Faculty thanks Tilghman at her last meeting as U. president

University faculty approved a new undergraduate certificate program in Statistics and Machine Learning at a faculty meeting on Monday.

The certificate program was organized over two years by computer science professor Robert Schapire, associate computer science professor David Blei, molecular biology professor John Storey, associate politics professor Kosuke Imai and Operations Research and Financial Engineering professor Jianqing Fan, according to Schapire.

He said that the impetus for the certificate program came from the increasing importance of data to companies, governments and organizations as well as from greater student interest in the fields of machine learning and statistics.

“Princeton has a lot of strength in machine learning and statistics, but it’s kind of spread out all over campus, and so this is going to be a way of bringing faculty and researchers and students in one place,” Schapire said, explaining the need the program would address.

He explained that the certificate program was a step along the way to creating a Center for Statistics and Machine Learning and eventually a full Ph.D. program in the same field. The certificate program will be introduced in September and will be interdisciplinary, drawing on faculty and courses from a diversity of fields, Schapire said.

Also in the tear-filled meeting followed by a champagne reception in Nassau Hall, English professor Jeff Nunokawa initiated a resolution thanking Tilghman for her service to the school and acknowledging her accomplishments.