The Graduate Statistical Assistant Program

Staff of the GSA Program

The Graduate Statistical Assistant program, established in September 2000 by the academic administration at Boston College, is a component of Academic Technology Services (ATS). The program was originally administered by the Moderators of the Faculty Microcomputer Resource Center (FMRC), which is now a unit of Academic Technology Services. Within the FMRC, Faculty Moderator Christopher F Baum is the GSA program coordinator, and liaison with Research and Instructional Technology Services (RITS) and the Libraries.

The three Graduate Statistical Assistants (GSAs) for 2002-2003 are:

• Ms. Kristin Heffernan, a fifth-year doctoral student in the Graduate School of Social Work

• Mr. Selcuk Sirin, a fifth-year doctoral student in the Lynch School of Education

• Mr. Francesco Zanetti, a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Economics

During summer 2002, GSAs Selcuk Sirin, Kristin Heffernan and Sasha Talavera worked on improving access to statistical databases in a variety of disciplines. Those efforts are reflected in the Statistical Data Catalog collection in the Quest system.

Faculty who would benefit from GSA support should contact Ms. Rani Dalgin, the GSA coordinator.

• familiarity with statistical packages, conversion utilities, and database access and retrieval methods
• advice on alternative software that might be used for a specific analysis
• resolution of programming problems ('debugging'), using any available ATS, vendor, and training resources
• a cumulative collection of web-based documentation to assist users with packages, databases, and web-centric resources for statistical computing.

GSAs, hired and supervised by faculty, liase between the users of statistical computing services, RITS professionals, and Library professionals responsible for database acquisition and cataloging. GSAs are available for consultation during the academic year for 11 hours per week. We encourage you to contact your GSA via email to set up an appointment.

Recent access statistics for /GStat