Faculty

Born in Zimbabwe to British parents, British schooling, attended University of Cape Town and Florida State University, lecturer and then senior lecturer at University of the Witwatersrand, moved to UFV in 2001. At the University of the Witwatersrand, my research was in the area of climatology. While there, I published (lead author) a book on Business Statistics. This book was one of the first to make use of statistical software in an intro stat course. 

PhD and MS (Statistics) Florida State University, 

MSc and BSc (Hons) in mathematical statistics, University of Cape Town 

BSc with 3 majors: mathematics, mathematical statistics and computer science, University of Cape Town

I think that visual representation and a relaxed environment are helpful for learning. I have no expectations of students regarding performance in particular environments because I think that students vary a lot in terms of what works for them. The one essential for me is turn-in (written) homework, either from groups of students or from students working alone. I think that being able to communicate results is essential to doing stats so communication is always part of courses that I teach.

Making stats useful for people everywhere eg representative samples, causation, designing surveys properly.  I am particularly interested in working with math phobic people and those who have struggled with stats before.

Statistics education. At present I am working on finding out whether online homework is generally beneficial for students in STAT104. An important aspect of this is the impression that the course leaves on students.

PhD: estimating life spans from censored data using a non-parametric method. General area: (engineering) reliability