Vision of the Department

The Department of Statistics is committed to providing a range of opportunities that will prepare the students to make a positive and valuable contribution to society. The department continues to strive for academic excellence by utilizing both technology and contemporary teaching practices to enhance the teaching and learning process. Considering the importance of the subject and its wide applicability in all branches of Science, engineering, and other applied fields, we have prepared a vision document for our department. This includes

Statistical Consultancy

• Our department proposes to provide statistical consultancy to all such researchers within and outside the college.

Practicals using Statistical software

• Most of the Statistics-related work in various organizations is carried out using Statistical software. Our department aims to equip the students of our department with all the Statistical tools necessary for carrying out any statistical analysis.

Earn while you learn scheme

• We propose to include the postgraduate students in the consultancy work wherein they will not only get a chance to work with live data but also get an opportunity to earn some money out of the consultancy fee.

Department Industry ties

• As Statistics is widely applied in all industries, we propose to have a department-industry tie-up where students will get a chance to work on some live projects and learn to handle data.

Faculty Exchange Program

• To Update their knowledge and interact with fellow faculty members, we regularly invite experts from other universities to visit our department and share their knowledge with us. Our staff members are also encouraged to visit and interact with faculty members of other institutions.

Other co-curricular activities

• Guest lectures, student competitions, and other co-curricular activities are a regular feature of the department.

Brief History

Prof S. S. Shrikhande, who had disproved one long-standing conjecture of Euler was on the staff of the Mathematics Department of the then College of Science from 1942 to 1947. Later he went to the University of North Carolina for higher studies. During his stay in the USA he realized the importance of Statistics and upon his return, he moved a proposal of starting a separate Department of Statistics. It was due to his dynamic efforts that the Department of Statistics came into existence in July 1955.

The department got further recognition worldwide because of Prof. V. P. Godambe’s outstanding work on unified theory of sampling which he carried out when he headed the department from 1960-1963. Research work got a major boost under Dr. A.B. Buche, Dr. (Ms) V. S. Hege, Dr. M. N. Deshpande, etc. Many of the past students of the department are working in prestigious posts in India and abroad. Three of the heads of the department, Prof. M. N. Deshpande, Dr. M. T. Bharambe, and Prof. K.S. Bhanu were elevated to the post of director of our Institute.

At present, the department has three teaching and one non-teaching staff member. Besides the U.G and P.G programs, the department also offers a career-oriented certificate course in Statistical Package sponsored by UGC certificate course R.

All the staff members of the department are actively engaged in research through publications. With a team of dedicated staff and enthusiastic students, it is rated as one of the best departments of the Institute of Science. It is a matter of great pride that the Department of Statistics celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in the year 2015-16.

List of Past Heads of Department-

Sr.No.	Name	Period
1.	Dr. S.S. Shrikhande	1955-1958
2.	Shri. K.S. Rao	1958-1960
3.	Dr. V.P. Godambe	1960-1963
4.	Dr. .A.P. Buche	1963-1966
5.	Dr. (Ms) V.S. Hege	1966-1969
6.	Shri. A.D. Kategiri	1969-1972
7.	Prof. V.K. Joharapurkar	1972-1992
8.	Mrs. M.N. Rao	1992-1995
9.	Prof. M.N. Deshpande	1995-2004
10.	Dr. M.T. Bharambe	2004-2011
11.	Prof. K.S. Bhanu	2011-2021
12.	Prof. S.D. Dhabe	2021- 2024
13.	Dr. Abhay Khamborkar	2024 – till date

Salient features of the department

1. Regular and dedicated teaching staff for both UG and PG.
2. All M.Sc practicals were performed using the R statistical software package. ( R is an important element of Data Science)
3. Late Sudarabai Hege memorial scholarship - for a student of MSc I -Rs 8000 + trophy
4. Dr.C.M.Deo Scholarship- Awarded to the topper of M.Sc I – 8000 + trophy
5. Dr. Godambe and Dr. Hege award - Awarded to the topper of M.Sc (Statistics) from the Institute of Science, Nagpur. Gold medal plus a cash prize.
6. AASCON scholarship for meritorious students.