Discussion on “Effective interdisciplinary collaboration between statisticians and other subject matter experts”

Abstract

Anderson-Cook, Lu, and Parker’s article offers numerous suggestions for ways statisticians can facilitate effective interdisciplinary collaboration, with particular focus on project teams. Their article comes at a time when the importance of collaboration to support innovation is becoming more broadly recognized, bringing with it the inherent challenges of engaging in collaboration. In our discussion, we expand on Anderson-Cook et al.’s insights by describing our experiences working with collaborators from different disciplines and sectors. We contextualize our recommendations with examples of collaborations from our organization, the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences.

Keywords:

• intelligence community; mutual trust; academic-industry-government; partnership

About the authors

Dr. Eli Typhina obtained her Ph.D. in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media in 2017 from North Carolina State University and she is a postdoctoral scholar at the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences. Her current research interests include developing and refining several methods that facilitate successful cross-sector collaborative technology development and organizational management practices.

Dr. Alyson Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Principal Investigator for the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences at North Carolina State University. She is the coordinator of NCSU's Data-Driven Science faculty cluster, which focuses on the development of interdisciplinary collaborations between statistics, mathematics, and computer science, and she is Associate Director of the NCSU Data Science Initiative. Dr. Wilson's research interests include Bayesian methods, statistical reliability, and the application of statistics to problems in defense and national security. Prior to joining NCSU, Dr. Wilson was a Research Staff Member at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute in Washington, DC (2011-2013), an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics at Iowa State University (2008-2011), a Scientist in the Statistical Sciences Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory (1999-2008), and a senior statistician and operations research analyst with Cowboy Programming Resources (1995-1999). Dr. Wilson is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, and a member of the NCSU Research Leadership Academy. She received her PhD in Statistics from Duke University in 1995.

Funding

This material is based upon work supported in whole or in part with funding from the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the LAS and/or any agency or entity of the United States Government.