Two undergraduate teams from Notre Dame achieved success at the Undergraduate Class Project Competition (USCLAP).  Seung Woo (Alex) Lee and Justin Zych, under the mentorship of Spencer Giddens and Joe Steneman, secured first place for their paper on predicting life expectancy using multiple linear regression.

Another team, consisting of Ashleigh Jung, Po-Lin (Pauline) Wang, and Alyssa Chin, received Honorable Mention for their analysis on factors leading to extramarital affairs in marriage.

This is the first time Notre Dame has placed first in USCLAP.  Alex and Justin have been invited to present their work at the Electronic Undergraduate Statistics Research Conference this fall. The competition, sponsored by the American Statistical Association (ASA) and Consortium for Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE), attracted entries from college students across the nation.

At Notre Dame, all undergraduate students majoring in ACMS or pursuing it as a supplemental major are required to take the course Statistical Methods and Data Analysis (ACMS 30600). In this course, they complete a significant research project. Each semester, instructors guide around 20 project groups through these rigorous stages, helping students to refine their research and communication skills. Since the fall of 2021, the ACMS department has had 10 student projects recognized with distinction in this competition.

Originally published by Fang Liu, Vickie Woodard at acms.nd.edu on October 07, 2024.