This book features 29 peer-reviewed papers presented at the 9th International Conference on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics (SMPS 2018), which was held in conjunction with the 5th International Conference on Belief Functions (BELIEF 2018) in Compiegne, France on September 17-21, 2018. It includes foundational, methodological and applied contributions on topics as varied as imprecise data handling, linguistic summaries, model coherence, imprecise Markov chains, and robust optimisation. These proceedings were produced using EasyChair. Over recent decades, interest in extensions and alternatives to probability and statistics has increased significantly in diverse areas, including decision-making, data mining and machine learning, and optimisation. This interest stems from the need to enrich existing models, in order to include different facets of uncertainty, like ignorance, vagueness, randomness, conflict or imprecision. Frameworks such as rough sets, fuzzy sets, fuzzy random variables, random sets, belief functions, possibility theory, imprecise probabilities, lower previsions, and desirable gambles all share this goal, but have emerged from different needs. The advances, results and tools presented in this book are important in the ubiquitous and fast-growing fields of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Indeed, an important aspect of some of the learned predictive models is the trust placed in them. Modelling the uncertainty associated with the data and the models carefully and with principled methods is one of the means of increasing this trust, as the model will then be able to distinguish between reliable and less reliable predictions. In addition, extensions such as fuzzy sets can be explicitly designed to provide interpretable predictive models, facilitating user interaction and increasing trust.

This proceedings volume is a collection of peer reviewed papers presented at the 8th International Conference on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics (SMPS 2016) held in Rome (Italy). The book is dedicated to Data science which aims at developing automated methods to analyze massive amounts of data and to extract knowledge from them. It shows how Data science employs various programming techniques and methods of data wrangling, data visualization, machine learning, probability and statistics. The soft methods proposed in this volume represent a collection of tools in these fields that can also be useful for data science.

This book gathers contributions presented at the 7th International Conference on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics SMPS 2014, held in Warsaw (Poland) on September 22-24, 2014. Its aim is to present recent results illustrating new trends in intelligent data analysis. It gives a comprehensive overview of current research into the fusion of soft computing methods with probability and statistics. Synergies of both fields might improve intelligent data analysis methods in terms of robustness to noise and applicability to larger datasets, while being able to efficiently obtain understandable solutions of real-world problems.

In recent years there has been a growing interest to extend classical methods for data analysis. The aim is to allow a more flexible modeling of phenomena such as uncertainty, imprecision or ignorance. Such extensions of classical probability theory and statistics are useful in many real-life situations, since uncertainties in data are not only present in the form of randomness --- various types of incomplete or subjective information have to be handled. About twelve years ago the idea of strengthening the dialogue between the various research communities in the field of data analysis was born and resulted in the International Conference Series on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics (SMPS). This book gathers contributions presented at the SMPS'2012 held in Konstanz, Germany. Its aim is to present recent results illustrating new trends in intelligent data analysis. It gives a comprehensive overview of current research into the fusion of soft computing methods with probability and statistics. Synergies of both fields might improve intelligent data analysis methods in terms of robustness to noise and applicability to larger datasets, while being able to efficiently obtain understandable solutions of real-world problems.

The analysis of experimental data resulting from some underlying random process is a fundamental part of most scientific research. Probability Theory and Statistics have been developed as flexible tools for this analyis, and have been applied successfully in various fields such as Biology, Economics, Engineering, Medicine or Psychology. However, traditional techniques in Probability and Statistics were devised to model only a singe source of uncertainty, namely randomness. In many real-life problems randomness arises in conjunction with other sources, making the development of additional "softening" approaches essential. This book is a collection of papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics (SMPS'2004) held in Oviedo, providing a comprehensive overview of the innovative new research taking place within this emerging field.

Classical probability theory and mathematical statistics appear sometimes too rigid for real life problems, especially while dealing with vague data or imprecise requirements. These problems have motivated many researchers to "soften" the classical theory. Some "softening" approaches utilize concepts and techniques developed in theories such as fuzzy sets theory, rough sets, possibility theory, theory of belief functions and imprecise probabilities, etc. Since interesting mathematical models and methods have been proposed in the frameworks of various theories, this text brings together experts representing different approaches used in soft probability, statistics and data analysis.

Nowadays, data analysis is becoming an appealing topic due to the emergence of new data types, dimensions, and sources. This motivates the development of probabilistic/statistical approaches and tools to cope with these data. Different communities of experts, namely statisticians, mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers, econometricians, and psychologists are more and more interested in facing this challenge. As a consequence, there is a clear need to build bridges between all these communities for Data Science. This book contains more than fifty selected recent contributions aiming to establish the above referred bridges. These contributions address very different and relevant aspects such as imprecise probabilities, information theory, random sets and random fuzzy sets, belief functions, possibility theory, dependence modelling and copulas, clustering, depth concepts, dimensionality reduction of complex data and robustness.

Over the last forty years there has been a growing interest to extend probability theory and statistics and to allow for more flexible modelling of imprecision, uncertainty, vagueness and ignorance. The fact that in many real-life situations data uncertainty is not only present in the form of randomness (stochastic uncertainty) but also in the form of imprecision/fuzziness is but one point underlining the need for a widening of statistical tools. Most such extensions originate in a "softening" of classical methods, allowing, in particular, to work with imprecise or vague data, considering imprecise or generalized probabilities and fuzzy events, etc. About ten years ago the idea of establishing a recurrent forum for discussing new trends in the before-mentioned context was born and resulted in the first International Conference on Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics (SMPS) that was held in Warsaw in 2002. In the following years the conference took place in Oviedo (2004), in Bristol (2006) and in Toulouse (2008). In the current edition the conference returns to Oviedo. This edited volume is a collection of papers presented at the SMPS 2010 conference held in Mieres and Oviedo. It gives a comprehensive overview of current research into the fusion of soft methods with probability and statistics.

Probability theory has been the only well-founded theory of uncertainty for a long time. It was viewed either as a powerful tool for modelling random phenomena, or as a rational approach to the notion of degree of belief. During the last thirty years, in areas centered around decision theory, artificial intelligence and information processing, numerous approaches extending or orthogonal to the existing theory of probability and mathematical statistics have come to the front. The common feature of those attempts is to allow for softer or wider frameworks for taking into account the incompleteness or imprecision of information. Many of these approaches come down to blending interval or fuzzy interval analysis with probabilistic methods.

This book gathers contributions to the 4th International Conference on Soft methods in Probability and Statistics. Its aim is to present recent results illustrating such new trends that enlarge the statistical and uncertainty modeling traditions, towards the handling of incomplete or subjective information. It covers a broad scope ranging from philosophical and mathematical underpinnings of new uncertainty theories, with a stress on their impact in the area of statistics and data analysis, to numerical methods and applications to environmental risk analysis and mechanical engineering. A unique feature of this collection is to establish a dialogue between fuzzy random variables and imprecise probability theories.

The idea of soft computing emerged in the early 1990s from the fuzzy systems c- munity, and refers to an understanding that the uncertainty, imprecision and ig- rance present in a problem should be explicitly represented and possibly even - ploited rather than either eliminated or ignored in computations. For instance, Zadeh de?ned 'Soft Computing' as follows: Soft computing differs from conventional (hard) computing in that, unlike hard computing, it is tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth. In effect, the role model for soft computing is the human mind. Recently soft computing has, to some extent, become synonymous with a hybrid approach combining AI techniques including fuzzy systems, neural networks, and biologically inspired methods such as genetic algorithms. Here, however, we adopt a more straightforward de?nition consistent with the original concept. Hence, soft methods are understood as those uncertainty formalisms not part of mainstream s- tistics and probability theory which have typically been developed within the AI and decisionanalysiscommunity.Thesearemathematicallysounduncertaintymodelling methodologies which are complementary to conventional statistics and probability theory.