Shenzhen University School of Mathematical Sciences  

Liyuan Scholars Colloquium Session 175

Title: Semiparametric Elliptical Mixture Clustering for High Dimensional Data

Speaker: Professor Long Feng  (Nankai University )

Time: 16:00–17:00, June 26, 2026

Location: Room 1, Huixing Building, Yuehai Campus, Shenzhen University

Abstract: Clustering high-dimensional data is especially challenging when cluster distributions are heavy tailed and only approximately elliptical. Existing high-dimensional methods are largely built for Gaussian or other light-tailed models, whereas classical robust elliptical procedures are mostly low dimensional or fully parametric. We propose a semiparametric elliptical mixture clustering framework with cluster-specific centers, an unknown common radial generator, and a common sparse precision-shape matrix, together with a data-driven rule for selecting the number of clusters. The method avoids specifying a parametric radial family and remains computationally feasible in high dimensions. We establish high-dimensional consistency for the estimated model components and the excess misclustering error. Simulations and a handwritten-digit application show strong performance, particularly under heavy-tailed elliptical components.

Speaker Profile: Long Feng is currently a professor and doctoral advisor at the School of Statistics and Data Science, Nankai University. He has been selected for the Ministry of Education’s Young Talents Program and named one of Nankai University’s “100 Young Academic Leaders.” His research focuses primarily on high-dimensional data analysis, and he has published over 50 papers in leading international statistical journals, including the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (JRSSB), the Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA), Biometrika, Annals of Statistics, the Journal of Operational Research (JOE), and the Journal of the British Economic Society (JBES). He has led one Tianjin Outstanding Young Scientist Fund project, as well as General and Young Investigator projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He serves as Associate Editor of Statistical Theory and Related Fields.

All faculty and students are welcome!  

School of Mathematical Sciences  

June 10, 2026