TITLE: Some recent developments in multi-state and degradation models
for reliability inference

SPEAKER: Prof. Vijay Nair

ABSTRACT:

Traditional reliability analysis is based on time-to-failure
data. In this talk, we discuss two different directions that lead to
more informative reliability inference. The first is multi-state models.
Challenges in statistical inference based on interval-censored data will
be described, and methods for doing likelihood-based inference in
semi-Markov models will be discussed. The second part of the talk will
provide an overview of degradation models, describe a class of
non-homogeneous Gaussian processes and some inference issues. This talk
is based on joint work with current and former students Yang Yang and
Xiao Wang.



Bio: Vijay Nair is the Donald A. Darling Professor of Statistics and
Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has been Chair of the Department of Statistics
sine 1998. Previously, he was a Research Scientist in the Mathematical
Sciences and Operations Research Centers at Bell Laboratories for
fifteen years.

His research interests include engineering statistics, information
technology, quality and process improvement, industrial experiments,
reliability and risk analysis, neuro-informatics, and statistical
methods in behavioral intervention research. He also has extensive
practical experience in the automotive, semiconductor, and
telecommunications industries.

Vijay has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Malaya
(Malaysia) and a Ph. D. in Statistics from the University of California,
Berkeley. He has been editor of Technometrtics, International
Statistical Review, coordinating editor of the Journal of Statistical
Planning and Inference, and has served on the editorial boards of many
other leading statistics and quality journals. He is currently Vice
President of the International Statistics Institute, President-elect of
the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics, and
Chair of the Statistics Division of the American Society for Quality. He
has chaired or co-chaired several panels of the National Academies and
is a former chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Institute of
Statistical Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the American Statistical Association, the
American Society for Quality, and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.