Biometrics Unit

The Biometrics Unit (BU) is committed to supporting IITA’s scientific staff and associated researchers in using statistical methodology and related software to improve the planning, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of proposals and research results.

Vision

To be a scientific unit with the capacity to offer services, participate as a member of interdisciplinary research groups, and realize research on applied statistics to generate and adapt new methodological tools.

Main activities

Service

• Advise on planning, statistical analysis, interpretation, and presentation of results. This activity includes IITA and non-IITA researchers and students. BU biometricians act as consultants.
• Capacity building: BU offers courses, workshops, and seminars aimed at improving the use of statistical methods and related specialized software. This activity is addressed to IITA and non-IITA researchers and students. BU is responsible for this activity.
• Cooperation and participation in training courses offered by other IITA units. BU biometricians act as members of the resource staff.

Participation in interdisciplinary research groups

The best way for the BU to contribute to the R4D objectives is through the participation of biometricians as members of the research groups. This integration allows knowledge of the field and lab experiments and suggestions of methodological alternatives at inception, and facilitates doing and/or advising on the analysis, interpretation, and presentation of results at the end.

Research in applied statistics

As a result of the interdisciplinary interaction of scientists and biometricians in research groups the BU seeks to generate new methodological solutions. This objective could be reached through applied statistical research. In this case a biometrician is the main researcher, other scientists are coworkers and the data sets are the experimental material in which new methods, models, algorithms, and software are validated. Although the development, evaluation, and validation of statistical tools are not the main objective for IITA-R4D, the generation of new and appropriate statistical methods will improve the quality of end results from research activities.

Staff

The BU has four biometricians:

• Jorge Franco—BSc Agronomy, MSc Statistics, PhD Statistics
  Areas of interest: Statistical models, Experimental design, Sampling, Multivariate analysis, Analysis of categorical data, Spatial analysis, Analysis of breeding and molecular genetics data, Free statistical software.
• Samuel Ofodile—Higher National Diploma (HND) Computer Science, Post Graduate Diploma in Statistics
  Areas of interest: Experimental and survey data analysis, Database management, and Programming.
• Samuel  Korie—BSc Statistics, MSc Social Statistics, broad training in biometrics and statistical computing
  Areas of interest: Design and analysis of experiments, Sampling, Spatial analysis, Analysis of categorical and entomological data.
• Olayemi Oluwasoga—BSc Statistics, Diploma in Computer Studies, MSc Statistics
  Areas of interest: Design and analysis of experiments, Spatial analysis and econometrics.

They are assisted on a temporary basis by a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and a polytechnic student.