Center for Computing Research (CCR)

Center for Computing Research

Laura Painton Swiler

Laura Painton Swiler
Optimization & Uncertainty Quantification
Email: lpswile@sandia.gov
Phone: 505/844-8093
Fax: 505/284-2518

Mailing address:
Sandia National Laboratories
P.O. Box 5800, MS 1318
Albuquerque, NM
87185-1320

Laura has worked at Sandia since 1995. She is currently a distinguished member of technical staff in the optimization and uncertainty quantification department. Laura's research interests include uncertainty quantification for computational models, calibration of model parameters, sensitivity analysis, and model selection. Laura is a developer on the Dakota team: she develops and implements algorithms in the Dakota software project.

Education/Background

Laura earned a B.S. in Applied Mathematics Yale in 1987 and a M.S. in Operations Research from Stanford in 1989. She was a Dept. of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow at Carnegie Mellon from 1992-94, earning her Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy in 1995. Her dissertation was on combinatorial optimization under uncertainty with applications to design reliability problems. Laura worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1987-91.

Selected Publications & Presentations

2018	Mitchell, Scott A., Mohamed Salah Ebeida, Muhammad A Awad, Chonhyon Park, Ahmad A Rushdi, Laura Painton Swiler, Dinesh Manocha, Anjul Patney, Li-Yi Wei, "Spoke-Darts for High-Dimensional Blue Noise Sampling," Journal Article, ACM Transactions on Graphics, Vol. 37, No. 2, Accepted/Published July 2018. Portone, Teresa N., John Henry Niederhaus, Jason James Sanchez, Laura Painton Swiler, "Application of Bayesian Model Selection for Metal Yield Models Using ALEGRA and Dakota," SAND Report, February 2018. Stein, Emily, Laura Painton Swiler, Stephen David Sevougian, "GDSA Framework: Comparison of Sensitivity Analysis Methods Applied to a Reference Case Repository in Shale.," Conference Paper, IGSC Safety Case Symposium , October 2018. Swiler, Laura Painton, Yan Wang, "Editorial for the Special Issue on Uncertainty Quantification in Multiscale System Design and Simulation. ," Journal Article, ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 1, Accepted/Published March 2018. Swiler, Laura Painton, Brian M. Adams, William Wieselquist, "Sample Generation for Nuclear Data," SAND Report, September 2018. Swiler, Laura Painton, Kyle Johnson, "Uncertainty Quantification for Additive Manufacturing Applications," Presentation, The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS) Annual Meeting, March 2018.
2017	Keiter, Eric R., Laura Painton Swiler, Ian Zachary Wilcox, "Gradient-Enhanced Uncertainty Quantification Methods for Circuit Simulation," Conference Paper, 11th International Conference on Scientific Computing in Electrical Engineering , May 2017. Maupin, Kathryn, Laura Painton Swiler, "Validation Metrics for Deterministic and Probabilistic Data," SAND Report, March 2017. Rushdi, Ahmad A, Laura Painton Swiler, Eric T. Phipps, Marta D'Elia, Mohamed Salah Ebeida, "VPS: Voronoi Piecewise Surrogate Models for High-Dimensional Data Fitting," Journal Article, International Journal of Uncertainty Quantification, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1–21, Accepted/Published January 2017.
2016	Ebeida, Mohamed Salah, Scott A. Mitchell, Laura Painton Swiler, Vicente J. Romero, Ahmad A Rushdi, "POF-Darts: Geometric Adaptive Sampling for Probability of Failure," Journal Article, Journal of Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Vol. 155, pp. 64–77, Accepted/Published November 2016. Huang, Maoyi, Jaideep Ray, Zhangshuan Hou, Huiying Ren, Ying Liu, Laura Painton Swiler, "On the applicability of surrogate-based MCMC-Bayesian Inversion to the Community Land Model: Case studies at flux tower sites," Journal Article, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 121, No. 13, pp. 7548–7563, Accepted/Published July 2016.
2015	Mitchell, Scott A., Mohamed Salah Ebeida, Vicente J. Romero, Laura Painton Swiler, Ahmad A. Rushdi, Ahmed Abdelkader, "Efficient Probability of Failure Calculations for QMU using Computational Geometry LDRD 13-0144 Final Report ," SAND Report, September 2015. Ray, Jaideep, Zhangshuan Hou, Maoyi Huang, Khachik Sargsyan, Laura Painton Swiler, "Bayesian calibration of the Community Land Model using surrogates," Journal Article, SIAM Journal of Uncertainty Quantification, Accepted/Published January 2015. Thompson, Aidan P., Laura Painton Swiler, Christian Robert Trott, Stephen M. Foiles, Garritt J Tucker, "Spectral neighbor analysis method for automated generation of quantum-accurate interatomic potentials," Journal Article, Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 286, pp. 316–330, Accepted/Published March 2015.
2014	Adams, Brian M., Laura Painton Swiler, Russell Hooper, Allison Lewis, Jerry A McMahan, Jr., Ralph C Smith, Brian J Williams, "User Guidelines and Best Practices for CASL VUQ Analysis Using Dakota," SAND Report, March 2014. Safta, Cosmin, Khachik Sargsyan, Habib N. Najm, Kamaljit Singh Chowdhary, Bert Debusschere, Laura Painton Swiler, Michael S. Eldred, "“Probabilistic Methods for Sensitivity Analysis and Calibration of Computer Models in the NASA Challenge Problem”," Journal Article, AIAA Journal, Submitted March 2014. Swiler, Laura Painton, Patricia D. Hough, P. Qian, X. Xu, C. B. Storlie, H.K.H. Lee, " “Surrogate Models for Mixed Discrete-Continuous Variables”, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland," Journal Article, Constraint Programming and Decision Making, M. Ceberio and V. Kreinovich (eds.), Studies in Computational Intelligence, Vol. 539, pp. 181–202, Accepted/Published April 2014.
2013	Aguilo, Miguel, Laura P Swiler, Angel Urbina, "An Overview of Inverse Material Identification within the Frameworks of Deterministic and Stochastic Parameter Estimation," Journal Article, International Journal for Uncertainty Quantification, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 289–319, Accepted/Published July 2013. Dalbey, Keith R, Laura P Swiler, "Gaussian Process Adaptive Importance Sampling (GPAIS)," Journal Article, International Journal of Uncertainty Quantification, Accepted/Published December 2013.
2012	Hu, Kenneth T, Laura P Swiler, "Bayesian Model Selection Between Underdetermined Models," Conference Paper, AIAA SDM Non Deterministic Approaches Conference, April 2012. Swiler, Laura P, Patricia D Hough, Peter Qian, Xu Xu, Curtis B Storlie, Herbert Lee, "Surrogate models for mixed discrete-continuous variables," SAND Report, August 2012. Weirs, V. Gregory, James R. Kamm, Laura P. Swiler, Stefano Tarantola, Marco Ratto, Brian M. Adams, William J. Rider, Michael S. Eldred, "Sensitivity Analysis Techniques applied to a System Of Hyperbolic Conservation Laws," Journal Article, Reliability Engineering & System Safety, Vol. 107, pp. 157–170, Accepted/Published November 2012.
2011	Eldred, Michael S, Laura P Swiler, Gary Tang, "Mixed Aleatory-Epistemic Uncertainty Quantification with Stochastic Expansions and Optimization-Based Interval Estimation," Journal Article, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Vol. 96, No. 9, pp. 1092–1113, Accepted/Published September 2011. Romero, Vicente J, Laura P Swiler, Angel Urbina, "An Initial Comparison of Methods for Representing and Aggregating Experimental Uncertainties involving Sparse Data1," Conference Paper, AIAA 13th Non Deterministic Approaches (NDA) Conference, April 2011. Swiler, Laura P, Angel Urbina, Brian J Williams, "Multiple Model Inference: Calibration, Selection, and Prediction with Multiple Models ," Conference Paper, AIAA 13th Non Deterministic Approaches (NDA) Conference, April 2011.
2009	Swiler, Laura P, Thomas L Paez, Randall L Mayes, "Epistemic Uncertainty Quantification Tutorial ," Conference Paper, IMAC XXVII Conference and Exposition on Structural Dynamics, Society for Structural Mechanics. Orlando, FL, Feb. 2009, February 2009.
2008	Bichon, Barron J., Michael S. Eldred, Laura P. Swiler, Sankaran Mahadevan, John M. McFarland, "Efficient Global Reliability Analysis for Nonlinear Implicit Performance Functions," Journal Article, AIAA Journal, Vol. 46, No. 10, pp. 2459–2468, Accepted/Published October 2008. Storlie, Curtis M, Laura P Swiler, Jon C Helton, Cedric J Sallaberry, "Implementation and Evaluation of Nonparametric Regression Procedures for Sensitivity Analysis of Computationally Demanding Models," SAND Report, December 2008. Swiler, Laura P, Brian M Adams, Michael S Eldred, "Model Calibration Under Uncertainty: Matching Distribution Information," Conference Paper, 12th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference, September 2008.
2006	Giunta, Anthony A., John M. McFarland, Laura P. Swiler, Michael S. Eldred, "The promise and peril of uncertainty quantification using response surface approximations," Journal Article, Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 3-4, pp. 175–189, Accepted/Published December 2006. Trucano, Timothy G, Laura P Swiler, Takera Igusa, William L Oberkampf, Martin Pilch, "Calibration, validation, and sensitivity analysis: Whats what," Journal Article, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Accepted/Published July 2006.
2005	Vugrin, Kay White, Laura Painton Swiler, Randall M Roberts, Nicholas Stucky-Mack, Sean P Sullivan, "Confidence Region Estimation Techniques for Nonlinear Regression: Three Case Studies," SAND Report, October 2005.