ZüKoSt: Seminar on Applied Statistics

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Spring Semester 2023

Date / Time Speaker Title Location
28 April 2023
15:15-16:15
Benedikt Herwerth
SwissRe
Event Details

ZüKoSt Zürcher Kolloquium über Statistik

Title Avoiding indirect discrimination in modeling mortality
Speaker, Affiliation Benedikt Herwerth, SwissRe
Date, Time 28 April 2023, 15:15-16:15
Location HG G 19.1
Abstract The topic of potential discrimination in statistical and machine learning (ML) is being increasingly discussed, both by the scientific community and the wider public. In the insurance industry specifically, customers and regulators demand that individuals are treated fairly. Regulations of the European Union, for example, mandate that gender is not be used as a factor in determining the prices of policies.
This talk is based on a method introduced in a series of papers by Lindholm et al. on "discrimination-free insurance pricing" that address specifically the issue of potential indirect discrimination [1, 2, 3].
In the first part of the talk, we outline the solution by Lindholm et al., and we discuss that indirect discrimination is a topic that is subtle and can be difficult to understand for decision takers. In the second part of our talk, we present a Swiss Re internally built toolbox implementing the methodology. In the third part of our talk, we apply the methodology to model human mortality. We use public data of the German association of actuaries, which we interpret in terms of a Bayesian network describing the relation between age, gender, the smoker status and the mortality of individuals.
[1] M. Lindholm, R. Richman, A. Tsanakas and M. V. Wuthrich, "Discrimination-free insurance pricing," ASTIN Bulletin: The Journal of the IAA, vol. 52, pp. 55 - 89, 2022.
[2] M. Lindholm, R. Richman, A. Tsanakas and M. V. Wuthrich, "A Multi-Task Network Approach for Calculating Discrimination-Free Insurance Prices," 2 11 2022. [Online]. Available: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4155585.
[3] M. Lindholm, R. Richman, A. Tsanakas and M. V. Wuthrich, "A Discussion of Discrimination and Fairness in Insurance Pricing," 2 09 2022. [Online]. Available: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4207310.
Avoiding indirect discrimination in modeling mortalityread_more
HG G 19.1
26 May 2023
15:15-16:15
Tim Vaughan
ETH, Dep. of Biosystems Science and Engineering
Event Details

ZüKoSt Zürcher Kolloquium über Statistik

Title Phylodynamics in Action: Using genomes and computers to understand COVID-19 outbreaks
Speaker, Affiliation Tim Vaughan, ETH, Dep. of Biosystems Science and Engineering
Date, Time 26 May 2023, 15:15-16:15
Location HG G 19.1
Abstract The start of 2020 saw a then-novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, spread rapidly across the globe. A stand-out characteristic of the resulting pandemic has been the incredible level of genomic surveillance applied, which has resulted in over 15 million SARS-CoV-2 publicly-available genomes to date. In this talk I will provide a brief introduction to a statistical inference framework known as Bayesian phylodynamics. This framework combines ideas from computational phylogenetics and population genetics to produce model-based inferences of key epidemiological parameters using pathogen sequences and other epidemiological data. I will then go on to discuss some recent applications of this framework to the inference of basic SARS-CoV-2 reproductive numbers, case count dynamics, as well as the quantification of the genetic evidence for the effectiveness of Swiss contact tracing efforts.
Phylodynamics in Action: Using genomes and computers to understand COVID-19 outbreaksread_more
HG G 19.1
31 May 2023
17:15-18:15
Sara van de Geer
ETH Zürich
Event Details

ZüKoSt Zürcher Kolloquium über Statistik

Title Farewell Lecture: Data dust
Speaker, Affiliation Sara van de Geer, ETH Zürich
Date, Time 31 May 2023, 17:15-18:15
Location HG F 30
Abstract Farewell Lecture
Farewell Lecture: Data dustread_more
HG F 30
15 June 2023
15:15-16:15
Sylvain Robert
EPFL, Lausanne
Event Details

ZüKoSt Zürcher Kolloquium über Statistik

Title Title T.B.A.
Speaker, Affiliation Sylvain Robert, EPFL, Lausanne
Date, Time 15 June 2023, 15:15-16:15
Location HG G 19.1
Abstract tba
Title T.B.A.read_more
HG G 19.1

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