Statistical computing research
As the birthplace of R, we are home to a growing number of statisticians who work on statistical computing and computational statistics.
R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics, developed by former staff members Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman. The department continues to do substantial work in this area.
Statistical computing
Standard statistical packages are suitable for routine analysis of data sets without non-standard features. However, such data sets are rarer than you might expect. Commercial packages are fast. They apply algorithms and procedures which were viable at the time the package was written.
However, for statistical research, we often require more flexibility than these packages generally provide. Our research and software development is building computing environments that increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the statistician.
Statistical graphics
Statistical graphics focuses on developing software that helps researchers visualise data or even lower-level software that assists in the development of software for data visualisation.
Computational statistics
This area investigates computer-intensive statistical methods such as Markov Chain Monte Carlo.
Our researchers
Dr Brendon Brewer
- Author of the DNest4 software package for Bayesian computation
Professor Thomas Lumley
- R Core developer
- Author of the ‘survey’ R package
Associate Professor Paul Murrell
- R Core developer
- Statistical graphics
- Author of the ‘grid’ R package
Dr Mehdi Soleymani
Dr Yong Wang
Dr Shanika Wickramasuriya
- Co-author of the ‘hts’ R package
Dr Thomas Yee
- Author of the ‘VGAM’ R package