This column focuses on what statisticians do when they are not being statisticians. If you would like to share your pastime with readers, please email Megan Murphy, Amstat News managing editor.

Photo by Jonathan Chipman, Vanderbilt University

Who are you, and what is your statistics position?

Lucy D’Agostino McGowan, above left, and Ryan Jarrett are PhD students in the biostatistics department at Vanderbilt University.

Tell us about what you like to do for fun when you are not being a statistician.

We are working on building a life-sized replica of BB-8, a droid character from the movie Star Wars: The force Awakens. We founded the Tennessee Chapter of the BB-8 Builders Club and have been working with a growing international online community toward this optimistic goal.

What drew you to this hobby, and what keeps you interested?

Lucy stumbled upon the community shortly before the release of The Force Awakens and was immediately hooked. The project involves a lot of skills we didn’t have, but were excited to learn (CAD, 3D printing, robotics, engineering, BB-8 pun-making, wooing the 3D printing lab to join in on our passion, etc.). This project has been particularly enjoyable because it is the perfect nerdy amalgamation of creativity and mathematics. We would say it’s BB-Great!