Two Departments to Co-Host New England Statistics Symposium

The departments of biostatistics and epidemiology and mathematics and statistics are co-hosting the 32nd annual New England Statistics Symposium on campus April 13-14.

The symposium brings together statisticians from across New England to share research, discuss emerging issues in the field, and network with colleagues. This year’s theme is “Data – Science – Society,” reflecting the growing role that data and statistical sciences are playing in shaping and improving society.

“This is an important conference for statisticians in the region, as it brings together statisticians and data scientists working in academia and industry to share ideas and inspire new research,” says associate professor of biostatistics Nicholas Reich, co-chair of the organizing committee. “UMass hosted the 2nd annual NESS conference in 1988, and we’re really excited to be bringing it back to Amherst 30 years later.”

Thee will be two keynote addresses: Montse Fuentes, dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Humanities and Sciences, will speak on “Bayesian Tensor Regression for Neuroimaging Data.” Dawn Woodard, who leads data science for Uber Maps, will speak on “Pricing and Matching in Ride-Hailing.”

In addition, the symposium will feature invited plenary talks, invited paper sessions, a contributed poster session, and four short courses, including one taught by assistant professor of biostatistics Laura Balzer. The full-day course, titled “Introductory and advanced methods for causal inference,” runs from 8 am to 5 pm on Friday, April 13. A course description can be found here.

For more details, visit the event website at https://symposium.nestat.org/.