Letter from Chair

Dear Statistics Alumni and Friends, 

As the chair of the Cal Poly Statistics Department, I wanted to take a moment to update you on some exciting changes and updates to our department. 

First, it is with mixed emotions that I announce the retirement of Kim Barton, our administrative support coordinator. While Kim was here only a short time, we’re grateful for all her contributions as a valuable member of our department, and we will miss her dearly. We wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement. However, we are also excited to welcome Miranda Wyzlic as our new administrative support coordinator. Miranda is learning all about our department, students, and faculty and quickly making a positive impact. We are thrilled to have her on our team. 

Additionally, we are pleased to welcome two new tenure-line faculty members, Drs. Emily Robinson and Zoe Rehnberg who both started in September of 2022. Emily specializes in statistical graphics and the effectiveness of data visualizations, while Zoe’s research focuses on normalization for well-based assays in the presence of technical variation. Both already are very capable and well-liked instructors — as several of their students have come to me to change their major to statistics! Also in this past year Dr. Anelise Sabbag was awarded tenure and promotion to associate professor. Anelise is proving herself to be another Cal Poly-based national expert in statistics education research, reinforcing our department’s reputation as a leader in this area. We are fortunate to have such talented and dedicated faculty members in our department. 

Last year I shared that we remodeled a physics laboratory in the Warren J. Baker Center for Science and Mathematics into a statistics computing classroom and laboratory. Thanks to continued support from alumni donations, we were able to partner with the Math Department and open the new Statistics and Mathematics Collaboratorium also in the Baker Center. This modern space features a conference/seminar room and three breakout meeting rooms with large monitors. It will support graduate research for both departments as well as a place for hosting seminars, workshops, and capstone statistics and data science courses where students frequently work in small groups with clients. Please come check it out (Room 331) when you next visit! 

Finally, I want to remind you about our department newsletter, which features articles on a range of topics, including our MS program that will admit its first cohort in the fall, impactful Data Science capstone projects, the NSF S-STEM PALIISADS scholarship to improve access to graduate education in statistics, and faculty and alumni updates. I encourage you to read and engage with our newsletter; it is a great way to stay informed about the latest happenings in our department. 

Thank you for your continued support of our department. We are proud of our community and excited for what the future holds. 

Sincerely, 

Andrew Schaffner

Statistics Department Chair