Category Archives: Department of Statistics

Career opportunities, Department of Statistics, Seminars, Student organizations

Illini Statistics Resume Workshop Sept. 3

The Illini Statistics student organization is sponsoring a resume workshop put on by the Career Center next Tuesday.

Workshop Title: Winning Resumes and Cover Letters (45-50 mins)
Location: EVRT 165 (1406 West Green Street Urbana, IL 61801)
Time: Sep 3rd( Tuesday) 5:30pm

 

This should be a good opportunity to learn about putting your resume together or improving your existing resume before the series of career fairs which start the following week.

Be sure to check out the Illini Statistics webpage http://publish.illinois.edu/illinistatistics/ for more info about the organization and upcoming events, and to get involved if you’re not already a member.

Department of Statistics, In The News

Chance News: Issue #94

Chance News reviews current stories in the news compiled by CAUSEweb that involve probability or statistical concepts. (https://www.causeweb.org/chance)

Contents in Issue #94

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Career opportunities, Department of Statistics, Scholarships/Fellowships, Undergraduate research

The American Statistical Association

Introduce your Statistics Students to the ASA!
Thank you for your help introducing your students to the American Statistical Association over the years. Student membership has steadily increased to over 4700 students, thanks in large part to your help.
We hope you will continue to help us build our Student Membership by encouraging your students to become a part of the ASA.
Student Membership is offered at the deep discount of only $15.
Student Members receive all of our great benefits including:
We are also seeking assistance in reaching recent Ph.D. graduates. If allowable, please forward a list of any recent graduates so that ASA can extend a special offer for membership to these new statisticians. Alternatively, reach out to them and let them know they can join the ASA at a deep discount as well.
Thank you for your time, attention, and support! If you have any questions or would like further information please contact Kalil Deschamps. We look forward to continuing the celebration of the International Year of Statistics, and hope you will join us in 2014 as we celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the ASA. We hope you have a successful 2013-2014 academic year!
 The International Year of Statistics (Statistics2013)
Department of Statistics, In The News

Statistics Dept Professor named Centennial Scholar!

We are extremely proud of Prof. Xiaofeng Shao and this incredible honor! See below.

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Ten faculty have been named Centennial Scholars in honor of the 100th anniversary of the creation of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois.

The faculty come from a wide range of academic units, and they were selected for their scholarly productivity and contributions to the educational mission of the College of LAS. Executive officers also made a point to select faculty who are at the midpoint in their careers and demonstrate exciting potential in their work.

The Centennial Scholars were nominated for the appointment, and a committee submitted recommendations to the dean of the college. Each scholar will hold his or her appointment for three years and receive $10,000 for research during each of those years.

The Centennial Scholars are:

  • Antony Augoustakis (Classics)
  • Adrian Burgos (History)
  • Kara Federmeier (Psychology)
  • Lilya Kaganovsky (Slavic Languages and Literatures)
  • Leanne Knobloch (Communication)
  • Hyun Joon Kong (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
  • Xiaofeng Shao (Statistics)
  • Tracy Sulkin (Political Science)
  • Ted Underwood (English)
  • Shaowen Wang (Geography and Geographic Information Science)

“These scholars represent the best of the liberal arts and sciences at the University of Illinois,” says Brian Ross, interim dean of the College of LAS. “We are thrilled to have them on campus as the college reaches this symbolic milestone.”

(See www.las.illinois.edu/100 for more information.)

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Course Announcements, Department of Statistics, Other departments

ECON 490 (U3D) – Advanced Topics in Econometrics

Other departments sometimes offer courses highly related to statistics. One example being offered this Fall 2013 is ECON 490 – U3D: Advanced Topics in Econometrics being taught by Prof. Eun Yi Chung. The description is as follows:

The goal of this course is to develop basic tools to understand and use modern econometric methods. We focus on estimating and making inference for causal effects with a special attention to policy relevant problems. Topics include randomized experiments, natural experiments, matching methods, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity. We discuss theoretical aspects of these methods with detailed applications.

 

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Department of Statistics, Seminars

Statistics Seminar – June 7

Reproducing Kernel Hilbert space approach to Functional Regression for general exponential families
 
Speaker: Carlos Valencia
Date: June 7, 2013
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm 
Location: 122 Illini Hall (Conference Room)
Sponsor: Statistics Department
 
We study a smoothness regularization estimator for an infinite dimensional parameter in an exponential family model with functional predictors. We focus on the Reproducing Kernel Hilbert space approach and show that, regardless the generality of the method, minimax optimal convergence rates are achieved. This research project enhances the set of tools that can be used for Functional Data Analysis, specifically, allowing for a computational convenient estimation of the regression problem in settings where the response is discrete or the zero mean additive error assumption is not appropiate. In order to derive the asymptotic analysis of the estimator, we developed a simultaneous diagonalization tool for two positive definite operators: the kernel operator and the operator defined by the second Frechet derivative of the expected data fit functional. By using the proposed simultaneous diagonalization tool we obtained sharper bounds on the minimax rates.
Department of Statistics, Seminars

Statistics Seminar – June 6

Smoothing spline analysis of variance models for electroencephalography data analysis

 

Speaker: Nathaniel Helwig

Date: June 6, 2013

Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Location: 122 Illini Hall (Conference Room)

Sponsor: Statistics Department

 

Electroencephalography (EEG) data consist of electrical activity recorded over time from electrodes on the scalp. Typical EEG studies collect multi-electrode data from many subjects in attempt to compare differences in brain activity between different subject groups. In this talk, I discuss how smoothing spline analysis of variance (SSANOVA) models can be used to reliably analyze differences EEG data. First, I provide an overview of the SSANOVA framework and discuss the model”s large sample and dimensionality issues. Next, I present some approximations for fitting tensor-product SSANOVA models to large samples. Then, I discuss how two- and three-way SSANOVA models can be used to reliably compare differences in single- or multi-electrode EEG data. I conclude by discussing some methodological and substantive extensions of this work.