St. Bonaventure students enter data competition

in NEWS by

By Emma Zaremba

Features Editor

Crunching numbers and analyzing data is becoming commonplace for a small group of Bonaventure students.

Four students recently entered a data competition, held by the Upstate Chapters of the American Statistical Association, in which they will analyze complex data sets from standardized high school tests and search for trends to form results.

The need for statistics education is expected to increase within the coming years due to the explosion of interest in data analytics in many fields. “Big data” analysis was chosen as the topic for this year’s conference because of the novel approaches made in this area of study.

Brandon Comilla, Rene Sandroni, Anthony Shoff and Kevin Grant will be participating in this year’s competition.

In the past, the annual conference consisted mostly of mathematical professionals, but this year the decision to involve students will give them the opportunity to gain experience in a booming field.

On April 12 several teams, students and experienced professionals will convene at SUNY Geneseo where judges will examine their results and declare first through third place winners.

Michael Klucznik, assistant professor of mathematics and advisor to the data team, said the topic of “big data” is growing increasingly popular and was on the cover of a recent issue of Harvard Magazine.

“This trend to collect lots of data, needing people who can sift through that data and find actionable insights from it. It’s sort of a buzz trend,” Klucznik said.

 

Maureen Cox, associate professor of mathematics and department chair, explained that data analysis is used in many different subject areas.
“All types of marketing companies use statistical analysis to target their customers,” Cox said. “That’s just one application. There are many other applications in different fields.”
Klucznik said he had a vested interest in the organization of a team for the competition in April.
“I’ve been toying with trying to teach a course here as an introduction to this area, I wouldn’t call it math exactly, of expertise for some time now and search for students who are curious about it,” Klucznik said.
With an increased interest in large data, Klucznik hopes to establish a course that will give students more experience in a field expected to grow rapidly in the near future.
“We are thinking of trying to run at least one introductory course,” Klucznik said. “In order to do that, we need to know if there’s any interest.”
The data for the competition was delivered a bit later than expected due to a few technical issues among the organizers. It was finally released Friday, Feb. 21, right before Bonaventure’s spring break, making it difficult for the team to get started.
“A couple of them are more advanced students and were able to do some things (over break), but others are beginners, so we really didn’t go underway until (this past) Monday,” Klucznik said.
Sandroni, a junior mathematics major and team member, explained how the team has started to approach their analysis.
“Each member of the group picked a different focus, such as race vs. scores on the test or gender vs. scores on the test, and is working with that on their own until we meet again,” Sandroni said.
Each meeting leading up to the competition will help the teammates discuss what they’ve accomplished individually, and what findings to report to the judges.
“It’s still early in the competition, but we’re supposed to (find trends) from the data that we’re given and hand it in to the judges for them to decide if it matters,” Sandroni said.
This competition is a nice item to go on a future application according to Klucznik.
“Employers are looking for people who are actually capable of teaching themselves,” He said. “(The competition is) a place that they can start exploring what they like and learn things without teachers’ guidance.”
Cox shared Klucznik’s outlook on the advantages of the competition for students.
“The main point is that it’s a nice learning opportunity to network with faculty from other schools and give them a chance to talk about their work with people with more expertise,” Cox said.
Sandroni said she jumped at the opportunity for the same reasons.
“I’m doing it because I want to see if I’m interested in this, and if I can pursue a career in it,” Sandroni said.
Big data that interests students gives the mathematics department hope that they could expand opportunities for their students in the future and continue the involvement in similar competitions.
“We’re such a small department, so it can be a little hit-or-miss to do things like this,” Cox said. “I would hope that at least every other year (when the statistics course is offered) we could field a team. Perhaps it might be possible every year as long as we have some students who have taken the course.”