College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

First ever

Statistics distance education program wins national honor.
At the same time that Iowa State's Department of Statistics was starting a distance education partnership with General Motors, the American Statistical Association (ASA) was encouraging the interaction between academe and business, industry and government organizations.

ASA had formed the Statistical Partnerships Among Academe, Industry & Government (SPAIG) Committee and was holding workshops at various professional academic conferences.

It was during one of those conferences that Dean Isaacson, professor of statistics and former long-time head of the Department of Statistics, picked up on an idea for a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.

"This was great timing for us," Isaacson said. "It got me to thinking about what we could do to interact with individual corporations."

The Department of Statistics applied for and was awarded a GOALI (Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry) NSF grant. The grant allowed the department to send two faculty members (Stephen Vardeman, professor of statistics, and Ken Koehler, University Professor of liberal arts and sciences and professor of statistics) a month each to General Motors two consecutive summers.

These visits included consulting sessions with engineers, advising sessions with students in the distance education program, and presenting seminars. It also strengthened the partnership between General Motors and Iowa State that had begun with the formation of a M.S. degree in statistics via distance learning.

"Those faculty members came back and continued to work on General Motors projects," Isaacson said. "They brought back interesting examples that they were able to incorporate into the classroom and strengthen both the research and teaching opportunities in the department."

The partnership continued well beyond the GOALI grant. The first two General Motors employees received their M.S. degrees in statistics in 1999. Additional statistics faculty members consulted with GM. A research contract was signed with three faculty members and the auto manufacturer.

But perhaps the GOALI grant’s biggest benefit was an additional distance education partner with the Department of Statistics. First the Mayo Clinic, then 3-M and finally Wells Fargo Bank are all offering a master’s degree in statistics to their employees through Iowa State's Department of Statistics.

Additional collaborations have begun between faculty members in the Department of Statistics and these new distance education partners. Summer interns have been hired from Iowa State’s student ranks. The firms have also hired several of Iowa State's on-campus master's degree candidates as full-time employees.

And this past summer, these partnerships also led to the Department of Statistics being recognized by ASA with the first-ever SPAIG Committee Award.

The SPAIG Award recognizes outstanding statistical partnerships among academe and business, industry, and government organizations. Specifically Iowa State was honored for its "significant distance education and degree opportunities for General Motors and Mayo Clinic employees; the partnerships also provided consulting and research opportunities for Iowa State faculty. It improved statistical practice at General Motors and the Mayo Clinic and resulted in improvements in the Iowa State curriculum for training students in industry and biostatistical careers."

"Through the partnerships, our ties with industry were strengthened," Isaacson said. "These partnerships have in turn strengthened our teaching and research programs.”