Applications and Careers In
Statistics
Purdue University
Science 111 Presentation
March 21, 2005
Outline
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What is Statistics?
What do statisticians do?
Statistics in the Community
Research at Purdue
Our research interests
What is Statistics?
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‘The science of collecting, organizing, and
interpreting numerical facts’
‘The science of understanding data and
making decisions in the face of uncertainty’
‘The art of making numerical conjectures
about puzzling questions’
‘The construction of useful information out of
data’
Where Can Statisticians Contribute?
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Business and Industry
Health and Medicine
Natural Resources and Sciences
Education
Government, Media, and Law
Business and Industry
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Manufacturing
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Marketing
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Conduct sample surveys
Determine product viability
Engineering
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Improve product quality
Increase efficiency of processes
Make consistent product
Predict product life
Computing
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Software design and development
Efficient implementation of complex analytic tools
Health and Medicine
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Epidemiology
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Public Health
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Design community efforts
Education programs
Pharmacology
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Calculate cancer incidence rates
Monitor disease outbreaks
Drug discovery, development, and approval
Ensure validity of results in clinical trials
Genetics
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Identify potential indicators for specific diseases or traits
Develop effective plant and animal breeding strategies
Natural Resources and Sciences
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Agriculture
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Ecology
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Study changes in local and global climate
Develop strategies to improve the environment
Chemistry
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Study pesticides to maximize crop yield
Evaluate differences in crop management
Predict shape of large molecules
Analysis of mass spectrometry data
Biology
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Seek to better understand why insects cluster
Identify genes related to a particular disease
Education
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Develop effective teaching strategies
Research appropriate and informative
evaluation (testing) instruments
Identify risk factors for bullying, dropping out,
failing
Help students acquire quantitative reasoning
skills
Government, Media, and Law
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Government Agencies
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Journalism
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Design and implement effective sampling strategies
Estimate the U.S. unemployment rate
Track and report changes in the economy
Regulations on stock trading, drug approval, pollution
Effective communication of statistical ideas to a broad
audience
Participation in education efforts
Expert Witness
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Testify in court cases involving DNA evidence, salary
discrepancies, discrimination, and disease clusters
Skills Needed By Statisticians
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Quantitative Skills
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Problem-Solving Skills
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Analysis, Teamwork
Communication Skills
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Statistics, Mathematics, Science
Verbal, Written
Computer Programming
Foundation in Field of Application
What is STATCOM?
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A student-run volunteer organization to
provide free statistical expertise to the local
community
Primarily graduate students in Purdue
Department of Statistics
Work with local non-profit and government
groups
An opportunity to develop consulting,
leadership, teamwork, and communication
skills
Statistics in Local Government
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Sagamore Parkway
Task Force
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How should
Sagamore Parkway
be improved to make
it safer and more
attractive to residents
and new businesses?
West Lafayette Strategic Plan
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What should the city’s priorities be and where should
it spend taxpayers’ money?
Statistics in the Schools
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Are state funds allocated
fairly across school
districts?
Do schools perform
differently on
standardized tests, and
if so, why?
How can teachers
identify students needing
extra help?
Statistics in Libraries
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What genres are the
most popular?
Where should the library
spend its money?
Does location within the
library affect checkout
rates?
Statistics in Community Organizations
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How effective are a
rehabilitation center’s
programs?
Why is there high staff
turnover at some
organizations?
How can an organization increase the response
rate of a survey?
Which community services should be expanded?
Benefits of STATCOM
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Provide students with hands-on experience
Improve relations between university and
local community
Assist local organizations that would not
normally seek statistical consulting services
Allow students to give back to the local
community
Statistical Consulting at Purdue: Samples
Advice on experimental design and analysis for:
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Determining the best balance of corn and soy in the
diets of lambs in Tunisia to maximize Nitrogen
retention and body weight gain
Evaluating the effects of different weed control
strategies on the growth of new hardwood forest
growth in Alabama
Investigating how cockroaches’ past diets affect
what baits they find most appealing
Fields of Statistics Research at Purdue
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Health and Nutrition
Bioinformatics
Computational Methods
Computational Finance
Mathematical Physics
Quality Control
Research Example – Microarrays
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Study gene expression levels in different conditions
(e.g., cancer vs. noncancer)
Labs use this technology to identify genes related to a
particular condition
Statistical Issues with Microarrays
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Accounting for different sources of variability
Measuring gene expression levels
Combining results from multiple laboratories
Massive data sets
Multiple testing
Visualization techniques
Defining significance
Different Results From Multiple
Microarray Studies
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Need to reconcile
differences between
labs’ results
Combining Results From Multiple
Microarray Studies
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Meta-analysis
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Accounting for known differences between
experiments
Dependence structure
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‘The analysis of analyses’
Research synthesis
Experiments from the same lab, for example
Efficient implementation
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Analyze all 13,000 genes (mouse data) quickly
Tackling Malnutrition in Young Children
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Corn is a staple food in
Latin America, SubSaharan Africa, and parts
of Asia
The quality of protein in
corn is poor
Malnutrition is a common
problem in places where
corn is the main source of
food
A Genetic Solution to Poor Protein
Quality
A Genetic Solution to Poor Protein
Quality
How Do You Know It Works?
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What kind of experiment would you do?
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What would you measure?
Quantifying the Nutritional Benefits
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Does the body take up the protein?
Does it lead to better health and growth in
children?
Are families who eat QPM instead of regular
corn better off?
Does the Body Take Up the Protein?
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Six children in Guatemala fed QPM or milk
(1969)
Eight children in Peru fed QPM, regular corn,
or milk protein (1980)
Another six children in Peru fed QPM, regular
corn, or milk protein (1989)
...
Does It Lead to Better Health and
Growth?
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Twenty children in Peru fed QPM or milk
formula (1990)
134 children in India (1977), but the study
wasn’t published
...
Are Families Better Off ?
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Studies have been done in communities and
schools in:
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Mexico
Guatemala
Brazil
Ghana
Ethiopia
India
Who Needs It Most?
Summary
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Statistics is a widely-used tool in virtually all fields of
science and technology
There are substantial open research questions in
statistics, and there is great room for growth
Statistical consulting at Purdue serves both oncampus researchers and non-profit organizations in
the local community
You can develop the necessary skills to become a
statistician or to use statistical tools in your field of
interest
Thank You!
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References:
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Samuels and Witmer (1999). Statistics for the Life
Sciences.
Freedman, Pisani, and Purves (1998). Statistics.
Moore and McCabe (1999). Introduction to the
Practice of Statistics.
Careers in Statistics: A World of Opportunity.
Presented by the American Statistical Association,
available at www.amstat.org/careers/Stat_Careers.ppt
Purdue University Department of Statistics