WORCESTER, Mass. - Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has received the 2006 SPAIG (Statistical Partnerships among Academe, Industry and Government) Award from the American Statistical Association (ASA). The honor, presented recently during the presidential address at the ASA's annual meeting in Seattle, recognizes outstanding partnerships established between academe and business, industry, and government organizations. Previous SPAIG winners include Duke University, Temple University, Harvard University, and Iowa State University.
In particular, the award, selected by the ASA's SPAIG Committee, honored the WPI Mathematical Sciences Department for partnership established by Professor Balgobin Nandram with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). This partnership supported projects and theses for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as internships and research papers.
"The committee is pleased to see WPI students participating in summer internships and thesis writing opportunities, NCHS statisticians helping students to understand public health survey system, and joint authorship of journal papers on many difficult NCHS survey data problems," the SPAIG Committee noted in its announcement. "It is clear that this partnership has been beneficial to both parties. The impressive list of publications shows that the statistical profession has been served very well."
"I am delighted at this honor," said Bogdan Vernescu, professor and head of the Mathematical Sciences Department. "I would like to thank Professor Nandram for developing this partnership and for advising six WPI graduate students, helping them lay the foundation for their thesis work as interns at the NCHS. His work has been outstanding."
