32 Final project

The purpose of this project is for you to gain experience using or developing spatio-temporal statistical models. The final project will include: 1) a written report; 2) a tutorial with reproducible results; and 3) a professional presentation.

You may work alone or with a restricted partner. If you are a graduate student in statistics you may not work with another graduate student in statistics. If you are a graduate student that is not a statistics major you must work with a statistics major.

32.1 Assignment

  1. Decide on a topic to research. The topic could be a questions of scientific or social interest or related to the theory of spatio-temporal statistics. For applied questions, you will have to find a relevant data set. For theoretical questions you might use data, conduct a simulation study, or develop a new method. Alternatively, you may develop a guide that explains a new tool to a general scientific audience.

  2. Submit a proposal by Friday October 9. The proposal should answer the questions below in one page or less.
    • What topic do you plan to research?
    • Why does your topic warrant further research?
    • What data are available or what methods do you plan to use for a more theoretical question?
    • Find an appropriate scientific or statistics journal that you would consider submitting your report to. If you are not interested in a scientific audience, choose another reasonable audience. For example, many sports teams hire data scientists to analyze sports data. For this example, you could analyze spatio-temporal data and write a report to the managers and coach of the sports team. What journal (or audience) did you choose and why do you think your report is appropriate for that journal (or audience)? The journal you choose will be your target audience for the written report.
  3. Prepare a written report. Format your paper so that it is appropriate for the journal that you mentioned in your proposal. I have provided some guidelines below, but the exact format and length of your report will be specific to the journal you chose.
    • Abstract (100-300 word summary of your report)
    • Introduction (500-1000 words)
    • Methods (500-1000 words)
    • Results (500-1000 words)
    • Discussion (500-1000 words; The discussion should place your results into the context of existing work and explore what additional research still needs to be done.).
    • Literature cited (Please use a professional citation format).

  4. Prepare a tutorial that includes all relevant statistical code, important results, and that is fully reproducible.

  5. Peer review
    • Arrange for your written report and tutorial to be peer reviewed by another person/group in this class. Reviewer(s) will submit a review to the author(s) and also upload it to Canvas by December 3.
    • You are expected to address each comment/concern from the peer review. Please include a point-by-point response to the peer review with your final submission.
  6. Prepare a professional presentation.
    • Presentations should be ~10 min.
    • Presentations will be conducted on dead week during a meeting with the instructor
    • I expect that our meeting will take ~ 30 min.
    • I will schedule a time for you to present you later this semester
  7. On or before 5 pm on December 9 please upload the following to Canvas
    • A single pdf file that contains your written report (#3).
    • A single pdf file that contains your tutorial (#4).
    • A single pdf file that contains your point-by-point response to the peer reivew (#5).
    • If you choose to work with a partner, include a short paragraph that details each group member’s contributions to the work.

32.2 Things to consider

  1. I am happy to provide feedback on you report, tutoiral, and presentation before you hand it in.
  2. In the report and presentation, make sure to write out (using mathematical symbols) the statistical models that you use and define every component.
  3. Make absolutely sure you do not plagiarize. See the university handbook for details. If you have any questions or need clarification please ask.

32.3 Grading Rubric

Category Points
Proposal (Due Oct. 9) 10
Peer review 10
Report 40
Tutorial 20
Presentation 20
  • For the report, 15 points will be awarded for the writing quality, 10 points for the content, 10 points for correct use of mathematical notation (e.g., writing out statistical models) and 5 points for the format.
  • For the presentation, 10 points will be awarded for the content and quality of the verbal presentation and 10 points will be awarded for your ability to answer questions regarding the project.
  • For the tutorial, 5 points will be awarded for the format and 15 points will be awarded if the results reported in the report are easily reproducible from the code and text given in the tutorial.
  • For the peer review 5 points will be awarded for your peer review of another students work and 5 point will be awarded for your point-by-point response to the peer review of your work.