MATS255 Reading Assignment
This is a reading exercise where a group of 2 students (recommended) or 1 student (also possible)
reads and presents to others a selected research article related to the course theme. Based on the article,
the group will give a 20–25 min presentation where the following four key points will be discussed:
- Objective: What is the goal of the research?
- Motivation: Why is the research worth carrying out?
- Results: What are the main results obtained?
- Evaluation: What is your own estimate of the usefulness of the results?
Important dates
- Tue 27 Nov 2012. You should email to the teacher a copy of the article that you propose to present by Tue 27 Nov 12:00.
- Tue 4 Dec 2012. The presentations take place in a reading seminar on Tue 4 Dec at 14:15–17:30 in room MaD302.
Presentations
- Mou Hao & Katariina Huttunen:
Duration-dependent transitions in a Markov model of U.S. GNP growth
Michael Durland, Thomas H. McCurdy
Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 12(3):279–288, 1994
- Miikka Harju:
Optimal control of Markov processes with incomplete state information
K. J. Åström
Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 10:174‐205, 1965
- Joonas Heino & Jaakko Reinikainen:
A Markov chain approach to baseball
Bruce Bukiet, Elliotte Rusty Harold, José Luis Palacios
Operations Research 45(1):14–23, 1997
- Joonas Itkonen:
Higher order Markov chain models for monsoon rainfall over West Bengal, India
Avik Ghosh Dastikar, Deepanwita Ghosh, S Dasgupta, U K De
Indian Journal of Radio and Space Physics 39:39–44, 2010
- Lasse Moisio:
Shuffling cards and stopping times
David Aldous and Persi Diaconis
American Mathematical Monthly 93(5), 1986
Guidelines
- The presentation is graded at the scale 0–3. Each member in a group receives the same grade.
- The main evaluation criterion is how well the audience gets an overview of the aforementioned key points 1–4 of the article.
- 20 min is a very short time to present an article. In such short time there is usually no hope of transmitting all wisdom contained in a research article to an audience who are
not specialists in the field. Don't try to do this. Try to focus on the essential points of the article, or select to treat only a part of a longer paper.
- The style of presenting is free: you can use the blackboard, the beamer, or anything you find suitable.
- In a short presentation there is no need (actually, no use) to go through any detailed proofs or technical details.
- You do need to discuss all the aforementioned key points 1–4.
- Don't choose too difficult article for reading, it will be too hard to present in a short time to the others.
If you cannot participate in the reading seminar on Tue 4 Dec, you may replace the presentation by writing an essay of 5–8 pages where you discuss the
same points as you would in the presentation. The essay will be graded at the scale 0–3, and the main criterion for evaluating the presentation is how well a randomly
selected fellow student from the course would be able get an overview of the four key points of your chosen article. The essay should be written alone, and be returned via email by Fri 7 Dec 2012 16:00.
Choosing an article
You have full freedom in proposing a research article, but your proposal must be confirmed by the teacher before the seminar.
When you have found a suitable article, send email to the teacher and ask it to be confirmed by Tue 27 Nov 2012 12:00. Some guidelines and requirements:
- The article must have something to do with Markov processes.
- You can also choose to present a selected section of a longer research article
- The article may be very theoretical or very applied. Applied articles are usually easier to present in a short time.
Some suggested topics:
- A Markov model related to wireless data networks, signal processing, or such
- Markov mixing rates in card shuffling
- A random walk model on a (random or nonrandom) graph
- A Markov model related to population biology or epidemiology
- A Markov model related to economics, finance, or insurance
- A Markov model related to game theory
- Birth–death processes
- Quasistationary birth–death processes
- Markov chains and harmonic analysis
- Coupling from the past
- Simulated annealing
- Convergence of infinite-state Markov chains using Lyapunov functions
Sources for research articles:
2012-11-28 Lasse Leskelä