Florida State University hosts international statistics conference

This week, statisticians from around the world will gather at Florida State University for a conference examining major advances and challenges in the field, including the impacts of big data and artificial intelligence on statistical research.

Florida State University Department of Statisticsin partnership with the International Indian Statistical Association, will host more than 110 researchers at the Theory and Foundations of Statistics in the Age of Big Data Conference April 19-21 at the FSU Student Union Ballrooms.

Recently, there has been truly transformative progress in the field of statistics, driven by the amazing growth in computing power as well as the rapid progress in procuring and curating massive data in various fields, including public health, medicine, and national security. and economic, said Debajyoti Sinha, Ronald and Carolyn Hobbs provided the chair of statistics and one of the organizers of the conference. There has also been tremendous progress in the development of the necessary analysis tools, their implementation, and the computational aspects of statistics for such data.

Despite the increasing availability of new tools for the analysis of “big data, the theoretical foundations, scientific rigor and logical reasoning supporting these tools are not yet mature. The event brings together statistics and data science innovators and senior leaders with emerging young researchers to identify, discuss and decipher solutions to these fundamental issues and challenges facing today's statisticians.

The conference supported by the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the National Institute of Statistical Science and funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency also includes a centennial celebration honoring the foundational and pioneering contributions of legendary statistician Raghu Raj Bahadur and Debabrata Basu, who was also a longtime FSU faculty member.

Participants traveling from universities across the US and from Europe, Canada, India, Nepal and China will experience a program featuring three plenary talks and six invited sessions featuring senior leaders in the field who have made seminal contributions in statistics, two special guest sessions for early career researchers, a poster session for graduate students and junior faculty, and a banquet talk by a leading statistician.

Plenary speakers include T. Tony Cai, president-elect of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Statistics and Associate Dean at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; Xiao-Li Meng, Whipple VN Jones Professor of Statistics at Harvard University, former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and founding editor-in-chief of the Harvard Data Science Review; and Merlise A. Clyde, professor of statistical sciences at Duke University and former chair of Duke's Department of Statistical Sciences. More than 50 prominent statisticians will present their research, 16 of whom are from FSU.

The main goal of the conference is to motivate students and young researchers in the field to understand the problems in the field and be inspired to continue to contribute to future solutions, Sinha said. We want undergraduates, graduate students and researchers to be educated on the issues and skills they need to make a real impact in their fields of interest. FSU's Department of Statistics is among the oldest statistics departments in the country. We have a history of taking a real lead in the field of statistics and making pioneering advances. We want to continue that legacy of leadership for the next generation of statisticians.

The conference also features two invited sessions for early career researchers who are emerging leaders in the field, including junior faculty members from top statistics and data science departments across the country.

“The scientific committee of the conference aims to create a platform for future statisticians to network and discuss research ideas with and among senior leaders and to jointly chart the future trajectory of contemporary statistical foundations,” said Associate Professor of Statistics Xin ( Henry). Zhang, principal investigator of the NSF grants at the conference and co-chair of the scientific committee. FSU's Department of Statistics has hosted several NSF-funded conferences in recent years, and thanks to NSF support, we are excited to involve more young researchers and students in this unique and impactful scientific event.

Learn more about the Theory and Foundations of Statistics at the Big Data Era Conference and see the lineup of speakers at conference website. For more information about FSU's Department of Statistics, visit stat.fsu.edu.