The annual STU Hunter Research Conference is a high-profile research conference to honor one of the pioneers in applied statistics, Professor Stu Hunter. Each year, the conference invites 6 plenary speakers to present their research on topics that are considered fundamentally important to applied statistical research and applications. It also invites about 60 other active researchers in different areas of applied statistics around the world to participate. The conference lasts for three days, and it spends a half-day on intensive communication and discussion about the research presented by each plenary speaker. This year’s STU Hunter Research Conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark from Sunday March 5 to Wednesday March 8, 2017.
Dr. Peihua Qiu of the UF Department of Biostatistics was invited to the conference as a plenary speaker. He made a 90-minute presentation, titled Jump Regression, Image Processing and Quality Control, followed by a 90-minute discussion from three discussants and the general audience. In his presentation, Dr. Qiu described broad applications of image comparison and monitoring. He then introduced major statistical tools for describing and handling image data. In closing, he provided his own perspectives on new research directions and problems. Dr. Qiu’s presentation and his research in the related areas were well received by conference participants. Soon, the presentation will be published in the journal Quality Engineering as a discussion paper.