Upcoming Events

Thursday, October 23rd 11:45am - 1:00pm, Zoom Meeting ID: 963 2560 9671 Passcode: 698339 GuanNan Wang, PhD Assistant Professor, Mathematics College of William & Mary Boosting Biomedical Imaging Analysis via Distributed Functional Regression and Synthetic Surrogates Understanding how scalar covariates influence spatial patterns in medical imaging data, such as neuroimaging or organ-level functional images, is a central challenge in modern biomedical research. The rapid expansion of large-scale imaging studies has heightened the need for statistical frameworks that are both interpretable and computationally scalable. In this talk, I will introduce a new class of domain-aware functional regression models, where spatially varying coefficients link scalar predictors to imaging responses defined over complex 3D domains. Our Distributed Image-on-Scalar Regression framework employs a triangulation-based domain decomposition strategy, enabling efficient parallel estimation with trivariate penalized splines. This design preserves global spatial structure while flexibly accommodating subregion-specific heterogeneity. To address additional challenges posed by incomplete or noisy imaging data, I will also discuss the use of synthetic surrogates generated with modern AI tools. Rather than imputing missing values directly, these synthetic surrogates can serve as auxiliary data that can be jointly analyzed with observed images, improving efficiency while maintaining robustness to imputation error. Together, these advances pave the way for scalable, uncertainty-aware statistical analysis of high-dimensional biomedical imaging. Biostatistics Departmental Seminars & Lectures During the Fall and Spring semesters, the Department of Biostatistics holds regular seminars on Thursdays, called the Levin Lecture Series, on a wide variety of topics which are of interest to both students and faculty. Over each semester, there are also often guest lectures outside the regular Thursday Levin Lecture Series, to provide a robust schedule the covers the wide range of topics in Biostatistics. The speakers are invited guests who spend the day of their seminar discussing their research with Biostatistics faculty and students. 

Thursday, November 6th 11:45am - 1:00pm, ARB Hess Commons Weng Kee Wong, PhD Professor of Biostatistics University of California Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health Title & Abstract TBA Biostatistics Departmental Seminars & Lectures During the Fall and Spring semesters, the Department of Biostatistics holds regular seminars on Thursdays, called the Levin Lecture Series, on a wide variety of topics which are of interest to both students and faculty. Over each semester, there are also often guest lectures outside the regular Thursday Levin Lecture Series, to provide a robust schedule the covers the wide range of topics in Biostatistics. The speakers are invited guests who spend the day of their seminar discussing their research with Biostatistics faculty and students. 

Thursday, November 20th 11:45am - 1:00pm, Zoom Meeting ID: 963 2560 9671 Passcode: 698339 Didong Li, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health Title & Abstract TBA Biostatistics Departmental Seminars & Lectures During the Fall and Spring semesters, the Department of Biostatistics holds regular seminars on Thursdays, called the Levin Lecture Series, on a wide variety of topics which are of interest to both students and faculty. Over each semester, there are also often guest lectures outside the regular Thursday Levin Lecture Series, to provide a robust schedule the covers the wide range of topics in Biostatistics. The speakers are invited guests who spend the day of their seminar discussing their research with Biostatistics faculty and students.