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SCCS Colloquium

The SCCS Colloquium is a forum giving students, guests, and members of the chair the opportunity to present their research insights, results, and challenges. Do you need ideas for your thesis topic? Do you want to meet your potential supervisor? Do you want to discuss your research with a diverse group of researchers, rehearse your conference talk, or simply cheer for your colleagues? Then this is the right place for you (and you are also welcome to bring your friends along).

Upcoming talks

Stefan Stöckl: Efficient Bayesian Inference of Hydrological Model Parameters: Mathematical Analysis and Implementation of Markov Chain Monte Carlo Approaches

SCCS Colloquium |

In this thesis, we describe three Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, the Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm, the Delayed Rejection Adaptive Metropolis (DRAM) algorithm, and the Differential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) algorithm, as well as simple parallelizations for the first two algorithms.


We explain the root mean square error and mean absolute error as error functions, the Monte Carlo Standard Error, Effective Sample Size and autocorrelation, as well as the $\hat{R}$ diagnostics for convergence analysis, with which we examine the three MCMC algorithms combined with trace plots, histograms, and other diagrams. We determine appropriate parameter values for each algorithm according to these diagnostics first, by evaluating them with the HBV-SASK hydrological model on the Banff river basin. Then, we use each MCMC algorithm with those parameters to obtain parameters for the HBV-SASK model trained on additional training datasets. Afterwards, we run the HBV-SASK model with those parameters on different evaluation sets of the Banff and Oldman river basins.

Overall, all algorithms perform similarly well regarding the error functions, although the parameters we obtained through DREAM perform worse than those of the other two MCMC algorithms if we use them on evaluation sets with different behaviors compared to the respective training set. However, DREAM performs far better for the Effective Sample Size and autocorrelation, as well as the convergence diagnostic, for which MH performs the worst.

Master's thesis presentation. Stefan is advised by Ivana Jovanovic Buha, and Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Bungartz.

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Contribute a talk

To register and schedule a talk, you should fill the form Colloquium Registration at least four weeks before the earliest preferred date. Keep in mind that we only have limited slots, so please plan your presentation early. In special cases, contact colloquium(at)mailsccs.in.tum.de.

Colloquium sessions are now on-campus. We have booked room MI 02.07.023 for WS24/25. You can either bring your own laptop or send us the slides as a PDF ahead of time. The projector only has an HDMI connection, so please bring your own adapters if necessary.

Do you want to attend but cannot make it in person? We now have a hybrid option. Simply join us through this BBB room: https://bbb.in.tum.de/shu-phv-eyq-rad

We invite students doing their Bachelor's or Master's thesis, as well as IDP, Guided Research, or similar projects at SCCS to give one 20min presentation to discuss their results and potential future work. The time for this is typically after submitting your final text. Check also with your study program regarding any requirements for a final presentation of your project work.

New: In regular times, we will now have slots for presenting early stage projects (talk time 2-10min). This is an optional opportunity for getting additional feedback early and there is no strict timeline.

Apart from students, we also welcome doctoral candidates and guests to present their projects.

During the colloquium, things usually go as follows:

  • 10min before the colloquium starts, the speakers setup their equipment with the help of the moderator. The moderator currently is Ana Cukarska. Make sure to be using an easily identifiable name in the online session's waiting room.
  • The colloquium starts with an introduction to the agenda and the moderator asks the speaker's advisor/host to put the talk into context.
  • Your talk starts. The scheduled time for your talk is normally 20min with additional 5-10min for discussion.
  • During the discussion session, the audience can ask questions, which are meant for clarification or for putting the talk into context. The audience can also ask questions in the chat.
  • Congratulations! Your talk is over and it's now time to celebrate! Have you already tried the parabolic slides that bring you from the third floor to the Magistrale?

Do you remember a talk that made you feel very happy for attending? Do you also remember a talk that confused you? What made these two experiences different?

Here are a few things to check if you want to improve your presentation:

  • What is the main idea that you want people to remember after your presentation? Do you make it crystal-clear? How quickly are you arriving to it?
  • Which aspects of your work can you cover in the given time frame, with a reasonable pace and good depth?
  • What can you leave out (but maybe have as back-up slides) to not confuse or overwhelm the audience?
  • How are you investing the crucial first two minutes of your presentation?
  • How much content do you have on your slides? Is all of it important? Will the audience know which part of a slide to look at? Will somebody from the last row be able to read the content? Will somebody with limited experience in your field have time to understand what is going on?
  • Are the figures clear? Are you explaining the axes or any other features clearly?

In any case, make sure to start preparing your talk early enough so that you can potentially discuss it, rehearse it, and improve it.

Here are a few good videos to find out more:

Did you know that the TUM English Writing Center can also help you with writing good slides?

Work with us!

Do your thesis/student project in Informatics / Mathematics / Physics: Student Projects at the SCCS.

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