The department has an active group in probability theory with interests in such areas as Markov processes, branching processes, fractalstructures, probabilistic algorithms, and Hausdorff measure. More examples and details are contained in the profiles of faculty interests . There are very close relations with the Biostatistics Department, with the students of each Department frequently taking courses in the other. The Statistical Computing Facility reflects the central importance of a computationally intensive procedures in contemporary statistics. A professional staff maintains a network of Sun servers, workstations, and X-terminals that supports undergraduate and graduate education and research.
Computation is integrated into instruction at all levels.
SGSA also organizes several social events, including a picnic each semester, the daily coffee hour, and catering the Berkeley-Stanford colloquia. SGSA publishes Degrees of Freedom , a candid guide to the graduate program.