DataFest 2018 registration is now open, you can sign up at this link.! Seats are limited, don't wait till the last minute! ASA DataFest is a data analysis competition where teams of up to five students attack a large, complex, and surprise dataset over a weekend. Your job is to represent your school by finding and communicating insights into these data. The teams that impress the judges will win prizes as well as glory for their school. Everyone will have a great experience, lots of food, and fun! We'll have another… read more about DataFest 2018 registration open »
The title of the project is: “An Integrated Nonparametric Bayesian and Deep Neural Network Framework for Biologically-Inspired Lifelong Learning” with MIT and UC Berkeley. There have been remarkable advances in recent years using deep neural networks, but generalizing them to new situations has proven significantly more difficult, presenting barriers to the creation of many of the artificial-intelligence-based systems. In order to create systems that are capable of learning continually, generalizing to novel… read more about Katherine Heller receives DARPA award »
Galen Reeves receives NSF Career Award. Li Ma receives NSF Career Award. Rebecca Steorts receives NSF Career Award. read more about Junior Faculty Receive Career Awards »
Congratulations to Duke DSS alum Anirban Bhattacharya for winning this years Junior Noether Award - given by the ASA to the top young nonparametric statistician internationally. Great job and well deserved Anirban! read more about Anirban Bhattacharya wins Junior Noether Award »
Congratulations to DSS MS students Cecilia Shi, Xingyu Yan and Weiye Li, MS student in Quantitative Financial Economics for winning the Citadel Duke-UNC Data Open! They will represent the Research Triangle area in the National Data Open later this year! We are very proud of you! read more about Statistical Science MS Students Win Citadel Duke-UNC Data Open »
Our alumna Catherine (Kate) Calder (PhD 2003) has been appointed as co-Director of the US National Mathematical Biosciences Institute! Congratulations Kate! Kate joined the faculty in the Department of Statistics at The Ohio State University in 2003. She served as an associate director of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI) from 2015-2017, before assuming the role of MBI co-director in 2018. She is a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Population Research, the Criminal Justice Research Institute,… read more about Alumna Kate Calder Appointed as Co-Director of Mathematical Biosciences Institute »
The International Indian Statistical Association has recognized Depdeep Pati (StatSci PhD 2012) as the winner of the Young Researcher Award in Theory and Methodology. The award was announced at the 2017 IISA Conference on Statistics at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre on December 29. Debdeep is currently an Associate Professor of Statistics at Texas A&M University. Congratulations! read more about Duke Alumnus Debdeep Pati is Winner of Young Researcher Award »
Raquel Prado (Duke StatSci PhD 1998) has been elected to serve as President of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) in 2019, serving in 2018 as President-Elect. Lurdes Inoue (Duke StatSci PhD 1999) and our Associate Professor Surya Tokdar have been elected to serve on the ISBA Board of Directors for 2018-2020. Jouchi Nakajima (Duke StatSci PhD 2012) has been elected to serve as Treasurer for the ISBA Section on Economics, Finance and Business read more about Duke StatSci alums and faculty elected to ISBA leadership positions »
The International Indian Statistical Association has recognized Statistical Science Associate Professor Surya Tokdar from Duke University as the winner of the Young Researcher Award in Theory, and Methodology. The award was announced at the 2017 IISA Conference on Statistics at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre on December 29. Congratulations Surya! read more about Surya Tokdar is Winner of the Young Researcher Award in Theory and Methodology »
Duke alumna Kristian Lum (PhD 2010) recently wrote a blog post about sexual misconduct in statistics and data science. We commend Dr. Lum for shining a light on the problems of sexual misconduct. We condemn all acts of sexual misconduct and harassment — including unwanted sexual advances, groping, and denigration of anyone — in the strongest terms. We express our full commitment to help eradicate them from our profession. Department of Statistical Science Faculty read more about Sexual Harassment has No Place in Statistics & Data Science »
CAN WE TEACH COMPUTERS TO MAKE LIKE MENDELSSOHN? Not yet. Robot composer good at emulating short snippets, but still hasn’t mastered melody Duke researchers are teaching computers to compose new classical music in the style of Romantic-era composers like Chopin and Beethoven. Photo from Pixabay.com Canon, produced more pleasing tunes. Computer-generated music isn’t new. Researchers such as David Cope, former professor of music at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have tried to use computers to analyze and imitate… read more about CAN WE TEACH COMPUTERS TO MAKE LIKE MENDELSSOHN? »
Ivonna Dumanyan, Pratt ‘16, and Gabrielle Levac, Trinity ‘14, were named to the Forbes 30 under 30 healthcare list for co-founding Fathom AI. Dumanyan tore two muscles while she was a member of the women’s rowing team. She and Levac, who was a part of the cross country and track and field team at Duke, developed a wearable artificial intelligence platform that helps mitigate injury through risk factor detection and early intervention. Dumanyan graduated with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 2016 and… read more about Forbes 30 under 30 list includes Statistical Science Major Alumna Gabrielle Levac »
Tenure Track Assistant Professor Position The Department of Statistical Science at Duke University invites applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level to begin in July/August 2018. Applicants from all areas of statistical science are encouraged to apply. Applicants should submit a letter, curriculum vitae, research and teaching statements, letters from three references, and one reprint/preprint via https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/9716. Enquiries can be emailed to stat-tt-search@duke.edu… read more about Tenure Track Assistant Professor Position »
Open Rank Professor of the Practice at Duke University The Department of Statistical Science at Duke University invites applications for an open rank faculty appointment as a professor of the practice to begin in Fall 2018. This position is a regular rank faculty with a term renewable appointment. Preference will be given to candidates demonstrating outstanding teaching and strong interests in developing and growing our undergraduate major in Statistical Science. The Department is an internationally… read more about Open-Rank Professor of Practice »
Sudipta Dasmohapatra will be joining the Statistical Science family this Fall as the incoming MSS Director! Sudipta comes from NCSU where she was an Associate Professor in Marketing Analytics at the Institute for Advanced Analytics. Dr. Damohapatra's ares of specialization include design of experiments, web analytics, dimensionality in data and data management, market basket analysis and market segmentation. Dr. Dasmohapatra joined NC State in 2007 after working for three years in market research consulting at The Future's… read more about Sudipta Dasmohapatra joins Statistical Science »
Katherine Heller is featured in a Talking Machines podcast - "The Church of Bayes and Collecting Data." read more about Katherine Heller Featured in Machine Learning Podcast »
Congratulations to Lynn Lin for receiving the 2016 Mitchell Prize, that was presented at the 2017 Joint Statistics Meeting in Baltimore. Lynn (Lin) is a Department of Statistical Science alumna (2012 PhD) and lead author on the award winning paper “COMPASS Identifies T-cell Subsets Correlated with Clinical Outcomes,” published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, 33(6), 610–616, 2015 with coauthors Greg Finak, Kevin Ushey, Chetan Seshadri, Thomas R Hawn,… read more about Alumna Lynn Lin Wins Mitchell Prize »
Congratulations to Alum Matt Johnson, recipient of the 2017 Laplace Award! This is the major student award of the ASA Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS) presented at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings. Here is Matt receiving his award at the 2017 JSM in Baltimore. See details of the award - http://community.amstat.org/sbss/awards read more about Matt Johnson, Laplace Award Winner »
Jerry Reiter was appointed to the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academy of Sciences. The mission of CNSTAT is to "improve the statistical methods and information on which public policy decisions are based." Jerry is appointed to a three year term. read more about Jerry Reiter appointed to Committee on National Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences. »
President of the American Statistical Association Barry Nussbaum and Duke Statistical Science Professor Jerry Reiter published an opinion on the HONEST Act in The Hill. Their opinion points out shortcomings of the proposed legislation. The opinion can be read at http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/339048-honest-act-needs-honest-engagement-of-scientific-community The Hill covers activities of Congress and the government at large. read more about ASA President and Jerry Reiter comment on pending legislation in The Hill »
From AMSTAT News Online: Online career guidance website CareerCast.com has ranked “statistician” as the best job in its 2017 jobs report. The occupation has teetered near the top in recent years, having grown in popularity as demand for this position’s unique skill set has skyrocketed amid the global data revolution. In compiling the list, CareerCast.com applied various criteria, including income, growth outlook, and stress/environmental factors. “One key factor in the profession’s top billing is that employment… read more about Statistician Tops List of Best Jobs in 2017 »
The 2016-17 BEST Award was announced during the Annual Graduation Reception of the Department of Statistical Science, held at the Rickhouse on Sunday, May 14, 2017. Professor Jerry Reiter presented the BEST Award 2016-17 to Statistical Science Ph.D students Isaac Lavine and Michael Lindon in recognition of their research on Adaptive Variable Selection for Sequential Prediction in Dynamic Models. Honorable Mention was awarded to William Eastman, in recognition… read more about Statistical Science Students Issac Lavine and Michael Lindon win 2016-17 BEST Award »
My favorite Duke memory is watching Duke beat UNC this year with my friends in Cameron. Read More read more about Corey Vernot: Making Statistics Work Across Many Fields »
Coming from a small HBCU, Lorin Crawford had some concerns about coming to Duke for graduate school, but his interview session put those concerns to rest. See his complete video interview here. read more about Lorin Crawford: I Knew I Belonged at Duke When ... »
Ana Rappold graduated from Duke with a Ph.D. in Statistics and Decision Sciences in 2004. After graduating, she joined the Environmental Protection Agency, first as a postdoctoral fellow and later as a Principal Investigator. She is currently the scientific lead on research aimed at integrating public health messaging with environmental models and understanding their effectiveness in improving population health outcomes. Dr. Rappold was recently awarded a Pathfinder Innovation Projects Award to conduct… read more about Alumni Profile: Ana Rappold »
Duke Statistical Science Alumni will be visiting campus on Friday, 4/14/2017 and meeting with Master's students as part of a career development program. Alums will have an opportunity to meet with former advisors and other faculty as well. A dinner is planned that evening for Master's students with our Alumni presenting information about their career paths and offering advice for those looking for employment. read more about DSS Alumni Visit and Dinner »
DURHAM, N.C. -- To learn what power dynamics mean for health, consider the meerkat. Squirrel-sized members of the mongoose family, meerkats are remarkable team players. Although they live in groups of up to 50, a single male and female monopolize the bulk of the breeding. The rest help with feeding and babysitting the dominant pair’s pups, looking out for predators and other chores, while waiting for a chance to rise in rank and raise pups of their own. Wild meerkats in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa. Photo by Jenny… read more about Researchers Win $1.2M to Study Social Mobility in Meerkats »
On Friday, March 24, the Statistical Science Department is hosting an Open House for students admitted to the Master's in Statistical Science program. Students can visit the department to learn more about the MSS, chat with faculty about teaching, research and career opportunities, and meet with current MSS students. The event begins at 9 a.m. and lodging is available at Hilton Garden Inn (919-286-0774) Schedule 9 a.m. Welcome/Meeting with Faculty 11:30 a.m. Lunch with MSD & Current… read more about MSS Open House on Friday »
The Department of Statistical Science and BEST Award Committee invite submissions for the 2016/17 BEST Award — the annual award for a student or students based on research projects in Bayesian statistical modeling, decision analysis, time series, forecasting and other topics related to financial, economic and business applications. The BEST Award Committee solicits applications based on research project proposals, and will partially support summer research projects in the proposal area for the winning student(s). Please… read more about Submissions for the BEST Award for Student Research Due March 31 »
The Department of Statistical Science graduation reception will be held at the Rickhouse in Downtown Durham at 609 Foster St, Durham, NC 27701. Date:May 14, 2017 The reception begins at 12:30 pm with heavy hors d'oeuvres Schedule Welcome: Professor Merlise Clyde- Department Chair Presentation of Bachelor’s Degrees: Professor Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel - Director of Undergraduate Studies Presentation of TA Award: Professor Mine Cetinkaya-… read more about 2017 Statistical Science Graduation Reception »