The Australian Antarctic Division will host a series of three workshops offered by Dr Simon Wotherspoon and Dr Ben Raymond to introduce and develop skills in Bayesian data analysis. The workshops will consist of a mixture of lecture presentations and hands-on practical sessions.

Attendees will need a windows-based laptop in order to participate in the computing sessions. Those without laptops will be able to pair up with someone who has, or follow along with the examples shown via the projector.

Those wishing to attend should contact Simon Wotherspoon (simon.wotherspoon@utas.edu.au/6226 6684) or Ben Raymond (ben.raymond@aad.gov.au/6232 3336).

Session 1

Friday 30 March 9:00 – 12:30
Venue: AAD Theatrette (Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston)

The first workshop will introduce the basic principles of Bayesian estimation, and demonstrate the use of WinBUGS software for a range of common statistical problems.

The final hour of this session will present some of the more mathematical aspects of Bayesian analysis and may not be of interest to all.

Session 2

Timing to be arranged

The second workshop will develop further skills with WinBUGS, and briefly discuss the problems of Bayesian hypothesis testing and model comparison.

Session 3

Timing to be arranged

The third workshop will discuss Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques for fitting complex Bayesian models. Again, this material will be of a more technical flavour and may not be of interest to all.