Introduction to Bayesian Analysis
| Dates: | 12 January 2016 - 13 January 2016 |
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| Times: | 09:00 - 16:30 |
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| What is it: | Course |
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| Organiser: | Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research |
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| How much: | £280 (public sector) £390 (private sector) |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Alumni, Current University students, General public |
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Use of Bayesian methods is becoming increasingly widespread within quantitative social and health sciences, particularly for analysing data with complex structure, such as hierarchical or multilevel data. However, very few applied researchers have any formal training in Bayesian methods. This two-day course aims to introduce quantitative researchers to the basic principles of Bayesian inference and simulation-based methods for estimating Bayesian models, and to highlight some of the potential benefits that a Bayesian approach can offer. There is a large practical component to this course with time for hands-on data analysis using examples drawn mainly from the social and health sciences.
Topics covered will include:
•Conjugate Bayesian inference for binary, count and continuous data
•Making inference from posterior distributions
•Choosing prior distributions
•Introduction to Monte Carlo simulation methods, MCMC methods and Gibbs sampling
•Simple Bayesian regression models
•Introduction to Bayesian hierarchical (multi-level) models
•Introduction to using the WinBUGS software
Objectives
Statisticians, data analysts and quantitative researchers who are interested in finding out what Bayesian methods are all about, and how to implement some simple Bayesian models using the WinBUGS software. The course would also be of interest to researchers with experience of multi-level modelling using likelihood-based methods who wish to find out more about fitting and interpreting Bayesian versions of multi-level models. No previous experience of Bayesian methods or the WinBUGS software is required.
Price: £280 (public sector) £390 (private sector)
Travel and Contact Information
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Basement computer lab
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
