Doug Baumann is a PhD student in the department of statistics at Purdue University. His research focuses on the annotation-informed integration of “omic” data in next-generation sequencing.
Glen DePalma is a PhD student in the department of statistics at Purdue University and the director of StatCom. His research interests include applied, Bayesian, and computational statistics, as well as distributed computing.
Jeff Nisen is a fourth-year PhD student in the department of statistics at Purdue University. His research focuses on the development of novel estimation and calibration procedures for stochastic models used in the financial engineering, risk management, and econometrics fields.
Libo Wang is a PhD student in the department of statistics at Purdue University. Her research focuses on the application of linear mixed models in genome-wide association studies.
Service-oriented statistical consulting is a natural way for statisticians to help meet societal needs. StatCom is a pro-bono statistical consulting group that originated in 2001 in the department of statistics at Purdue University. The Purdue branch of StatCom is run and staffed by graduate students in the department and includes statistics undergraduate students and graduate students from other departments (e.g., sociology and computer science).
Many universities have StatCom (or a similar organization) to help nonprofit organizations in their communities. These programs increase awareness among the general public of statistics and the potential that statisticians have to make positive contributions. Furthermore, nonprofits, local governments, schools, and other community organizations realize the benefits of quantitative thinking and assessment. And, finally, students gain practical experience, acquire skills useful in any future career, interact with professionals in the field, and develop a sense of volunteerism even before they become practicing statisticians.
What Can Students Do?
Many organizations need statistical help, from designing surveys to developing predictive models. There are numerous opportunities for delivering service-oriented statistics within local communities. Here, we highlight several recent projects.
StatCom designed a survey for patrons of the local city symphony orchestra to inform board members of the potential areas of improvement. Initiatives are ongoing to improve the facilities and atmosphere at orchestra events as a result of our analysis.
StatCom has worked with members of the Tippecanoe County Assessor’s Office to develop a predictive model for sale prices of housing units throughout Tippecanoe County, Indiana.
StatCom has worked with the Indiana Association of Public Superintendents to assess the benefits public school superintendents receive in Indiana.
A fast way to find projects such as these is to contact the organizations directly or find someone who knows the community well and ask them to help spread the word. Contact your local schools and governments.
The Future
There are constant challenges involved in any volunteer organization. For one, students must be kept motivated. Every student is already heavily burdened with class work and maintaining some type of social life. Students may show interest at the beginning, but lose interest as the semester wears on. It is important to find key individuals who know the graduate student population well and can help keep students motivated. The success of volunteer efforts is the result of only a few individuals.
Societal awareness of quantitative thinking and the need for assessment and analysis is growing every day. As more data are made widely available, the need for people to extract meaningful information is heavily sought after. Most nonprofit organizations have to show community value to receive funding, and statistical graduate students can help fill this need.
A Call to Action
We encourage statistics graduate students everywhere to get involved in their communities. You will find the experience to be rewarding in many ways. We can help you. Please contact us at statcom@stat.purdue.edu.
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