Welcome to Statistics and Actuarial Science
The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science is a top-tier academic unit among statistical and actuarial science globally. Our community is engaged in topics such as actuarial science, biostatistics, data science, quantitative finance, statistics, & statistics-computing. Our department is home to 70 full-time faculty researching diverse and exciting areas, over 2000 undergraduate students from around the world, and approximately 200 graduate students in master, doctoral, and professional programs.
News
Will paper cups help you 'Roll Up to Win'?
Biostatistics professor and serial winner Michael Wallace on maximizing your odds in annual Tim Hortons contest.
Michael, an associate professor in Statistics and Actuarial Science, made headlines in 2020 when he figured out how to win the coffee chain’s newly digital Roll Up game 98 per cent of the time. That winning streak was the result of playing all his accumulated rolls in the middle of the night on the last day of the promotion. Though he only won free coffee and donuts, his high win rate got the attention of Tim Hortons. When they changed their algorithm, he kept playing, developing a new strategy in 2023 that resulted in another winning streak, and another round of media coverage.
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science is pleased to welcome Kenneth Zhou as an Associate Professor
Zhou, Kenneth Q. (BMath, 2013; MMath, 2015; PhD (Actuarial Science), 2019, University of Waterloo) joined the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science on January 2nd, 2025, as an Associate Professor. Prior to this appointment, he was an Assistant Professor in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Arizona State University. Kenneth’s research centres on insurance data analytics, actuarial modelling, and risk management, with a particular focus on addressing the technical and economic challenges of life insurance practices. His recent work examines disparities, discrimination, and fairness issues in actuarial mathematics. Kenneth is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and an Associate of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (ACIA).
Two Statistics and Actuarial Science professors receive $160,000 in funding from Ontario Research Fund
Aukosh Jagannath and Ruodu Wang, two researchers in the Faculty of Mathematics, have received $160,000 in funding from the Ontario Research Fund-Research Infrastructure as part of more than $10 million in funding for Waterloo researchers announced November 22, 2024.
Read the full article on the Faculty of Mathematics website.
Events
Seminar by Wenjun Jiang
Actuarial Science and Financial Mathematics seminar series
Wenjun Jiang
University of Calgary
Room: M3 3127
Seminar by Lifeng Lin
Statistics and Biostatistics seminar series
Lifeng Lin
University of Arizona
Room: M3 3127
DataFest 2025
An undergraduate student data competition.
All members of your team need to register.
Learn more on the event page.