Engineering Commons^™

Design And Analysis Of Efficient Parallel Bayesian Model Comparison Algorithms, Robert Wesley Henderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bayesian model comparison provides a rational and consistent method for applying logic and probability to the problem of evaluating models. Model comparison requires numerical techniques that are usually very time consuming to run. This dissertation proposes extensions to several existing numerical model comparison techniques, including nested sampling and thermodynamic integration, that incorporate parallel algorithm design to achieve significant speed-ups. Serial computer performance gains have sloin recent years, and most processing speed improvements are seen in the area of parallel architectures. This work discusses the design, theoretical analysis, and empirical analysis of these algorithms, focusing on the performance of these algorithms …