Travelogue—A Newcomer Encounters Statistics and the Computer

Abstract

Computer-intensive methods have revolutionized statistics, giving rise to new areas of analysis and expertise in predictive analytics, image processing, pattern recognition, machine learning, genomic analysis, and more. Interest naturally centers on the new capabilities the computer allows the analyst to bring to the table. This article, instead, focuses on the account of how computer-based resampling methods, with their relative simplicity and transparency, enticed one individual, untutored in statistics or mathematics, on a long journey into learning statistics, then teaching it, then starting an education institution.

Key Words:

• Bootstrap
• Decision trees
• Microarrays
• Permutation tests
• Resampling