Statistics Seminars
Fall Semester 2022:
November 10
Rob Bachler (Principal Actuary at the Seattle-based firm Milliman) talk "Careers in Actuarial Sciences"
October 10
Dr. Nathan Wycoff (Massive Data Institute, Georgetown University): "Sparse Inference in Variational Bayes with Nonsmooth Penalties"
Summer Semester 2022:
August 18
Paul Harmon's Ph.D. Dissertation Defense (Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, MSU): "Applications and Diagnostics for Dimension Reduction of Multivariate Data"
August 16
Priscilla Bacino's Ph.D. Dissertation Defense (Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, MSU): "Correlation-based Multiple Testing Procedures"
June 29
Elijah Meyer's Ph.D. Dissertation Defense (Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, MSU): "Investigating Newer Statistics Instructors' Breakthroughs With and Motivations For Using Active Learning"
June 13
Jordan Schupback's Ph.D. Proposal (Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, MSU): "Statistical and Predictive Inference Methods for Topological Data Analysis"
TBD
David Lartey's Ph.D. Thesis Proposal in Statistics: "Bootstrap Based Confidence Regions in Multi-Parameter Problems"
Spring Semester 2022:
May 5
Dr. Abhimanyu Gupta (Dept. of Economics, Univ. of Essex): "Robust Inference on Infinite and Growing Dimensional Time Series Regression"
April 8
Kara Johnson's Ph.D. Defense in Statistics: "An Adaptive Genetic Algorithm for Fitting DeGroot Opinion Diffusion Models on Social Networks."
March 31
Statistics M.S. Writing Project Presentations: Speed Presentation Session followed by Poster Session. Includes Graduate Students: Jeremiah Bass, Riley Daily, Connor Demorest, Gabrielle Lemire, Therese Lupariello, Braden Scherting and Vanessa Tandiman
March 25
Christian Stratton's Ph.D. Defense in Statistics: "Clusting and Unconstrained Ordination with Dirichlet Process Mixture Models."
March 1
ASA Chapter Seminar with Dr. Silas Bergen (Mathematics and Statistics Dept., Winona State University): Title of Talk is "Applying Unsupervised and Supervised Learning Methods to Minimize Risk to Bald Eagles from Industrial Wind Turbines."
February 14
Samidha Shetty (Dept. of Statistics, Penn State): Title of Talk is "Statistical Analysis of Nonignorable Missing Data."
Fall Semester 2021:
October 27
Rob Bachler (Milliman, Seattle): Seminar on Careers in Actuarial Sciences
Spring Semester 2021:
April 19
Dr. Matthew Heaton (Dept. of Statistics, BYU): Title of Talk is "Spatial and Covariate-varying Relationships Among Dominant Tree Species in Utah."
March 25
Elijah Meyer (Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, MSU): Title of PhD Defense is "Experiences and Motivation: New Perspectives in Understanding How and Why Graduate Student Instructors Use Active Learning."
March 16
Dr. Zeda Li (Baruch College, CUNY): Title of Talk is "Classification of Categorical Time Series Using the Spectral Envelope and Optimal Scalings."
March 10
Stephen Walsh's PhD Proposal Presentation (online): Title of Talk is "Development and Applications of Particle Swarm Optimization to Generating Exact Optimal Experimental Designs."
March 2
Statistics MS Writing Project Presentations:
Graduate Student |
Title of Presentation |
| Emmanuel Sarfo Fosu | Statistical Learning for Duration Analysis, with application to missing persons data in Montana |
| Aisha Hicks | The Rounding effect: How reponse rounding influences ANOVA results and rejection rates |
| Dennis J. Moritz | Modeling Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Data |
| Jacob Oram | Exploring Hierarchical Structure in Occupancy Models |
| Kayode Oyeniran | Statistical Learning Methods for the Prediction of Chronic Kidney Disease |
| Dimensionality Reduction and Clustering Methods for Text Mining | |
| Jeremiah C.E. Pharr | Student group composition for an undergraduate introductory statistics class in a flipped classroom format |
January 26
Peng Zhang (Georgia Institute of Technology): Title of Talk is "Efficient Algorithms for Fundamental Problems in Data Science"
Fall Semester 2020:
November 20
Kenneth Flagg's PhD Proposal Presentation (online):Title of Talk is "Bayesain Computing and Sampling Design for Partially-Surveyed Point Processes."
November 20
Moses Obiri's PhD Proposal Presentation (online):Title of Talk is "Space-filling Designs for Mixture/Process Variable Experiments."
Spring Semester 2020:
May 21
Christian Stratton's PhD Proposal Presentation (online): Title of Talk is"Bayesian Techniques for Ecological Data Structures"
May 15
Paul Wilson-Harmon's PhD Proposal Presentation (online): Title of Talk is "Sifting Through The Noise: Frameworks for Identifying Important Features using Latent Variables or Sparsity"
April 6
Allison Theobold's PhD Defense Presentation (online): Title of Talk is "Supporting Data-Intensive Research in the Environmental Science: Data Science Skills for Scientific Practitioners of Statistics."
March 12
Dr. Christopher Barbour (Data Scientist at Atrium Insights): Title of Talk is "What your professors aren't telling you? and, improving insights in models through quantification of data quality."
March 9
Statistics MS Writing Project Presentations:
Graduate Student |
Title of Presentation |
| Lisa Bowersock | Ordinal Zero-Augmented Beta (OZAB) Regression for Bunchgrass Cover Class Data |
| Rachel Ulrich | Satellite Image Segmentation for Rural Land Use |
| Meaghan Winder | Multi-scale occupancy modeling of dreissenid mussels: a comparison of eDNA and plankton tow survey methods |
| Kehinde Ajayi | Dimensionality Reduction and Clustering Methods for Text Mining |
| Tyler Taylor | Estimating Variability in Gage R&R studies |
| Kelly Loucks | Understanding Historical Data to Predict Avalanches on the Seward Highway, Alaska |
| Brynn Gellner | Detecting Change in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem |
| Jing Zhang | Assessing the changes in a confirmatory factor analysis, before and after an intervention |
Fall Semester 2019:
November 21
Visiting Speaker to Discuss Career Opportunities in Actuarial Science
Are you interested in career opportunities in Actuarial Science? Although MSU does not have an Actuarial Sciences major, we do offer the courses interested students would need to take to prepare for a career in the field. We are lucky to have Rob Bachler, Principal Actuary, at the Seattle-based firm Milliman here to provide an introduction to the actuarial career, Milliman as a firm, and the Seattle Health practice of Milliman. He will also briefly show examples of the type of work he does on a daily basis, and address student quetions regarding career options in the Actuarial Sciences. Thursday 11/21/19 in Wilson 1-144, 4:10-5:00pm with reception and Q&A to follow from 5:10-6:00pm. Snacks and refreshments will be provided! Contact Katie Banner (katharine.banner@montana.edu) for any further questions.
November 14
MSU's Student Chapter of the American Statistical Association - Information Open House
Would you like to be part of a group that has a shared interest in Statistics? We hope the answer is yes! The student chapter of the American Statistical Association (ASA) will be holding a drop-in informational session Thursday, November 14th from 11-1 in the Hurst Conference room (WIL 2-244). Undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines are welcome! Pizza and refreshments will be provided. To find out more about the Student Chapter of the ASA here at MSU check out our website https://community.amstat.org/montanastateuniversity/home. Anyone interested in officer positions can contact our current President, Paul Harmon (paulharmongj@gmail.com), our Vice President Kara Johnson, (Kara.Ln.Johnson@gmail.com), or our Faculty advisor, Katie Banner (katharine.banner@montana.edu). We hope to see you there!
November 7
Dr. Andy Hoegh (Dept of Mathematical Sciences, MSU): Title of Talk is "Agent-Based Methods for Collective Animal Movement"
2019:
January 29
MSU Librarians, Star Bradley and Mary Anne Hansen provide a talk called "Ramp Up your Research." They will encourage you to use the wide spectrum of resources and services at the MSU Library. The main focus will be on research in statistics but the resources discussed are of interest for other areas in mathematical sciences.
March 4
Rob Bachler and Scott Jones, speakers from Milliman (an actuarial firm in Seattle) will talk about Actuarial Careers at Milliman - Seattle Health. Wilson Hall 1-144, 3:10-4:00pm
March 13
Dr. Derek Sonderegger (Dept of Mathematics and Statistics, Northern Arizona University): Title of Talk is "Assessing the Effect of Incomplete Sampling on Disease Transmission Networks"
March 14
Statistics MS Writing Project Presentations:
Graduate Student |
Title of Presentation |
| Laurie Rugemer | Implications of left-censored environmental data due to labeling "non-detects" |
| Noah Benedict | Text Mining: The Journey So Far |
| Sarah McKnight | Statistical Analysis for Financial Data |
| Laura Lartey | Block Designs with missing observations: Incorporating MLEs for missing data in ANOVA models |
| Bright Owusu | An Introduction to Line Transect Sampling |
| Tristan Anacker | To t-SNE or not to t-SNE |
March 26
Statistics MS Writing Project Presentations:
Graduate Student |
Title of Presentation |
| Wyatt Madden | Hendra Virus Spillover in Eastern Australia During Winter of 2011 |
| Jordan Love | Using Paired Comparison Models to find Hitbox Advantages |
| Brad West | Predicting Fine Art Auction Prices |
| Rachel Wyand | Occupancy Models for Estimating the Prevalence of Blister Rust in Whitebark Pine in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem |
April 26
Dr. Jennifer Hill (Professor of Applied Statistics and Data Science, NYU): Title of Talk is "BART for Causal Inference: How Combining Machine Learning and Statistics make life easier"
April 29
Tan Tran (PhD Student, Mathematical Sciences, MSU): Title of Dissertation Defense is "Monothetic Cluster Analysis with Extenstions to Circular and Functional Data"
June 18
Dr. Haipeng Shen (Patrick S C Poon Professor in Analytics and Innovation, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Hong Kong): Title of Talk is "Information Analytics: A Statistician's Perspective"
If you are looking for earlier years of seminars, please contact the Mathematical Sciences Department at math@montana.edu and a list can be generated.