Deans, professors build a community on statistics

Members from the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS) and the College of Arts and Sciences are working together to create the Consortium for Interdisciplinary Statistical Education and Research (CISER), which will improve the process of collecting statistical data for student and staff research projects.

The three elements comprising CISER are education, community and collaborative research. Rather than being a simple research service, CISER will strive to teach graduate students effective skills for using statistical data in their research and unite research faculty from across WSU who have an interest in statistics.

“CISER is meant to be community building,” said Marc Evans, a statistics professor. “The reasoning is that bringing researchers together will strengthen interdisciplinary research at WSU … By providing a more complete educational experience and making students better researchers, CISER will have met its primary goals.”

Those who seek help from CISER will be guided by statistics instructors as they look for data. The education component of CISER is what distinguishes the program from other university research groups because it is instructive and provides development for new skills. Workshops, seminars and luncheons will also be organized by CISER to introduce methods, so students and staff can evolve their research skills.

CISER will be open for anyone on campus who wishes to participate. All majors who need research help will be able to get training and assistance with their research. Members of CAHNRS will particularly benefit from CISER because of all the statistical data required in their studies.

“Any faculty who want to be part of this effort can contribute by joining as affiliate members,” said David Brown, associate professor of crop and soil sciences. “Graduate students can work individually with CISER statisticians to improve their understanding of statistical methods.”

The idea began when CAHNRS Dean Ron Mittelhammer and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Daryll DeWald suggested the statisticians at WSU look at the possibility of opening a center dedicated purely to aiding people in finding statistics for their topics.

“Jan Dasgupta, Dave Brown and I were given guidelines by the two deans and tasked with coming up with a solution,” Evans said.

Through CISER, faculty researchers will be able to collaborate with campus statisticians for their projects and proposals.

“People across different fields will have a home of sort to talk to one another about their research,” said Jan Dasgupta, a statistics professor and CISER Lead Director.

Currently, Dasgupta, Brown and Evans are in the process of writing a proposal for the faculty senate to become an official center. A kickoff meeting with the WSU Provost, the Dean of Graduates, the Dean of CAHNRS and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences will take place later this semester to fully initiate CISER.

“WSU has expertise in many areas, so we can link those expertise to one another and even have more,” Dasgupta said.

CISER has already received 65 requests from WSU faculty to become affiliate members and three requests for partnering with CISER for research purposes. An administrator assistant for the program has also been hired.

“I really think this is something that the University needs to create more synergy,” Dasgupta said.