# Uncertainty Quantification **Aliases:** UQ **Entity class:** Predictive-science discipline ## Definition **Uncertainty quantification** characterizes and manages uncertainty using models, observations, statistics, and analysis. It includes uncertainty propagation, sensitivity analysis, inference, calibration, experimental design, validation, and decision-making under uncertainty. UQ prevents a model from presenting one answer as certain when measurements are sparse, identities ambiguous, parameters unknown, or the model itself incomplete. ## Relationships - **broader assurance:** [[wiki/Verification Validation and Uncertainty Quantification|Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification]]. - **inference:** [[wiki/Inverse Problem|Inverse Problems]] and [[wiki/PDE-Constrained Inverse Problem|PDE-Constrained Inverse Problems]]. - **Oden groups:** [[wiki/PHO-ICES|PHO-ICES]] and [[wiki/PECOS|PECOS]]. - **social-analytic discipline:** [[wiki/Inverse Problems in Counterterrorism Networks|Inverse Problems in Counterterrorism Networks]]. ## Sources / Provenance - [Oden/Willcox Group — Uncertainty Quantification](https://kiwi.oden.utexas.edu/research/what-is-parameterized-model-reduction)