Spotlights
SDS Welcomes Rachel Wang, Visiting Harrington Faculty Fellow
The Department of Statistics and Data Sciences is pleased to welcome Rachel Wang, one of two 2021-2022 Harrington Faculty Fellows visiting the College of Natural Sciences. The Donald D. Harrington Fellows Program is one of the best endowed visiting scholar and graduate fellow programs in the nation. Sybil Harrington established...Lauren Blondeau Receives Award from the Texas Center for Disability Studies
Lauren Blondeau, Assistant Professor of Instruction for the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, received the award for the Most Improved Accessibility in the Student Diversity Impact Training. She participated in an accessibility grant that was funded by the Actions for Community Transformation seed grant from the Provost for Diversity office....SDS PhD student Giorgio Paulon and Dr. Abhra Sarkar receive the Mitchell Prize
Congratulations to Giorgio Paulon and Dr. Abhra Sarkar (Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin) on their recent Mitchell Prize for their 2020 paper: Bayesian Semiparametric Longitudinal Drift-Diffusion Mixed Models for Tone Learning in Adults. Journal of the American Statistical Association (https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.2020.1801448)...Seeking Applicants for Fall 2021 Lecturer Position
Position Details Position Title: Lecturer (non-tenure track)—AY 2021-22 Location: Austin, Texas Position Type: Faculty Position URL: apply.interfolio.com/89238 Position Description The department is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural and diverse environment. We are therefore interested in candidates...Sally Ragsdale Receives President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award
Sally Ragsdale, Associate Professor of Instructor for the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, was selected to receive the annual President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award for the 2020-2021 academic year. The award recognizes exceptional undergraduate teaching in the core curriculum and those involved in curriculum reform and educational innovation. Congratulations, Sally,...SDS Focus: Same Great Courses, New Names
Beginning fall 2021, four SDS course names are changing! See below for more details about each course. SDS 302 and SDS 306 are now SDS 302F, Foundations of Data Analysis! SDS 302F Foundations of Data Analysis (replacing SDS 302 Data Analysis for the Health Sciences) Introduction to data analysis and...Giorgio Paulon Recognized with SBSS Award
25 January 2021—Statistics doctoral candidate Giorgio Paulon has been selected as one of ten winners of the American Statistical Association Section of Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS) Student Paper Competition. Giorgio will be considered for SBSS’s top prize for student papers – the Laplace Award – which will be announced at the Joint...Seeking Applicants for Fall 2021 Faculty Positions
Tenured/Tenure-Track Professor Department of Statistics & Data Sciences (2020) LocationAustin, TX Open DateOctober 6, 2020 Application links:Tenure-Track position (Assistant Professor): apply.interfolio.com/79400Tenured position (Associate/Full Professor): apply.interfolio.com/79413 DescriptionThe Department of Statistics and Data Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin is seeking applicants for one tenure-track, one tenured, and one open rank...COVID-19 Testing Postdoctoral Fellowship
The Department of Statistics and Data Sciences (SDS) at the University of Texas at Austin is soliciting applications for a postdoctoral fellow to work on COVID-19 data collection and analysis. Prior experience with observational study design and execution are desired, in addition to strong data management/analysis and communication skills. The postdoc...New Faculty: Nhat Ho, Vagheesh Narasimhan, and Layla Guyot
The Department of Statistics and Data Sciences is pleased to welcome three new faculty members. Dr. Nhat Ho joins the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences as a tenure track Assistant Professor. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science...Faculty Jared Murray and Carlos Carvalho to present Bayesian Analysis Discussion Paper
SDS Faculty Jared Murray and Carlos Carvalho will present their Discussion Paper featured in the September 2020 issue of Bayesian Analysis. Learn more and register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSchuTbdek6xcKcL83McHqIP58BJ8eWlaC-cI_ig4y8hZfVTxQ/viewformDr. Abhra Sarkar Awarded NSF Grant
Congratulations to Dr. Abhra Sarkar (Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin) on his recent National Science Foundation (NSF) award for the project titled, “Novel Statistical Frameworks for Local Inference in Neuroscience of Learning.” Dr. Sarkar will serve as...Graduating PhD Student Spotlight: Novin Ghaffari
Novin Ghaffari PhD in Statistics, The University of Texas at Austin (Fall 2019)MS in Statistics, The University of Texas at AustinBS in Math, Plan II, and Finance, The University of Texas at AustinDissertation: "Optimal Transportation and Barycenter Problems via Convex Functions" Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Stephen G. WalkerResearch Interests: Mathematical statistics, Bayesian methods, optimal transportation,...Graduating PhD Student Spotlight: Su Chen
Su Chen PhD in Statistics, The University of Texas at Austin (Summer 2020)MS in Mathematics, The University of Texas at AustinBS in Applied Math, Zhejiang UniversityDissertation: "Bayesian Variable Selection and Hypothesis Testing" Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Stephen WalkerResearch Interests: Bayesian methods with applications in machine learning and data scienceDescribe your research.The general topic of...Updated: New Model Forecasts When States Likely to See Peak in COVID-19
By Marc G Airhart Original Article A computer model from the UT COVID-19 Modeling Consortium forecasts daily deaths from COVID-19 for the entire US and each state. Credit: University of Texas at Austin. A model that projects COVID-19 deaths for all 50 U.S. states using geolocation data from cellphones to...SSI Course Spotlight: Scalable Machine Learning: Methods and Tools
The Department of Statistics and Data Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin is hosting the 13th annual UT Summer Statistics Institute (SSI) May 26–29, 2020! Learn more and register. What is the course? This course introduces participants to common methods and tools for machine learning in practice and...SSI Course Spotlight: Introduction to SQL and Relational Database Design
The Department of Statistics and Data Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin is hosting the 13th annual UT Summer Statistics Institute (SSI) May 26–29, 2020! Learn more and register. What is the course? This course will teach interested parties the basics of relational database design and Structured Query Language...SSI Course Spotlight: Introduction to Data Analysis and Graphics using R
The Department of Statistics and Data Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin is hosting the 13th annual UT Summer Statistics Institute (SSI) May 26–29, 2020! Learn more and register. What is this course? Introduction to Data Analysis and Graphics using R is a hands-on course intended to provide first-time...SSI Course Spotlight: Introduction to Bayesian Statistics
The Department of Statistics and Data Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin is hosting the 13th annual UT Summer Statistics Institute (SSI) May 26–29, 2020! Learn more and register. What is the course? Introduction to Bayesian Statistics will cover probability basics, common continuous/discrete probability distributions, likelihood functions, and Bayes'...
