Neil Walkinshaw (PI) and Rob Hierons (CI) have secured an EPSRC standard research grant: CITCoM: Causal Inference for Testing of Computational Models (£828k FEC). Other university collaborators include: Dr. Nick Latimer from ScHARR (CI) and Professor David Wagg from Materials Science (CI).
Computational models are being used increasingly to offer answers to important questions that affect us all. Scientists are increasingly resorting to computational models to simulate phenomena as diverse as the effects of drugs on a physiology, transmissions of diseases in a society, or the flow of blood through an artery. Within the public sector, computational models are fundamental to enabling the prediction of weather patterns, both in the short term and also to predict the impact of global warming in the longer term. CITCoM will use these powerful Causal Inference analysis capabilities to address the problems that arise when testing computational models. It will generate Causal Inference-driven automated test-generation techniques, test oracles, and debugging techniques. These will be trialled and honed on a set of large case-study models in collaboration with our partners on the DAFNI project at STFC, at DSTL, and within The University of Sheffield.
Neil said "Computational models are often used to inform enormously important decisions (as illustrated during the recent COVID-19 pandemic), but can be very difficult to test. The CITCoM grant will enable us to develop powerful new testing techniques which, we hope, will be widely used to ensure that models are correct and trustworthy."