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News

Andy Leung receives SSC’s Pierre Robillard Award

We are very proud of our PhD alumnus Andy Leung for having received the Pierre Robillard Award from the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC). This award recognizes “the best PhD thesis in probability or statistics defended at a Canadian university during the previous year”. Andy won this prize for his thesis “Robust Estimation and Inference under Cellwise and Casewise Contamination”, which was supervised by Professor Ruben Zamar....

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May 10, 2017

Yang (Seagle) Liu Receives Marshall Prize

The recipient of this year’s Marshall Prize is Yang (Seagle) Liu.

Seagle has recently finished his PhD in our department, under the supervision of Jim Zidek. Seagle has been active with the FPInnovations project headed by Jim Zidek and others. For his PhD research, Seagle has been involved with marine mammal tracking. Seagle's thesis focuses on the fusion of tracking model output data with GPS sightings of the animals. In the fusion and computation, he solved some...

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May 1, 2017

Department statisticians contribute once again to the study of multiple sclerosis

ASDa staff and recent MSc graduate Jeff Bone developed and executed the detailed statistical analysis plan for a recently reported study about the controversial "liberation therapy", finding no significant impact of the therapy. This work adds to the many ways Statistics Department members have contributed to medical research into this debilitating disease. Indeed, in 2014, Professor John Petkau received the Statistical Society of Canada's Impact Award...

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April 6, 2017

Kevin Multani receives full funding from CANSSI and SAMSI to attend SAMSI workshop

Kevin Multani has received full funding from CANSSI and SAMSI to attend a SAMSI Interdisciplinary Workshop for Undergraduate Students, from May 14 – 19. The workshop is an introduction to applied mathematical and statistical research in the area of Astronomy...

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April 5, 2017

Using data for social good: Microsoft funds UBC and UW

Microsoft has provided $1 million to fund UBC and the University of Washington in a data science initiative, the Cascadia Urban Analytics Cooperative.  As UBC President Ono said in the UBC press release, which gives details of the initiative, "Thanks to this generous gift from Microsoft, our two universities are poised to help transform the Cascadia region into a...

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February 25, 2017

UBC Science undergrad students shine in Actuarial Science!

Undergraduates Katie Li (Statistics), Jenny Song (Mathematics), and David Yin (Statistics and Computer Science) won first place in the ANÉA-ASNA Case Competition 2017 (ASNA = Actuarial Students National Association). They beat out 10 other teams, with their development of a method for estimating an insurer’s liability from future claims.

See a photo on the UBC Science Facebook page.

The expenses of their travel to the Toronto...

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January 17, 2017

Rick White Memorial Fund

The Rick White Memorial Fund was established late last year, to honour Rick’s memory. Rick, who passed away September 2, 2016, was a long time member of the department, an accomplished statistical consultant and data scientist, and a wonderful mentor, leader, and colleague. 

You can learn more about the fund and about Rick on the department web page:

https://www.stat.ubc.ca/rick-white-memorial-fund

and on...

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January 11, 2017

Thorne-Tanabe Graduate Entrance Scholarship Recipients

This year, we were honoured by the generosity of Anona Thorne and Takao Tanabe, who established the Anona Thorne and Takao Tanabe Graduate Entrance Scholarship. Anona Thorne (BA '91 Mathematics; MSc '93 Statistics) is a double alumna of UBC and went on to an interesting career using her statistics training at the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network at Saint Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. Takao Tanabe is an internationally acclaimed Canadian painter.

The recipients for 2016 are Sonja...

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January 4, 2017

Call for Nominations: Department of Statistics Award in Data Science

The Department of Statistics is soliciting nominations for the recently established Department of Statistics Award in Data Science, an award to recognize the importance of developing and applying tools to answer important questions through the analysis of data. This $1000 award is offered to an undergraduate or graduate student who has demonstrated initiative and creativity in making outstanding contributions in the field of Data Science. The award is made on the recommendation of the...

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December 14, 2016

Jenny Bryan elected to Ordinary Membership in the R Foundation

Faculty member Jenny Bryan has been honoured with her election to Ordinary Membership in the R Foundation, joining the ranks of those who, through their work, have contributed substantially to the R project. We all know and love R—it has been an essential part of the statistician’s toolbox for many years now. Its use has expanded far beyond the world of statisticians, leading IEEE to rank it as the fifth most popular programming...

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November 8, 2016

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