Post navigation
(this post is by Charles)
Applications for the MSc and PhD programs in statistics at the University of British Columbia are now open. The application deadline is December 1st for PhDs and January 5th for MSc.
Of interest to the readership of this blog is that we have a lot of momentum in the department for research in Bayesian modeling, computational statistics, and probabilistic machine learning. Amongst the new faculty hires, Saif Syed and myself are both starting research groups to work on a…
Post navigation
(this post is by Charles)
Applications for the MSc and PhD programs in statistics at the University of British Columbia are now open. The application deadline is December 1st for PhDs and January 5th for MSc.
Of interest to the readership of this blog is that we have a lot of momentum in the department for research in Bayesian modeling, computational statistics, and probabilistic machine learning. Amongst the new faculty hires, Saif Syed and myself are both starting research groups to work on algorithms for probabilistic modeling. And we have an established guard working on Bayesian computation, that includes Alexandre Bouchard-Côté, Trevor Campbell, and Geoff Pleiss.
Furthermore, the department stands out through its commitment to implementing novel methods in high-performance probabilistic software. In the department, you will find the creators and maintainers of Pigeon.jl and GPyTorch. And, as some of you may know, I’m myself a seasoned Stan developer. I’m also happy to report that we have some veteran Stan users on campus, notably in the Ecology department :)
We’re a quite large and growing department with interests that span all areas of statistics (not just Bayesian methods!). PhD students entering the program do not need to be matched up with an advisor upon admission—rather, you have one year to interact with faculty and explore a number of topics. The program does a really good job allowing and helping students do that!
Vancouver is a really beautiful and bustling city. The campus is right by the ocean and you’re a one hour drive away from hiking in the mountains. I’m new and still figuring out the place, but so far, I’ve found the quality of life here to be very good. By the way, it doesn’t get that cold, because of the ocean currents and we rarely get snow in the city (but we still have skiing nearby). We do get rain and somewhat British weather…
One final point: Unlike in the U.S., application to the PhD program requires a masters degree. However, if you only have a bachelor’s degree and are committed to pursuing a PhD, exceptional candidates can apply to the PhD track program within the MSc program.