |
Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling,
University of Warwick |
Uncertainty Quantification Using Deep Gaussian Processes
and Variational Bayesian inference
|
| 8 Dec 2015 |
 |
School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham
|
Novel stochastic thermostats for rigid body dynamics
|
| 26 Nov 2015 |
 |
Technische Universität München |
Predictive Coarse-Graining Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 17 Nov 2015 |
 |
Department of Physics, University of Cambridge
|
Computational Materials Discovery meets Experiment Abstract (PDF) |
| 10 Nov 2015 |
|
Savvas Triantafyllou |
Towards a multiscale framework for robust simulation of inelastic dynamic processes Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 3 Nov 2015 |
|
Keith Refson |
Reliable Knowledge: How far can we trust electronic structure simulations? Abstract (PDF) |
| 27 Oct 2015 |
|
Manuel Aldegunde |
Exchange-Correlation Functional with Uncertainty
Quantification Capabilities for Density Functional Theory |
| 20 Oct 2015 |
|
Vahid Niasar |
Pore-scale analysis of dynamics of two-phase flow
in porous media |
| 13 Oct 2015 |
|
Stela Makri |
Dimensionality Reduction Methods in Predictive Modelling |
| 13 Oct 2015 |
|
Louis Ellam |
Approximate Bayesian Inference for Machine Learning |
| 6 Oct 2015 |
|
Matteo Icardi |
On the predictive capabilities of multiphase Darcy flow |
Past Seminars 2014/2015
| Date | Speaker | Presentation | |
| 25 Jun 2015 |
|
Nicholas Hine |
Excited state calculations and theoretical spectroscopy of complex nanomaterials using Linear-Scaling Density Functional Theory Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 18 Jun 2015 |
|
Andrew Stuart |
Probabilistic Numerical Methods for Deterministic Differential Equations Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 11 Jun 2015 |
|
Gábor Csányi |
Applying machine learning to quantum mechanics Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 4 Jun 2015 |
|
Shiwei Lan |
Sampling constrained probability distributions using Spherical Augmentation Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 28 May 2015 |
|
Łukasz Figiel |
Computational modelling for performance improvement of polymer nanocomposites Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 15 May 2015 |
|
Peter Brommer |
Uncertainties in classical effective potentials: sources and quantification strategies Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 7 May 2015 |
|
Mark Rodger |
Predictive Modelling: a view from the atomic level Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF, PPTX) |
| 30 Apr 2015 |
|
David Quigley |
Modelling crystal nucleation and growth Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF, PPTX) |
| 23 Apr 2015 |
|
Claudia Schillings |
Scaling Limits in Computational Bayesian Inversion Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 12 Mar 2015 |
|
Julie Staunton |
Density functional theory and slowly varying fluctuations at finite temperature to describe alloy and magnetic phase diagrams Abstract (PDF), Slides (PDF) |
| 5 Mar 2015 |
|
James Kermode |
Molecular Dynamics with on-the-fly Machine Learning of Quantum |
| 26 Feb 2015 |
|
Mark Girolami |
Differential Geometric MCMC Methods |
| 19 Feb 2015 |
|
Akeel Shah |
Efficient emulation of high-dimensional outputs using manifold |
| 12 Feb 2015 |
|
Neophytos Neophytou |
Electronic, thermal, and thermoelectric transport in nanostructures |
| 5 Feb 2015 |
|
Aretha Teckentrup |
Quasi- and Multilevel Monte Carlo Methods for Bayesian Inverse |
| 29 Jan 2015 |
|
Charo del Genio |
Constructing and sampling graphs with specified joint-degree matrix |
| 22 Jan 2015 |
|
Alfonso Jaramillo |
Predictive Modelling of Riboregulatory Circuits to Re-engineer Living Cells |
| 15 Jan 2015 | |
Tim Sullivan |
Consistency, Robustness, and Brittleness of Bayesian Inference |
| 8 Jan 2015 |  |
Jesper Kristensen Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca NY |
Uncertainty Quantfication with Surrogate Models in Alloy Modelling |
