Iowa Summer Institute for Research Education in Biostatistics



 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a proposal to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), from the University of Iowa, in response to RFA-HL-16-017 for a Summer Institute for Research Education in Biostatistics. The ultimate vision of our proposed research education program is to increase the number of undergraduates who enter graduate programs in Biostatistics and to maintain a solid underrepresented minority pipeline into biostatistics graduate programs. The proposal is for the University of Iowa (UI) Department of Biostatistics to recruit a diverse group of 18 trainees each year, from 2016 to 2018, with focus on minority, underrepresented and disadvantaged students who wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to the field of biostatistics, and to train during a seven-week research education program. Recruitment will target rising seniors from colleges and universities without graduate programs or extensive undergraduate education in statistics or biostatistics, graduating senior students with no commitment to a graduate program six months following our research education program, and highly promising juniors with clear vision to pursue graduate degrees in biostatistics. Terminal Master's students in quantitative fields, with a desire to pursue a graduate degree in biostatistics will also be encouraged to apply. Special efforts will be made to recruit a diverse student body, including trainees from groups underrepresented in biomedical research. The curriculum is a four-component model based on instruction; application; exposure; and research. The research education program will be through case-based instruction of real biomedical study, consisting of a classroom didactic course; computer laboratory training; invited speakers; Skype sessions; shadowing sessions; research and clinical and translational research enrichment. As initiation to quantitative biomedical research, trainees will undertake biostatistics-faculty-mentored projects on biomedical research and typically with a biomedical researcher. Students will select from a pool of projects according to their interest, and will be matched to a faculty mentor. Projects will be based on the analysis of biomedical data, and/or the design of a biomedical experiment, and/or the statistical and computational issues associated with big data. The research projects will be presented at a biostatistics final symposium at the end of the training session. Trainees will interact with biostatisticians in academia, industry, the pharmaceutical industry, biomedical researchers, biostatistics graduate students and alumni and others. Guidance on how to successfully prepare for the GRE, how to prepare a successful application and how to apply to graduate schools will be provided.