• Current Student News • Events (Upcoming and Past events) • Student Activities •

• Department of Public Health Sciences • Current Student List •

 Getting Started for New Students • Courses • Research • Graduating •  Financial Support / Employment • Job Post

• Computing • Libraries • Athletics • Food/Banking • TTC Discount Passes •

Events

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Upcoming Event

Coming soon

Events organized or co-organized by B.U.G.S. include the statistics/biostatistics joint graduate student seminars and various social functions such as the annual Christmas party for students and faculty.

Events for 2006/2007 included:

·         BUGS End of the Academic Year Party at O'Grady's, Friday, April 27th, 2007

·         Biostats Xmas party, Wednesday, Dec 13, 2006

·         , Thursday, September 28, 2006

·         BBQ at Mike's Place, Sunday, September 17, 2006

Events for 2005/2006 included:

·         BUGS New Year Party, Thursday, Jan 19th, 2006

·         BUGS Pub Night, Thursday, Oct 13th, 2005.

·         Welcome BBQ & Soccer game: Sunday, September 18, 2005, at Mike Escobar's place.

·         PHS 2005 Welcome Luncheon: Friday, September 16th, 2005, at newly renovated Health Science Building. 

Events for 2004/2005 included:

·         BUGS Chinese New Year Lunch, Feb 9, 2005: Wednesday, February 9, 1pm, at Toronto China Town, Spadina Avenue, Check out some of the pictures taken.

·         BUGS Christmas Party, Dec 17, 2004: Friday, December 5, 5pm, at Recreation Room, 35 Charles Street West, Check out some of the pictures taken.

·         BUGS Pub Night Nov 5, 2004: Friday, November 5, 6pm, at O'Grady's Pub, 171 College St. Check out some of the pictures taken.

·         Halloween Party with Stat Dept, 2004: 6:00pm Friday October 29, 2004, at Ferret & Firkin , 720 Spadina Avenue. Check out some of the pictures taken.

·         Welcome BBQ in September: Sept 19, 2-7pm, at Mike Escobar's place. Check out some of the pictures taken. Special thanks to Ahmed Hossain for taking the pictures for us.

Events for 2003/2004 included:

·         Welcome BBQ in September: Sept 14, 2-7pm, at Mike Escobar's place

·         Public Health Sciences Pub Night: Sept 17 at O'Grady's Pub (171 College St.), 5:30pm.

·         Stats/Biostats Grad Student Pub Night: Sept 18, 2003 at Pauper's Pub, 6pm.

·         BUGS meeting: Friday, January 16, 2004, 5:30pm at the Biostatistics lab on the 4th floor, McMurrich Building.

·         New Year's / New term Party: Friday, January 16, 2004, 6pm at the The Faculty Club pub.
The Faculty Club is located: 41 Willcocks Street, between Huron St. and Spadina Ave. (Click here to see a few pictures).

·         Graduate Student Seminar Series: Fridays, twice a month. For more information on the student seminars, please go to the Gradudate Student Seminar 2003/2004 page.

·         PHSSA Year End Party: Friday, April 16, 2004, 7:30pm at SpaHa. Complimentary drinks and H'orderves. SpaHa is located: 66 Harbord Street.

·         Biostatistics Reunion: Monday, August 9, 2004, 4pm at Paul and Mary Corey's place. It was a wonderful opportunity to see our friends and colleagues again. Click here to see all the fun we had!

Events for 2002/2003 included:

·         Welcome BBQ in September: at Mike Escobar's place

·         Graduate Student Seminar Series:  This year's seminar series was funded in part by the Public Health Sciences Alumni Association. We are very greatful to the PHSAA for their support! For more information on the student seminars, please go to the Gradudate Student Seminar 2002/2003 page.

·         End of Term Party: May 4th, 2003

Events for 2001/2002 included:

·         Statistics/biostatistics joint graduate student seminar series: the seminar series consisted of about 8 seminars throughout the fall and winter terms.   Speakers included biostatistics students Sandra Gardner and Sohee Kang.

·         New Year's party: Last year's Christmas party was delayed, and instead we had a New Year's / New term party in January of 2002 at the Faculty Club.

·         BUGS summer barbeque: A BBQ/farewell-to-Sohee held in July, 2002 (click here to see a few pictures).

Student Activities

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B.U.G.S. and the Statistics Department organize a biweekly Graduate Student Seminar Series for all students in the Departments of Public Health Sciences and Statistics. It gives you an opportunity to learn what your peers' are researching and studying, and to exchange ideas. It has faculty's support like all other events organized or participated by B.U.G.S..

From time to time we also have parties either at someone's house or at school. We have social events throughout the year, such as the BBQ to start off the school year at Dr Mike Escobar's place in September, the yearly Christmas party, and the End of the Year party. Click here to view some of the pictures.

If you are interested in sports, there are softball and volleyball teams that you can join.

Department of Public Health Sciences

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The Department of Public Health Sciences is located on the Health Science Building, 155 College Street. On the 6th floor, there is a student computer room with several X terminals and a student studying area. Two or three student will share one desk due to the limitation of available space. There are five professors appointed to the biostatistics program with many others cross appointed to the program. Currently, there are 36 students in the MSc and PhD programs (see Student List).

                                                                         Current News!
The Department has already moved to the Health Science Building at 155 College Street. The computer room and the student studying area are more spacious. If students have ideas on how we can use the space more effectively and items needed in the new rooms, please send an e-mail to BUGS [at] phs.med.utoronto.ca (replace [at] with @).

Getting Started--Registration, Student ID, E-mail, Course Enrolment

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1) Student and Library card (T-card): Robarts Library (Rm 2054). Bring 2 pieces of ID--one with photo-ID and one with your student number. More information is available at the T-card and Photo Library Cards page.
2) Pay your Fees: If you hold an OSAP, a scholarship, or a fellowship, you may defer your fees until you receive it. Fill out a Fee Deferral form and submit it to the Department before the deadline. Bring your invoice so they can stamp it.
3) E-mail Account: After getting your T-card, you can create a "name@utoronto.ca" account at UTORid.
4) Course Enrolment: First, consult with Dr. Michael Escobar to decide which courses are going to take for credit. Then, enroll into your courses through ROSI (Repository of Student Information). Keep your personal information updated at ROSI.

Other information can be found at the School of Graduate Studies website.

Courses

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PhD Students
Three required courses and at least one elective course must be obtained in the program. The required courses are Categorical Data Analysis, Survival Analysis and Laboratory in Statistical Design. There are many elective courses offered, as well as some newly developed courses including statistical genetics, longitudinal data analysis, and a module course that includes many different methodolgies in statistics. Some elective courses offered by the Department of Statistics may also be used towards your degree. Visit the PHS PhD Program in Biostatistics page for updated information.

MSc Students
There are two ways of obtaining your MSc degree in the program, Non-thesis stream (10 half courses) or Thesis stream (6 half courses and a thesis). All MSc students are required to take Mathematical Statistics I, Mathematical Statistics II, and Laboratory in Statististical Design, and at least one of the following, Survival Analysis I, Prospective Studies and Survival Analysis, and Lifetime Data Modeling. Non-thesis stream students are also required to take at least three of the following courses: Longitudinal Data Analysis, Applied Bayesian methods, Statistical Genetics, Demography and Vital Statistics I, Methods of Applied Statistics I, Introductory Biostatistics II, Introduction to Epidemiology, Epidemiologic Methods II, Survey Methods in Health Sciences I, and Survey Methods in Health Sciences I. Visit the PHS MSc Program in Biostatistics page for updated information.

Research

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The faculty and students are actively involved in research activities. Some of the key areas are bootstrap, demography, epidemiology models, longitudinal data analysis, neural network, and statistical genetics. Two statistical genetics group are actively running. They are Statistical Methods for Genomics headed by Dr Shelley Bull and the Microarray Information Group headed by Dr Joseph Beyene. There is also a Biostatistics Seminar Course (CHL5250) consists of talks by local visiting researchers and advanced students. If you are interested in joining these groups, email the organizers and ask to put your name in the mailing list. You will be notified of the time and place of the meetings. And no, you don't have to be an 'expert' to be in the groups; many of us learn while participating in these groups.

Graduating Soon?

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The U of T Writing Centre offers many useful courses and guidelines to help you in writing your thesis. There are several writing centres at various colleges within the St. George campus.

When you are preparing your thesis, follow the guidelines made available at the SGS Thesis Information page so that it can be accepted by the School.

To arranging for a PhD Defence, follow the procedures outlined in the PHS website.

Visit the Graduation page at SGS for more information on deadlines and Fees for graduating students.

Recent PhD graduates of the Biostatistics Program at University of Toronto:

Financial Support / Employment

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All full-time domestic doctoral students are guaranteed at least $12,000 plus tuition and fees for up to 5 years of study. Click here for funding for international students.

Teaching Assistantships are limited since there is no undergraduate program in the department. Several of our students have received teaching assistantship support from the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics. Students in those departments will be given priority.

Scholarships or fellowships are major sources of financial support in the Biostatistics Program. Many students hold NSERC, Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), OSOTF, or U of T Open Fellowship. Visit the Award FAQ page for more information.

Part time employment opportunities are available. These include small projects that come into the department as well as more stable long term arrangements with hospital researchers and pharmaceutical companies. This is a strength of the program because not only does it provide the student with financial support but it gives the student considerable experience in analyzing real data and learning how to collaborate with health scientists.

SGS Bursary is available for students who show financial need.
Master's Tuition Fee Bursary is available for Master's students who still have some outstanding work.

Computing

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There are six X-terminals in the student computer room and two PCs. We may get more in the near future. These terminals are connected to the CPU in the Department of Statistics under IP address utstat.toronto.edu. These terminals are connected to the CPU in the Department of Statistics under IP address utstat.toronto.edu and are maintained by systems analyst Demot Whelan. You can obtain an account on the UTSTAT system, preferably by calling him or else by emailing him at dermot [at] utstat.toronto.edu (replace [at] with @). There are many softwares installed on UTSTAT. Check to see if your favourite packages are there.

You can also access UTSTAT by modem, the number is 971-2070. The modems are currently going through some changes, please see the system message for latest update.

If you are interested in netsurfing at home, you can create an UTORdial account from the University of Toronto Information Commons. They provide email, Netscape and other internet services. The cost of the service is higher for a 56,000 bps connection than for 33.600 bps or slower connection. For more information about the costs, types of connection, and much more, visit UTORdial at http://www.utoronto.ca/ic/utordist/general/utordial.html. You can also get software such as SAS and Splus for home use through Software Licensing Office at Robarts Library. Their telephone numbers are (416) 978-4990. Hours of Service are Monday through Friday, excluding statuatory and University holidays from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m..

Libraries

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There are tons of libraries at U of T. The most relevant ones are Gerstein Science Information Centre, formally Sigmund Samuel / Medical Sciences library, at 9 King's College Circle, Mathematical Sciences Library in the basement of Sidney Smith Building on St George Street where Statistics Department is located, and Robarts Research Library at the corner of St George/Harbord Streets. Your student card is also your library card, so you do not need to get a separate library card.

Athletics

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The tuition fee we pay includes the charge for use of the athletic facilities at the U of T Athletic Centre and Hart House. In the Winter/Spring terms you can access Athletics Centre for 'free' and in the summer, you will have to pay an additional fee to use the Athletics Centre. Hart House is another place where you can go and work-out.

Food / Banking

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The closest cafeteria is in Medical Sciences Building. Cafeteria at Hart House is not far as well. There are a few restaurants within walking distance, the ones on Baldwin Street are usually the favourite picks for faculty, student get-togethers.

There are a few CIBC's banking machines inside some buildings around campus including one in the lobby of Medical Sciences Building, and there is one TD's green machine in the basement of the Hart House.

TTC Student Discount Passes

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TTC metropass can be obtained at a discounted price of $87 at the Students' Administrative Council (SAC) located 12 Hart House Circle. Visit the GSU website more details.