Schools

KSU Professor Receives SAS Award

Jennifer Priestley was honored for her efforts in educating statistics students.

Jennifer Priestley received the 2012 SAS Distinguished Professor award for helping prepare students for careers in statistical analysis, the university announced Tuesday.

“I am honored by this recognition, which is truly a testament to the caliber of students we have at Kennesaw State,” Priestley said in a statement. “KSU is the only university in Georgia, and one of the few in the country, to offer formal training in SAS at both the undergraduate and graduate level and it has been one of the factors that has kept our graduates among the most sought after in the region."

According to the release, the statistics professor was instrumental in creating a minor in applied statistics and data analysis, an SAS certificate in statistical analysis, and the master of science in applied statistics.

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Priestley also directs the activities of Kennesaw State’s Center for Statistics and Analytical Services, which helps a growing number of companies sift through data so they can operate more effectively and improve profitability.

“Companies tend to be very data rich and information poor,” said Priestley. “Data is inexpensive and easy to capture and store, but translating it into meaningful information is hard. That’s where the center comes in.”

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The center’s advisory board includes Atlanta-area Fortune 500 companies. Priestley created a graduate course that incorporates real-world experience cleaning and analyzing structured and unstructured data by partnering with one board member company to provide massive, real world data sets, the release said.

The center is modeled after similar centers at Virginia Tech, Penn State and the University of Georgia.


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