M.Sc. and Ph.D. Defences

Below is the schedule of upcoming defences for graduate students in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. If you wish to attend, please email statgrad at sfu.ca.

Spring 2025

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
MARCH
7	11:00am	Zoom	M.Sc.	Yulia Kozhevnikova	BLOST: Bayesian Longitudinally Ordinal Sequential Trial Design for Evaluating Respiratory Disease Treatments
APRIL
15	10:00am	Zoom	Ph.D.	Jingxue (Grace) Feng	Advanced Bayesian Modeling for Public Health
16

Summer 2024

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
AUGUST
14	2:00pm	Zoom	M.Sc.	Quinn Forzley	Exploring Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity and Correlation in COVID-19 Associated Follow-Up Visits and Events
14	10:30am	LIB 7200	M.Sc.	Sashini Darshani Silva Fransisku Hettige	Strong orthogonal arrays of strength 2+ with better two-dimensional projection properties
13	10:30am	LIB 7200	M.Sc.	Lu Tan	Integration of pre-trained large language model and knowledge graph embedding into topic modeling with latent Dirichlet allocation
12	10:30am	ASB 10920	M.Sc.	Niwanthi Muthukuda Arachchilage	Annealed Sequential Monte Carlo with Adaptive Multiple-Try Metropolis Kernel and Applications to Disease Transmission Models
1	10:00am	LIB 7200 & Zoom	Ph.D.	Maggie (Meng) Sun	Advancements in Cyber Risk Management: a Comprehensive Statistical Modeling and Analysis of Data Breaches with Applications in Cyber Insurance
JULY
15	9:30am	LIB 2020 & Zoom	M.Sc.	Zhi Yuh Ou Yang	Joint modelling of longitudinal and survival data
JUNE
26	9:30am	Zoom	M.Sc.	Nadia Enhaili	Improving Healthcare Policies Using Reinforcement Learning on Patterns of Service Utilization
25	9:15am	Zoom	Ph.D.	Yuping Yang	Dimension Reduction for Functional Data and Hypothesis Testing for Ordinary Differential Equation Models
MAY
29	10:00am	HAL 123 & Zoom	M.Sc.	Tianxing Yan	Dependence modeling for heavy-tailed multi-peril insurance losses
27	1:00pm	LIB 7200 & Zoom	Ph.D.	Sidi Wu	Neural Networks for Functional and Survival Data
15	10:00am	LIB 2020 & Zoom	Ph.D.	Lulu Guo	Evaluating Treatment Efficacy in Randomized Controlled Trials with Treatment Noncompliance and Multivariate Outcomes

Spring 2024

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
April
22	10:00am	LIB 2020 & ZOOM	M.Sc.	Quang Vuong	The performance of annealed sequential Monte Carlo sampling as a joint variable selection and parameter estimation method in the linear (mixed) model setting
9	9:00am	Zoom	M.Sc.	Diksha Jethnani	Analysis of rare variants in the first exon of the ataxin-2 gene in patients with neurodegenerative diseases
March
29	11:30am	LIB 2020 & Zoom	Ph.D.	Yanjun Liu	A Multiscale Stochastic Cellular Automaton Model for Dispersion Process with Applications to Mountain Pine Beetle Infestations
21	1:30pm	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Yirong Zhu	Enhanced Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling of Mortality Rates Incorporating Jumps: A Multi-Country Perspective
15	2:30pm	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Yiting Chen	A new class of depth-based statistics with same attractor
13	2:00pm	Zoom	M.Sc.	Yueyang Han	Testing the Effectiveness of Treatment for Cancers for which the Endpoint is Survival Using Bayesian Subgroup Analysis
13	1:00pm	Hybrid	M.Sc.	Nikhil Kapoor	Impact of Asset Modeling Choices on Lifetime Pension Pools

Fall 2023

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
December
19	10:00am	Hybrid	Ph.D.	Payman Nickchi	Linkage fine-mapping on sequences from case-control studies and Goodness-of-fit tests based on empirical distribution function for general likelihood model
18	10:30am	Zoom	M.Sc.	Gurashish Bagga	Offensive and defensive penalties on score differentials and drive outcomes in the NFL
18	2:30pm	Hybrid	M.Sc.	Rina Wang	The Application of Categorical Embedding and Spatial-Constraint Clustering Methods in Nested GLM Model
6	1:00pm	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	David (Liwei) Lai	An Exploration of a Testing Procedure for the Aviation Industry
November
29	9:00am	Hybrid	M.Sc.	Teng-Wei Lin	Forecasting the trajectories of Southern Resident Killer Whales with stochastic continuous-time movement models
October
23	10:00am	Hybrid	Ph.D.	Nirodha Epasinghege Dona	Big Data Applications in Genetics and Sports
6	1:00pm	Zoom	M.Sc.	Kim Kroetch	Inverse Ensemble Forecasting for COVID Outbreaks
September
22	9:30am	Hybrid	M.Sc.	Summer Shan	An application of the James-Stein Estimation Method in Modeling of Mortality Rates
7	9:30am	Hybrid	Ph.D.	William Ruth	Computationally Intensive Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Summer 2023

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
August
25	10:00am	Hybrid	Ph.D.	Boyi Hu	Functional Regression Models
22	10:00am	Zoom	Ph.D.	Trevor Thomson	Statistical Methods for Evaluating Effects of Health Service Utilization on Survival Times with Linked Administrative Data, with Application to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Management
17	10:00am	Zoom	Ph.D.	Daisy (Ying) Yu	Penalized Likelihood Methods for Sparse Datasets, with Applications to Genetic Epidemiology
16	10:00am	Hybrid	Ph.D.	Pulindu Ratnasekera	Inference of gene-environment interaction from heterogeneous case-parent trios
15	2:00pm	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Yuqi Meng	Understanding and Exploring Meta-Features based on Data Properties in Meta-Learning for Regression Analysis
July
31	1:00pm	Zoom	M.Sc.	Linwan Xu	Statistical Analyses of Longitudinal Observational Data from Adults Living in Marginalized Housing,with Particular Attention to Cognitive Function Characterization
26	10:30am	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Manpreet Kaur	Non-orthogonal Blocked Two-level Factorial Designs
24	10:00AM	Hybrid	Ph.D.	Guanzhou Chen	Contributions to Factorial Designs and Space-Filling Designs
20	10:30AM	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Kalpani Darsha Perera	Nearly Orthogonal Arrays of Strength Three
10	4:00PM	Zoom	M.Sc.	Junpu Xie	Equivalence tests between tobacco methodologies by Health Canada and WHO
June
19	4:00PM	Hybrid	Ph.D.	Haixu Wang	Machine Learning in Functional Data Analysis
May
19	1:00PM	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Jesse Schneider	Efficient Galaxy Classification Through Pretraining

Spring 2023

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
April
6	10:00am	Zoom	M.Sc.	Tianyu Yang	A pedigree-transmission likelihood for multiplex families
March
31	1:00pm	Hybrid	M.Sc.	Hashan Peiris	Integration of Traditional and Telematics data for Efficient Insurance Claims Prediction
January
26	3:00PM	Hybrid	M.Sc.	Yaning Zhang	Dimension Reduction Methods with Application in Automobile Insurance

Fall 2022

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
December
19	2:00PM	Hybrid	M.Sc.	Elijah Cavan	NHL Aging Curves Using Functional Principle Component Analysis
14	10:30AM	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Carla Louw	Post-Selection Inference in Cox Proportional Hazards Models
1	2:00PM	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Wenyuan Zhou	A Complete Framework for Modelling Defined Benefit Pension Plans
November
28	4:30PM	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Ryker Moreau	Valuation of NHL Draft Picks using Functional Data Analysis
28	2:30PM	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Brendan Kumagai	Dynamic Prediction of the National Hockey League Draft with Rank-Ordered Logit Models
15	10:00AM	Hybrid	Ph.D.	Lucas (Yifan) Wu	Soccer Analytics
September
23	10:30AM (PDT)	Hybrid	Ph.D.	Shaun McDonald	Novel Approaches to Uncertainty Quantification in Nonparametric Settings

Summer 2022

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
August
29	2:00PM (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Youwei Yan	Modeling the Multi-Peak Structure of the Solar Cycle
26	1:30PM (PDT)	LIB 2020	M.Sc.	Lei Chen	On the calculation of risk measures for variable annuities with guaranteed benefits
24	1:00PM (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Jacob (Xuankang) Zhu	Efficient learning algorithms for classification of data by a nonlinear decision boundary
18	11:00AM (PDT)	Remote	Ph.D.	Luyao Lin	Emulation and Calibration of Computer Models with Unknown Constraints
03	1:00PM (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Hasan Nathani	Exploring Associations of Respiratory Symptoms and Lung Function Measures with Occupational Exposures for the Canadian Obstructive Lung Disease (COLD) Study
July
28	10:00AM (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Mandy Yao	Effect of Stochastic Model Error on the Convergence and Accuracy of Markov Chains

Spring 2022

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
April
12	9:30am (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Zayed Shahjahan	Bayesian Variable Selection in Regression with Genetics Application
20	1:00pm (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Mengqi (Molly) Cen	A PDE-Based Bayesian Hierarchical Model for Event Spread, with Application to Covid-19 Infection
25	3:00pm (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Wen Tian (Wendy) Wang	Selection Between Variance-Optimal and Bias-Optimal Designs When Some Two-Factor Interactions Are Important
29	10:00am (PDT)	Remote	Ph.D.	Faezeh Yazdi	Fast Deep Gaussian Process Modeling and Design for Large Complex Computer Experiments
29	10:30am (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Winfield Chen	Towards efficient population-level genome-wide association studies

Fall 2021

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
November
17	4:00pm (PST)	Remote	M.Sc	Kangyi (Ken) Peng	Bayesian Approaches for Critical Velocity Models

October
14	3:00pm (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc	Xueyi (Wendy) Xu	A Particle Markov Chain Monte Carlo Approach for the Estimation of CBD-Type Models

September
13	9:30am (PDT)	Remote	Ph.D	Christina Nieuwoudt	Simulation and Statistical Methods for Family-Based Sequencing Studies

Summer 2021

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
August
24	9:30am (PDT)	Remote	Ph.D.	Charith Karunarathna	Sequence Clustering for Genetic Mapping of Binary Traits
18	10:30am (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc	Gloria (Xuefei) Yang	Covariance-adjusted, Sparse, Reduced-Rank Regression with Adjustment for Confounders
17	10:30am (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc	Zubia Mansoor	Exploring Out of Distribution: Deep Neural Networks and the Human Brain
13	10:30am (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc	Joosung (Sonny) Min	Q-Learning with Online Trees
4	1:00pm (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc	Vivian (Yige) Jin	Numerical Approximation Algorithms for Pension Funding
July
22	2:30pm (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Seyeon Kim	Applications of Reserving Methods for Property and Casualty Insurance in Modeling of Mortality Rates
7	3:00pm (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Peter Tea	The Analysis of Serve Decisions in Tennis using Bayesian Hierarchical Models
June
18	1:30pm (PDT)	Remote	Ph.D.	Cheng-Yu Sun	Factorial Designs under Baseline Parameterization and Space-filling Designs with Applications to Big Data

May
19	2:30pm(PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Louis Arsenault-Mahjoubi	On the Bayesian Estimation of Jump-Diffusion Models in Finance

Spring 2021

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
April
26	1:00pm (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Lisa McQuarrie	Autoregressive Mixed Effects Models and an Application to Annual Income of Cancer Survivors
21	10:30am (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Yunwei Tu	Post-selection Inference
14	10:30am (PDT)	Remote	M.Sc.	Nikola Surjanovic	An Efficient Approach to Pruning Regression Trees Using a Modified Bayesian Information Criterion

Fall 2020

Date	Time	Location	Degree	Speaker	Title / Abstract Link
December
17	10am (PST)	Remote	M.Sc.	Renny Doig	Efficient Bayesian Parameter Inference for COVID-19 Transmission Models
16	1:00pm (PST)	Remote	M.Sc.	Dylan Maciel	Systematic Comparison of Designs and Emulators for Computer Experiments Using a Library of Test Functions
November
25	2:30pm (PST)	Remote	M.Sc.	James Thomson	Contextual Batting and Bowling in Limited Overs Cricket
16	1pm (PST)	Remote	M.Sc.	Cherie Ng	A Flexible Group Benefits Framework for Pricing Deposit Rates

Statistics and Actuarial Science

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