Zoom Drop-in Hours
Virginia Tech's Center for Biostatistics and Health Data Science (CBHDS) offers complimentary Zoom Drop-in Hours for short-term advising on your research questions, data, methods, and more. From study design to data dissemination, our team is here to help move your research forward.
Drop-in Hours:
Mondays: 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM ET
Wednesdays: 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM ET
Faculty, staff, students, and trainees from Virginia Tech and beyond are welcome to attend.
VTCSOM medical students: Additional availability is offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM ET. Please click here to view and reserve those appointment times.
Please read our FAQ for more details about the services we offer during Zoom Drop-in Hours. These sessions are intended for short-term advising on topics such as study design, data management, statistics, bioinformatics, analysis, visualization, and related research questions.
To check availability and reserve a time slot, please use our Bookings page to select the time and CBHDS team member you would like to meet with. If you do not have a team member preference, please select “anyone,” and someone will be assigned to meet with you. You may reserve a 30-minute time slot with a CBHDS team member.
Once you sign-up, a confirmation email and calendar invite with a Zoom link will be sent to your email account. For Virginia Tech affiliates, please use your @vt.edu email when reserving a timeslot.
Please note: In-person drop-ins are no longer offered. To request an in-person appointment, please email us at biostats@vt.edu. To submit a request for a longer-term collaboration, please click here.
Our Drop-In Hours Team:
All team members are proficient in all common statistical methodologies and study designs, in addition to their distinctive areas of expertise. Please see the table below for details about each team member and their areas of expertise.
| Day | Time | Location | Team Member* | Preferred Programming Languages | Distinctive Expertise |
Monday |
10am-2pm | Zoom | Xuemei (Missi) Zhang | R, Python, Bash Scripting | Bioinformatics, Advanced Research Computing (ARC; High-Performance Computing), Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Image Analysis |
| 10am-12pm | Zoom | Ben Brewer | R, SAS, MATLAB, Stata, SPSS | Actigraphy Data, Advanced ROC Analysis, Network Analysis | |
| 12pm-2pm | Zoom | Chris Grubb | R, Python, JMP, Minitab | Bayesian Statistics, Machine Learning, Agent-Based Modeling | |
| Wednesday |
3pm-5pm | Zoom | Chris Grubb | R, Python, JMP, Minitab | Bayesian Statistics, Machine Learning, Agent-Based Modeling |
| 3:30 pm-4:30 pm | Zoom | Xuemei (Missi) Zhang | R, Python, Bash Scripting | Bioinformatics, Advanced Research Computing (ARC; High-Performance Computing), Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Image Analysis | |
| 5pm-7pm | Zoom | Emmanuel Nartey | R, Python, SAS, SPSS | Cluster Analysis, Interpretable Machine Learning, Complex Survey Analysis | |
| Alternate | Zoom | Alicia Lozano | R, SAS, Stata, SPSS | Wearable Device Data, Propensity Score Modeling, Generalized Additive Modeling, REDCap |
*May change based on availability. Find out more details about our team's statistical Methods and Tools expertise here.
Drop-in hours are not available when Virginia Tech is closed for holidays. These include New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and “Winter Break” between Dec. 25 – Jan. 1. The VT holiday closing schedule can be found here.
If you would like to work with the Center, please click on the following link and fill out the request form.
If you would like to learn more about how our collaboration process works, please click the following link.