• Exploring Factors Affecting Reaction Time (mentored by Robert Djonovic ’27 – Engineering and Applied Math major)
• Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence in Academia (mentored by Ella Negley ’28 – Statistics and Data Analytics major)
• The Influence of Weather Conditions on Marathon Performance in Major U.S. Races (mentored by Zach Diamond ’26 – Statistics and Environmental Science major)
• Investigating Associations Between Expenditures and Farm Characteristics Across North Carolina Regions and Counties (mentored by Jordyne Lewis ’28 – Economic Consulting and Data Analytics major)
• Impact of Funding on Academic Outcomes in North Carolina High Schools (mentored by Bunny Ingram ’26 – Data Analytics major)

In addition to the five student mentors, Mira Fitch ’26, a political Science and statistics major, served as a supervising mentor. She helped VanKrevelen and Cantwell design research topics, plan meetings, give groups feedback throughout the research progress and more. This was her third year serving as a mentor in the program.

Both high school students and Elon mentors have found value in the partnership.

“Working with my group of high schoolers through WE RISE and watching them grow and learn was such a rewarding experience,” said Jordyne Lewis, a first-time mentor. “As a mentor, I was able to bond, create memories, and get connected with the local community around Elon in such a special way.”

The WE RISE program has grown from four participants in its first year to 24 students this year (year six). Since the program’s start, over 80 high school students have participated, with more than 20 participating in multiple years. The students have presented 22 SURF posters in that span.

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Data Nexus both helped fund this year’s program.

The competition included 17 teams, from 9 schools, and each team presented their work for judges from professional baseball teams and companies. Teams were given one week to develop an analytics-based approach to determine when certain power hitters should adjust their plan at the plate to favor more contact. The teams needed to decide on an approach, gather and clean data, analyze the data, and produce a 20-minute presentation during that time. Elon’s team collected data from four different sources to build a model accounting for batter and pitcher ability, situational importance, ballpark-specific factors, and weather. Part of their approach included using existing situations where batters might already adjust their plan to determine which hitters have the greatest capacity to make adjustments.

Elon has been sending a team to this competition for a decade, and several former members have secured jobs with professional baseball teams after graduation. Jackie Jovanovic ’23, who represented Elon in the competition twice, returned this year as a judge for the competition. She is now working for the Miami Marlins as a Junior Data Scientist.

The Baseball Analytics Club meets weekly throughout most of the year and is mentored by Ryne VanKrevelen, associate teaching professor of statistics. Students interested in joining the club or learning more should reach out to VenKrevelen.

Student participation in the conference was supported by the School of Communication, College of Arts and Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics Department and Data Nexus. The five-member team will present their work at the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) in April.

The presentation focused on two applets he created to allow students to carry out digital experiments in a way that promotes student discovery of statistical properties. The applets have been used in his STS110: Introduction to Statistical Reasoning and STS325: Design and Analysis of Experiments courses.

While at the conference, VanKrevelen also attended Council of Chapters meetings as part of his role as the chapter representative for the North Carolina chapter of the American Statistical Association.

Participation in the conference was partially funded by a CATL Travel Reimbursement Grant.

The theme of the conference was "Evaluating Evidence" and a major topic of discussion was the use and misuse of p-values in modern scientific interpretation of studies. Leadership from the American Statistical Association was present to discuss recent recommendations from leaders in the field.

VanKrevelen presented a poster titled "Interactive Class Examples with R Shiny to Build Student Intuition." The poster featured two web applets that he has created for use in classes to allow students to discover statistical relationships through a virtual experiment. The web applets let students simulate data collection using either different sampling methods or different treatment assignment methods.

Metts had her travel to the conference supported by a CATL travel reimbursement grant.

Ryne VanKrevelen, lecturer in statistics, presented a speed talk and poster titled “Efficacy of ‘The Islands’-based Projects Compared to Student-Collected Data Projects in Introductory Statistics Courses” at the 2018 Joint Statistical Meetings held July 28 to August 2 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. 

The presentation introduced early results from having students use a virtual world as compared to the “real world” to collect data for student projects in STS110.

The work is from a joint research project with fellow Mathematics & Statistics Department faculty members Kirstie Doehler, Lisa Rosenberg and Laura Taylor. As a result of the conference, the faculty members were asked to on the topic for CAUSE (Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education). The webinar will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 21.

Participation in the conference was partially funded by a CATL Travel Reimbursement Grant.