Statistical Science

www.smu.edu/statistics

Professor Daniel Heitjan, Department Chair

Professors: Ronald Butler, Daniel Heitjan, Hon Keung Ng, Lynne Stokes, Sherry Wang
Associate Professors: Jing Cao, Ian Harris, Monnie McGee
Assistant Professors: Chul Moon, Raanju Sundararajan
Professor of Practice: Charles South
Senior Lecturer: Stephen Robertson
Lecturer: Mahesh Fernando

General Information

Statistical data scientists are specialists in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. There is an accelerating demand for experts in statistical analysis and data analytics because of today’s big data phenomenon fueled by an explosion of data from sources such as sensors, social media, cloud computing, medical instruments, business processes and surveys. As a result, the field of statistics will be increasingly more fundamental to academia, business and government in order to accommodate the escalating dependence on data-driven decisions. An attractive aspect of the statistics profession is the wide variety of problems that can be addressed:

• Government agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Food and Drug Administration need statisticians.
• Manufacturing and related industries employ statisticians to work in areas such as quality and productivity.
• Banks and insurance companies hire statisticians to assist in modeling financial data.
• Medical schools, research hospitals and pharmaceutical companies typically employ statistical specialists as biostatisticians.

Because of its interdisciplinary nature, statistical science is a valuable double major or minor.

Programs

• Statistical Science, B.S.

• Statistical Science Minor

Courses

• STAT 1300 - Introduction to Data Science
• STAT 1395 - Special Topics
• STAT 2331 - Introduction to Statistical Methods
• STAT 3300 - Applied Statistics: Regression
• STAT 3304 - Introduction to Statistical Computing
• STAT 3312 - Categorical Data Analysis
• STAT 3330 - Methods for Data Science I
• STAT 3380 - Environmental Statistics
• STAT 4340 - Statistical Methods for Engineers and Applied Scientists
• STAT 4341 - Probability and Statistics for Scientists and Engineers
• STAT 4344 - Statistical Quality Control
• STAT 4370 - Survey Sampling
• STAT 4377 - Statistical Design and Analysis of Experiments
• STAT 4385 - Introduction to Nonparametric Statistics
• STAT 4399 - Statistical Science in Practice
• STAT 5110 - Independent Study in Statistical Science
• STAT 5310 - Independent Study in Statistical Science