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

SPEAKER:  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 Yang Yang, Yves Atchade
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.