Join the Discussion During the Unconference

Nearly two weeks before the Future of the Statistical Sciences Workshop in London, the Unconference on the Future of Statistics will be staged. Organized by two authors of the Simply Statistics blog, the unconference will be a virtual event.

The unconference will be held October 30 from noon to 1 p.m. EST on Google Hangouts and simultaneously live-streamed on YouTube.

“It is a great time to be a statistician, and discussing the future of our discipline is of utmost importance to us,” agree Roger Peng and Jeff Leek, unconference organizers, referring to the Future of the Statistical Sciences Workshop that will be held November 11-12. “In fact, we liked the idea so much we decided to get in the game ourselves. We are super excited to announce the first-ever ‘unconference’ hosted by Simply Statistics. Our goal is to complement and continue the discussion inspired by the Statistics 2013 Workshop.”

The unconference will feature several of the most exciting and innovative statistical thinkers discussing their views on the future of the field, especially those issues that affect junior statisticians the most: education, new methods, software development, collaborations with natural sciences/social sciences, and the relationship between statistics and industry.

Confirmed presenters include the following:

  • Daniela Witten, University of Washington
  • Hongkai Ji, The Johns Hopkins University
  • Joe Blitzstein, Harvard University
  • Sinan Aral, MIT Sloan School of Management
  • Hadley Wickham, RStudio
  • Hilary Mason, Accel Partners

During the lead-up to the conference, organizers ask that you submit your thoughts about the future of statistics via Twitter using the hashtag #futureofstats. They will compile all comments and make them available with the talks.

For more information and to register for the unconference, go to the Simply Statistics website.

A recorded version of the Unconference on the Future of Statistics will be available for viewing on YouTube following the event.