Workshop on statistics for geometric data and applications to anthropology

Overview

Date: June 18-22, 2018
Location: Penn State University
Topic: This workshop is part of a collaboration between the anthropology, statistics, and stochastics departments in Freiburg and Penn State on statistics for geometric data and applications to anthropology. With the proliferation of affordable biomedical imaging technologies, the statistical analysis of 3D shapes has become an important task in biological sciences. Ignoring their inherent structures and complexities can bias scientific conclusions, especially when there is large shape variability. This workshop addresses a blend of fundamental theoretical questions and applied problems with the goal of expanding the fields of functional data and shape analysis, focussing on anthropological applications.
Organizers: Philipp Harms (Freiburg University) and Matthew Reimherr (Penn State University)
Funding: We gratefully acknowledge support of the Freiburg-Penn State Collaboration Development Program 2018, which is co-funded by FRIAS and PSU.

Monday: informal discussions
- Thomas building room 424 (guest offices), from 9:30AM
Tuesday: shape analysis and differential geometry
- Thomas building room 120, from 9:30AM
- Matthew Reimherr: introduction to functional data analysis
- Philipp Harms: differential geometry of curves and surfaces
- Stefan Schlager: practical aspects and software
Wednesday: kernel methods in shape analysis
- Morning: informal discussions. Thomas building, room 424 (guest offices), from 9:30AM
- Afternoon: presentations. Thomas building, room 120, from 1:30PM
- Mark Shriver: data-analytic challenges in anthropological applications
- Bharath Kumar: kernel methods
Thursday: further discussions and planning
- Thomas building, room 120, from 9:30AM
Friday: workshop on emerging methods for sequence analysis
- ASI auditorium, from 8:30AM