The University of Calgary Biostatistics Centre
Graduate Research Training
Rocky Mountain Data Science Network
The University of Calgary, jointly with our partner the University of British Columbia – Okanogan, was recently awarded the status of a Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute Health Science Collaborating Centre (CANSSI – HSCC). Our initiative, entitled the Rocky Mountain Data Science Centre (RMDSC), offers our best Biostatistics graduate students the chance of paid four or eight month internships, working in governmental, industrial and academic environments.
Students who participate in this internship training program will gain hands-on experience in the application of statistical and computational methods that build on and complement their formal training. They will learn both the art and science of biostatistics and data science, and develop important communication, project and time management skills.
For further details about the RMDSC please contact Karen Kopciuk: kakopciu@ucalgary.ca.
Applied Collaborative Research
Students within the interdisciplinary biostatistics specializations will typically have a statistics/biostatistics supervisor and a co-supervisor from their research area. Such collaborations may involve:
- Cumming School of Medicine
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
- Department of Biological Sciences
- Faculty of Kinesiology
- Faculty of Nursing
- Department of Computer Science
- Alberta Health Services
- Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute for Child & Maternal Health
- Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute
- Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute
- O'Brien Institute for Public Health
- Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta
- McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health
The interdisciplinary biostatistics group has strong connections with the institutes at the Cumming School of Medicine, especially the O'Brien Institute for Public Health (OIPH). The OIPH was set up to study ways of improving the health care system and new ways to prevent disease. Many of the biostatistics faculty are members of OIPH, and are developing statistical models and tools to further their aims.
Data Science and Computational Statistics
Biostatistics research at the University of Calgary tends to be focused upon modern, computational, data science statistical and biostatistical problems. A non-exhaustive list of research interests of our faculty members includes:
- Machine learning
- Data science and “big data” problems
- Computational statistics and Monte Carlo methodology
- Clinical trials
- Population health/ecology
- Statistical genetics
- Bioinformatics
- Infectious disease modeling
- Disease surveillance
- Longitudinal data analysis
- Survival analysis
- Multistate models
- Missing data problems
- Bayesian modelling
- Spatial and spatio-temporal statistics
- Functional data analysis
- Causal inference
- Experimental design
For more information about the Interdisciplinary Biostatistics graduate specializations, please contact the Program Coordinator, Prof. Rob Deardon (rob.deardon@ucalgary.ca).