Department's formal recognition of mentoring activities

The department has modified its annual faculty activity report to include a component on the mentoring of undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. Good mentoring can now be recognized in tenure, promotion and salary adjustment decisions.

Academic culture that includes postdoctoral fellows

Until the department established its VIGRE program, it did not have a tradition of hiring and training postdoctoral fellows. This was consistent with most Statistics departments in the country. Because of VIGRE, the department now regularly hosts several postdoctoral trainees. The many benefits to the department (and the profession) are now evident to the department. In particular, because of their age and recent student experiences, postdocs can be excellent mentors for graduate students and undergraduates.

Long-term benefit from VIGRE support

Funds provided to the department by VIGRE have been leveraged with the university administration to garner additional resources. Permanent funds were provided to raise ALL departmental graduate stipends to VIGRE level. Successes in the recruiting and retention of undergraduate and graduate students (along with a successful departmental review) has brought the department an additional open-rank faculty line.

Increase in the quality and quantity of graduate students

The VIGRE program has been helpful in recruiting better prepared and larger numbers of U.S. doctoral students. VIGRE programs open to all students have attracted better students at all levels. Across the board increases in stipend levels have given the department an edge in the recruitment of the more competitive applicants.

Undergraduate Statistics practicum and research experience

The undergraduate Statistical Practicum courses have become a staple in the department. These are very popular with students and appear to promote an interest in undergraduates to pursue studies at the graduate level. Besides their technical aspects, statistical practica provide instruction in soft skills such as working in teams, delivering written and oral presentations, etc. As one measure of the level of success of these courses, since the beginning of the VIGRE program, undergraduates have given over 200 presentations at some 60 conferences, symposia and technical meetings. In this process, our undergraduates have won nearly $50,000 in cash awards based on the quality of there presentations!

Increase in diversity

Increased diversity has been a central goal of the department's VIGRE from the beginning. To this end, the department has moved prominently into the national effort to increase minority participation in the statistical profession.

The department has become a regular participator and supporter of StatFest and MathFest. NC State hosted StatFest in 2003. These programs have the benefit of bringing diversity to the profession as well as providing excellent minority recruiting opportunities for statistics graduate programs.

The department was awarded an ASA Strategic Initiatives Grant of $20k to organize the Pipeline to Statistics workshop during the fall semester of 2006. The purpose of this workshop was to discuss issues that affect the pipeline of students, particularly those who are traditionally underrepresented in the statistical sciences, from undergraduate institutions to graduate statistics programs. The workshop was organized into four interactive sessions addressing the topics: career opportunities in statistics, mentoring and partnership opportunities, undergraduate preparation for statistics graduate programs, and statistics resources available for faculty.

The 2007 Infinite Possibilities conference was held at NC State on November 2-3, 2007. This conference was designed to foster increased participation of underrepresented minority women in the statistical and mathematical sciences. Generous funding was provided by ASA, MAA, NSF and NSA.

The department has assigned a faculty member, Weems, to oversee the recruitment, retention, and mentoring activities for minority students in the department. She holds monthly round-table discussions with all our minority students. She introduces role models, discusses career opportunities and time management skills, and helps students maintain their focus.

VIGRE communication media

VIGRE activities have spun-off several new venues for departmental communication: the WolfPack Statistician (undergraduate newsletter), StatResearch (Statistics Research Working Group) listserv, the VIGRE website, and the gaduate blogand departmental news blog. The department has communicated its VIGRE successes through seminars, participation in diversity workshops, conferences and being on VIGRE panels at the Joint Mathematics Meetings and Joint Statistics Meetings. Pantula will be on a VIGRE panel at Joint Statistics Meetings in Denver in August 2008.

Teaching excellence

The department makes use of the Preparing the Professoriate program that is sponsored by the NCSU Graduate School. Faculty and student pairs participate in a formal mentored-teaching lasting a full academic year. Throughout this period students attend workshops and lectures that target teaching excellence.

The department has a StatTeach cluster that meets regularly and promotes excellence in teaching programs during the year. The Department also takes pride in its mentored-teaching program for our graduate teaching assistants. All postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty are assigned teaching mentors, who regularly provide peer evaluation of teaching.

Consulting experience for graduate students

In the department, faculty-student consulting teams provide consulting for researchers from outside the department. Participating students meet weekly in seminar with a faculty member to discuss important technical aspects of their problem and soft-skill issues that arise. The student consultant is responsible for arranging and managing the consulting meetings, writing a consulting report for the client, and presenting their findings at the Consulting Seminar. One of our VIGRE trainees, Michael Crotty, was a member of a statistics ethics panel at the Joint Statistics Meetings in Salt Lake City in July 2007.

Permanent curriculum changes

As a result of the VIGRE process, significant changes have been made in the department's undergraduate and graduate curricula. The most important ones are a radical change of the Ph.D. Preliminary written exam, Ph.D. curriculum tracks, computational intensive courses in undergraduate and graduate programs, establishment of a workshop to prepare undergraduates for graduate level courses, and establishment of permanent “Preparing for Research” course. A departmental retreat to discuss the curriculum changes recommended a new statistical computing course for all our doctoral students. This course was offered for the first time in Fall 2007. Several other computational statistics are in preparation as a part of our CSUMS grant from NSF. These changes will have an impact on our undergraduate curriculum and will prepare computationally better trained statisticians for future. Most recently. changes were made to the Ph.D. Qualifier examination, which were implemented in August 2007.

Revised ... May 25, 2008