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Illinois Statistics

@illinois_statistics

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This is the official page for the Illinois Department of Statistics.

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Join the Department of Statistics’ Inclusive Excellence Committee for an evening of conversation, connection, and inspiration featuring women working across statistics and data science.

Our panelists will share their experiences, career journeys, challenges, and insights followed by an opportunity to ask questions and network over dinner.

📅 Monday, October 26
📍 Illini Union, Illini Rooms A
🕟 4:30 PM–8:00 PM

Panel discussion: 5:00 PM
Dinner + networking: 6:30 PM

Panelists include:
• Ashley Arroyo — Data Scientist, Subaru
• Kahyun Choi — Assistant Professor, University of Illinois @ischoolui
• Jenny Kim — Data Scientist, AGCO Corporation
• Betsy Podkowa — Lead Data Scientist, State Farm

Register now: go.illinois.edu/Wi-Stat-DS

Come hear from women in the field, ask questions, and connect with others interested in the future of statistics and data science.

Seating is limited, so register today!

#WomenInStatistics #WomenInDataScience #DataScience #Statistics #WomenInSTEM #IllinoisStatistics by @illinois_statistics

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10 days ago

It’s happening! Everybody stay calm! 🏗️🎉

The final beam is in! Today, we celebrated a major milestone in the construction of the new Illini Hall as the building’s final large structural beam was put in place during the topping off ceremony.

The beam was signed by members of the campus community, construction team, faculty, staff, and students before being lifted into place — literally leaving their mark on this historic moment. ✍️

With remarks from Illinois Chancellor Charles L. Isbell, Jr., LAS Dean Venetria K. Patton, and CDB Executive Director TJ Edwards, the topping off ceremony celebrated not just how far the project has come, but what’s ahead.

Soon, Illini Hall will be home to the Departments of Statistics and Mathematics, along with classrooms, lecture halls, research and collaboration spaces, student spaces, and a new data science center.

We’re getting closer to finally calling the new Illini Hall home. 🧡💙

#IllinoisStatistics #IlliniHall #ILLINOIS taken in Illini Hall by @illinois_statistics

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a month ago

Celebrating our 2026 Blackwell Summer Scholars! 🎓

Eight Illinois undergraduate scholars spent eight weeks diving into research across AI, machine learning, neuroimaging, neuroscience, and more — working alongside faculty mentors and building their research skills.

The summer culminated on Aug. 7 with the Blackwell Summer Scholars Symposium, where the cohort presented their research to faculty, students, family, and friends.

From evaluating AI reasoning to exploring autism neuroimaging and identifying high-value customers, this year’s scholars tackled big questions and shared fascinating findings. 👏

A special thank you to our faculty and graduate student mentors for supporting this year’s cohort!

(First pic: Blackwell Scholars (front row): Mateo Heidkamp-Pimentel, Anthony Delgado Carrillo, Ryan Regalado, Andy Flores, Dillon Tan, Tanisha Mandal, Fatima Ahmed, and Shrutik De.
Faculty (back row): Darren Glosemeyer, Susu Zhang, Yuguo Chen, Matthew Singh, Vimal Rao, Hyoeun Lee, and Kelly Findley)

#IllinoisStatistics #BlackwellSummerScholars #UndergraduateResearch #Statistics #DataScience #Illini by @illinois_statistics

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2 months ago

🎉 Welcome to Illinois Statistics!

We’re excited to welcome three new assistant professors to the Department of Statistics for the 2026–27 academic year: Xin Bing, Chen Cheng, and Yujia Zheng (pictured top-left counterclockwise to bottom-right)!

Their research brings exciting new expertise to Illinois Statistics, spanning machine learning theory, high-dimensional statistics, causal inference, trustworthy machine learning, and modern statistical methodology.

📈 Xin Bing develops new statistical methods for high-dimensional problems, with research spanning low-rank matrix estimation, mixture models, latent factor models, high-dimensional inference, and applications in genetics, neuroscience, and immunology. He’ll begin teaching in Spring 2027.

📊 Chen Cheng studies theoretical questions in modern machine learning, including overparameterized models, neural networks, random matrix theory, and reinforcement learning. He’ll be teaching STAT 410 this fall.

🤖 Yujia Zheng studies causal representation learning and trustworthy machine learning, with a focus on uncovering the underlying processes behind observational data and developing more efficient and reliable foundation models. He’ll also be affiliated with the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science and begin teaching in Spring 2027.

We’re thrilled to have Xin, Chen, and Yujia joining our faculty and look forward to the research, teaching, and collaborations they’ll bring to our community!

Welcome to Illinois! 🎓🧡💙

#IllinoisStatistics #Illini #Statistics #DataScience #MachineLearning #UniversityOfIllinois by @illinois_statistics

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2 months ago

🎉 Congratulations, Sasha! 🎉

Statistics graduate student Alexander “Sasha” Matveev has been named the Most Outstanding Graduate Intern at the University of Illinois Research Park’s 20th annual Intern Awards Ceremony! 🏆

During his internship with State Farm, Sasha took ownership of a data science project evaluating whether to invest in a vendor tool or develop an internal solution. But his impact went beyond his own work as his supervisor, Betsy Podkowa noted, he also created and led a study group that helped fellow interns prepare for full-time interviews, contributing to multiple job offers.

Podkowa praised Sasha’s growth, leadership, dedication and willingness to support his fellow interns, calling him a “role model for others.”

Reflecting on his experience, Sasha shared:

“Being flexible with new tools and ideas while leaning on your prior knowledge and skills can help you create a product that is more than the sum of its parts.”

Congratulations, Sasha, on this well-deserved recognition! 👏📊

#ILLINOISStatistics #Statistics #DataScience #ResearchPark #GraduateStudent #Internship #StudentSuccess #Illini by @illinois_statistics

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2 months ago

🎉 Congratulations to our award-winning undergraduate researchers!

Several students connected to the Department of Statistics were recognized at the 2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium, earning top honors for research spanning artificial intelligence, statistics education, student learning, and data science.

🏆 Ava Graczyk (learning & education studies) & Madeline Hunt (psychology, statistics)
Artificial Incompetence: AI's Failures in Interpreting Graphs

🏆 Madison King (psychology)
Challenging Students to Think for Themselves

🏆 Pavitra Shankar (brain and cognitive science and information sciences)
Finding Value in RTutor: Student-Centered Design of AI Tools in Statistics Classrooms

🏆 Samuel Wu (statistics)
Data-Compute Asymmetry in LLM Training: Quantifying the Impacts of Data Scarcity for Low-Resource African Languages

Ava, Madeline, Madison, and Pavitra are mentored by professor Vimal Rao.

We're especially proud that Ava, Madeline, Madison, and Pavitra will continue sharing their research at the 2026 Electronic Conference on Teaching Statistics.

Congratulations to these talented student researchers and their mentors on this outstanding achievement! 👏

Follow the link in our bio to read more about the Undergraduate Research Symposium and these outstanding student projects.

#IllinoisStatistics #UndergraduateResearch #DataScience #Statistics #Illinois #StudentSuccess #AI #Research by @illinois_statistics

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4 months ago

🎓That’s a wrap, Stats grads! 🎉

We celebrated the Department of Statistics Class of 2026 yesterday at the department convocation and what a celebration it was! From proud smiles, to fist bumps and hugs, photos, and plenty of cheering, the day was packed with memorable moments!

Thank you to our graduates, families, friends, faculty, and staff who helped make this milestone so special. We loved celebrating with you and cheering on the next generation of statisticians, data scientists, researchers, and problem-solvers.

To our graduates: you survived deadlines, exams, group projects, coding bugs, statistical models, and more coffee than we can reasonably estimate — and now it’s time to celebrate everything you’ve achieved.

We are incredibly proud of you and excited to see all the amazing things you’ll do next.

Congratulations, Class of 2026 💙🧡

#IllinoisStats #ILLINOIS2026 #ClassOf2026 by @illinois_statistics

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5 months ago

Finals start tomorrow… so today, take a break with us!

Join the Department of Statistics for our Reading Day De-Stress Event today! Stop by to relax, recharge, and take a breather before finals week begins.

🗓️ Thursday, May 7
⏰ 11:00 AM – 12:50 PM
📍 3038 CIF

We’ll have:
🍪 Snacks
🎲 Games
🧩 Puzzles
😌 A chance to unwind with fellow students before the stress of finals kicks in

Whether you stay for five minutes or the whole event, come take a well-deserved study break with us! 💙🧡 by @illinois_statistics

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5 months ago

On April 21, the top teams from the 2026 Illinois Statistics Datathon were invited to present their work at the Data Science Education Symposium, hosted by the Illinois Data Science Education Council.

This session highlighted the value of experiential learning in data science, with students sharing insights from their Datathon projects and reflecting on their approach to solving a real-world forecasting challenge.

The symposium brought together a variety of perspectives to explore how hands-on learning opportunities—like the Datathon—can support student development and strengthen connections between academic programs and real-world applications.

We are proud of our Illinois students for representing the Datathon and demonstrating the impact of applied data science education.

#DataScience #ExperientialLearning #HigherEd #IllinoisStatistics #StudentSuccess by @illinois_statistics

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6 months ago

We were proud to host the annual Robert E. Bohrer Memorial Student Workshop in Statistics on April 18 at the I-Hotel & Conference Center. The Bohrer Workshop is a day dedicated to research excellence, collaboration, and community.

Named in honor of Robert E. Bohrer - a founding member of the University of Illinois Department of Statistics - the workshop continues to reflect his legacy as a dedicated educator, researcher, and mentor. Despite significant health challenges, Bohrer remained actively engaged in teaching and scholarship for over two decades, leaving a lasting impact on the field and those around him.

This year’s program featured distinguished speakers addressing timely topics in statistics and artificial intelligence:

Mikhail Belkin, University of Cali. San Diego - 40th Anniversary Lecture on feature learning and large language models
Kosuke Imai, Harvard University - Wijsman Lecture on AI and human decision-making
David Dunson, Duke University - Bohrer Lecture on interpretable AI in scientific applications

The workshop also highlighted the breadth of student research through lightning talks spanning causal inference, computational methods, machine learning, and applied statistics.

We were especially pleased to recognize several outstanding doctoral students:

Bo Yuan – Horace W. Norton Prize for Outstanding Research
Kaustav Chakraborty – Norton Prize Honorable Mention
Zhaohao Zu – Qualifying Exam Award
Georgios Avdis – Doctoral Student Leadership & Service Award

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this event a success. The Bohrer Workshop continues to showcase the strength, innovation, and collaborative spirit of our academic community.

#Statistics #DataScience #ArtificialIntelligence #ResearchExcellence #HigherEducation #AcademicLeadership by @illinois_statistics

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6 months ago

Today we celebrate National Advisor Appreciation Day 🎉

Behind every student success story is someone offering guidance, encouragement, and support. Today we recognize the advisors who make that possible in our department.

Thank you to our incredible team:
✨ Undergraduate Advisors: Jennifer Anderson-Bliss, Sarah Kwilecki, and Aaron Smith
✨ Master’s Advisors: Alexandra Chronopoulou and Hyoeun Lee
✨ PhD Academic Advisor & Program Director: Ruoqing Zhu
✨ Career Advisor: Aaron Surratt

Your dedication helps students navigate their academic journeys, make meaningful decisions, and move confidently toward their futures. The time, care, and energy you invest in our students truly make a lasting impact.

Join us in saying THANK YOU to all advisors today 💙

#AdvisorAppreciationDay #ThankYouAdvisors #StudentSuccess #HigherEd #AcademicAdvising by @illinois_statistics

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6 months ago

🎉🏆 And the winners of the 2026 Illinois Statistics Datathon are in! 🏆🎉

After an incredible weekend of data, teamwork, and innovation — and a week of reviewing all of the projects — we’re excited to announce the top teams from this year's Datathon!

🥇 1st Place – Team 225
Eshan Velidandla (sophomore, Information Science+DS)
Rishab Shah (MS, Computer Science)
Charlotte Sampson (senior, Statistics)
Raphael Chen (sophomore, Information Science+DS)

🥈 2nd Place – Team 15
Trustan Price (MS, Computer Science)
Daryl Okeke (junior, Molecular & Cellular Biology + DS)
Christopher Williams (junior, Statistics)
Chidera Ibe (junior, Computer Science)

🥉 3rd Place – Team 30
Noemia Mahmud (junior, Brain & Cognitive Science)
Anirudh Konidala (junior, CS+Education)
Victoria Nguyen (senior, Information Sciences)

These teams stood out for their creativity, technical skill, and ability to tackle a real-world forecasting challenge.

👏 Huge congratulations to all of our participants! Nearly 600 students across 200+ teams from statistics to @illinoissiebelschool, @ischoolui, @psychillinois, @mcb_illinois, and so many others took the challenge head on this year. The Datathon could not be possible without our industry partners! A huge thank you to @synchrony , @amazonwebservices, and @databricksinc for making this event possible.

#IllinoisDatathon #UIUC #DataScience #Statistics #Datathon by @illinois_statistics

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6 months ago