The Statistical Consulting Services (SCS) provides three kinds of services: free daily in-person and virtual walk-in hours, free online consultations, and full-project involvement where consultants are assigned to a project and provide full support for as long as the researchers need.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that we can meet the variety of the analytical and statistical needs of the UConn community through providing these three levels of service,\u201d Timothy Moore, the director of the SCS, says.<\/p>\n The service has existed for almost as long as the statistics major at the University of Connecticut has. The university introduced the statistics major in 1962, and in 1963 it began consultation services for research projects in other departments. While the Statistics Department has been providing services to the UConn community for years, the SCS moved into COR\u00b2E last year.<\/p>\n By being a part of COR\u00b2E, the SCS has a supportive administrative framework that helps make sure everyone knows about the resources it has to offer.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an important facility for the university and being in COR\u00b2E gives it some more visibility,\u201d Dan Schwartz, director of COR\u00b2E says. \u201cThe most important thing to me is everybody who needs statistical consulting gets it and knows about the services.\u201d<\/p>\n The SCS is currently staffed by a team of graduate students in the Department of Statistics who have expertise in statistical design, analysis and programming.<\/p>\n Those who come to the SCS for help bring a range of challenges. Some have specific questions about how to set up a survey or analyze collected data, whereas others aren\u2019t sure where to start.<\/p>\n \u201cI see it as a collaboration between ourselves, who have the statistical expertise, and the people who have questions they need help with or they want solutions to,\u201d Moore says. \u201cWe want to make sure they\u2019re happy while at the same time not compromising the level of statistical rigor we provide.\u201d<\/p>\n The SCS helps people from nearly every department at UConn from psychology, to pharmacy, to civil and environmental engineering.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the university\u2019s perspective, a thriving consulting service is an indicator of thriving research because that\u2019s what we\u2019re involved in: Trying to help people do better research and help them ask better questions and also answer those questions more efficiently,\u201d Moore says.<\/p>\n Moore hopes to expand in-person services to UConn\u2019s regional campuses, which can currently utilize the online services for the cutting-edge research happening throughout the state.<\/p>\n As research in all fields is putting a greater emphasis on data, services such as the SCS have a growing importance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe live in a data-centric world, so statistics and analysis of data is only becoming more important; Tim and his team make sure we stay ahead of the curve,\u201d Schwartz says.<\/p>\n Sarah Reed, an associate professor in the Department of Animal Science brought her project looking at how maternal nutrition during gestation affects the proteome in the muscle of the offspring to the SCS last semester. Reed and her team, in collaboration with another COR\u00b2E resource, the Metabolomics and Proteomics Facility, had collected thousands of data points but didn\u2019t know how to fully analyze them.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was 100% a new process for us,\u201d Reed says. \u201cWhat we have now is a much more rigorous analysis and I\u2019m much more confident in our data analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n The consultants at the SCS took Reed through various types of analysis and helped her understand the results. Reed is now working on getting her research ready for publication, supported by the figures and analysis the SCS provided.<\/p>\n \u201cThe experience I had was phenomenal,\u201d Reed says. \u201cThey were able to explain complex statistical models and processes in a way I could understand, not being a statistician. It was really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n The SCS also offers its services to people outside the university. Recently, they began working with the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness to improve their survey design for tracking the number of homeless or unstably housed youths, one of the hardest populations to identify.<\/p>\n “I am excited to work on challenging projects, and help researchers in various fields to overcome statistical problems they encounter,” Yulia Sidi, the SCS consultant working on this project says.<\/p>\n In addition to their project-based consultations, the SCS holds workshops on topics including survey design, model selection and data visualization.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s another service we want to use as a tool to provide more practical statistical skills to the UConn community,\u201d Moore says.<\/p>\n Moore emphasizes that these services are for anyone at the University, or beyond, to utilize.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here to help,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n![\"SCS](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/SCS_Spring2020-225x300.jpg\")