event

ISyE Seminar - Tirthankar Dasgupta

Title:
 
Reconnecting Sampling, Design, and Causality: A Modern Perspective on Classical Foundations
 
Abstract:
 
This talk explores the deep connections between two foundational pillars of twentieth-century statistics—survey sampling and experimental design. Though these connections became somewhat esoteric in the late twentieth century, they have experienced a revival through the framework of finite-population causal inference. Central to this connection is the concept of potential outcomes (or counterfactuals), first introduced by Neyman in 1923 and later expanded and formalized by Rubin in the 1970s. Through illustrative examples, we will show how the classical results developed in the early twentieth century can be reinterpreted and extended to address contemporary challenges, particularly as randomized experiments gain renewed prominence across the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences.
 
Bio:

 

Tirthankar Dasgupta is a Professor and Co-Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Statistics, Rutgers University.  His research interests include experimental design, causal inference, statistical modeling of physical and engineering systems and quality engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in industrial engineering with specialization in engineering statistics from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007 under the supervision of Prof C. F. Jeff Wu and received the Sigma-Xi best doctoral thesis award for his dissertation. He joined Harvard University in 2008 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2012. In the same year, he received the David Pickard award from Harvard University for excellence in teaching and mentoring. Prof Dasgupta has served as the research advisor of seven doctoral students till date. Part of his research has been funded by the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) and Division of the Social and Economic Sciences (SES) of the National Science Foundation. Currently he serves on the Editorial Boards of The Journal of the American Statistical Association and the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series B).


 

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Summary

This talk explores the deep connections between two foundational pillars of twentieth-century statistics—survey sampling and experimental design. Though these connections became somewhat esoteric in the late twentieth century, they have experienced a revival through the framework of finite-population causal inference. Central to this connection is the concept of potential outcomes (or counterfactuals), first introduced by Neyman in 1923 and later expanded and formalized by Rubin in the 1970s. Through illustrative examples, we will show how the classical results developed in the early twentieth century can be reinterpreted and extended to address contemporary challenges, particularly as randomized experiments gain renewed prominence across the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences.

Details

Friday
Nov 14 2025
11:00am - 12:00pm

Location: Groseclose 402

URL: https://www.isye.gatech.edu/about/school/facilities

In campus calendar: Yes

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  • Created By:hulrich6
  • Created:10/29/2025
  • Modified By:hulrich6
  • Modified:10/29/2025

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