Dr. Eric Vance, a Fulbright research scholar during the 2023-24 academic year at Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB University) in Bogor, Indonesia, traveled to Australia in December 2023 to discuss models for educating and training statistics and data science students to become effective interdisciplinary collaborators. He met with researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, conducted a workshop on collaboration skills for data scientists at QUT, and presented preliminary results from his Fulbright research projects at the Australian Statistical Conference and the Australian Conference on Teaching Statistics (OZCOTS) in Wollongong.

At Macquarie University, Dr. Vance met with Dr. Ayse Bilgin and colleagues in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to discuss IPB University’s new model for educating and training statistics undergraduate students in interdisciplinary collaboration. Debuting in the spring 2024 semester, this new model will use the Team-Based Learning pedagogical strategy to teach 90 third-year statistics and data science undergraduate students the fundamentals of interdisciplinary collaboration. IPB students will apply their classroom knowledge on 2-3 collaborations with real domain experts throughout the semester, culminating with a final project poster presentation describing the scientific advances or decisions made based on the students’ statistics and data science contributions to the collaborative projects.

At QUT, Dr. Vance presented a “Lightning Workshop on Data Science Collaboration” to 12 QUT Data Science Centre students and faculty led by Distinguished Professor Dr. Kerrie Mengersen. He gave an overview of his ASCCR collaboration framework, which comprises five components: Attitude, Structure, Content, Communication, and Relationship. Then, Dr. Vance conducted a deep dive into specific collaboration skills that intrigued the audience.

Dr. Vance’s paper, “The Extraordinary Potential of Statistical Collaboration Laboratories,” presented at the Australian Statistical Conference in Wollongong, described the powerful concept of the statistical collaboration laboratory (or “stat lab”), whose main idea is to simultaneously educate and train students in statistical consulting and collaboration by offering them the opportunity to collaborate with researchers and decision-makers to apply statistics and data science for the benefit of society. Dr. Vance described the model of the new lab currently being developed at IPB University and how it can become a new regional hub for stat labs in the LISA 2020 Global Network, a network of 35 recently established stat labs in developing countries.

At OZCOTS, Dr. Vance presented his paper, “A Framework for Teaching and Learning Collaboration in Statistics and Data Science: How Well Can It Work in Indonesia?” co-authored with Prof. Dr. Khairil Notodiputro from IPB University. He discussed which aspects of the ASCCR framework may be universal and which may be culturally dependent and described an example of translating part of ASCCR into Indonesian language and culture.

Eric Vance traveled to Australia with his wife, Marina Vance (a US Fulbright Scholar), and their two young children. Between his meetings, workshops, and talks, he could visit some of Australia’s botanical gardens, parks, beaches, and cities with his family and engage in indigenous Aboriginal basket weaving.