The participation in the BIRS workshop on "big data" benefited my research in several ways. First of all, I was able to present my own work to a group of researchers working in different areas in statistics and learn from their comments and suggestions made from different angles. These expertise broadened my sight and gave me more insight into my research problem. Some of the things that I learned in this workshop, though not directly, are helping with my current project. Second, the topic of this workshop, "big data", was something that I was not very familiar with before attending this workshop. Through this workshop, by involving in the talks and discussions, I learned about the problems, current development, and future unsolved challenges in this field. I now think this area is very important while requiring more attention and research. Third, this one-week workshop created a very friendly environment that people can closely interact and focus on research without much disruption. I personally got to many of the experts in this field and learn from both their talks and informal discussions. Some of these people I would not have met if it were not in a small and concentrated workshop like this one. I am really grateful for the workshop organizers and local staff at BIRS who made all these possible to me.

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This is one of greatest workshops I attended so far. It gave fresh information on the research status of Big Data Analysis and activated some new research projects (or collaborations) related to Big Data Analysis. In particular, I have got contacts with some front players in this new emerging field and have learnt several new software about Big Data Analysis. I start rethinking my current research projects by exploring the utility of Big Data Analysis. I am working on statistical genetics and neuroimaging. I have seen from this workshop that the two fields start integrating each other. Some exciting discovers will appear next few years.

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I believe that the talks in the conference are high quality. I have found that I can continue to do something along the same directions. Nice organization. BIRS is super.

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