COMSTECH Webinar on Implicit BIAS Problems in High Dimensional Predictive Models: “Cutting the Bias”

Prof. Dr. Syed Ejaz Ahmed
Professor of Math & Statistics
Dean, Faculty of Math & Science
Brock University, Canada

Date and Time: July 15, 2022, from 15:00-16:30 (Pakistan Standard Time)
Venue: COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad.

Overview:

The rapid growth in the size and scope of data sets in a variety of disciplines have naturally led to the usage of the term, Big Data. The analysis of such data is important in multiple research fields such as digital marketing, gene expression arrays, social network modeling, clinical, genetics and phenotypic data, bioinformatics, and personalized medicine, among others. In high-dimensional models where number of features is greater than observations, a host of penalized regularization strategies were introduced for simultaneous model selection and estimation. Evidently, underfitted models are subject to inherited bias, and the prediction based on a selected submodel maybe risky. For this reason, a high-dimensional post shrinkage strategy (HDSS) is proposed to improve the prediction performance of a submodel.  The HDSS is constructed by shrinking an overfitted model in the direction of an underfitted model. It is demonstrated that the proposed strategy performs uniformly better than the overfitted model strategy, and it improves the prediction accuracy of a given submodel. The relative performance of the HDSS is appraised by both simulation studies and the real data analysis. Several examples will be provided based on some statistical models.

Target Audience:

The webinar is open to students, researchers, young scientists, and academicians from the OIC member states, and other countries.

For Registration please visit:

1. For physical participation (Participants from Islamabad and Rawalpindi only: Accommodation will not be provided) register at the following link: https://forms.gle/GWg4HGNduQH5kehX6
2. For virtual participation register at the following link: https://forms.gle/i4XbYwEji6NEoTQm6
3. Read instructions in the application form carefully and submit a properly filled form.
4.  Selected candidates will be notified through email; hence, applicants are required to check their emails regularly.
5. Zoom link will be shared with the virtual participants via email.

Venue:

The workshop will be held at the COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad, Pakistan. The city with the backdrop of Margalla Hills and National Park was purpose-built as the capital of sixth largest globally and second most populous (in OIC) country Pakistan in the year 1966. Pakistan, according to the Forbes magazine, is a hidden treasure for tourists with rich cultural diversity, ancient history, diverse landscape, cuisines, modern cities, and locally produced items.

Profile of the Speaker can be accessed at: https://brocku.ca/mathematics-science/mathematics/directory/syed-ejaz-ahmed/#biography

Workshop Coordinators:

1. Muhammad Haris Akram
   Program Manager
   COMSTECH, Islamabad.
   Email: haris@comstech.org
   Phone: +92 51 9220681
2. Muhammad Haseeb Ahmad
   Program Officer
   COMSTECH, Islamabad.
   Email: Haseeb.ahmad@comstech.org
   Phone: +92 51 9220681