Steven Ramsier
Associate in Statistics

Ph.D., 1989, Clemson University

ramsier@stat.fsu.edu


STATEMENT OF RESEARCH INTERESTS SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

 
 
 
STATEMENT OF RESEARCH INTERESTS
I was originally and continue to be drawn to statistics because it provides a way to describe many things in the world quantitatively.  Just about any activity can be defined in terms of a process.  Statistical methods allow us to analyze process data through the understanding of variation and provide guidance for us to proactively improve a process.  I am particularly interested in the application of multivariate methods and data visualization techniques to quality improvement efforts in the industrial processes.

In working as a consultant with managers and engineers in the automotive, semiconductor, medical device, and a variety of other industries, I have discovered that people’s different learning styles make the communication of statistical concepts challenging.  Often a carefully crafted graphical display can help in expressing statistical information and can vastly enhance one’s understanding.  A picture can be worth a thousand stats!

Statistical thinking, however, embodies more than just a graphical approach.  Effective decision making requires thinking from both sides of the brain: the intuitive right side and the logical left side.  Therefore, I feel that applied statistics courses should contain both creative and analytical elements that appeal to both channels of thinking.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
  • Five Ways to Verify Your Gages, Quality Magazine, March 2000 (with John Raffaldi).
  • A Graphical Method for Detection of Influential Observations in Principal Component  Analysis, ASA 1989 Proceedings of the Section on Statistical Graphics.
  • A General Class of Representation Methods for p-Dimensional Data Based on the Use of Linear Combinations of Orthogonal Functions, ASA 1989 Proceedings of the Section on Statistical Graphics (with Robert F. Ling).