Applied mathematics Ph.D. student Dane Wilburne’s research proposal for computing Markov bases for multinomial logit models has been selected for funding under the 2015 National Science Foundation East Asia Pacific Summer Institutes (NSF-EAPSI) fellowship program. He will spend summer 2105 as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Tokyo. During his visit to Japan, he will also take part in the 50th Anniversary of Groebner Bases Conference in Osaka organized by the Mathematical Society of Japan.

Wilburne will work with Professor Satoshi Kuriki and Professor Hisayuki Hara on the problem of computing a Markov basis for multinomial logistic regression models. This is an important open problem in the field of algebraic statistics, and a solution would provide another non-asymptotic tool for testing model/data fit for researchers and statisticians to use in applications.

Wilburne is a student of Sonja Petrovic, assistant professor of applied mathematics.

An EAPSI award provides U.S. graduate students in science, engineering, and education: 1) first-hand research experiences in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, or Taiwan; 2) an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and 3) an orientation to the society, culture, and language. It is expected that EAPSI awards will help students initiate professional relationships to enable future collaboration with foreign counterparts. Read more about the NSF-EAPSI program here.