NISS’s Graduate Student Network (GSN) is a network of graduate students from NISS Affiliate academic institutions. The goal of the network is to create connections among graduate students from different academic institutions, help students tackle the challenges of graduate programs and find ways to assist their future careers. Aligned with this goal, a two-day research conference was designed to provide opportunities for any graduate students a chance to present either: their own research work, a presentation of a published paper that is not authored by the presenter, or a presentation on recent developments in an area of study. Eighteen graduate students from twelve different NISS Affiliates took advantage of this opportunity of having a chance to present in a less stressful context and have peers/experts weigh in with their questions and feedback to support the future work and progress of each researcher.
For the complete list of presenters, their institution, title and abstract of their talks, please view these on the event page on the NISS website. The presentations were organized into five different topic areas including:
- High-dimensional statistical methods with applications,
- Recent advances in statistical models and their applications,
- Methods for Spatial, Temporal, and Spatio-Temporal Data,
- New advances in risk analysis, and
- Recent contributions in methodological statistics.
In addition, two invited speakers were also included as part of the two-day agenda and both provided comments and advice about how to improve the communication of your research. On Saturday Dr. John Bailer, Distinguished Professor and Chair Department of Statistics at Miami University, gave a talk on Getting ready to tell the statistics behind the stories and the stories behind the statistics. Dr. Regina Nuzzo, Senior Advisor for Statistics Communication and Media Innovation of the American Statistical Association spoke on Sunday. Her talk was entitled Making your research make sense: quick tips for talking to non-experts.
“One good tip for deciding whether the font size on your slides is readable is to print it out, then place it on the floor. From a standing position, look down and read it. If you can’t read it, your font size is too small. Better yet, stand on a chair and look down!”
John Bailer (Miami University)
“The more we do it, the better we get at it! The only way to understand what kind of a presenter you are is to get out there and present!”
Regina Nuzzo (ASA)
After closing remarks by Xinjun Wang from the University of Pittsburgh, the conference ended with a Networking Happy Hour hosted by the NISS GSN Executive Committee.
A Photo Album from both sessions can be found on the NISS website! Check it out!
The GSN welcomes graduate students from all NISS Affiliates! Visit the GSN website and let them know that you are interested in joining this group of young professionals. Congratulations to the GSN on their first research conference.
We hope this first GSN research conference will become an annual event! We will keep our eyes open for the date of next year’s conference!
Members of the conference organizing committee that put this first GSN conference together included:
Esra Kurum (chair), (University of California, Riverside),
Sumanta Basu, (Cornell University),
Rebecca Kurtz-Garcia, (University of California, Riverside),
Xinjun Wang, (University of Pittsburgh),
David Kent (Cornell University),
Piaomu Liu (Bentley University),
Kevin Lee (Western Michigan University), and
Hannah Waddel (Emory University)