Overview
The Department of Statistics and Applied Probability (DSAP) was established in 1998 with the goals to advance statistical science, and, ultimately by its application, to improve and provide adequate services to our community. To achieve these goals, the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability offers training and research programs to develop and apply innovative statistical methods to problems of economics, finance, banking business, insurance, marketing research, engineering, human health and disease, including basic biomedical sciences.
In addition to offering a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics, DSAP also offers degrees at both Master's and doctoral levels. These programs are appropriate for the student who has a mathematical or statistics background. The undergraduate curriculum offers students the most needed probability and statistical knowledge; the graduate program prepares them to conduct research and scientific investigations in collaborative environments. The research concentrations include both methodological and applied areas. The methodological research areas include linear and generalized linear models, longitudinal data and time series models, categorical data models, nonparametric methods, clustering analysis, classification and regression based on recursive partitioning, functional modeling involving high dimensional data structures, data visualization techniques, survival analysis, stochastic modeling, Bayesian methods, missing data, computationally intensive statistical techniques such as the bootstrap, empirical likelihood and Monte Carlo Markov Chain, spatial-temporal models and bioinformatics. The current applied research concentrations are in the areas of quality control in engineering, marketing research, finance, economics, survey methodology and statistical genetics.
Biostatistics Initiative
To anticipate and meet the training needs for developing biomedical or life science program as the fourth pillar of our economy, the Department is implementing a concentration program in Biostatistics. This program is specialized in training statistics students who are interested in biomedical sciences, or the biological sciences students with interest in statistics. From the scientific point of view, the initiative also emerges in response to the continuing urgent need in handling and analyzing large amount of genomic data. Therefore, our main academic preparation will focus on all quantitative aspects of genomic science such as mathematical, statistical and computational analysis. The applied research concentrations and the curriculum will be necessarily expanded to include quantitative genetics, medical imaging, DNA/protein chip statistical analysis, neural science, cancer research, cardiovascular research, AIDS and other infectious diseases, stem cell research and pharmaceutical research.
Faculty Members
The Department has nearly 30 faculty members. The faculty members play a prominent role in statistics methodological research; and faculty are also very active in statistical consulting and in collaborative research, including having leadership roles in several large multidisciplinary applied research projects.
Statistical Consulting Centre
The Statistical Consulting Centre (SCC), located in the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability of National University of Singapore, provides free statistical consultation and data analysis services to investigators within the university and occasionally to investigators in other programs or disciplines when the scope and schedule for the requested statistical activities are compatible with the training of honors and graduate students in statistics and biostatistics. The centre relies on the skills and expertise of several faculty members and statistical research assistants for the resolution of specific problems.
Requests for statistical assistance will be considered as received by fax (65-872-3919) or by email with a description of the project, research questions, and available funding. For public sectors, services will be billed monthly, and an estimate of costs involved will be developed prior to a commitment by the Statistical Consulting centre to proceed with statistical analysis (typically ranging from $2000.00-$5000.00) for the types of activities that have feasible scope and schedule. Less or no funding is sometimes possible for statistical activities that provide good training experiences in the practice of Statistics and Biostatistics for graduate students, but lack of funding can affect the length of time for completion of a project and its priority for completion. Clients are requested, where possible, to prepare their own data sets on diskettes or computer files for email transfer. Above all, clients are reminded that early involvement of a statistical consultant will often improve the quality of a project as well as save considerable time and money during the analysis stage.
For more information, please contact Ms Muslihah at (65) 6516-3731.
