GaussED: A Probabilistic Programming Language for Sequential Experimental Design

Sequential algorithms are popular for experimental design, enabling emulation, optimisation and inference to be efficiently performed. For most of these applications bespoke software has been developed, but the approach is general and many of the actual computations performed in such software are identical. Motivated by the diverse problems that can in principle be solved with common code, this paper presents GaussED, a simple probabilistic programming language coupled to a powerful experimental design engine, which together automate sequential experimental design for approximating a (possibly nonlinear) quantity of interest in Gaussian processes models. Using a handful of commands, GaussED can be used to: solve linear partial differential equations, perform tomographic reconstruction from integral data and implement Bayesian optimisation with gradient data.