Current Faculty

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Director Andrea Piccinin, Ph.D. Associate
Director kb boomer, MS
Research Assistants (1995 to
Present) Brenda Gaydos, Ph.D. 97 John OGorman,
Ph.D 98 Sami Huovilainen, MS 99 kb boomer, MS
97, doctoral candidate Haihong Li, doctoral
candidate Ofer Harel, second year student Julia
Belanger, first year student
Student Consultants (1995 to
Present) Scott Beattie, PhD 98 Maren Olsen,
PhD99 Yunling Du, PhD 99 Carissa Mazurick, MS
97 Ann Kupinski, MS 98 Jessie Bai, MS 99 Kelly
Fox, MS 99 Cynthia Gargano, MS 99
Carla Sciullo, MS 99 Danila Filaponi, MS
99 Samantha Cruz, BS 98 Jennifer Pittman,
doctoral candidate Jean Recta, doctoral
candidate Mustafa Nadar, doctoral candidate Matt
Herbison, third year student Changxuan Mao,
second year student Shiwen Jiang, second year
student
Current Faculty Dennis Lin (Chair),
Professor Steven Arnold, Professor Vern
Chinchilli, Professor W.L. Harkness,
Professor Mark Handcock, Associate Professor
Martina Morris, Associate Professor Joseph
Schafer, Associate Professor Mosuk Chow,
Associate Professor Tanja Bekhuis, Associate
Consultant
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Mission Statement
The Statistical Consulting
Center (SCC) is an educational and service unit
in Penn State's Department of Statistics. Our
members are faculty, staff, graduate
and undergraduate students from Statistics.
We provide advice, project
management, data management and statistical
analysis for the university and
private research community. The SCC has a three
part mission
Research Participation
To provide high quality statistical
input to quality research projects.

Education To train
statisticians to interact effectively with
investigators from other disciplines.

Collaboration To
encourage collaborative research between
statisticians and investigators
from other disciplines.
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Overview of our Services

• Short-Term
• The SCC provides Short-Term consulting (2
  meetings) to graduate students and researcher
  on-campus at no cost to the client
• Consultants are second year graduate students,
  overseen by the SCC Statistical Staff
• Academic Long-Term Projects
• Collaborative efforts with researchers on-campus
• Student Consultants experience team work with
  various statisticians and scientists, and
  receive academic credit for their effort
• Funded Long-Term Projects
• Collaborative efforts with researchers on-campus
  and independent corporations
• SCC Research Associates and faculty work together
  with clients

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Spatial Distribution of Green Mold Foci in 30
Commercial Mushroom Crops, published in Plant
Disease, January 99
SCC Team
Dr. Mark Handcock, kb boomer (SCC RA), and
Yunling Du (Graduate Student Consultant)
Common Scientific View The spread of the disease
was random
Statistical Methodology Auto-logistic regression
model with pseudo- likelihood standard errors
estimates obtained from a parametric bootstrap
method. We proved that a section was 4.62 times
more likely to be diseased if an adjacent section
was diseased.
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A Behavior Change in Support Service and Food
Sources of Soluble Fiber Favorably Affect
Cholesterol Management Lifestyle Changes,
submitted to the American Dietician Association
SCC Team Dr. Tanja Bekhuis, Carla Sciullo,
Jennifer Pittman, kb boomer
The research hypothesis was that
psyllium- supplemented foods, together with
personalized counseling, would reduce plasma
lipid and lipoprotein profiles. This was a
multi-site collaborative effort between the
SCC, the PSU Nutrition Department, Hershey
Medical Center, and Kellogg. We performed a
repeated measures ANCOVA in PROC MIXED
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CO2 emissions related to the Yellowstone Volcanic
System 1. Developing a stratified adaptive
cluster sampling plan, in press, Journal of
Geophysical Research
SCC Team Dr. Steven Thompson and kb boomer
The client desired a rigorous sampling
design with flexibility to collect additional
samples based on previous samples. Most
researcher in this field use arbitrary
sampling, based on where they expect to find the
highest levels. The field team was able to
identify an area of moderate CO2 emissions in an
area without the expected physical distress signs.
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Stat470W Problem Solving and Communications in
Applied Statistics

• Required for an undergraduate major or minor in
  Statistics.
• Writing Intensive Course
• Daily Exit Slips
• What are some skills that make an effective
  practicing statistician?
• Explain to a client why it is important to
  diagram a study.
• Explain to a client the difference between a
  designed experiment and a sample survey.
• Biweekly essays on Consulting Topics
• Describe some pitfalls on collecting data.
• Describe the role of randomization in surveys,
  designed experiments, and clinical trials. Then
  choose one type of study and discuss consequences
  of ignoring randomization.

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Stat470W Problem Solving and Communications in
Applied Statistics

• Consulting Experience
• Semester length long-term consulting project
• Project Proposal
• Research Questions
• EDA with findings
• Inference results
• Oral presentation
• Written consulting report including the above
  material

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STAT470 - Examples of Long Term Projects
Stat 470 Student Client, Status, Project
Title Jeanine Enewold Dr. Jud Heinrichs,
Professor, Predicting Body Weight in Calves
using Heart Girth Measurments Qin Gao Matt
Cartwell, PSU Senior, Are Hedge Funds an
Effective Method of Creating Return? Steve
Orlich Shannon Wood, PSU Schreyers Honors
College, The Relationship between the Shared
Positive Affect and Compliance A Study in
the Moderators/Mediators of the
Relationship Stacey Sweeney Dr. Vijaya
Juturu, PSU Research Associate, Cholesterol
Levels in Four Diets Michelle Touchton Brian
Thompson, PSU Schreyers Honors College, The
Virtues Scale - A Psychological Study David
Wuenschell Sabrina Landis, PSU Schreyers Honors
College, An Analysis of Sexual Health
Content in Teen Magazines Ayako
Yajima Jacqueline Doran, Susquehanna Univ.,
Senior, Looping Teachers Perceptions of
Learner-Centered Instruction