M Hapca

Biography

Dr Simona Hapca is a Research Statistician in the School of Medicine, at the University of Dundee, working closely with Professor Peter Donnan as part of Dundee Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit (DEBU). She joined DEBU in January 2016 to develop research in medical statistic applied to a NIHR funded project investigating the effect of Dementia and Cognitive Impairment in Elderly population, as part of the NIHR high research priority on Dementia. Prior to joining the University of Dundee, she was a Lecturer in Applied Statistics at Abertay University, leading the development and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching of statistics within the School of Science, Engineering and Technology. With over 15 years of experience in teaching and research, Dr Hapca’s expertise lies within applied mathematics and statistics to provide solutions to complex problems relevant to bio-medical and environmental sciences, the core focus of her research being the development of general models motivated by the analysis of observational and experimental data.     Dr Hapca publishes in high impact international journals (including PLOS One, Bio-resource Technology, J. of the Royal Society Interface and J. of Theoretical Biology), she is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.

Research Interest

Dr Hapca’s research interests lie in the area of applied mathematics and statistics with a core focus on the development of statistical and probability predictive models for a range of scientific applications. The statistical methods used as part of the modelling approach include multivariate methods, spatial statistics, data-mining methods, randomization tests and bootstrapping, as well as statistical methods for image analysis and processing. These research skills have been exercised within a range of subject domains. Examples include application of multivariate methods to investigate malaria vector control, the development of a keystroke biometric systems for the identification of individuals using a non-parametric approach based on bootstrapping and randomization tests, the development of a generalized linear modelling approach for the reverse engineering of biochar, development of kriging models to integrate 2D SEM-EDX chemical mapping with 3D X-ray CT imaging as well as novel quantitative methods for the 3D image analysis of porous media. Her work has resulted in freely available software, including tools for image quality assessment, image segmentation and morphological analysis. Current research relates to the development and application of statistical methodology to improve understanding of the outcomes of hospital admissions in people with cognitive impairment and/or dementia. The statistical analysis requires the development of suitable time to event survival models to accommodate non-proportional hazards and competing risks in order to measure associations between different patterns of cognitive impairment and important health and social care outcomes, which can be further used for predictive modelling.