Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin

Please join us in congratulating SDS Associate Professor Layla Parast, who was awarded the Teaching Excellence Award by the College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin as a recognition of her achievements as an educator! This award?recognizes educators who provide exceptional education for their students through memorable experiential learning opportunities, research-based and effective teaching, and mentoring. Dr. Parast co-developed the first SDS major course, SDS 313: Introduction to Data Science and a popular course in our?Master of Science in Data Science?online program called Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation. She is deeply passionate about teaching and mentoring students at all career stages. Read more about Dr. Parast on our website: https://lnkd.in/diprJa6C

SDS will be a part of #AILIVEatUT, and you’re invited to come to a special event tomorrow! Tomorrow (11/15) in collaboration with the Oden Institute, astronomers and SDS faculty will be presenting in the big WCP ballroom at AI LIVE about the new NSF-Simons Foundation AI Institute, CosmicAI. ? Galactic Quest: An AI Mission to Decode the Cosmos Friday, Nov. 15, 10-10:45 a.m., WCP Ballroom Speakers: Arya Farahi, Matt Lease, Stella Offner, and Josh Taylor Discover how recent and near-future AI developments will be able to accelerate discoveries related to the Universe and address the most basic human question: Where do we come from? Go deep into the possibilities of the cosmos with expert astronomers, data scientists and more. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gC95wHtF #TexasAI #YearofAI

Please join the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences in?welcoming Su Chen (Associate Professor of Instruction and Director of SDS Experiential Learning), Amanda Glazer (Assistant Professor), and Yuling Yao (Assistant Professor) to our faculty! Each brings unique and extensive experience in the field of statistics, and we are excited to have them. Read more about their backgrounds and interests on our website: https://lnkd.in/eayRq3RV

Happy National Postdoc Appreciation Week! In honor of this week, we’re highlighting some of our current postdocs and the remarkable research they’re doing. Meet Nikunj Goel, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin. Nikunj is part of a team that has been studying populations of soapberry bugs in Houston. After an intense hurricane in Houston in 2017 created a patchy landscape where some areas were completely flooded and others spared, the researchers noticed an unusual detail about the soapberry bugs that recolonized previously flooded areas. In this Nexus Point episode, Nikunj explains how this curious observation about the wing lengths observed in these new populations of soapberry bugs has sparked a new concept in evolution. Known as spatial sorting, this phenomenon can be triggered by extreme weather events and offers a novel perspective on evolution. Read more about his research and the impacts of extreme weather on ecosystems at https://lnkd.in/gE_4CNv5. #TexasScience #UTAustin #UTPostDocResearch #NexusPointUT #StatisticsAndProbability #InsectEvolution #Evolution #ExtremeWeather #NationalPostdocAppreciationWeek #Postdoc The University of Texas at Austin

SDS is seeking applications for tenured/tenure-track faculty positions to begin in Fall 2025.?Candidates with theoretical, computational, and application-driven research programs in all areas of statistics and machine learning will be considered. Further details about the positions can be found?here: https://lnkd.in/gAQdYN3f #statistics #datascience #faculty_hiring College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin

SDS Assistant Professor Arya Farahi is one of the UT faculty leading this new NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins (#CosmicAI). Congratulations to Arya and team!

We are thrilled to share that UT Austin’s Master’s of Data Science (MSDS) -- a program jointly developed and administered by the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin and Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin -- is ranked 5th on Fortune Magazine’s best online Master’s in Data Science programs for 2024. ?? Read the article?here: https://lnkd.in/eFxx4XRU

SDS Ph.D. student?Yiwei Gong recently received a poster prize for the poster she presented at the 2024 International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) World Meeting. The conference, which was held in?Venice, Italy, from July 1-7, 2024 at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, brings together the international statistical community of researchers and professionals who develop Bayesian methods and apply them to challenging problems in different fields, ranging from economics, and finance, to business, industry, biostatistics, pharmaceutical statistics, environmental statistics, etc. Her poster’s title is “Detect State Changes in Dynamic Neuronal Networks.” This is a joint work with her supervisor Sinead Williamson and collaborator Susanna Mierau, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Congratulations, Yiwei!

Congratulations to Jacquie Fuentes, SDS Senior Administrative Associate, on winning a 2023-2024 College of Natural Sciences Staff Excellence Award! These awards?recognize members of our community who go above and beyond the day-to-day responsibilities of their job with outstanding dedication, competence, resourcefulness, and customer service.? As members of the SDS Department who nominated Jacquie for this award attested, Jacquie works tirelessly to support faculty and students with travel, purchases, onboarding, timekeeping, arranging visitors, ordering supplies for various department spaces, and so much more, and she is quick to take initiative and offer a smile. In the words of one of her nominators, “In every area, she goes beyond simply doing the job. She not only completes these tasks efficiently but also approaches them with grace, humor, and a positive attitude that uplifts our entire team. Jacquie received her well-deserved award from Dean Vanden Bout at the annual CNS Staff Celebration earlier this month, pictured here:

Professor and Associate Chair?Jay Bartroff?and his former PhD advisee Jinlin Song (USC, now at Analysis Group), have received the 17th Abraham Wald Prize in Sequential Analysis for their paper, “Sequential Tests of Multiple Hypotheses Controlling False Discovery and Nondiscovery Rates.” The award was delayed due to the pandemic, but their achievements were celebrated at the International Workshop in Sequential Methodologies in Orem, Utah in May 2024. The Abraham Wald Prize in Sequential Analysis is one of the most prestigious awards in the field, honoring the best publication in Sequential Analysis each year. Established in 2004, the prize is named for statistician Abraham Wald who founded the field of sequential analysis. Congratulations, Jay and Jinlin! View their paper here: https://lnkd.in/gjbj_X7K