Statistical ScienceThe proseminar course – STA 581 – includes informational seminars from experts inside and outside of Duke University, including faculty, industry professionals, career center staff, and administrators from institutes and centers around Duke.
Students learn various ways to apply for their degree, strategies for getting the most out of their two-year program, types of internships and career options, methods to apply for jobs/internships, communication, presentation, leadership coaching, and more.
The course format is mostly interactive; however, sometimes, the presentations may be lecture-style, followed by questions. Many students have found job and internship opportunities after networking with our featured speakers.
The students registered for the proseminar course are expected to attend and actively participate in all sessions. Some proseminar sessions are open to all StatSci students and faculty. If anyone outside the StatSci department wishes to attend a proseminar session, please email stat-msd@duke.edu.
Instructor: Funda Gunes
Day/Time: Wednesday, 3:30 pm to 4:45 pm US Eastern
Upcoming Proseminar Events
Larry Blakeman and Gaurav Gupta, QuaEra Insights read more about Data Science, QuaEra »
Funda Güneş, Director of the Master's Program, Statistical Science, Duke University This talk delves into the important topic of fairness and accountability in artificial intelligence systems.… read more about Ensuring Fairness and Transparency in Artificial Intelligence: Best Practices and Techniques »
Dr. Kelci Miclaus, Global Head of AI/ML for Life and Health Sciences, Dataiku read more about Life and Health Sciences, Dataiku »
Economic policy organizations across the globe – including central banks, ministries of treasury, housing, commerce, labor, and more – must navigate rapidly changing economic conditions with… read more about Building Economic Data Products for Global Policymakers »
Past Proseminar Schedules/Events
Cloud Computing Basics
February 1, 2023
Dr. Zachary Abzug, Manager, Vectra AI
Daniel Salo, Manager, Proofpoint
Statistics Careers in the Medical Product Industry
February 8, 2023
Richard Zink, VP of Biostatistics and Statistical Programming, Lexitas Pharma Services
Navigating Your Professional Success: Tips for Networking and Launching Your Career
Dr. Elizabeth Mannshardt, Director of the Statistics, Methods, and Innovation Program, NSF
Feb 22, 2023
Reflections from my Analytical Journey: Challenges, Opportunities, Lessons Learned
March 8, 2023
Dr. Radhika Kulkarni, Retired VP of Advanced Analytics, SAS
Syllabus Review and Career Resources
Aug. 31, 2022
Dr. Funda Gunes, Director of Master's Program
Megan Kelly Deyncourt, Assistant Director, Student Affairs
Catherine L. Allen, Career Specialist, Duke Career Center
Liberty Mutual Overview
Sept. 7, 2022
Daniel McCarthy, Senior Campus Recruiter
Eden Huang (MSS 2018), Analyst II, Data Science
Sarah Mansfield (MSS 2022), Analyst I, Data Science
Writing Effective Resumes Workshop
Sept. 14, 2022
Dr. Heidi Scott Giusto, Career Coach, Career Path Writing Solutions
Internship Lightning Talks
Sept. 21, 2022
Second-year Statistical Science Master's Students will give lightning talks about their summer internship experiences: Nancy Huang - Liberty Mutual, Camilla Yu - Relias, Joseph Ekpenyong - Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Emma Schmidt – Nike, Eva Gao – Walmart, TJ Tang - Duke School of Medicine, and Nick Dahl - D.E. Shaw, Co.
Wells Fargo Overview
Sept. 28, 2022
Jeffrey Baker, Analytics Manager
Gourav Ghoshal, Senior Quantitative Analytics Specialist
Student Industry Career Panel
October 5, 2022
Pierre Gardan, Domino’s (MSS 2021)
Michael Sarkis, 2nd Order Solutions (MSS 2022)
Yuan Fang, Amazon (MSS 2022)
Cathy Shi, Hortifrut (MSS 2022)
Cole Juracek, Proofpoint (MSS 2021)
Ph.D. Student Career Panel
October 12, 2022
Aihua Li, Duke University (MSS 2022)
Bo Liu, Duke University (MSS 2021)
Ricardo Batista, Iowa State University (MSS 2019)
Yizi Zhang, Columbia University (MSS 2021)
Craft Your Personal “Elevator Pitch” & Set Professional Goals
Oct. 26, 2022
Megan Kelly Deyncourt, Assistant Director, Student Affairs
Networking & Interviewing Skills
Nov. 2, 2022
Will Barfield, President & CEO of Barfield Revenue Consulting
Statistical Communication and Consulting
Nov. 9, 2022
Emily Griffith, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Practice, Dept. Of Statistics, NC State University
Duke Health Data Science Internship Program
Nov. 16, 2022
Shelley Rusincovitch, Managing Director, Duke AI Health
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Data Science for the EnterpriseJan. 19, 2022 Sunith Suresh, Solution Leader, C3.AI |
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Salary Negotiations WorkshopJan. 26, 2022 Farnoosh Brock, Training & Coach |
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Data Science for Retail & 84.51° Company ReviewFeb. 2, 2022 Christoph Hellmayr, Research Scientist, 84.51° |
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Statistics Careers in Federal ResearchFeb. 9, 2022 Christopher Krapu (M.S. 2020) and Blair Christian, Research Scientist, of ORNL |
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A Day in the Life – Accelerating your Career GrowthFeb. 16, 2022 Larry Blakeman & Guarav Gupta - QuaEra Insights |
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A Day in the Life - Data Science at McKinseyFeb. 23, 2022 Eduardo Coronado Sroka, Data Science Specialist; Janice Ding, Data Science Specialist and Carmen Mandujano, Senior Recruiter, McKinsey & Company |
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Practical Pragmatic Approach to Responsible AIMarch 2, 2022 Dr. Scott Zoldi Chief Analytics Officer, FICO |
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Machine Learning Approach to Kaggle COVID 19 Global Forecasting ChallengeMarch 23, 2022 Funda Güneş, Master's Director, Duke University |
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Analytics at Hortifrut: Challenges and applications in the Blueberry industryMarch 30, 2022 Gonzalo Bustos and Emily Shao (MSS Alums)- Hortifrut |
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Machine Learning Applications in Supply Chain ProblemsApril 6, 2022 Dr. Kanchana Padmanabhan, Director of Machine Learning Solutions and Anne-Flore Elard, Director, Advanced Analytics Services – Kinaxis |
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I’m a Fraud: Kicking Imposter Syndrome to the CurbApril 13, 2022 Julia Wuench, The Authenticity Guide LLC |
Syllabus and Career Resources (MSS tracks/events/interviews etc.)Aug. 25, 2021 Dr. Funda Gunes, Director of Master's Program, Duke Statistical Science |
Duke Career Center Resources and Thompson Writing Program ResourcesSep. 1, 2021 Catherine L. Allen, Career Specialist, Duke Career Center, Dr. Aaron Colton, Lecturer, Thompson Writing Program |
 Liberty Mutual OverviewSep. 8, 2021 Eden Huang, Data Scientist, Liberty Mutual, Daniel McCarthy, Senior Campus Recruiter, Liberty Mutual
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Writing Effective Resumes WorkshopSep. 15, 2021 Dr. Heidi Scott Giusto, Career Coach, Career Path Writing Solutions |
Learn to Love LinkedInSep. 22, 2021 Lora B. Poepping, President, Plum Coaching & Consulting |
Internship Lightning TalksSep. 29, 2021 Second-year Statistical Science Master's Students will give lightning talks about their summer internship experiences. Emre Yurtbay, Internship at Facebook Lingyu Zhou, Internship at Voya Financial Michael Sarkis, Internship at 2nd Order Solutions Madeleine Beckner, Internship at Lubrizol Jack McCarthy, Internship at Autodesk Rob Kravec, Internship at Optiver. |
 Home Depot Information SessionOct. 6, 2021 As a Manager of a newly formed Data Science team,. Jonathan Weininger will share his experience building a Data Science team. This will include what it has been like to host 25+ interviews of data science and analytics candidates. Prior to leading a Data Science team, Jonathan helped and analytics team mature from primarily rear-view mirror reporting (descriptive) to predicting and helping shape the business (prescriptive/predictive). |
 Communicating Effectively in a Professional Setting, Let by Farnoosh Brock, Training & CoachOct. 16, 2021 Students will explore their workplace identities and perceived pressures, as well as learning interpersonal tools to develop their self-confidence and find their voice. Students will learn about fixed and growth mindset and develop tools for self-reflection. We te4ach students to work collaboratively and avoid miscommunication, and leave with practical tools and strategies to implement. |
 Ph.D. Career DiscussionOct. 20, 2021 Gong Jessie, University of Texas-Austin, Bo Liu, Duke University, Morris Greenberg, University of Toronto, Gauri Kamat, Brown University, Christine Shen, Duke University and Dr. Merlise Clyde, Director of Graduate Studies, Duke University Statistical Science. |
 Ethical AI & Data ScienceNov. 17, 2021 Ethical AI & Data Science: As statisticians, data scientists, students, and teachers, we collect data, store data, transform data, visualize data, and ultimately impact how data are used. With this responsibility, it is imperative that we confront the ways in which data and algorithms have been used to perpetuate biases and eliminate discriminatory choices and algorithms in our own work. Join a conversation where we discuss the landscape of ethics in AI and data science. |
 Collaborative Research at DukeJan. 27, 2021 Dr. Gina-Maria Pomann, Director; Duke CTSI Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Methods Core |
 Building a better mouse model of Alzheimer’s diseaseFeb. 3, 2021 Dr. Michael Lutz, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Duke University School of Medicine |
 Increasing Trust and Interpretability in Machine Learning with Model DebuggingFeb. 10, 2021 Patrick Hall, Principal Scientist, bnh.ai |
 Top 3 Things I've Learned in 3 Decades of Data ScienceFeb. 17, 2021 Dr. John Elder, Founder & Chair, & Kimberly Kaiter, Data Scientist, Elder Research |
Delivering Successful PresentationsFeb. 24, 2021 Dr. Melissa Bostrom, Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Professional Development, Duke Career Center |
 Statistics in the Government: Transparency, Leadership, and CollaborationMar. 3, 2021 Dr. Simone Gray, Sr. Statistician, Center for Disease Control and Prevention |
 Analytical Life Cycle of Model Development at Discover Financial ServicesMar. 17, 2021 Dr. Steven Dickersen, Chief Analytics Officer, & Dr. Raghu Kulkarni, VP of Data Science, Discover Financial Services |
 Applications of Bayesian function estimation in neuroscience and environmental sciencesMar. 24, 2021 Dr. Surya Tokdar, Associate Professor, Duke Statistical Science |
 Introduction to Mathematical OptimizationApr. 7, 2021 Dr. Matt Galati, Distinguished Operations Research Specialist, SAS Institute |
 Project Phoenix: Predicting AAP sales under COVIDApr. 14, 2021 Advance Auto Parts Team: Sukanya Chaudhuri, Sr. Manager, Marketing Analytics & Data Science; Scott Smith, Data Scientist, Data Science; Joan Pharr, Associate Data Scientist, Marketing Analytics & Data Science; Justin Ward, Marketing Analyst, Marketing Analytics & Data Science; Liping Wu, Data Scientist, Marketing Analytics & Data Science; Kristen Biddle, Data Scientist, Data Science |