Online Program

Closing the Analytical Talent Gap: What Statisticians Should Know About Working with Universities (but Don’t) (304242)

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*Robert J McGrath, University of New Hampshire 
*Jennifer Lewis Priestley, Kennesaw State University 

Keywords: Talent Gap, Applied Statistics, Analytical Talent, University Collaboration, Statistical Research

Practicing Statisticians and analytical managers deal every day with the critical shortage of people with deep computational skills. As professors, we are asked almost daily from practitioners – How do we reach out to your students to work on projects? If we do research together who owns it? We have employees who need to “upskill” in analytics – can you help me with that? How can we recruit out of your program? How much does all of this cost? At the same time, we hear from our academic colleagues - How can I bring a “real” statistical project in the classroom? Is what I am teaching in the classroom aligned with the demands of the market for statistical and analytical talent? How do I start a conversation with a company? This session seeks to answer these questions and provide a tangible set of tools to establish industry-university collaborations at the undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels. Case studies and anecdotes from the University of New Hampshire, Kennesaw State University, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State University, University of Cincinnati will be discussed. Best practices for engagement from The Home Depot, Equifax, and Shaw Industries will be presented.