Paul McNicholas --- Research

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Research Interests
Paul McNicholas' research interests are in the areas of mathematical and computational statistics. Current research is principally in the area of model-based clustering but research is also ongoing in model-based classification and cure rate models in survival analysis. A summary of research interests is given below:
  • Bioinformatics.
  • Biostatistics.
  • Classification.
  • Clustering.
  • Cure rates.
  • Data mining.
  • Food authenticity.
  • Foundations of statistics.
  • High performance computing.
  • Statistics in sensory evaluation.

Opportunities for Prospective Graduate Students
Several opportunities for prospective graduate students exist in the areas listed below. There are also some opportunities for undergraduate summer students and opporunities arise from time to time for post-doctoral research fellows.
  • Parameter estimation in model-based clustering, classification and discriminant analysis
  • Model selection in model-based clustering, classification and discriminant analysis
  • Model-based clustering in sensory evaluation
  • Statistical analysis of taste testing data
  • Acceleration of EM algorithms
  • Analysis of gene expression microarray data
  • Modelling gene expression time course data
  • Topics in cure rate modelling

Research Group
Paul's research group is based primarily in the Newton Lab in the MacNaughton building at the University of Guelph. The group currently consists of two postdoctoral research fellows, eleven doctoral students, eight master's students, and an undergruate research assistant.
Postdocs PhD Students MSc Students Past Graduate Students & Postdocs
Sakyajit BhattacharyaJeff AndrewsSabrina DicintioAbdullah Albahouth* (MSc, 2010)
Raju JampaniAmay CheamDena GivariJeff Andrews (MSc, 2009)
UJ DangKatherine MorrisFirat Atesok* (MSc, 2010)
Brian Franczak*Paula MurrayRyan Browne (Postdoc, 2010-2011)
Moyi Li*Michael PhillipsChevonne Carlow* (MBinf, 2011)
Rachel O'ReillyJustin Styner*John Castura (MSc, 2011)
Tatiana PetukhovaJessica Young*Yingyu Chen* (MSc, 2011)
Mateen ShaikhYuhong WeiAli Lorfard (MSc, 2010)
Sanjeena SubediDasha Martchenko* (MSc, 2011)
Irene VrbikWilliam Petrcich (MSc, 2011)
Monica Wong*Mateen Shaikh* (MSc, 2009)
Matt Sparling (MSc, 2010)
Michelle Steane (MSc, 2009)
Monica Wong* (MSc, 2011)
Xiaojian Yang* (MSc, 2010)
Yu Xia (Postdoc, 2010-2011)
Ruimin Xu* (MSc, 2009)
Rashmiba Zala* (MSc, 2011)
* co-supervised

Research Grants Currently & Recently Held
Paul's research group currently enjoys funding support from a number of different granting agencies and from an industry partner. This support is summarized below.
Agency Type Years of Tenure
NSERCDiscovery Grant2008--2011, 2011--2015
Canada Foundation for InnovationLearders Opportunity Fund2009--2012
Ontatio Ministry of Research and InnovationSmall Infrastructure Fund2009--2012
Compusense Inc.Industry Support2009--2012
NSERCCollaborative Research & Development2009--2012
OCECollaborative Research2010--2011
NSERCEngage2010
MITACSNCE: High Performance Optimization2010--2011
University of GuelphUniversity Research Chair2011--2015
NSERCResearch Tools & Instruments2011--2012
Ontatio Ministry of Research and InnovationEarly Researcher Award2011--2015

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