News

The Mean Squared Terrors have been proudly flying the Statistics flag in UBC's indoor and outdoor soccer leagues for the past 4 years. After many seasons of heartbreak and disappointment in which the Terrors failed to progress through a play-off round, this year they won the UBC indoor league for the first time.

The line-up of Daniel Dinsdale, David Kepplinger, Joe Watson, Jonathan (Pep) Agyeman, Jonathan Steif, and Matías Salibián-Barrera reached the final on the back of solid defensive strategies and overwhelming offensive plays, achieving a seasonal goal difference of over +40. Although the Terrors looked destined to miss out on the trophy after falling 3-7 behind in the final with only 10 of the 40 minutes of play remaining, the Terrors rallied back to tie the game 7-7 by the time the final whistle blew. Extra time saw David Kepplinger calmly end the sudden death period, with a sniper shot that pierced through Geology’s defensive line and goalie—launching the Terrors to victory.

We would like to thank everyone who has ever played for the Terrors and hope we can defend our title next season, which starts in September 2018! Everyone in the department is welcome to join (students, staff, faculty), no matter your skill level. Go Terrors!

Graduate Teaching Assistants play an important role in the department. Every year since 2011, we have recognized GTA excellence via the Statistics Department's Graduate Teaching Award.

Michael is in the combined MD/PhD program, working in the laboratory of Dr. Leonard J. Foster, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Life Sciences Centre, where he develops bioinformatic methods to interrogate the protein-protein interactome. Michael and a fellow MD/PhD student have led an independent project integrating results from small scale literature experiments with several transcriptomic and other ‘omic studies’ of spinal cord injury (SCI) to characterize the pathophysiological response to SCI at a systems level.

Statistics Ph.D. student Tanja Högg is the recipient of this year’s Marshall Prize. Tanja is carrying out her Ph.D.

Statistics Associate Professor Alex Bouchard-Côté and co-researchers have been awarded a CANSSI Collaborative Team Grant to support the project "Statistical Methods for Challenging Problems in Public Health Microbiology”.  The three-year $180,000 grant will support the team's development of methods that will help public heath authorities control the development of drug resistance and the spread of epidemic outbreaks.

From the project proposal:

The UBC Statistics Department offers free statistical analysis, via STAT 450/550, accepting projects for term 2 2017-18 from Nov 9 - Jan 20. 

STAT 450/STAT 550 DETAILS

The Department of Statistics is soliciting nominations for the 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 $1,000 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.

Katie (Zijing) Li has been honoured with a Faculty of Science Excellence in Service Awards 2017. Katie is a fourth-year undergraduate Statistics major who has been active in enhancing the UBC undergraduate experience through her participation and leadership in UBC-established programs and her leadership in the recently established Undergraduate Statistics Society (USS).

Thank you, Katie, for your contributions to the Faculty of Science community.

StatSpace, produced through the Flexible Learning Introductory Statistics (FLIS) Project, is now available in a "soft launch" form.  This preliminary version allows you to explore and use the current resources, namely, web visualizations, videos, WebWorK questions and some clicker questions, material that has been team-vetted and trialed on thousands of UBC students. 

The Anona Thorne and Takao Tanabe Graduate Entrance Scholarship was established through the generosity of UBC Statistics alumna Anona Thorne and her husband Takao Tanabe. The scholarship is offered annually to students entering a graduate program in Statistics. 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.