32. Experience in research and statistical analysis.

For the past five years, I have served as Quality Control Scientist for (Company)
where I have developed well-rounded experience in all aspects of statistical analysis.

(Company), a lead manufacturer and distributor of pregnancy tests, produces large

qualities of tests in batches overseas. Each batch contains approximately one million
items and my job is to evaluate item quality within each batch and also assess batch-
to-batch variation. Only batches that meet strict quality control guidelines can be
released for sale. My specific role was to:

1. Identify the threshold values for within-batch variation for product release, so
there was confidence in product performance and limited failure rates.
2. Use past year’s data to understand the distribution of the product quality. For
example, one batch might return low hormone readings, and another batch may
read too high Ideally we would like the reading to be in the middle. Statistical
methods allow me to predict the distribution of the all the batches, and identify
early the batches that present low or high readings, and report to our
manufactures and place process modifications in place.
3. Identify main error sources that contribute to sometimes higher than normal
within-batch variation.

The methodologies I use day to day are:

Power analysis; to predict how many samples I need to test prior to the actual tests
in order to draw statistically significant conclusions.

T-test, and F-test; to understand if populations are statistically significant.

Anova method; for two-sample or more-than-one-sample comparison, or one-way

repeated measurement. I used a lot of Anova analysis mainly to understand within-
batch and between-batch variations.

Within my role I also do a lot of programming, so I’m able to analyse data very
quickly. Instead of working with just excel, I also program in Python and Matlab. I
have written codes as a template I can use for different types of specific tasks, and
allows me to try a variety of ideas to see if one method of analysis works or makes
sense, before moving onto another method. I’ve found that having these pre-written
templates allows me to work faster and more efficiently.
I think one of my key research and statistical analysis skills is my ability to think
laterally, outside the box. While being comfortable around numbers, and different
research methodologies is certainly important, one aspect that is often overlooked is
the intuition of the process. I was trained as a chemical engineer, and being able to
have an intuitive understanding of the process allows me to be able to come up with
hypotheses and know where to look for problems. This has been the most efficient
approach so far to identify and overcome problems.