Date: 2016-11-02

Time: 15:00-16:00 17:35-18:25

Location: 1st: BURN 306 2nd: ADAMS AUD

Abstract:

First talk: This talk focuses on three practical aspects of resampling: communication, accuracy, and software. I’ll introduce the bootstrap and permutation tests, and discussed how they may be used to help clients understand statistical results. I’ll talk about accuracy – there are dramatic differences in how accurate different bootstrap methods are. Surprisingly, the most common bootstrap methods are less accurate than classical methods for small samples, and more accurate for larger samples. There are simple variations that dramatically improve the accuracy. Finally, I’ll compare two R packages, the the easy-to-use “resample” package, and the more-powerful “boot” package.

Second talk: Google lives on data. Search, Ads, YouTube, Maps, … - they all live on data. I’ll tell stories about how we use data, how we’re always experimenting to make improvements (yes, this includes your searches), and how we adapt statistical ideas to do things that have never been done before.

Speaker

Tim Hesterberg is a Senior Statistician at Google. He received his PhD in Statistics from Stanford University, under Brad Efron. He is on the executive boards of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences and the Interface Foundation of North America (Interface between Computing Science and Statistics).