January 5, 2009


Dear Stat 600 Students,


Welcome to another semester and the Statistics
Graduate Seminar.  The registrar has put us in
a convenient location:  DH 1042 at 1:00 pm
each Monday.  Since the colloquium begins shortly
after 2:00, we will try to wrap things up at
1:45 or 1:50.

The course syllabus will be maintained on the
web site   http://www.stat.rice.edu/~scottdw/stat600/
There will also a mailing list for the class, which
you may wish to use:   stat600@stat.rice.edu

For our third meeting (1/26), I would like to ask each
of you to prepare a 10 minute powerpoint (or equivalent)
presentation about yourself.  Please include
information such as your undergraduate education
(what, where, and when), interesting work
experiences, as well anything you would care
to include about your own interests (not only
in statistics, but perhaps hobbies, childhood etc).

(Email me your .ppt or .pdf file, or bring it on a USB disk.)

We will not formally report on each colloquium presentation
this semester, but we will briefly discuss what to look for.
We will spend a portion of the semester reviewing old "A"
exam questions for statistics.  Then we will have two
rounds of presentations, one on the whiteboard (280 level)
and one mimicing a JSM talk (cf. The American Statisician).

Look forward to an enjoyable term.


Yours,

Dr. Scott