Introduce advanced topics in data mining, machine learning, and other
‘active’ areas of statistics in order to broaden the students’
knowledge base and, where possible, connect statistical ideas.
With the “Data Science” revolution, these methods became very
important to have an understanding of
Offer opportunities to present upper level topics and improve
presentation and teaching ability with a focus on audience of the
presentation and data visualizations.
Provide presenting students ‘mentors’ to help them effectively
present.
Give outlets for presentation, writing, and computing that are
available for prospective employers to view.
Many of the presentations were recorded and made available.
Write-ups and code were made available when possible as well.
Improve applied analysis skills and coding.
Presentations included an analysis or simulation aspect with code
available for all members to work through when possible.
As our curriculum caught up, the need for the group diminished (and I
had my first child :). The group did have a brief resurgence just prior
to the pandemic. Jimmy
Hickey and Alvin
Sheng led a reading
group for the book Deep Learning with
R.