Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science researchers Stefan Steiner, Mahsa Panahi and Jock MacKay, along with collaborator Jeroen de Mast of the University of Amsterdam, have received the 2026 Brumbaugh Award from the American Society for Quality (ASQ) for their paper, A review of leveraged sample selection in variation reduction projects, published in Quality Engineering.
The Brumbaugh Award recognizes the paper judged to have made the largest single contribution to the development of industrial applications of quality control. The award honours research that advances the practical use of quality methods to improve processes, products and organizational performance.
The award-winning paper reviews leveraged sample selection, an emerging approach for identifying and prioritizing observations that can provide the greatest insight into sources of process variation. By synthesizing existing research and practical applications, the authors provide guidance for organizations seeking to improve efficiency and quality through data-driven decision-making.
The paper illustrates the major efficiency benefits that can arise when comparing parts with extreme performance (i.e., by using leveraged sample selection) rather than random sampling across a variety of industrial contexts. It also provides a novel classification of existing types of investigations that helps unify some of the existing literature on variation reduction methods.
Steiner is a professor and MacKay serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. Panahi recently completed her PhD at Waterloo and now works at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) as a Manager, Retail Risk Modelling.
Congratulations to Steiner, Panahi, MacKay and de Mast on this achievement.