Training Specialist
Forecast, User Outreach and Engagement
Summary:
William (or Will) is a training specialist in machine learning at ECMWF, where he has worked since 2024. His work involves coordinating and promoting all training activities related to ML in weather and climate, including in-person and online courses and creating and managing training materials. He also contributes generally to training and outreach at ECMWF.
William works as part of the Destination Earth project, under which he is creating an exciting ML training programme with ECMWF staff and external partners in weather and climate, which will be released in 2025.
Prior to working at ECMWF, he has worked as a researcher and data scientist at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Italy, and for various UN agencies and international organisations. He has worked across many fields, from weather and climate to engineering, biomechanics, economics, migration and innovation.
Professional interests:
William's professional interests centre around data science, training and its applications to research. Specific interests include:
- Machine learning and applications to weather and climate
- Training and communicating complex concepts clearly
- Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of complex models
- International data analysis and international policy, particularly composite indicators
- Data analysis and visualisation
- Learning new things
- Working with interesting people on challenging and worthwhile problems
Career background:
Professional experience
- 2024 - current: ECMWF. Training specialist in machine learning under Destination Earth.
- 2020 - 2024 freelance data scientist. Working for European Commission, UNHCR, UNIDO, WIPO, plus various non-profits and consultancies.
- 2011 - 2020: European Commission - Joint Research Centre. Policy analyst and researcher, especially in uncertainty/sensitivity analysis and composite indicators.
Education
- 2006 - 2011: PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Thesis: Uncertainty Analysis of Large Nonlinear Models) at the University of Sheffield.
- 2002 - 2006: MEng Mechanical Engineering with Spanish
- 2022
- William Becker, Giulio Caperna, Maria Del Sorbo, Hedvig Norlén, Eleni Papadimitriou, Michaela Saisana (October 2022) COINr: An R package for developing composite indicators, Journal of Open Source Software. DOI: 10.21105/joss.04567
- Simpson G.B., Jewitt G.P.W., Becker W., Badenhorst J., Masia S., Neves A.R., Rovira P., Pascual V. (June 2022) The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Index: A Tool to Support Integrated Resource Planning, Management and Security, Frontiers in Water. DOI: 10.3389/frwa.2022.825854
- Puy A., Becker W., Lo Piano S., Saltelli A. (June 2022) A COMPREHENSIVE COMPARISON OF TOTAL-ORDER ESTIMATORS FOR GLOBAL SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS, International Journal for Uncertainty Quantification. DOI: 10.1615/Int.J.UncertaintyQuantification.2021038133
- 2021
- Razavi S., Jakeman A., Saltelli A., Prieur C., Iooss B., Borgonovo E., Plischke E., Lo Piano S., Iwanaga T., Becker W., Tarantola S., Guillaume J.H.A., Jakeman J., Gupta H., Melillo N., Rabitti G., Chabridon V., Duan Q., Sun X., Smith S., Sheikholeslami R., Hosseini N., Asadzadeh M., Puy A., Kucherenko S., Maier H.R. (June 2021) The Future of Sensitivity Analysis: An essential discipline for systems modeling and policy support, Environmental Modelling and Software. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104954
- Mara T.A., Becker W.E. (June 2021) Polynomial chaos expansion for sensitivity analysis of model output with dependent inputs, Reliability Engineering and System Safety. DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2021.107795
- Becker W., Domínguez-Torreiro M., Neves A.R., Tacão Moura C., Saisana M. (June 2021) Exploring the link between Asia and Europe connectivity and sustainable development, Research in Globalization. DOI: 10.1016/j.resglo.2021.100045
- Becker W., Paruolo P., Saltelli A. (June 2021) Variable Selection in Regression Models Using Global Sensitivity Analysis, Journal of Time Series Econometrics. DOI: 10.1515/jtse-2018-0025
- Lindén D., Cinelli M., Spada M., Becker W., Gasser P., Burgherr P. (June 2021) A framework based on statistical analysis and stakeholders’ preferences to inform weighting in composite indicators, Environmental Modelling and Software. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105208
- 2020
- Munda G., Albrecht D., Becker W., Havari E., Listorti G., Ostlaender N., Paruolo P., Saisana M. (June 2020) The Use of Quantitative Methods in the Policy Cycle, Science for Policy Handbook. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-822596-7.00018-8
- Becker W., Norlén H., Dijkstra L., Athanasoglou S. (June 2020) Wrapping up the Europe 2020 strategy: A multidimensional indicator analysis, Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. DOI: 10.1016/j.indic.2020.100075
- Robert N., Giuntoli J., Araujo R., Avraamides M., Balzi E., Barredo J.I., Baruth B., Becker W., Borzacchiello M.T., Bulgheroni C., Camia A., Fiore G., Follador M., Gurria P., la Notte A., Lusser M., Marelli L., M'Barek R., Parisi C., Philippidis G., Ronzon T., Sala S., Sanchez Lopez J., Mubareka S. (June 2020) Development of a bioeconomy monitoring framework for the European Union: An integrative and collaborative approach, New Biotechnology. DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2020.06.001
- Puy A., Becker W., Piano S.L., Saltelli A. (June 2020) A comprehensive comparison of total-order estimators for global sensitivity analysis, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2009.01147
- Becker W. (June 2020) Metafunctions for benchmarking in sensitivity analysis, Reliability Engineering and System Safety. DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2020.107189
- 2019
- Saltelli A., Aleksankina K., Becker W., Fennell P., Ferretti F., Holst N., Li S., Wu Q. (June 2019) Why so many published sensitivity analyses are false: A systematic review of sensitivity analysis practices, Environmental Modelling and Software. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.01.012
- Sheikholeslami R., Razavi S., Gupta H.V., Becker W., Haghnegahdar A. (June 2019) Global sensitivity analysis for high-dimensional problems: How to objectively group factors and measure robustness and convergence while reducing computational cost, Environmental Modelling and Software. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.09.002
- 2018
- Worden K., Becker W.E., Rogers T.J., Cross E.J. (June 2018) On the confidence bounds of Gaussian process NARX models and their higher-order frequency response functions, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing. DOI: 10.1016/j.ymssp.2017.09.032
- Vandecasteele I., Marí i Rivero I., Baranzelli C., Becker W., Dreoni I., Lavalle C., Batelaan O. (June 2018) The Water Retention Index: Using land use planning to manage water resources in Europe, Sustainable Development. DOI: 10.1002/sd.1723
- Becker W.E., Tarantola S., Deman G. (June 2018) Sensitivity analysis approaches to high-dimensional screening problems at low sample size, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation. DOI: 10.1080/00949655.2018.1450876
- 2017
- Becker W., Paruolo P., Saisana M., Saltelli A. (June 2017) Weights and importance in composite indicators: Mind the gap, Handbook of Uncertainty Quantification. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-12385-1_40
- Tarantola S., Becker W. (June 2017) SIMLAB software for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, Handbook of Uncertainty Quantification. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-12385-1_61
- Worden K., Surace C., Becker W. (June 2017) Uncertainty Bounds on Higher-Order FRFs from Gaussian Process NARX Models, Procedia Engineering. DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.09.317
- Becker W., Saisana M., Paruolo P., Vandecasteele I. (June 2017) Weights and importance in composite indicators: Closing the gap, Ecological Indicators. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.03.056
- Saltelli A., Aleksankina K., Becker W., Fennell P., Ferretti F., Holst N., Sushan L., Wu Q. (June 2017) Why so many published sensitivity analyses are false. A systematic review of sensitivity analysis practices, arXiv. DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1711.11359
- 2016
- Sartor P., Becker W., Worden K., Kyle Schmidt R., Bond D. (June 2016) Bayesian sensitivity analysis of flight parameters in a hard-landing analysis process, Journal of Aircraft. DOI: 10.2514/1.C032757
- 2015
- Becker W. (June 2015) Applications of dynamic trees to sensitivity analysis, 12th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP 2015.
- Saltelli A., Stark P.B., Becker W., Stano P. (June 2015) Climate models as economic guides scientific challenge or quixotic quest?, Issues in Science and Technology.
- 2013
- Becker W., Worden K., Rowson J. (June 2013) Bayesian sensitivity analysis of bifurcating nonlinear models, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing. DOI: 10.1016/j.ymssp.2012.05.010
- Lung T., Dosio A., Becker W., Lavalle C., Bouwer L.M. (June 2013) Assessing the influence of climate model uncertainty on EU-wide climate change impact indicators, Climatic Change. DOI: 10.1007/s10584-013-0825-1
- 2012
- Becker W., Oakley J.E., Surace C., Gili P., Rowson J., Worden K. (June 2012) Bayesian sensitivity analysis of a nonlinear finite element model, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing. DOI: 10.1016/j.ymssp.2012.03.009
- Worden K., Becker W.E. (June 2012) On the identification of hysteretic systems. Part II: Bayesian sensitivity analysis and parameter confidence, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing. DOI: 10.1016/j.ymssp.2012.01.005
- Tarantola S., Becker W., Zeitz D. (June 2012) A comparison of two sampling methods for global sensitivity analysis, Computer Physics Communications. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpc.2011.12.015
- 2011
- Batterbee D.C., Sims N.D., Becker W., Worden K., Rowson J. (June 2011) Computational model of an infant brain subjected to periodic motion simplified modelling and bayesian sensitivity analysis, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine. DOI: 10.1177/0954411911420002
- Becker W., Rowson J., Oakley J.E., Yoxall A., Manson G., Worden K. (June 2011) Bayesian sensitivity analysis of a model of the aortic valve, Journal of Biomechanics. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2011.03.008
- Worden K., Becker W. (June 2011) On the identification of hysteretic systems, part II: Bayesian sensitivity analysis, Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Series. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-9719-7_8
- Becker W., Worden K., Battipede M., Surace C. (June 2011) Uncertainty analysis of a dynamic model of a novel remotely piloted airship, Journal of Aircraft. DOI: 10.2514/1.C031207
- 2010
- Sartor P., Schmidt R.K., Becker W., Worden K., Bond D.A., Staszewski W.J. (June 2010) Conceptual design of a hard landing indication system using a flight parameter sensor simulation model, 27th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences 2010, ICAS 2010.
- Sartor P., Becker W., Worden K., Bond D., Staszewski W. (June 2010) Bayesian sensitivity analysis of flight parameters in the development of a hard landing indication system, Proceedings of the 5th European Workshop - Structural Health Monitoring 2010.
- Becker W., Worden K. (June 2010) Bayesian sensitivity analysis of a bifurcating duffing oscillator, Proceedings of ISMA 2010 - International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, including USD 2010.
- Worden K., Becker W.E., Battipede M., Surace C. (June 2010) Aspects of uncertainty analysis for large nonlinear computational models, Applied Mechanics and Materials. DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.24-25.25
- 2008
- Becker W., Rowson J., Oakley J., Yoxall A., Manson G., Worden K. (June 2008) Bayesian sensitivity analysis of a large nonlinear model, 23rd International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering 2008, ISMA 2008.