I went to London, England; as some of you may already know.

I’m speaking in past tense, since I was not able to create blogs in London when I was actually there. This is because they are behind America when it comes to most technologies by 2 years approximately, as said from experience of using their Wi-Fi and being told by their advertising agencies.

Anyhow, I studied in the UK so that I could expand my knowledge in global advertising, and purely just to use my passport, finally for the first time in my life. London was the perfect place to go, to be immersed into the world of advertising and business; being home to many award winning advertising agencies such as DDB (having clients such as Volkswagen, Harvey Nichols, Marmite; also claimed to be the start of creative advertising), and McCann Erickson (whom are creating all work for the upcoming Olympics campaign). However, London was not the best place to travel for a first experience of being out of the country, only because it’s really not that different or shocking, aside from the accents and driving on the wrong side of the road.

I’d like to point your attention to the newest installment of the Dean’s Channel where I spoke with statistics professors Arne Bathke and Arny Stromberg. In 2011, UK opened its first Applied Statistics Lab (ASL), with the help of the Office of the Vice President for Research, several UK college deans, and infrastructure grants such as the university's recent Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), UK statisticians in the College of Arts & Sciences' Department of Statistics, and the College of Public Health's Department of Biostatistics.

The main objectives of this venture are to provide improved statistical services to groups preparing grant proposals, direct faculty involvement from the Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics for study design and data analysis throughout UK, foster collaborative research between scholars who develop quantitative methodology and those who use such methodology in their work, and to become a resource which may be referenced in institutional support for larger grants, in addition to direct statistical support typically included in such grants.

In case you missed it during the hectic holiday season, A&S English professor Nikky Finney was featured on “UK at the Half” with Carl Nathe during the UK vs. Loyola basketball game. Finney’s book, “Head Off & Split,” was the winner of the 2011 National Book Award in Poetry. The National Book Awards is one of the most anticipated events in the publishing world. Finney has taught at UK for decades and is a member of the Affrilachian Poets group that includes Frank X Walker and Kelly Norman Ellis.

To hear the "UK at the Half" interview, click here.