NEWSLETTER 1 for “STATS MEETS ML”
1/9/2024
Items in red are susequent updates
Dear in-person and remote participants,
“Stats meets ML” is now only a week away. We are all excited about it, and looking forward to your participation. We hope that you too will find it a great experience.
TIME and PLACE: The meeting will be from Monday 1.45pm till Thursday late afternoon (Sept 9th to 12th) in the Blackett Lab of Imperial College. The lectures will be in Lecture Theatre 2 on Level 1, and the poster sessions on the foyer of level 2.
GETTING TO IMPERIAL COLLEGE
The address of the Blackett Lab is:
Prince Consort Rd, South Kensington, London SW7 2BW.
For access to Imperial, see https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421/page/33594-venue-information
ARRIVAL at IMPERIAL:
Please register in order to pick up your badge, etc. Registration will be possible at the desk on Level 2, on:
Monday 9th 13.15 - 13.45, 3.45 – 4.15
Tuesday 10th 8.30 – 9.00, 12.30 – 13.00
At later times, there will be a box with named badges outside Lecture Theatre 2.
Please wear your badges at all times, and especially for entry to the workshop’s Dinner.
DINNER
The Dinner will be at the Ognisko restaurant, which is less than 10 minutes walk from the Blackett Lab.
A Google map showing the location of the venue can be found here. The simplest way to walk there from Imperial's Blackett buiding is:
Exit Blackett onto Prince Consort Rd, turn right and walk to the end (about 300 metres). Turn right onto Exhibition Rd, and Ognisko is on the left at 55 Exhibition Rd.
It will start at 7pm on Wednesday with a welcome cocktail, with the food being served from ~7.30pm. It will be a stand-up Dinner, to enable participants to mingle with each other. There will be plentiful food.
Using the information you provided on the Registration form, we are aiming to provide suitable food (and drinks) for everyone. To gain entry to the Dinner, please ensure that you wear your Badge.
LUNCHES
A free light lunch will be provided on Wednesday 11th in conjunction with Poster presentations.
For the various options available for other days, see the “Food on campus, Restaurants and Pubs section of https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421/page/33592-social-programme-practical-information
There will be members of Imperial who will be happy to guide you from the Lecture Theatre to the Imperial lunch locations (5 minute walk inside Imperial’s buildings)
STRUCTURE of MEETING
The optional talks on Monday afternoon are for participants who would like some extra background material before the rest on the meeting. There will be talks on:
Particle Physics for people in other fields, and similarly for Astrophysics
The range of ML uses in Particle Physics, and similarly in Astrophysics
Background information about Machine Learning.
Tuesday starts with 2 more detailed talks on ML usage in Particle Physics and in Astrophysics. The meeting ends on Thursday afternoon with 4 talks on personal Highlights of the meeting, given by a ML expert, a Statistician, an Astrophysicist and a Particle Physicist. Two threads are the ‘Anomaly Searches’ theme on Tuesday afternoon, and ‘Interpretability of ML procedures’, split between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning.
We also have 2 Poster Sessions.
For more details on the programme see the Timetable at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421
SPEAKERS:
A separate message has gone out to speakers.
POSTERS:
There are 2 Poster sessions. The first is with the Welcome Drinks event after the talks on Tuesday, and the other is with Wednesday’s light lunch.
A separate message has gone out to Poster Presenters.
See also https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421/page/35349-posters .
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS:
We will accept requests to ask questions or make comments from both in-person participants at Imperial, and from remote ones.
There are several methods of asking questions after a talk:
1: “Raise your hand”
2: Type a question into Zoom’s Chat or Q&A
3. Use Mattermost. A dedicated "Statistics meets ML" channel has been set up. There is a link on the Indico webpage menu which will automatically add you to the channel. For those of you without a CERN account, you can use Mattermost with the lightweight account used for the Indico registration. In contrast to Option 2, the conversations in Mattermost will be preserved.
We encourage speakers to check the Mattermost after their talk and respond to any questions which were not covered during the presentation.
CODE OF CONDUCT:
We are expecting plenty of lively discussions after the talks (and in the breaks in between). The time on the programme is divided approximately 2/1 for talks/discussion. We hope that comments/questions will be framed in a positive way – see our Code of Conduct at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421/page/33594-venue-information .
WHERE TO FIND HELP
If you need help with anything associated with the programme, transportation, local information, leaving a suitcase temporarily and collecting it, etc, you can:
i: Ask the person at the Registration Desk, when it is open;
ii: Find a member of the Local Organising Committee (identifiable by have a pink-coloured band for their badge);
iii: Visit the HEP Administration Office at room 542 on level 5 of the Blackett building; or
iv: Send an email to Rob Bainbridge (r.bainbridge96@imperial.ac.uk) or Louis Lyons (l.lyons@physics.ox.ac.uk )
ZOOM LINK:
To follow.
CONNECTING TO INTERNET AT IMPERIAL:
See https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421/page/34271-internet-access-on-site
======================================================
"Stats meets ML": Newsletter 2, 6th Sept 2024
(This Newsletter was updated over the week-end.)
Dear In-person and Remote participants,
If you haven’t already done so, please read Newsletter 1 on the website: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421/page/35514-newsletter
ARRIVAL AT IMPERIAL:
In order to get access to the Blackett Laboratory, please use the entrance on Prince Consort Rd, which is close to the junction of Prince Consort Rd and Queen's Gate (map). We advise you not to enter the Imperial campus via other entrances, such as the main entrance of the adjacent Huxley building.
Note that the entrance to Blackett (and all Imperial buildings) normally requires an access card; however, we will keep an eye on the main entrance at the relevant times of day. To help us ensure everyone can enter smoothly, we encourage you to arrive for registration around the following time slots, if at all possible: 13.30 - 14.00 (Monday 9th) or 8.30 – 9.00 (Tuesday 10th). In the unlikely event, you are unable to enter Blackett, please email fundamental-physics-admin@imperial.ac.uk or ping the Mattermost group (link here).
You will find the registration desk in the foyer area on level 2, just by the main entrance. Please collect your badge, and wear it at all times, especially to gain entry to the workshop dinner. There will be Imperial helpers (wearing badges with orange lanyards) and signage to help you find your way. Lecture Theatre 2 is very close, on Level 1 of the Blackett Lab, accessed down one flight of stairs or via the lifts.
Please note that the Monday afternoon session is now starting at 1.45pm, rather than the previously announced time of 2pm.
You should be aware that there is another Conference (NANDA2024) being held on Monday and Tuesday in the Blackett Lab.
Here is a map of the Imperial campus.
Please consult the meeting’s web-site (https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421/), which has recently be updated with a few additions and modifications. e.g. latest version of the full Timetable, and also a mini-version for seeing the general structure more easily.
ZOOM LINK:
https://cern.zoom.us/j/62711864233?pwd=ix1gZYHWUydmgoyF2DRftA0cKl71nA.1
Meeting ID: 627 1186 4233
Passcode: stats-ml
BAGGAGE:
If you arrive directly to Imperial with a case, it can be left locked in Blackett’s Room 521. Similarly if you are leaving directly from Imperial at the end of the meeting. Please ask at the Registration Desk for access details.
DISCUSSIONS:
We have arranged the schedule to have ~2/3 of the time for the lectures plus 1/3 for questions/comments/discussion. We encourage these to be lively and constructive, but to remain within PHYSTAT’s Code of Conduct (see https://indico.cern.ch/event/1407421/page/33591-code-of-conduct ).
INTERNET ACCESS ON SITE:
The preferred way to access the internet on site is via the Eduroam network which is possible provided you have an account with a participating institution, see instructions here for more information about how to connect.
Alternatively, we will also provide temporary user accounts to access the "Imperial-WPA" network for attendees that do not have access to Eduroam. Please contact us (fundamental-physics-admin@imperial.ac.uk) if you are not able to use Eduroam and will require a temporary user account so we can create one for you.
MATTERMOST:
Please register for the Mattermost channel, so as to be able to ask questions, join conversations, etc.
PHOTOGRAPHS:
We will be taking photographs during the event, which may be shared later on public websites; if you do not wish to appear in photographs, please contact us (fundamental-physics-admin@imperial.ac.uk) ASAP.
LUGGAGE:
There will be a locked room for leaving your luggage if you arrive directly to Imperial, of if you leave firectly from the meeting. It is on level 5 of Blackett, room 521. To gain access, go to the Administrators' room 542.
CONTACT:
As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your visit to Imperial. We can be reached via fundamental-physics-admin@imperial.ac.uk
WEATHER:
The forecast is not too encouraging, with more rain than sun. Maximum/minimum temperatures are expected to be 20C/11C on Monday down to 16C/7C on Thursday. Hope you enjoy your stay anyway.
