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Statistics Colloquium: Jing Lei
11:30 am–12:30 pm Jones 303
Jing Lei
Department of Statistics & Data Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Title: Evaluating Black-Box Classifiers via Stable Adaptive Two-Sample Inference
Abstract: Black-box machine learning methods predict well but are hard to validate. This talk develops adaptive, sample-efficient inference that uses flexible machine learning tools to test black-box predictions, with conditional distribution testing as the unifying problem. First, a weighted conformal rank-sum statistic turns aggregated conformal p-values into a test whose target, the Neyman-Pearson-Gini divergence, connects rank-sum statistics, ROC curves, and total variation. Second, two-sample U-statistic orthogonalization and cross-fitting remove the bias from estimating density-ratio weights, so the data can be reused without sample splitting. Third, for validating a fitted classifier, a cross-fitted distinguisher with a “safe-side bias” yields valid inference even though the statistic targets a data-dependent lower bound of the divergence. Applications show that classifiers with similar accuracy can differ substantially in goodness of fit.
Students Seminar: Yating Liu
10:00 am–12:00 pm Jones 111
Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 10:00 AM, in Jones 111, 5747 S. Ellis Avenue
Dissertation Defense Presentation
Yating Liu, Department of Statistics, The University of Chicago
“Learning from Text to Biological Data: The Trustworthy Inference using Robust Latent Structure”
Statistics Colloquium: Michael Sobel
11:30 am–12:30 pm Jones 303
Michael Sobel
Department of Statistics
Columbia University
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Student Seminar: Ruochen Wang
2:00–2:30 pm Jones 111
Wednesday, November 4, 2026, at 2:00 PM, in Jones 111, 5747 S. Ellis Avenue
Master’s Thesis Presentation
Ruochen Wang, Department of Statistics, The University of Chicago
“Training Window Length and Partial Pooling for Prescription Forecasting: A Longitudinal Count Study of Empagliflozin Prescribing in England, 2018–2026”
Statistics Colloquium: Bin Yu
11:30 am–12:30 pm Jones 303
Bin Yu
Department of Statistics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and Center for Computational Biology
University of California, Berkeley
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Statistics Colloquium: Karl Rohe
11:30 am–12:30 pm Jones 303
Karl Rohe
Department of Statistics
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
Statistics Colloquium: Salar Fattahi
11:30 am–12:30 pm Jones 303
Salar Fattahi
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering
University of Michigan
Title:
Abstract:
Student Seminar: Xiao (Annie) Xie
10:00 am–12:00 pm Jones 111
Wednesday, December 2, 2026, at 10:00 AM, in Jones 111, 5747 S. Ellis Avenue
Dissertation Defense Presentation
Annie Xie, Department of Statistics, The University of Chicago
“TBA”