In This Story
You may have heard of the Three Tenors (Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carreras), but have you ever considered the Three Georges (Mason, Washington and ‘town)? Like the tenors’ music, a data science collaboration between these three universities is hitting all the right notes.
The Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) is North America's “largest annual gathering of statisticians and data scientists.” With collaboration and outreach in mind, Professor Jiayang Sun, Statistics Chair from George Mason University’s College of Engineering and Computing contacted Professor Judy Wang, Chair of the Department of Statistics at George Washington University (GWU), to discuss a potential joint reception at the 2023 JSM. Wang, who has extensive experience with JSM events, quickly welcomed the idea. Through George Mason Assistant Professor Isuru Dassanayake, Sun invited Purna Gamage, Director of the Data Science and Analytics MS Program at Georgetown University (GU), to join the effort. This led to the first Georges’ Reception at the JSM in Toronto, Canada, co-hosted by the Statistics Departments at George Mason and George Washington, and Georgetown’s MS’ Data Science program!
Attendees included faculty, students, alumni, and friends from other universities, industry, and government. The response exceeded the planner’s expectations. “Our reception was fantastic, and thanks to our staff from three universities who helped with logistics,” said Sun. Her colleagues at GW and Georgetown were as enthusiastic as she was in organizing the reception, which featured food, drinks, and swag for attendees. The result was a great turnout at the first collaborative event between the three institutions at 2023 JSM in Canada.
Since that first reception, the Georges have banded together to meet, share research ideas, and join and host additional events. These include the Evolution of Data Science Conference hosted by Georgetown on September 8, 2023, the first Georges’ STAT DAY 2024 at GW led by GW and cohosted by George Mason, and a second Georges Reception at the JSM in August 2024 in Portland, Oregon. There will be a third Georges Reception in August 2025 at the JSM in Nashville, Tennessee.
The popular Georges’ STAT DAY event was partially inspired by the annual Joint Stanford- Berkeley Statistics Colloquium, which started as early as 1960 on the West Coast. George Mason Statistics is a young George on the East Coast. The second STAT DAY will be in March at George Mason and is expected to include GWU, George Mason, Gtown, and the University of Maryland (UMD).
“We may need to change our name to The Georges Plus,” joked Sun, but more appropriately, with UMD, it may change to “DMV STAT Day,” said Stufken, George Mason Stat faculty who will lead STAT DAY’s organization. In addition to these events, there have been successful joint grants and joint proposals, such as a recent one by Lily Wang on “New scalable computing technique will make analyzing Big Data easier.”
GWU’s Statistics Chair Judy Wang echoed “The joint STAT Day has been a fantastic platform for faculty and students to exchange knowledge, engage with industry and government experts, and showcase their work. Our students truly benefited from the inaugural event, and we look forward to continued collaboration and expanding connections across the DMV area.” Gamage added “It has been rewarding to connect with Statistics Departments at George Washington and George Mason Universities. Inviting them as panelists for our Evolution of Data Science Day and collaborating on the Three Georges' Reception at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Toronto allowed us to engage in productive discussions and build stronger connections. I look forward to future initiatives that will further strengthen our shared goals in advancing data science education.”