Plans underway for next year

The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE) and the ASA sponsored the first electronic undergraduate statistics conference October 2, 2015. More than 200 undergraduate students and their professors participated in a series of keynote talks, plenary talks, a careers panel, and student e-posters.

Keynote talks by Benjamin Baumer, assistant professor of statistics and data science at Smith College and former statistical analyst for baseball operations of the New York Mets, and Rachel Schutt, chief data scientist at News Corp and adjunct professor of statistics at Columbia University, were among the many sessions. In addition to individual students and professors participating remotely, some colleges and universities had satellite conference locations where classrooms full of students and professors participated together. For example approximately 40 students viewed a live stream at Grinnell College.

The 2016 conference, which will be held October 21, is an opportunity for students to present their class projects and research and to hear other students and professors share their work. Also, students—from introductory statistics to capstone/summer research—can submit their work to the Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition (USPROC). Submissions are due by May 31.