News

The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science congratulates professor Nathaniel Stevens on being named the winner of the European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics (ENBIS)2023 Young Statistician Award. This achievement is awarded for the "recognize the work of young people in introducing innovative methods, promoting the use of statistics and/or successfully using it in the daily practice."

Charmaine B. Dean, a professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science and vice-president, research and international at the University of Waterloo received the prestigious 2023 Gold Medal from the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) for her outstanding contributions to statistical sciences. Her research spans various areas, including survival analysis, disease mapping, and interdisciplinary statistical and wildfire research. Dr. Dean is a Fellow of multiple renowned organizations and has served in editorial roles for esteemed journals. Her accomplishments have established her as a highly respected figure in the field of statistics.

Read more about Dr. Dean’s award on the SSC website.

The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science would like to congratulate Zhanyi Jiao, Benxuan Shi, and Yuanyuan Zhang for being three of the six new recipients of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Hickman Scholarship for 2023-2024, and to Yiping Guo, Liyuan Li, and Michael Zhu for having their stipend renewed.

The Hickman Scholars Program provides highly  prestigious awards for PhD students in North America who work in fields related to Actuarial Science. The program provides stipends to doctoral candidates who will, through their studies and careers, address the research and education needs of the actuarial profession.

From April 28-30, the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science hosted the American Statistical Association (ASA) DataFest: an international data challenge in which teams of undergraduates work to “find and share meaning in a large, rich, and complex data set.” This year, 75 students participated in 20 teams, with 15 teams completing Waterloo’s intense 48-hour challenge. While teams were limited to undergraduates, they had the chance throughout to interact with graduate students, professors, and representatives of Scotiabank, the Waterloo challenge’s major sponsor.

"A key highlight from this competition was getting the opportunity to network with industry professionals, mentors, and professors,” says Inaara Somani. “It was so valuable and insightful to converse with them about their personal knowledge and experience, as well as pitch our ideas…Not only were these individuals great help during the competition, but it was so exciting to learn new things from them!"

Continue reading the full story on the Faculty of Mathematics website.

Diana Skrzydlo is one of four recipients of this year’s Distinguished Teacher Award from the Centre for Teaching Excellence.

Skrzydlo is the Director of the MActSc program, a Continuing Lecturer for the department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, and the Math Teaching Fellow.

Read the full story on the Faculty of Mathematics website.

Mathematician Alfré Rényi famously said that “a mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.” Waterloo biostatistics professor Michael Wallace, however, is a machine for turning coffee into prizes.

In 2020, when Tim Hortons moved their long-standing “Roll Up The Rim To Win” contest completely online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Wallace made the news for using his statistics knowledge to win 98 per cent of the time. After Tim Hortons tweaked their system in response to his wins, he's back this year with a new method. 

Read the full story on the Waterloo News page. 

On March 1, 2023, faculty and undergraduate students from the Faculty of Mathematics participated in what they hope will be merely the first “Math Teach-Off” event.

The premise of the event was simple: three groups of students would take a quiz on the mathematical concept. Then, each group would be taught about the concept for an hour by one of three instructors: Nathaniel Stevens (assistant professor of Statistics and Actuarial Science and Director of the undergraduate Data Science program); Jordan Hamilton (lecturer in the Math Undergraduate Group); and Blake Madill (lecturer in Pure Mathematics). Finally, the students would take a second quiz on the concept, and each group’s scores would be compared for improvement and overall accuracy.

Continue reading on the Faculty of Math's website.

The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science congratulates professor Nathaniel Stevens as being named the winner of the 2023 ASQ Feigenbaum Medal. This achievement is awarded for the "outstanding characteristics of leadership, professionalism, and potential in the field of quality and also whose work has been or, will become of distinct benefit to mankind." (ASQ)

The citation reads: "For outstanding contributions to the development and application of statistics in business and industry, to the mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students, and to the service of the broad Quality community."

The medal will be presented in Philadelphia at 2023 ASQ's World Conference on Quality and Improvement.