the problem of detection arises in a wide variety of settings, such as analyzing galaxy catalogs; object tracking; road tracking; satellite imagery, which includes detecting fires as well as man-made objects on land or sea; environment monitoring, which includes controlling pollution levels of water sources; detection of disease outbreaks and detection/localization of whales in the ocean from acoustic data. \vskip .1in \noindent the scan statistic, also known as matched filter and deformable template, has been applied in such settings and many others. the scan statistic will be described, some theoretical and computational issues will be presented and some details will be given for specific applications. \vskip .1in \noindent refreshments will be provided!