R. Wayne Oldford

Professor of Statistics

“Exposure, the effective laying open of the data to display the unanticipated, is to us a major portion of data analysis.”

… John Tukey and Martin Wilk (1966)

Great northern diver

My (rwoldford) GitHub

Loon R manual

Featured videos

See my YouTube or BitChute channels for more.

Contact

Posters

with various students

Software Projects

*
All loon visualization cran github

Loon.data

Data used in the loon package.

Loon.ggplot

Turn ggplot2 graphic data structures into interactive loon plots

Eikosograms

The picture of probability

PairViz

Ordering visualizations using Graph Traversal

qqtest

Self Calibrating Quantile-Quantile Plots for Visual Testing

zenplots

Zigzag Expanded Navigation Plots

Loon

Exploratory interactive data visualization.

Featured Publications

Significance, 15(3)

Patterns in Secretary Clinton’s emails and a website (select “Code”) that allows anyone to interactively explore the patterns.
PDF Code Dataset Project Source Document DOI
SIAM Journal on Optimization, 28(1)

The paper introduces a special case of the Euclidean distance matrix completion problem of interest in statistical data analysis where only the minimal spanning tree distances are given and the matrix completion must preserve the minimal spanning tree. A guided random search algorithm is shown to outperform more standard optimization methods which also force peculiar and generally unwanted geometric structure on the point configurations their completions produce.
PDF Code DOI
Electronic Imaging 2018, Computational Imaging, XVI

In this paper, we show that a simple and accurate ensemble model can be learned by (i) using multivariate regression trees to take into account that the chromaticity components of the illuminant are correlated and constrained, and (ii) fitting each tree by directly minimizing a loss function of interest—such as recovery angular error or reproduction angular error—rather than indirectly using the squared-error loss function as a surrogate. We show empirically that overall our method leads to improved performance on diverse image sets.
PDF DOI
The American Statistician, 70(1), pp. 74-90

Quantile–quantile plots, or qqplots, are an important visual tool for many applications but their interpretation requires some care and often more experience. This apparent subjectivity is unnecessary. By drawing on the computational and display facilities now widely available, qqplots are easily enriched to help with their interpretation. An overview of quantile functions and quantile–quantile plots is presented against the backdrop of their early historical development. Strengths and shortcomings of the traditional display are described. A new enhanced qqplot, the self-calibrating qqplot, is introduced and demonstrated on a variety of examples—both synthetic and real. Real examples include normal qqplots, log-normal plots, half-normal plots for factorial experiments, qqplots for the average and standard deviation in process improvement applications, detection of multivariate outliers, and the comparison of empirical distributions. Self-calibration is had by visually incorporating sampling variation in the qqplot display in a variety of ways. The new qqplot is available through the function and R package qqtest.
PDF Code DOI
Computational Statistics, 26(4)

We propose using graph theoretic results to develop an infrastructure that tracks movement from a display of one set of variables to another. The illustrative example throughout is the real-time morphing of one scatterplot into another. Hurley and Oldford (J Comput Graph Stat 2010) made extensive use of the graph having variables as nodes and edges indicating a paired relationship between them. The present paper introduces several new graphs derivable from this one whose traversals can be described as particular movements through high dimensional spaces. These are connected to known results in graph theory and the graph theoretic results applied to the problem of visualizing high-dimensional data.
PDF Code DOI
Statistical Science, 15(3)

What is “statistical method”? Is it the same as “scientific method”? This paper answers the first question by specifying the elements and procedures common to all statistical investigations and organizing these into a single structure. This structure is illustrated by careful examination of the first scientific study on the speed of light carried out by A. A. Michelson in 1879. Our answer to the second question is negative. To understand this a history on the speed of light up to the time of Michelson’s study is presented. The larger history and the details of a single study allow us to place the method of statistics within the larger context of science.
PDF Dataset DOI

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Talk given on loon at the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems. Features Alaska forestry data analysis with loon.
Jun 3, 2019 10:30 AM — 11:30 AM Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ
Slides Video Follow

Talk given by Zehao Xu on the loon.ggplot package which renders ggplots into interactive loon plots. SDSS 2019, Beyond Big Data - …
Jun 1, 2019 1:20 PM — 1:35 PM Hyatt Regency, Bellevue, Washington
Slides

Talk given by Chris Salahub on Hillary Clinton’s emails at the meeting of the Stat. Soc. of Canada. Includes significance tests.
May 27, 2019 4:00 PM — 4:15 PM University of Calgary, Calgary Alberta
PDF Slides

Tutorial given at MontReal 2018 on Loon.
Jul 5, 2018 1:30 PM — 5:00 PM Sherbrooke Bldg, UQAM, Montreal QC
Slides

Research seminar given at the Institute for Statistics and Mathematics, Wien University.
Jun 8, 2018 9:00 AM — 10:00 AM Wien University of Economics and Business, Vienna Austria
Slides Follow
See all talks

Recent Publications

Quickly discover relevant content by filtering publications.

A framework for quantifying dependence between random vectors is introduced. Using the notion of a collapsing function, random vectors …
PDF Code DOI

(BEST PAPER AWARD) It is well-known that querying information is difficult for domain experts, for they are not familiar with querying …
DOI

Motivated by the use of high-dimensional data such as data from several hundred risk-factor changes in the realm of quantitative risk …
PDF Code DOI

Techniques for analyzing and synthesizing complex knowledge representations (KRs) may utilize an atomic knowledge representation model …
Source Document

Patterns in Secretary Clinton’s emails and a website (select “Code”) that allows anyone to interactively explore the …
PDF Code Dataset Project Source Document DOI
See all publications

Popular Topics

2d tours 3d transition graph 4d transition graph algorithms Application axioms Bayes categorical Classification clinton clustering Collapsed random variables Collapsing functions Compiler optimization conditional independence cran Daniel plots data data analysis data reduction Dependence between random vectors digital photography dimension reduction eikosograms email Euler tours Eulerian Finance ggplot github glyphs graph products graph theory Graphical test of independence Half-normal plots Hamiltonian Hamiltonian decomposition Hierarchical models high-dimensional history history of science illuminant estimation image processing independence Instruction scheduling interactive K distribution Kendall copula Kneser graph layout leyout line graphs loon loon.ggplot loon.micromaps machine learning Marine containers matrix completion problems mean-mean plots method micromaps modelling mosaic plots multiple comparisons Multivariate kendall distribution Multivariate outlier detection multivariate regression trees navigation graph Ogive Optimization PairViz parallel coordinates philosophy of science point configurations politics probability Profile-directed optimization qqtest quantile-quantile plots query language R relational models s charts scagnostics scatterplot matrices scientific method semi-definite programming seriation shiny software Space graphs speed of light SQL star glyphs statistical experiments statistical inference statistical method Superblock scheduling teaching treebinr uncertainty user study variable graphs Visual hypothesis testing visualization web-mining white balancing x bar charts zenpath zenplot zenplots

Students

Current Grad Students

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Chris Salahub

Ph.D. student in Statistics

Data Visualization

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Pavel Shuldiner

Ph.D. student in Statistics

Data Visualization

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Zehao Xu

Ph.D. student in Statistics

Size proportional Venn and Euler diagrams in 2 and 3 dimensions, vennplot(…) in R, data visualization systems

Former PhD students

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Adam Rahman

Data Scientist

Preserving Measured Structure During Generation and Reduction of Multivariate Point Configurations, scagnostics distributions, data reduction, simulation

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Adrian Waddell

Statistician

Interactive Visualization and Exploration of High-Dimensional Data, data visualization, loon

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Greg Anglin

Research Advisor (Statistics)

A Statistical Programming Environment for Modelling Counting Processes, and An object-oriented array manipulation prorocol in a statistical programming environment, Statistical computing environments, event history analysis

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Ruth Urner

Assistant Professor

Learning with non-Standard Supervision, theoretical machine learning, clustering, strong and weak learners

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Wu Zhou

Senior Researcher, Data Scientist

A new framework for clustering, ensemble cluster analysis, data mining, and machine learning, also A review and implementation of some approaches to metric clustering

Former Masters students

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Alex (Xian) Wang

Data Scientist

Interactive Micromaps in R with loon, spatial data visualization and interactive analysis, loon.micromaps

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Amanda Murdoch

Senior Analyst

Tracking Eye Movement When Observing Statistical Graphics, data analysis, experimental design, statistical modelling, EyeTrackR

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Chang-kee Lee

?????

Some methods of dimension reduction

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Derek (Daoxiang) Wang

Middle Office and Valuation Senior Analyst

A Visualizing Tool for Conditional Independence, Financial analysis and copula modelling

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Erin McLeish

Ph.D. student in Computer Science

Visual Empirical Regions of Influence (VERI) Clustering, Assessment and Alternatives, computational geometry and graph-based clustering

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Glenn Lee

Game Mathematician

Eikosograms and Their Software Implementation, Categorical data visualization and analysis, Gaming probability

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Greg Anglin

Research Advisor (Statistics)

A Statistical Programming Environment for Modelling Counting Processes, and An object-oriented array manipulation prorocol in a statistical programming environment, Statistical computing environments, event history analysis

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(Haijiang) Steven Shi

?????

Model based clustering

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Hanna Kazhamiaka

Data Scientist

An Experiment in Visual Clustering Using Star Glyph Displays, data visualization, statistical modelling and machine learning

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Hugh Chipman

Professor

The Use of Projection and Sectioning in the Graphic Analysis of Multidimensional Data, Statistics

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Hudson (Hui) Zhao

?????

Implementing Surfaces in OpenGL … Calls from Macintosh Common Lisp, data visualization, OpenGL

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(Jack) Jiahua Liu

Masters of Divinity student

Glyphs and pixel-oriented glyphs for data visualization in R

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Jim Adams

Senior Advisor for Pricing and Contracting

A Study of Alaskan King Crabs, Paralithodes camtschatica (Tilesius), Near Kodiak Island, Alaska, 1960-1986, Statistical Data Analysis, Biostatistics

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Lijie (Justine) Fu

Lead Software Engineer

Implementation of Three-dimensional Scagnostics, data visualization, geometric graphs, scagnostics3D

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Michael Lewis

(Deceased)

Constraint-based programming in statistics

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Nan (Tina) Zhao

?????

A Preliminary Statistical Analysis on Risk Factors for Dementia and CIND from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging

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Natasha Wiebe

Research Manager

Colour Parameterization in a Multiparametric Image Interface, interactive data visualization, biostatistics

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Paul Poirier

?????

Visualizing surfaces, common lisp implementation of hidden line 3d rotating surfaces

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Qing Li

?????

Probability of Carrying a Mutation of Colorectal Cancer Gene hMSH2/hMLH1 Based on Family History

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Rayan Yahfoufi

?????

Clustering of Web Documents

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Tracey (Xin) Chen

Senior Fraud Analyst

Visual Patterns with CCmaps and Magnification Algorithms, data visualization, spatial statistics, local map distortion

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Weicong (Vivi) Ma

Data Engineer

On the Utility of Adding An Abstract Domain and Attribute Paths to SQL, Data Base Theory and Engineering

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Wenqing Liu

Data Scientist

TREC, tree reduced ensemble clustering, data science, clustering, machine learning

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Wu Zhou

Senior Researcher, Data Scientist

A new framework for clustering, ensemble cluster analysis, data mining, and machine learning, also A review and implementation of some approaches to metric clustering

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Kathy (Xiaomei) Yu

Marketing Campaign Design and Analytics Manager

R package tidytable, a visualization tool for multi-way tables, data visualization, automated table analyses

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Zehao Xu

Ph.D. student in Statistics

Size proportional Venn and Euler diagrams in 2 and 3 dimensions, vennplot(…) in R, data visualization systems