General Profile

The Department of Statistics, one among 20 academic departments in Bharathiar University, was started during the year 1979 under Post-Graduate Autonomous Centre of University of Madras with M.Phil., and Ph.D., programmes offered in Statistics. At present, the department is a full-fledged research department and offers Post-Graduate programme in Statistics besides M.Phil, and Ph.D., Programmes.

The depart-ment is well equipped for carrying out research in the thrust area, namely, Statistical Quality Control - Acceptance Sampling. The Department has established its identity with the contribution made through publication of plenty of research papers in the journals of repute at both national and international levels and through the submission of standard theses for the award of M.Phil., and Ph.D., degrees in Statistics over past three decades. Many research reports have also been released in the area of specialization.

There are more than 150 research publications in Journals, 80 presentations in national and international conferences and 45 research reports/ mono-graphs released by the Department over these periods. The research outputs are mainly in the field of Acceptance Sampling, which is a major branch of Statistical Quality and Control are considered as tailor-made standards that are much useful in industrial shop – floor situations. Presently faculties are working in the fields of specialization, viz., Design of Experiments, Stochastic Processes, Statistical Inference, Optimization Techniques, Bio-Statistics, Reliability Theory, Statistical Process Control and Actuarial Science.

A post-graduate programme, M.Sc., (Applied Statistics) was started in the academic year 1988-89. In the year 2003-04, the course syllabi were revised and the course title was named as M.Sc., Statistics with Computer Applications. Since its inception, the department has produced 26 Doctoral (Ph.D.,), and 82 M.Phil., degrees besides 150 Post Graduates. Out of these M.Sc., degree, 40 were awarded in Applied Statistics and the remaining in Statistics with Computer Applications. The department extends its support to the post-graduate students of other disciplines through offering elective and supportive courses to them under Choice Based Credit System.

Faculty and their Contributions

The faculty strength, at present, in the department is five with One Professor, One Reader, and Three Lecturers, who are working in diversified fields of Statistics, viz., Statistical Quality Control, Reliability, Statistical Modeling, Multivariate Data Analysis, Statistical Inference and Stochastic Processes. Other research specialization of the department includes Agricultural Statistics, Econometrics and Development Planning.

The members of faculty are well associated with Professional and Academic Bodies in Statistics at the International / National level and also have represented in the Administrative and Academic Bodies of this University like Syndicate, Senate, Standing Committee on Academic Affairs and Board of Studies etc. They are actively engaged in interaction with various agencies like UGC, CSIR, UPSC, TNPSC, KPSC, APPSC and other academic institutions / Universities in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamilnadu for the development of statistics education as a whole.

The faculties in the department have many papers to their credits and have publications in the following journals of International/ National repute:

1. Communications in Statistics : Theory and Methods (USA)*

2. Journal of Applied Statistical Sciences (USA)*

3. Quality Engineering (USA)*

4. Journal of Applied Statistics (UK)*

5. International Journal of Quality, Reliability and Management (UK)*

6. Quality, Reliability Engineering International (UK)*

7. Economic Quality Control (Germany)*

8. Indian Association for Productivity, Quality, Reliability Transactions (India)*

9. Statistical Methods (India) *

10. Far-East Journal of Theoretical Statistics (India)*

11. Journal of Statistics, Computer and Applications (India)

12. ACTA-CIENCIA–INDICA - Mathematics (India)

13. Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources (India)*

14. Journal of DAMS – (India)

15. Journal of Science and Technology (India)

16. International Journal of Statistics and Management Systems (USA)*

17. Journal of Quality Technology (USA)*

18. Communication in Statistics: Simulation and Computations (USA)*

19. Journal of Madras University (India)

20. Journal of Annamalai University (India)

21. International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics (USA)*

22. Impact Journal of Science and Technology (India)
* - International Journals

Many research reports and monographs prepared by faculties/scholars have been released by the department and circulated to researchers and practitioners.

Library Facility

The department has its own library with an adequate number of text books along with research papers collection, back volumes and reprints and it caters, to some extent, the needs of post-graduate students and research scholars.

Statistical Laboratory / Software / Training Programmes

The department offers training programmes in Statistical software such as Mathematica 5.0, Statistica 7.0, Minitab 14, SPSS 16.0, Systat 12 and SPC to the students. For an effective implementation of this programme an air-conditioned computer laboratory supported by twenty computer systems with higher-end configurations has been established. These systems are connected through Local Area Network (LAN). Broadband internet connectivity is provided to all the systems which enable faculty, researchers and students to access internet during working hours. Licensed versions of statistical software namely Mathematica 5.0, Statistica 7.0, Minitab 14, SPSS 16.0, Systat 12 and SPC have been installed with each of the systems which help students of this department to familiarize the usage of software on their own.

Academic Conferences / Seminars Organized

During the X Plan period, this department has organized two national level seminars, one in the year 2004 and the other during 2007. The themes of the seminars in 2004 and 2007 were, respectively, Recent Advances in Statistical Methodologies and Applica-tions (RASMA) and Frontiers in Applied Statistics with Computer Applications (FASCA).

RASMA was organized to bring academicians, resear-chers and students from across the country as a forum which enabled them to disseminate their ideas and principles in the advances made in Statistical Theory and Practice. About 10 invited talks and 50 research papers were presented in this two-day programme, which are well received by the delegates.

In commemoration of Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Bharathiar University, the Department has organized FASCA in January 2007. This seminar has received an overwhelming response from theoretical statisticians and practitioners besides several other academicians. During this two-day seminar, 15 invited lecturers and about 118 research papers on wider spectrum of theory and application of Statistics were presented in the well organized 14 parallel sessions. This event brought remarkable academic experience for the delegates who took part actively.

Prof.Dr.K.K.Suresh, Head of the Department welcomed the delegates and highlighted the importance of the theme of the conference. In his address he pointed out that FASCA extends greater choice of connections around Academicians, Researchers, Statisticians and Technical Persons towards novel applications and discussion, which would lead to various possible innovations in Statistical Theory and Applications. Vice-Chancellor of Bharathiar University presided over the conference and appreciated the department for playing a vital role in academic contribution to the Statistics society by its consistent and gradual progress in developing Statistical Theory and applications through research and teaching during last 27 years. Shri.G.K.Vasan, Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Govt. of India inaugurated the conference. In his inaugural address, he praised the university and the department for providing Standard Education in Statistics and promised to extend total support of his ministry for the university in its efforts towards betterment of such education. Further, he announced that Statistics Education Center would be established.

While addressing the participants and dele-gates in the valediction, Prof. S. Subramaniyan, former Vice-Chancellor of Bharathiar University stressed the need of Six-Sigma concepts in Industrial Quality Management (IQM).

Job Placements for Students

The students of the department have got placements as teaching faculties in educational institutions and as statistical analysts and software professionals in software companies. The percentage of placement of students works out to be around 70%.

Vision of the Department

It is identified that on the applications of Statistical concepts and tools in industrial problems/ situations, there is a wide gap among academicians, theoreticians and practitioners. With a view to bridge the gap, the department is interested to establish relationship with industries so as to enable the faculty to interact with the industrial mangers and engineers, and apply the concepts of statistics effectively for data relating to industrial environment. The department wishes to host training programmes for industrial managers and engineers on the applications of statistics. The department will organize workshops / conferences / seminars / symposia for the purpose of bringing academicians across the country in a common forum and to disseminate their ideas and experiences in handling statistical data and presenting case studies. The department is willing to offer Post Graduate programme M.Tech., in Quality Control and Reliability for the students having engineering background and also for industry sponsored candidates. The main thrust area of research in this department is Statistical Quality Control, besides other fields such as Design of Experiments, Statistical Inference and Stochastic Processes. The department has a plenty of collections in the form of reprints, back volumes and text books under Quality Control. Hence, the department is planning to submit proposals for establishing a Centre for Excellence in Quality Control Research and Development in this university. The department wishes to enhance its potentials and capabilities to provide good quality education in statistics by acquiring a status of FIST sponsorship from Department of Science and Technology, and SAP by University Grants Commission in the forthcoming years.

LIST OF Ph.D., AWARDEES

Contact:

Department of Statistics,Bharathiar University, Coimbatore-641 046
Ph : +91 422 2428471,478 +91 422 2422222 Extn. 471, 478.
Fax: +91 422 2425706

This page is updated on 14.10.2009