{"59986":{"#nid":"59986","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ISyE Takes the Team Prize at ASA StatBowl","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0027s ISyE team took home the winner\u0027s trophy at the American Statistical Society\u0027s Stat Bowl, held at the August Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Toronto. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team consisted of Ph.D. students Abhyuday Mandal, Zhiguang Qian, and Andrew Smith. Smith was also honored as Individual Runner-up. Ten universities competed in Stat Bowl.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMandal was the first to commit himself to the competition, at the invitation of Mark Payton, Stat Bowl\u0027s organizer from Oklahoma State University. He talked his roommate, Qian, into joining him. It wasn\u0027t a hard sell. \u0022He told me if I participated I\u0027d get a $500 reimbursement (for conference fees),\u0022 says Qian. All competitors received the reimbursement.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESmith was a last minute addition to the team when an extra slot opened up. \u0022It was flattering for me,\u0022 he says. \u0022I came in there at the last minute. It was completely unexpected for me to play, let alone win something.\u0022 Perhaps it was his attire; he competed in shorts and a t-shirt, while his competitors wore professional garb.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ENone of the Tech students cracked their books for the competition, which has two rounds. The first, or screening round, was a written quiz. \u0022Basically a statistics quiz,\u0022 says Mandal. \u0022They asked different questions about history, current research, or people who have had an influence in the field.\u0022 Those who made the cut got to come back for the Jeopardy-style buzzer round. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022It was a fun thing,\u0022 continues Mandal. \u0022Some of our faculty attended the final to give us support. The room was full, an audience of 60 or so.\u0022 Team scores were determined by combining individual scores. The questions were by no means consistent in difficultly, ranging from the complicated to lightweights such as, \u0022Where is next year\u0027s conference?\u0022 Qian got the right state, but struggled to name the city. He finally responded with the only city in Minnesota that he knew: Minneapolis. He was correct. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMandal commented that winning \u0022is an honor to the school and to us. We are very happy to get the trophy.\u0022 Smith received a plaque for his individual efforts.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EStat Bowl, formerly known as College Bowl, was established in 1992 at the ASA Winter Conference in Louisville. Starting in 1994, it was conducted every year until 1999. After a gap of three years, it was successfully reincarnated at the 2003 JSM in San Francisco, with several enhancements.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27279","created_gmt":"2004-09-21 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:07:08","author":"Barbara Christopher","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-09-21T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2004-09-21T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara Christopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=bt3\u0022\u003EContact Barbara Christopher\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}