The Department of Statistical Sciences is one of 180 departments of excellence selected by the Italian Ministry for Education and University Research  for the quality of their research. “Statistical methods and models for complex data” is the title of a project of excellence for which the Department has been awarded funding to develop its research and innovative teaching activities, and knowledge transfer between the business and academic worlds (2018-2022).

The goals of this project include: 
– developing new and advanced expertise in the analysis of complex data;
– training researchers and professionals of excellence, boosting the educational content of the master’s degree and research doctorate; 
– contributing to the dissemination and advancement of statistics on these topics;
– serving as a reference for statistical consulting and training activities for businesses, public bodies and universities.

What exactly do we mean by ‘complex data’?
They are heterogeneous data that reflect the complexity of reality and enable us to deal with scientific and social problems. They may be functional data derived from analyzing the forms of curves and surfaces, hierarchical data arranged on multiple levels, high-dimensionality data with a huge number of variables and/or units, networking data that reveal relations between statistical units, and multiple-source data that pool information coming from different settings.