Students are foremost encouraged to communicate and build strong relationships with faculty and actively seek out research opportunities. Below are some useful resources:
Capstone Project Course
Gain hands-on experience in applying statistics and data science to real industry projects in this undergraduate course. Students will work in small teams with industry clients on supervised semester-long projects, enhancing research, critical thinking, and statistical analysis skills. The course also emphasizes client engagement, collaboration, and professional development for successful project delivery. Currently the course is listed as STA 4930 but will soon obtain its own (new) course number. Information is sent to Statistics and Data Science majors via email.
The Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition
The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE) and the American Statistical Association (ASA) host an undergraduate statistics project competition (USPROC). The purpose of USPROC is to encourage the development of statistics and data science skills, to enhance presentation skills, and to recognize outstanding work by undergraduate statistics and data science students.
ASA Student Contests
Each year the American Statistical Association (ASA) holds a Fall and Spring (and possibly more) competitions for teams of students to present a variety of skills such as: computational, programming, analytical and generally problem solving on relevant issues.
NSF Research Experiences For Undergraduates (REU)
An REU Site consists of a group of ten or so undergraduates who work in the research programs of the host institution. Students are granted stipends and other forms of assistance. Undergraduate students must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions.
Summer Institutes
Many academic institutions offer summer programs in data science/statistics. Too many to list so we encourage students to simply search for “Statistics Data Science Summer Institutes Workshops”. Students can apply for funding as well as receive academic credit.
CLAS Undergraduate Scholars Program (CSP)
The CLAS Scholars Program presents undergraduate students an opportunity to work one-on-one with UF faculty to pursue fundamental research and scholarly activities and gain valuable insights into how new knowledge is created and developed. The USP is run by the CLAS Dean’s Office. There is also the separate University USP program run by the Center for Undergraduate Research and students are encouraged to apply to that too.
Center for Undergraduate Research (CUR)
The Center for Undergraduate Research exists to connect University of Florida students and researchers in ways that go beyond traditional classroom settings. Exposure to to the culture of research is important and thus students are encouraged to seek projects that are not limited to the field of statistics.
In addition, CUR also runs the Undergraduate Scholars Program (USP) which Students work one-on-one with UF faculty on selected research projects. A competition is held each spring with awards that includes a stipend. The program will consist of undertaking a full research project, under the guidance of a faculty member (which can be used towards graduating with honors).
Beyond 120
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) programs to help with a student’s professional development beyond the 120 credit hours, including but not limited to short courses, internships, exchange programs and research opportunities.