Statistical Science
Cynthia Rudin, who is a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, statistical science, mathematics, and biostatistics and bioinformatics, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Read about her award. read more about Cynthia Rudin receives Guggenheim Fellowship »
The MSS program was thrilled to welcome Dr. Scott Zoldi, Chief Analytics Officer at FICO, to our spring ProSeminar class. Dr. Zoldi spoke to MSS students and some faculty guests (including his own Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Henry Greenside) about pragmatic approaches to responsible AI use. The danger of AI is at an all-time high with researchers, companies, and the public all increasingly concerned with improperly built automated decisioning that negatively impacts human lives. He discussed the context of the principles of… read more about Spring 2022 ProSeminar Highlight: Dr. Scott Zoldi, FICO »
Simon Mak presented at the Data & Science podcast on his work on integrating domain science into statistical models. You can see the podcast on YouTube. read more about Simon Mak podcast on integrating science and statistics »
PhD student Emily Tallman has been awarded a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Emily summarized the research she plans to do for the Fellowship as follows. My research proposal focused on new methodology in the intersection of Bayesian multivariate forecasting and decision analysis. With my advisor Mike West, I am developing a new, decision-focused approach to evaluating, comparing, and combining multiple forecasting models— methodology referred to as Bayesian Predictive Decision Synthesis (BPDS). BPDS… read more about Emily Tallman awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship »
PhD student Michele Caprio has received an Institute of Mathematical Statistics Hannan Graduate Student Travel Award to attend the 2022 IMS Annual Meeting. Michele received the award in recognition for his paper on Finite mixture models: a bridge with stochastic geometry and Choquet theory. read more about Michele Caprio wins IMS Hannan travel award »
Graduate and professional programs across the university scored highly in U.S. News and World Report’s list of “2023 Best Graduate Schools.” The Duke University School of Nursing ranked second overall in the country. In addition, several MSN Nurse Practitioner specialty programs were highly ranked: Family (first) Adult-Gerontology Primary Care (first) Nursing Administration (first) Psychiatric/Mental Health Across the Life Span (first) Adult-Gerontology Acute Care (second) Duke was ranked second… read more about Duke Graduate Programs Get High Marks in 2022 US News Rankings »
With projects ranging from healthcare to the judicial system to professional athletics, six Duke students earned recognition during the Fall 2021 Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition (USPROC). In the Undergraduate Statistics Research Project category – a competition for research projects conducted by undergraduate statistics and data science students – two Duke students mentored by Professor Yue Jiang received top honors. Linda Tang was awarded first place for her project, “Psychiatric… read more about Six Duke Students Win Undergrad Stats Competition Honors »
The NFL’s Big Data Bowl is an annual football competition through which contestants take data given by Amazon’s NextGen Stats and Pro Football Focus and produce research projects to improve the analytical knowledge within the sport. This year, the competition tasked participants with analyzing special teams from a data science perspective, with the ultimate goal of creating a new metric to evaluate NFL plays on special teams. Placing as a finalist, winning a $5,000 prize and receiving the opportunity to present… read more about Duke Statistics Senior Jack Lichtenstein named a finalist in NFL’s Big Data Bowl »
PhD student Olivier Binette is a winner of the student paper competition from the GSS/SRMS/SSS sections of the American Statistical Association. His winning paper is titled "On the reliability of Multiple Systems Estimation for the Quantification of Modern Slavery." In view of modern slavery studies, he provides a thorough review and evaluation of multiple systems estimation methodology and contributes to the open-source software repository of the field. read more about Olivier Binette wins student paper competition »
Anru Zhang, who holds a secondary appointment in Statistical Science and is on the faculty of the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, has been named the 2022 Tweedie New Researcher Award winner. The Tweedie Award is given by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics to a leading early career researcher in statistical science. read more about Anru Zhang wins Tweedie Award »
PhD students David Buch and Jennifer Kampe were part of the team that won the 2021 Data Open Championship! You can find the full story on the Correlation-One website . read more about Jennifer Kampe and David Buch win Data Open Challenge »
The Department of Statistical Science welcomes Lin Lin and Anru Zhang as new secondary faculty in the department. Lin is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, and Anru is the Eugene Anson Stead, Jr. M.D. Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. read more about Two new secondary faculty in Statistical Science »
The 4th Annual Industry Day brought seven great companies (virtually) to Duke. This year’s event, co-sponsored by the Master of Interdisciplinary Data Science program, gave over 80 students the opportunity to connect with representatives from Advance Auto Parts, Deloitte Consulting, Fidelity, IBM, MetLife, SAS, and Wells Fargo. Students were able to participate in small group breakout sessions and hear about the representatives’ background and exciting projects. They learned more about how each company uses Statistics and… read more about MSS/MIDS Virtual Industry Day Connects Students with Industry Partners »
Statistical Science students participated in an engaging workshop and learned interview and negotiation skills, including salary and benefit negotiations, from our amazing career coach, Farnoosh Brock in an engaged workshop. Students also gained other tangible workplace success insights as they begin their careers. Students learned how to maximize the total compensation package for an offered position, and role played the difficult parts of the conversation to develop their comfortability with these conversations. The… read more about Salary Negotiations Workshop »
Statistical Science PhD students Bora Jin and Becky Tang are the winners of the 2022 Student Paper Awards from the Section on Statistics and the Environment of the American Statistical Association. Bora's paper is titled, "Bag of DAGs: Flexible & Scalable Modeling of Spatiotemporal Dependence." Becky's paper is titled, "Species interactions and movement: modeling environmental effects on community dynamics." read more about Bora Jin and Becky Tang receive student paper awards »
Story: PhD student Vittorio Orlandi is a recipient of a 2022 student paper award from the Section on Bayesian Statistical Science of the American Statistical Association. The paper is titled, Density Regression with Bayesian Additive Regression Trees. Vittorio collaborated with Statistical Science PhD alumnus Jared Murray, Duke assistant professor Alex Volfovsky, and Antonio Linero. The work extends a Bayesian method called BART to the setting of density regression. Vittorio also received… read more about PhD student Vittorio Orlandi wins paper competition »
A team of students led by Statistical Science professors Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel and Maria Tackett will pull together all data associated with DataFest (https://www2.stat.duke.edu/datafest) for the purpose of retrospective archiving and documentation as well as creating a valuable resource that can serve as the one-stop-shop for students interested in participating in DataFest in the future. Goals of this project include curating “metadata” on past DataFests to build an interactive dashboard that shows the growth of… read more about Data+ 2022 »
Statistical Science faculty members Drs. Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel and Yue Jiang were recently awarded a Faculty Advancement Seed Grant for their proposal "Building a Community of Practice for Statistics and Data Science Education Researchers," which aims to more fully incorporate the practice of statistical education to our department's and university's research missions and elevate the visibility of this important work. The grant will provide funding to support events (e.g., journal clubs) focusing… read more about Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel and Yue Jiang awarded faculty advancement grant »
Galen Reeves, associate professor of statistical science, recently solved a 70-year old problem in information theory. His work has been hailed as a "stunning achievement." read more about Galen Reeves solved 70 year old problem »
We would like to congratulate Aihua Li for winning the Dean’s Research Award. The Dean’s Research Award provides funding for the purchase of materials and supplies to support research relevant to a Master’s student’s degree completion. Aihua’s research focuses on Bayesian decoupling for sparse estimation advised by Dr. Surya Tokdar and Dr. Jason Xu. Congratulations, Aihua! read more about MSS Student Wins Dean’s Research Award »
Dr. Funda Gunes, Director of the Master’s Program, and Dr. Merlise Clyde, Director of Graduate Studies, hosted a virtual admissions information session for both the Master’s and Ph.D. Statistical Science programs. First, Dr. Gunes gave an overview of the Master’s program, highlighting program requirements as well as co-curricular opportunities. Next, Dr. Clyde discussed the opportunities available through the Ph.D. program. Dr. Gunes and Dr. Clyde reviewed the admissions requirements for both programs. Finally, prospective… read more about Joint MSS/Ph.D. Virtual Admissions Session Welcomes Prospective Students »
Statistical Science faculty member Amy Herring, the Charles Sara & Charles Ayres Distinguished Professor, was elected as the incoming president of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA). Additionally, Li Ma, who is an associate professor of statistical science, was elected to the ISBA Board of Directors. Congratulations, Amy and Li! read more about Statistical Science faculty elected to ISBA leadership »
On November 10th, the MSS program had its 2021 Alumni Day organized by the GCC. Seven MSS alumni joined the event as panelists to share their professional insights with current MSS students. The event started with opening remarks from the program director, Dr. Funda Gunes, who warmly welcomed all alumni and students to the event. The students then had the chance to learn from the alumni about their backgrounds and professional experiences through a panel discussion moderated by the GCC members. The panelists all worked in… read more about 2021 MSS Alumni Day »
During this week’s proseminar session, MSS students enjoyed an engaging discussion on Ethical AI and Data Science led by Emily Hadley from RTI. Emily shared great insights and questions data scientists should ask during the planning, implementation, and interpretation stages of their projects in order to maintain a focus on equity and inclusivity. Emily also shared her work and efforts in Responsible AI at RTI, several pertinent articles on the subject, and wonderful resources to increase awareness in the area,… read more about MSS Proseminar: Ethical AI & Data Science session »
Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel was interviewed on the podcast, Data & Science, on her views advancing open access data science education. Watch the interview here. read more about Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel talks on Data & Science »
11/9, 4-6pm, Old Chem Porch if you're applying for a Ph.D. program in Statistical Science, come have your application reviewed by StatSci faculty and current Ph.D. students. Rain location: Old Chem 100 Lobby read more about PhD Workshop »
The Department of Statistical Science at Duke University will host a virtual information session for our Master’s and Ph.D. programs on Friday, November 19th from 2-3:30pm ET. This session is open to all who are potentially interested in applying to one of our graduate programs. The Master's in Statistical Science (MSS) is a 2-year graduate degree program that provides a modern, comprehensive education in statistical theory, methods, and computation. The MSS program offers generalized focus areas (including… read more about Prospective Students: MS and Ph.D Virtual Information Session »