News, Views and Research from the UCL Department of Statistical Science

IMSS annual lecture and workshop
1 min
*You are all cordially invited to the IMSS annual symposium, which this year is being organised by our Environmental Stats research theme and will be held on the afternoon of Tuesday 10th June. Our…
May 9, 2025

Event on Computational Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML) in the Sciences
1 min
On Tuesday 5th December, the department co-hosted an event on ‘Computational Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML) in the Sciences’ with around 80 attendees. This took place at the London…
Dec 11, 2024

A little more than half a century ago: Mervyn Stone’s 1974 paper on cross validation
3 min
Mervyn Stone (1932–2020) had a distinguished career as Professor of Probability and Statistics, and Head ofthe UCL Department of Statistical Science; he joined UCL in 1968. A list of his…
Nov 13, 2024

Announcement: New activities to begin!
2 min
*The Department of Statistical Science will be running a continuation of the previous academic year’s project. This will involve students in our department designing an “Online Open Access Course”…
Nov 13, 2024

R in Health Technology Assessment Hackathon in Belfast
1 min
On the 5th and 6th of August 2024, we hosted the third R in HTA Hackathon, also known as #htahack, at Queen’s University Belfast. Previous editions took place in 2019 and 2018 at Belfast and…
Sep 18, 2024

Visits to the EuroCIM Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the UAI Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
2 min
Over the past few months, I went to the EuroCIM (European Causal Inference Meeting) in April in Copenhagen and UAI (Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence) conference in July in Barcelona.
Sep 18, 2024

A visit to the Monte Carlo and Quasi Monte Carlo Conference in Waterloo, Canada.
3 min
Max Hird represents UCL statistics in Waterloo, Canada, to talk at MCQMC.
Sep 9, 2024

A Visit to the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference, Montréal, Canada.
2 min
The Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference is a pivotal meeting that bridges the fields of computer science, biology, and bioinformatics together. It was held from 12th July to…
Sep 5, 2024

Visits to the ISCB Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, and the NIHR Statistics Group Conference in Sheffield.
2 min
I went to the NIHR Statistics Group Conference in Sheffield and the ISCB Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, for my first poster and oral presentations this summer.
Sep 5, 2024

Sustainability in Statistical Modelling of Wind Energy - A Podcast
1 min
Stephanie Dickinson talks to Domna Ladopoulou, a researcher in the Department of Statistical Science at UCL, is working on improving the efficiency and reliability of wind energy production through…
Sep 4, 2024

Unlocking Efficiency in Complex Computations: Multilevel Bayesian Quadrature for Challenging Integrals
2 min
This post introduces a novel Bayesian probabilistic numerical method proposed in the paper Multilevel Bayesian Quadrature published in the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and…
Apr 9, 2024

UK Conference on Teaching Statistics (UKCOTS)
2 min
Everyone is welcome at UKCOTS, whether you teach statistics to specialist or non-specialist students, whether you’re highly experienced or just starting out, and whether your interest is in teaching…
Mar 8, 2024

An interview with Warren Luk, CEO of Good Lab, a Hong Kong-based social innovation think-and-do tank
1 min
We speak with Warren Luk, a former student in Economics & Statistics at UCL, about his time at the university, how important extra-curricular activities are, and what his career path has been since…
Feb 16, 2024

Measuring the effect of the hostile environment policy
4 min
In this paper, a team of researchers from UCL (including our very own HoD, Gianluca Baio), Imperial College London and the London School of Economics use statistical modelling to evaluate the impact…
Feb 16, 2024

It is the 50th anniversary of some of the most important findings used in modern statistics and data-science
3 min
*It is now 50 years since the invention or discovery of three of the most important techniques used in modern statistics and data-science, namely, Cox regression (1972), the Dirichlet process…
Dec 21, 2023

Cost-effectiveness analysis of a risk algorithms for implantable cardioverter defibrillator decision-making
2 min
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a disease in which the heart muscle becomes thickened (hypertrophied). The thickened heart muscle can make it harder for the heart to pump blood. Hypertrophic…
Nov 9, 2023

Will scarce data on rare events mean that AI in finance will lead to the next financial crisis?
3 min
*As statisticians, we often favour interpretable models that can perform better than AI when sample sizes are small. A new article published online last month by Danielsson and Uthemann of LSE, ’On…
Nov 7, 2023

Archiving difficult history
2 min
Our department gave boxes and bundles of materials and books to UCL Special Collections as they had been stored in our basement for decades and no one working here now was aware of their existence…
Nov 6, 2023

Controversies in Academic Research: Ethics, Data Integrity, and Academic Scrutiny
3 min
In recent times, the field of behavioural science has been rocked by controversies involving prominent researchers Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino. These controversies raise crucial questions about…
Oct 9, 2023

Introduce Yourself
2 min
2022-2023 saw a number of new faces joining the department staff. Some are featured below …
Sep 28, 2023

Unraveling Relative Measures: The Mystery of Misleading Headlines!
2 min
*Picture this: the pandemic is becoming a distant memory, and we’re all breathing a sigh of relief. But hold on! Fake news and conspiracy theories were the real villains of this story. And guess…
Jul 31, 2023

Teaching ‘difficult knowledge’
5 min

Teaching ‘difficult knowledge’: UCL’s eugenics history and the implications for teaching and learning in Statistics.

Jul 5, 2023

Workshop Report: Distance-based methods in machine learning
2 min
*The department co-hosted a workshop on ‘Distance-based methods in machine learning’ with the UKRI CDT in Foundational AI based at the UCL Centre for Artificial Intelligence on the 27th and 28th…
Jun 30, 2023

A lesson from history
3 min
“This article is written by our very own Stephanie Dickinson, the Departmental Exhibition Keeper. She tells us about one of the ways in which we’re interacting with the legacy of the [Eugenics…
Jun 14, 2023

Sample Space 2 - the sequel!
4 min
I am very excited to introduce the second issue of the departmental magazine in my relatively new role as Head of the Department
Dec 1, 2022

Workshop Report: Data Detectives
3 min
From 21st-25th June, 2021, members of the department were excited to host 15 Year 12 students for a virtual workshop called Data Detectives. The workshop was free to attend and open to Year 12/S5…
Dec 1, 2022

My Story: Johanna Meier
4 min
MSc Data Science graduate Johanna Meier reflects on a year of two halves
Mar 1, 2022

A changing of the guard
3 min
On Monday 20th September 2021, after a lengthy period of lockdown, the department organised an outdoor get-together in the gardens of the Freud Museum in London.
Samuel Livingstone
Dec 1, 2021

News in Brief
6 min
A round-up of recent developments in the department
Dec 1, 2021

Teaching during COVID
6 min
Staff perspectives on the challenges of being locked down
Dec 1, 2021

Whiskey Business
5 min
Dr Livingstone reports on a uniquely intoxicating experiment
Sam Livingstone
Dec 1, 2021

UCL Eugenics Inquiry
4 min
This article was partly transcribed from a discussion between Professor Tom Fearn, Dr Nathan Green and Dr Samuel Livingstone on the department’s podcast series `Random Talks’. Listen to the full…
Dec 1, 2021

Why COVID-19 test data is skewed, and what we’re doing to fix it
7 min
This piece was first published on the Nature Microbiology community blog
Brieuc Lehmann & George Nicholson
Dec 1, 2021

Introduce Yourself
3 min
Meet the department’s newest faces…
Dec 1, 2021

Studying during COVID
6 min
Students look back at their virtual learning experiences
Dec 1, 2021

PhDs in Progress
7 min
Projects currently being undertaken by the department’s PhD students…
Dec 1, 2021

Breaking the Waves
5 min
Professor Serge Guillas is leading a team seeking better ways to predict potentially disastrous tsunamis using high-performance computing…
Apr 7, 2020

PhD Research
7 min
Projects currently being undertaken by the department’s PhD students…
Apr 7, 2020

Symposium – Teaching Statistics in Higher Education
2 min
The Department of Statistical Science, in conjunction with the Royal Statistical Society, hosted a symposium on Teaching Statistics in April 2019. The event was organised by the department’s…
Simon Harden and the Teaching Fellows
Apr 7, 2020

Introduce Yourself
3 min
2019 saw a number of new faces joining the department staff…
Apr 7, 2020

Introducing the new Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
5 min
Two hundred years ago, a small group of pioneering philanthropists bought eight acres of land in Bloomsbury to start a new kind of university. The mathematical sciences were a keystone of this…
Apr 7, 2020

in2scienceUK Week
2 min
in2scienceUK is an award-winning charity, empowering students from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their potential and progress to STEM and research careers. UCL is proud to be a founding…
Elinor Jones
Apr 7, 2020

My story
4 min
Mete Veyisoglu spent a year studying MSc Data Science at UCL in 2018/19
Apr 7, 2020

Away Days
2 min
Summer 2019 saw department staff and students stepping away from their research for two fun socials. After a typically mathematical vote, the winning options were decided: go-karting and a boat trip…
Apr 7, 2020

Erasmus Adventures
3 min
The Erasmus programme sees UCL students travelling far and wide to broaden their horizons through learning and research. Here, Hideki Itabashi and Hannah Summers tell us their stories from the…
Apr 7, 2020

Introducing Sample Space
3 min
Welcome to our first edition of Sample Space, a newsletter that aims to keep our community of past and present students and staff in touch with what’s happening in Statistical Science at UCL. I hope…
Richard Chandler
Apr 7, 2020

Gender On The Agenda
2 min
The Athena SWAN Charter aims to promote gender equality within science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine throughout the UK and beyond. The department’s equality and diversity…
Doranne Thomassen
Apr 7, 2020
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A bit about us

The UCL Department of Statistical Science was founded in 1911 as the Department of Applied Statistics. It was the first university department of Statistics in the world — you can read about our early history here.

Today, the department hosts around 50 academic and lecturing staff, over 10 research staff, around 50 PhD students and is supported by over 10 professional staff members. We are a vibrant community, operating at the centre of the academic environment, due to our large network of scientific collaborations, within UCL and with external partners, both in academia and various industry.

We work in a wide range of methodologies and applications, as well as in pedagogical activity. We organise a series of weekly seminars, which, whenever possible, are also available remotely and through our own YouTube Channel. We also run a podcast (Random Talks). You can follow our updates also on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.