From: Statistical Science Majors Union
Date: April 6
Subject: SSMU Snapshots: Week of April 6, 2026


Happy April!

📣 Announcements

1. Call for Project Managers/Director Roles 🚀
Interested in being more involved in a future SSMU project? Refer to a previous email for more details and apply here by April 13th at 11:59 PM! 

2. Data Mini #3 Winners! 🎉
The Competitions and Opportunities Committee is happy to announce the winning team and honorable mentions from Data Mini #3! Congratulations to Eric Hu, Ruitong Liu, and Mia Zhou from UNC Chapel Hill for winning Best Statistical Analysis, and to Aaron Siminou and Leonardo Zhang for winning Best Insight. Honorable mention went to the analysis by Kaixiang Loke and Kien Le. Competitors and winners won merchandise from our sponsors: Jane Street, SAS Institute, and the Duke Stores!

🍵 Upcoming Events

1. Sign up for Group FLUNCH with Dr. Anya Katsevich 🍎
FLUNCHes are a great way for faculty and students to connect over lunch, fostering mentorship and informal conversation outside the classroom. Our next group FLUNCH is with Dr. Katsevich, and you can sign up here!
🗓️ 12-1 PM on Wednesday, April 8th
📍 The Commons (3rd floor of WU)

2. SSMU Seminar: “Existential crisis! Is my degree worthless?” with Mr. Davis Vaughan 💡
Join SSMU for a seminar featuring Davis Vaughan, a software engineer at Posit, as he asks the timely question: is YOUR degree worth it?! Davis works on Positron, a data science-focused IDE, as well as the R packages that make up the tidyverse. He will walk through examples of how he and his colleagues use Claude Code and other AI tools to amplify their own skills, rather than replace them.
🗓️ 4:30 PM-5:30 PM on Wednesday, April 8th
📍 Old Chem 116

3. Research Committee Reading Group 📖
The Research Committee hosts an undergrad reading group on theory and methods research in statistics and machine learning. We meet biweekly on Fridays, 5-6pm in Perkins Link Group Study 1. More info here.
At each meeting, someone presents a manuscript/excerpt they read, and we discuss. If you are an undergrad interested in theory/methods work, put your name here, and show up! No further registration or prerequisites required. If you would like to present a manuscript, please fill out this form.
🗓️ Next meeting: 5-6 PM on Friday, April 10th
📍 Perkins Link Group Study 1

4. GBM: Welcome Majors! 🎉
Calling all newly declared sophomores! SSMU is hosting a welcome event for newly declared majors and minors in Statistics! Open to all students. There will be catering from Nan Xiang!
🗓️ 7-9 PM on Sunday, April 19th
📍 Few GG Tower Commons - 6th Floor

🌱 Competitions & Opportunities

1. FEMMES+ is doing a collab event with UNC's Durham Book Club for middle schoolers! The event is a spy-themed breakout-style event based on their book of the month, to be held on Saturday, April 18, from 1:30-2:30 at the South Regional Library in Durham. We are currently in need of a few volunteers to assist with the event, so if you are interested, please fill out this form!

2. Registration is open for the Data Justice Lab’s 4th International Conference “The Datafied State”. The event will be held on 1-2 June 2026 at Cardiff University. It will explore the transformations of the state in an age of datafication and AI, new forms of state-business relations, and emerging popular responses. Keynote Speakers include Sarah Myers West (AI Now, US), Oriana Bernasconi (UC Chile), Nick Srnicek (King’s College London, UK). The £125 registration fee includes access to all conference sessions and events, as well as lunches and coffee breaks. You can register for the conference here by April 17. More information about the conference, incl. about travel and other logistics, can be found here.

3. Awarded by the Duke Department of Statistical Science, the BEST Award promotes and recognizes student research in Bayesian statistics and decision analysis. The BEST Award reflects the role and impact of Bayesian methodology and its applications, and the importance of active research experiences. Each Duke Statistical Science senior undergraduate (major or minor) defending a senior thesis in Statistical Science may be eligible for the Undergraduate BEST Award and its monetary prize. To be considered, student submissions must be emailed to filippo.ascolani@duke.edu by April 15th at midnight.

4. The new ASA Coding Club is starting this week on April 8, and it is open to any student who is a part of SSMU. It will meet every other month on the second Wednesday at 4 PM ET. The first meeting will start with a small coding activity and an opportunity to meet other students. Then they will get ideas from everyone about what types of coding skills students would like to learn and practice together at our future coding club events.
Register here: amstat.zoom.us/meeting/register/ifQXhgSpStGlKmhyRDvndw 

📅 Stay Connected

Want to keep track of all our events? Add our Google Calendar here (SSMU Events Calendar) and follow us on Instagram @dukessmu!

Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you at our events!

Best,
SSMU

Got ideas for events or newsletter features? Reach out to hyunjin.lee2@duke.edu; we’d love to hear from you!