Kilat Fitzgerald / Winonan

The Winona state statistics department will be hosting a 10-week summer session to understand the dynamics of the world census data.

This opportunity will allow the Winstats Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) to provide students $8,000 a piece, with applications currently being accepted until Nov. 13.

“We are looking for curiosity, motivation, an interest in stats and data science,” said Professor Silas Bergen. “You don’t have to be a statistician, we are looking for a desire to learn.”

The course will take place May 30 to Aug. 3. The first few weeks will be workshops designed by Chris Malone, Brian Deppa and Silas Bergen, who are the professors that wrote the application for the REU. The workshops will be data science and statistics topics similar to the lessons taught in regular data and science courses. The summer session will be condensed and personalized for the students that wish to take on the challenge.

“The last part of the REU, which is the meaty part for the students, we’ll be working with the IPUMS international data set,” Bergen said.

The integrated public use microdata series is census data from all over the world. The users of this data must have the right tools to understand it properly, and that is exactly what Bergen hopes to accomplish this next summer.

“The last part will be the students using the tools they have gained from the workshops for this census database,” he said.

This is the first time such a thing has been done for the REU, and Winona State only has the funding for this summer. The American Statistical Association, which is providing this funding, is only giving it to three universities every year for three years, changing universities each year.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), the government organization that provides funding for REU, is the primary provider of the grant. The American Statistical Association is acting as a middle-man between universities and the NSF, so Winona State does not have to write the grant itself.

“It streamlines the process,” Bergen said. “The downside is it only guarantees the funding for one year. So if we want to continue the REU beyond next summer, we’d have to go directly to the NSF.”

For the summer of 2017, the Winstats REU plans to make it count.

“We’re hoping to have invitations out to the top choices by the beginning of December,” Bergen said. “We are accepting application from a variety of majors. The purpose the workshops is to train you in what you are unfamiliar with.”

-By Kilat Fitzgerald