Tuesday July 14th, 14:30-15:30
LARGE Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Institute of Public Health

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Prof Weng Kee Wong
University of California at Los Angeles

“Using Animal Instincts to Design Efficient Experiments for Biomedical Studies”

Abstract: Nature-inspired meta-heuristic algorithms are increasingly studied and used in computer science and engineering disciplines to solve high-dimensional complex optimization problems. These general optimization methods are simple to implement, very flexible and able to find an optimal or a nearly optimal solution quickly. In addition, they usually do not require any assumption on the function to be optimized and are generally not impeded by the technical or physical constraints of the problem.
I will first give a brief overview of optimal design methodology and recent advances in the field before I demonstrate the usefulness of some of these algorithms for generating different types of optimal designs for dose response studies. Specific applications include constructing efficient designs for estimating interesting features in compartmental models, Emax models and continuation ratio models with bivariate binary responses. If time permits, I will also discuss search algorithms for finding maximin or minimax types of optimal designs for a nonlinear model.

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Seminars at the BSU are aimed at a general scientific audience and open to individuals throughout Cambridge. If you are not at the BSU and wish to attend an BSU seminar, please contact Shaun Seaman.

Seminars take place at the Large or Small Seminar Rooms, 1st Floor, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, University Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0SR. Please notice that start and finish hours may vary. Tea and coffee are served afterwards. All are welcome to attend.

Programme for the MRC Biostatistics Unit Seminar Series.