User:Dakota.Sullivan

Personal Info

Dakota Sullivan is a Computational Mathematics and Social Welfare and Justice double major at Marquette University.

Research Topic

Using statistical surrogates to estimate the behavior of storm surge during a hurricane or tropical storm. See here for more details.

Milestones

Weekly milestones can be found on our main project page, located here.

Daily Log

Week 1 (6/1 - 6/5)

Monday, June 1

• Attended introductory session; learned about REU program
• Met with Dr. Spiller and research group members
• Attended Systems lab orientation with Dr. Dennis Brylow
• Took pre-REU NSF survey
• Began introductory reading on Gaussian Stochastic Process

Tuesday, June 2

• Toured campus
• Filed paperwork with HR
• Attended library resources orientation with Heather James
• Met with Dr. Spiller

Wednesday, June 3

• Installed Python
• Met with Dr. Spiller to review Gaussian Stochastic Process
• Met with Dr. Brylow to learn about Marquette email and time keeping
• Tested optimization routines in Python

Thursday, June 4

• Determined routine for plotting in Python
• Attended talk by Dr. Factor
• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Determined research goals and project timeline
• Continued developing optimization routine and plotting algorithms

Friday, June 5

• Met with research group to finalize optimization algorithm
• Reviewed objectives of project
• Documented Goals and Milestones
• Downloaded LaTex

Week 2 (6/5 - 6/12)

Monday, June 8

• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Created methods to begin modeling maximum likelihood equation
• Developed a plot of our approximation in Python

Tuesday, June 9

• Created maximum likelihood function
• Worked through difficulties with singularity in our matrices
• Plotted approximation of theta optimization

Wednesday, June 10

• Corrected errors in the maximum likelihood function
• Determined optimal theta value
• Modified maximum likelihood equation to optimize multiple variables

Thursday, June 11

• Developed variance function
• Listened to sample presentation by Dr. Factor
• Met with Dr. Spiller, updated her on our progress and discussed paper by Westerink et al.

Friday, June 12

• Modified code to account for all approximated variables
• Tested our approximation methods for other functions
• Began reading Westerink et al.

Week 3

Monday, June 15

• Read through research paper (Westerink et al.)

Tuesday, June 16

• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Introduced to additional notes on GaSP
• Attended talk by Dr. Brylow

Wednesday, June 17

• Compared previous and new maximum likelihood equations
• Began developing a least squares model for our approximation
• Met with Dr. Spiller to discuss new maximum likelihood equation

Thursday, June 18

• Completed Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training
• Began implementing new maximum likelihood equation
• Integrated least squares model into maximum into approximation

Friday, June 19

• Finalized implementation of least squares model
• Tested approximation with multiple functions and inputs
• Added reference prior to maximum likelihood equation
• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Watched RCR training videos

Week 4

Monday, June 22

• Modified approximation function to allow multiple dimensions
• Developed algorithm to import test data
• Updated personal wiki page

Tuesday, June 23

• Tested import algorithm
• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Searched for errors in code
• Modified m(x) and v(x)

Wednesday, June 24

• Began optimizing theta for multiple dimensions
• Created algorithm for n-1 linear regressions

Thursday, June 25

• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Attended talk by Dr. Spiller
• Modified Linear Regression
• Plotted new approximation

Friday, June 26

• Tested various functions with approximation
• Cleaned/commented code
• Began optimization for n dimensions

Week 5

Monday, June 29

• Tested n-dimensional case with three parameters
• Outlined presentation

Tuesday, June 30

• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Worked on presentation

Wednesday, July 1

• Worked on presentation
• Read “A Framework for Validation of Computer Models”

Thursday, July 2

• Finalized presentation
• Attended presentations

Week 6

Monday, July 6

• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Read through Step 5 of “A Framework for Validation of Computer Models”
• Identified unknowns in process

Tuesday, July 7

• Planned out MCMC example solution
• Programmed MCMC solution

Wednesday, July 8

• Worked on MCMC Weibull Example
• Read through “Posterior Models and MCMC”
• Worked on Beetle Mortality Example

Thursday, July 9

• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Work Lunch
• Altered Code for Weibull Example
• Plotted posterior function against MCMC histogram

Friday, July 10

• Attempted to use GaSP Approximation to determine bias function
• Obtained estimate for bias
• Finished Weibull Example

Week 7

Monday, July 13

• Updated Wiki
• Completed RCR quizzes
• Identified problems in current code
• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Attempted to remove noise from function approximation

Tuesday, July 14

• Completed thinning algorithm
• Verified accuracy of MCMC method
• Searched for errors within bias function
• Met with Dr. Spiller

Wednesday, July 15

• Searched for cause of high variance
• Adjusted minpoint method
• Printed all variance values
• Plotted optimization function
• Verified that problem exists within the maxprior function

Thursday, July 16

• Met with Dr. Spiller
• Plotted approximation without prior
• Tested x matrix as a vector of ones
• Work lunch and presentation

Friday, July 16

• Determined correct alpha values