In-person class cancellation and work-from-home / Annulation des cours en présentiel et télétravail

Updated: Tue, 03/10/2026 - 17:14
In-person class cancellation and work-from-home / Annulation des cours en présentiel et télétravail. McGILL ALERT! Due to freezing rain all in-person classes and activities on Wednesday, March 11, will be cancelled. Staff are asked not to come to campus tomorrow unless they are required on site by their supervisor to perform necessary functions and activities. See your McGill email for more information.
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ALERTE McGILL! En raison de la pluie verglaçante, tous les cours et activités en présentiel prévus pour le mercredi 11 mars sont annulés. Nous demandons au personnel de ne pas se présenter sur le campus demain, à moins que leur superviseur ne leur demande d’être sur place pour accomplir des fonctions ou activités nécessaires au fonctionnement du campus. Pour plus d’informations, veuillez consulter vos courriels de McGill.
Event

Marius Hofert (University of Waterloo)

Friday, December 4, 2020 15:30to16:30

Title: Quasi-random sampling for multivariate distributions via generative neural networks

Abstract

A novel approach based on generative neural networks is introduced for constructing quasi-random number generators for multivariate models with any underlying copula in order to estimate expectations with variance reduction. So far, quasi-random number generators for multivariate distributions required a careful design, exploiting specific properties (such as conditional distributions) of the implied copula or the underlying quasi-Monte Carlo point set, and were only tractable for a small number of models. Utilizing specific generative neural networks allows one to construct quasi-random number generators for a much larger variety of multivariate distributions without such restrictions. Once trained with a pseudo-random sample, these neural networks only require a multivariate standard uniform randomized quasi-Monte Carlo point set as input and are thus fast in estimating expectations under dependence with variance reduction. Reproducible numerical examples are considered to demonstrate the approach. Emphasis is put on ideas rather than mathematical proofs.

Speaker

Marius Hofert is an Associate Professor of Statistics in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at University of Waterloo, Canada. He obtained his PhD in Mathematics from University of Ulm in 2010. He then held a postdoctoral research position at RiskLab, ETH Zürich. Before joining University of Waterloo, he had a guest professorship in the Department of Mathematics at Technische Universität München and a visiting assistant professorship in the Department of Applied Mathematics at University of Washington, Seattle. Marius’ research interests are Computational Statistics and Data Science (data visualization, parallel computing, software development in R), Dependence Modeling with Copulas (high dimensional problems, hierarchical models, random number generation, computational aspects, graphical approaches) and Quantitative Risk Management (risk aggregation, risk measures, computational challenges).

Zoom Link

Meeting ID: 924 5390 4989

Passcode: 690084

 

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