Working in small groups, UBC students will tackle a question designed by you and the students, conducting statistical analysis with a large data set(s). Generally, students will use publicly available data sets of environmental, economic, public health or other data, but the partnering organization can provide data if you prefer.

Their methodology will include descriptive (means, variances, graphics such as boxplots of variability, etc.) and inferential statistical analyses including correlation and regression analyses to identify meaningful trends and patterns in the data and test hypotheses.

Students have specialties in both Geographical Sciences, and Human/Urban Geography, and the topics they can delve into vary widely. Example project topics include, but are not limited to:

• Looking into fire risks for an insurance provider, using the Canadian Wildfire Database
• Quantifying the impact of climate change for an environmental NGO, using weather.gc.ca data
• Conducting market research for a company's planned US expansion using U.S. socioeconomic databases

As a partnering organization, you'll provide the students with a central question that you face, or a statement for which you'd like to find supportive data, that they'll use their developing data management skills and statistical tools to investigate testable hypothesis. Outcomes can be used to inform your decision-making, or to lend weight to marketing materials.