Douglas C. Montgomery Distinguished Lecture Series

Statistics is often introduced as a collection of formulas, but in practice it is a way of thinking – one that shows up everywhere from industrial applications, public policy, to sports, medicine, and every day decision making. A career as an industrial statistician is shaped less by specific techniques and more by having problem solving focus, strong collaborations with engineers and scientists, and comfort with handling and communicating uncertainty; traits which align with what I have learned from Professor Montgomery’s books and presentations over the years. In this talk, I’ll share a career-long tour of industrial statistical engineering in the wild. We’ll explore a few engineering applications, talk about how my experiences along the way influenced my career directions, moving between statistics and engineering roles, and what future possibilities might be in our expanded world of AI.