The event is designed to provide something of value to as wide a range of participants as possible, ranging from those interested in whether Functional Data Analysis, FDA, might prove useful in their research, to statistical methodologists looking for research problems and interested in new techniques.

The workshop consists of a course held by Prof. James Ramsay, McGill University, Canada.

The lectures will intersperse case studies with discussions of statistical and mathematical issues. Each lecture will begin with one or more case studies, and the initial lectures will be almost entirely case studies. These aim to show the range of applications possible, show what insights might be gained from using FDA methods, and illustrate the challenges that are specific or particularly relevant to the analysis of functional data. Case studies are not 'how to' sessions, but rather address questions like, 'Why should I consider this approach?' and 'What should I watch out for?'

The first two days (PART I) will be oriented to the motivation and the preliminaries of functional data analysis:

1. * What are functional data?
   

2. * How should they be prepared for analysis?
   

3. * How do we convert discrete noisy data to smooth functions?
   

4. * What data exploration tools are useful?
   

5. * Do the data display both phase and amplitude variation?
   

6. * What about principal components analysis and other exploratory methods?
   

The second two days (PART II) will be primarily given over to linear models for functional data and to the modeling of dynamic systems. These are vast topics, and include relatively basic topics like functional versions of analysis of variance and regression analysis and as well issues less familiar to statisticians such as how differential equations can be used to model functional data. All approaches assume that the goal is to explain variation in one or more response variables by variation in one or more input or independent variables where, naturally, at least one of the variables involved is functional.

The last day (PART III) of the workshop is dedicated to work and informal discussion on participants FDA related research problems. Earlier we announced that it will be arranged only if there are enough participants willing to bring their own data to work on. Now, we are happy to announce that this final day will be arranged. Therefore, registration deadline for all three parts is now March 1st. We emphasize that this PART III is an excellent opportunity for example for PhD students to get help from one of the worlds leading experts on the field as well as get study credits from the workshop.