Statistical Helpdesk

Welcome to the site of the “Statistische Helpdesk” (Statistics helpdesk) of the TU Delft. Statistics and statistical modeling plays an important part with a lot of the research done at the TU Delft. Especially for this kind of cutting edge research, classical statistical methods, like the ones taught to our students in the introductory course Statistics, often do not suffice anymore. With modern, computing intensive methods, it is possible to use less restrictive models and techniques tailored to your problem to get more relevant information from your data. We have started this Helpdesk to offer you these methods for your problems!

Who can use this Helpdesk?
All researchers from the TU Delft can use this helpdesk. Your request for assistance will be assessed on the basis of availability of one of our group members and compatibility of the question with our expertise. Master students working on their final thesis, can use this Helpdesk via their supervisor. The meeting will be arranged with the supervisor and the MSc student can join. It is often advisable to think about which statistical methods you would want to use already at the design of an experiment (before gathering the data).

Who are we?
The Statistical Helpdesk consists of all members of the Chair of Statistics, chaired by prof. dr. ir. Geurt Jongbloed. We are all active researchers, publishing in prominent journals in mathematical statistics. Furthermore, we all have a lot of experience in advising other researchers about statistical problems. However, it was our impression that too few researchers of the TU Delft were able to find their way to our expertise, which is why we started this Helpdesk.

What are the conditions?

If your question aligns with our expertise and a group member is available, we will make an appointment for further discussion. The first meeting with the Helpdesk will take approximately between half an hour and an hour, depending on our availability. In our experience, if you are well prepared and explain to us your problem, focusing on the aspects that are relevant for the statistical question, we can often advise you a method and perhaps some literature that would really help you along. Whenever you use this help in a MSc or PhD thesis or in any publication, we require that you include an acknowledgement of our help.

If it should turn out that the problem requires a special approach, then it is possible to make a follow-up appointment. This will mean that one of the members of the Helpdesk will concentrate on your problem, perhaps devising a specific method and performing some analyses. When such a substantial effort is made, we require that the member of the Helpdesk should be a co-author for every for any publications using this analysis. All parties should agree to this beforehand.

How does it work?
Very simple: Fill out the form "Statistical Helpdesk", containing a short description of your research and your problem, and we will plan a first meeting.

Need statistical help?