The Statistics Department Records consist of technical reports published by the department and reflecting the research of its faculty.
Scope and Content Notes
The collection includes the Statistics Department technical report: "A Simulation Study of Livetrapping and Estimation of Population Size" by Kenneth Burnham and W. Scott Overton. Also included are five additional technical reports that reflect research by OSU faculty members Maryam Bolouri, Jeffrey Arthur, Donald Pierce, J. Leroy Folks, V. Jospeh Bowman, George Nemhauser, Andreas Lang, Charles Brunner, Dawn VanLeeuwen, David Butler, and Alberto Maristany. Topics include: parameter estimation for phase-type distributions, deep cuts in integer programming, sensitivity of bayes procedures, and a two-dimensional cutting stock algorithm.
Biographical / Historical Notes
In 1919, OAC introduced the first two statistics courses: Mth 103, Elements of Statistical Methods, and ES 313, The Elements of Statistical Methods. In the next decade, additional classes were added in the Department of Mathematics and others, including Agricultural Economics, Business Administration, Education, Economics and Sociology, and Farm Crops.
While the Mathematical Theory of Statistics sequence was added for statistics majors in 1932, students would still receive a degree in mathematics as there was no Department of Statistics.
The program, and budget, grew in 1953 when the Statistical Consulting and Computing Service (established to support the statistical endeavors of the Agricultural Experiment Station) became the Department of Statistical Service
While the study of statistics grew on campus, there were still duplicative classes throughout individual departments. It wasn’t until 1957, that the Department of Statistical Service was organized as an instructional unit in the School of Science, (i.e., no longer in the Mathematics Department), and was able to organize and streamline the statistical instruction conducted in the various departments. This was also when the first masters degrees were offered by the new department, with the first Master’s degrees awarded in 1962. The doctoral program was added in 1965 and the PhDs were awarded in 1969.
Then as now, the department focused on development and adaptation of statistical ideas in the context of applied research. In 1961, the department began using its first computer, an IBM 1620. Access to a computer facilitated the department's innovation in including computing as a real world application, and made Oregon State one of the first programs to integrate computers into statistics education.
