Paul Speckman, professor of statistics at the University of Missouri, Columbia, will present a lecture titled “Generating Activities for Computer-Simulated Traffic” at 4:10 p.m. today in Room 319 of Snedecor Hall.

The lecture is part of the Department of Statistics’ weekly lecture series.

“Paul Speckman has worked for many years developing probability models to predict traffic flows,” said Jean Opsomer, assistant professor of statistics and chairman of the statistics department lecture committee.

According to the Department of Statistics Web site, Speckman has conducted national statistical research on travel patterns by developing an activity generator for TRANSIMS, a computer simulation of all traffic in a city.

This research has been used by transportation engineers to forecast travel behavior on roads. Techniques developed from TRANSIMS are currently being used to predict travel patterns in Portland, Ore.

This semester’s weekly lecture series will conclude Thursday, with a lecture by Mike Elliot from the University of Michigan.

Elliot will be presenting “Model-Based Alternatives to Trimming Survey Weights.”

These lectures are free and open to the public.

—Megan Hinds