Statistical Consulting Unit

The Statistical Consulting Unit (SCU) provides statistical analysis and software support to faculty and students pursuing quantitative research projects, as well as professional data science services to professionals and researchers in Statesboro, Savannah, the state of Georgia and beyond.

Through these activities, we also provide practical educational and professional experience to students concentrating in statistics through training as statistical consultants.

Since its founding in 2005 under the direction of Dr. Broderick Oluyede (retired), the Statistical Consulting Unit (SCU) has achieved a significant record of outstanding service to faculty, staff and students of Georgia Southern University and has also assisted professionals and researchers in the surrounding areas of Statesboro and Savannah in Georgia and internationally with their quantitative analysis needs. The SCU has served as Co-PI on research grants, and has provided opportunity to both faculty and students in the department of Mathematical Sciences, for collaborative research with other departments and colleges, which has led to numerous scholarly papers and MS. thesis projects.

Request an Appointment

To request an appointment, complete the SCU service request form below. The schedule for statistical consulting upcoming sessions is also provided below. 

• SCU Service Request
• SCU Sessions Schedule

Upcoming Events: 2024 Stone Distinguished Lecture Series

Wednesday | Statesboro | September 4

TIME	SESSION	LOCATION
6:00 PM	Arrival and dinner with the Statistical Consulting Unit (SCU) & other organizers.	Statesboro

Thursday | Statesboro | September 5

TIME	SESSION	LOCATON
8:30-9:00	Business Meeting
9:10-9:50	Leadership Breakfast	Russell Union, Ballroom A
10:00-11:00	Keynote (hybrid presentation) and Q&A	Russell Union, Ballroom A
11:00-11:20	Break
11:20-12:30	Lunch and discussion with undergraduates	Russell Union, Room 2054
12:35-1:45	Discussion with graduate students	Russell Union, Room 2054
1:45-2:00	Break
2:00 – 3:45	Faculty session: Preparing Georgia Southern degrees to match needs in the community; patents and patent rights; technological innovations	Russell Union, Room 2054
4:00	Depart for Savannah

Friday | Armstrong | September 6

TIME	SESSION	LOCATION
9:00-10:30	Community Session: Economic development	University Hall, Room 121
10:30-11:00	Break
11:00-12:30	Community Session: Environmental sustainability, agriculture, and health	University Hall, Room 121
12:30 -1:30	Lunch and discussion with undergraduates	University Hall, Room 121
1:30- 2:00	Break
2:00- 3:45	Institute for Water and Health Visit
4:00	END OF EVENT

A description of the sessions in the schedule of Director Santos’ visit

Faculty Session: Preparing Georgia Southern degrees to match needs in the community; patents and patent rights; technological innovations.

Description: This is a panel discussion forum with 15–20-minute presentations from GSU research administrators, research institute directors, directors of graduate programs, and follow back from the US Census Bureau with Q&A. Topics of interest include:   

• GSU research impacts and strategic research agenda for advancing to R1 in the next few years. 
• patents, patent rights and innovations. 
• GSU use of census data for academic program growth; etc.  

Student Sessions: Using census data in graduate and undergraduate research

Description:  In a roundtable format, students highlight their research in brief “elevator pitches” and participate in informal discussion with the Director centering around how students currently access and use Census data in their research and what other data and resources are or could be available.  The Director will take questions and faculty moderators will facilitate if needed.

Community Session 1

Discuss how census data is used in southeastern Georgia to aid local economic and community development. 

Description: In this panel discussion, participants will provide a brief (10 minute or less) description of the goals of their organization and how US Census Bureau data is used to aid their activities and decision-making processes. Following the opening statements, the panel will be asked a series of questions about the current state of the region and the potential changes coming to the area over the next several years. The topics under discussion could include:  

• Population change/housing market,
• Economic change/retail/manufacturing, and
• Potential data needs going forward.

Community session 2

Discuss how Census data is used in environmental sustainability, agriculture, and health. 

Description: This is an open forum for students, faculty, and community members to discuss how data and other resources available from the U.S. Census Bureau can inform about natural resource protection, preserving agricultural productivity, and maintaining human health in light of the recent and rapid industrial and population growth occurring in southeast Georgia. An ~20-minute overview provided by the session moderators will be followed by an open discussion with audience members. Attendees are encouraged to bring questions that address, but are not limited to, such topics as:   

• Types of Census Bureau data available for addressing the above topics.
• Using Census Bureau Data to address issues at the local level.
• Understanding how Census Bureau Data meshes with that from other agencies.  

Format:

I) Introduction provided by session organizers

1. Overview of programs and initiatives of the
   1. Institute for Water and Health, Asli Aslan
   2. Institute for Coastal Plain Science, Daniel Gleason
2. Summary of benefits and challenges related to regional industrial growth and associated increases in population size
   1. How Hyundai is altering the regional landscape
   2. Benefits and challenges to
      1. Environmental Sustainability 
      2. Regional Agriculture
      3. Human Health

II) Open forum for discussion with Dr. Santos (moderated by organizers)

1. Potential seed questions by organizers to stimulate discussion (if needed)
   1. What data sources from the U.S. Census Bureau informs about protection of natural resources (e.g., water availability, rivers, forested lands) that may be altered or lost by rapid industrial and residential development and population growth?
   2. What data sources from the U.S. census Bureau informs about management of farmlands that may be encroached upon by rapid industrial and residential development?
   3. Does the U.S. Census Bureau work with other agencies (e.g., CDC) to consolidate data and if so, how do these relationships work? 
2. Questions from attendees

Institute for Water and Health (IWH) Visit

Description: The session includes a tour of the IWH facilities to showcase research capabilities, instrumentation, and relevant research projects that involve the students. Director Santos and his Census Bureau entourage, as well as the Georgia Southern administrators are invited.

Statistics Seminar

The Statistics Seminar,  organized by SCU members is held on Fridays at 2:30 PM on the Statesboro Campus, Building Math/Physics, Room 3314, and also in Zoom. 

DATE	SEMINAR INFORMATION
February 24	Ms. Ivy Collins (Graduate student) & Dr. Divine Wanduku (The inference in a stochastic process)
March 3	Dr. Kyle Bradford.  (Ergodic Theory)
March 10	Dr. Emil Iacob (k-means clustering)
March 17	SPRING BREAK
March 24	Dr. Zheni Utic (Statistical and machine learning)
March 31	Drs. Charles & Drew Process, Population, and Sample: The Researcher’s Interest
April 14	Dr. Omid Ardakani Information-theoretic measures and copulas
April 21	Dr. Arpita Chatterjee (Bayesian estimation methods- MCMC Metropolis Hastings or Gibbs sampler  techniques)

Members

The SCU consists of a Director and eleven faculty members of the Statistics Group, from the Statesboro and Armstrong campuses; several associated faculty members from the Applied & Computational Mathematics groups; and associated members from the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Environmental Health.

Director

Other Core Members

• Charles Champ, Ph.D. (cchamp@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Stephen Carden, Ph.D. (scarden@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Kyle Bradford, Ph.D. (kbradford@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Arpita Chatterjee, Ph.D. (achatterjee@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Ionut Iacob, Ph.D. (ieiacob@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Andrew Sills, Ph.D. (asills@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Gregory Knofczynski, Ph.D. (gknofczynski@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Zheni Utic, Ph.D. (zutic@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Jared Schlieper, Ph.D. (jschlieper@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Alex Stokolos , Ph.D. (astokolos@georgiasouthern.edu).

Associated Members

• Hani Samawi, Ph.D. (hsamawi@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Jing X. Kersey, Dr. P. H. (jxkersey@georgiasouthern.edu ),
• John N. Dyer, Ph.D. (jdyer@georgiasouthern.edu),
• Omid M. Ardakani, Ph.D. (oardakani@georgiasouthern.edu ) ,
• Mariana Saenz, Ph.D. (msayala@georgiasouthern.edu ) .

Last updated: 8/14/2024