BCC Home

The Burkardt Center will be open during the summer, however we are only in the office on Thursdays.  Meetings for students will ONLY be scheduled on Thursdays between the hours of 10 AM and 2 PM, as times are available.  Therefore, please make sure you contact us with plenty of lead-time for your projects!  

Also, our Billing Policies for students have changed.  NKU Graduate students will now pay a $60 consultation fee in advance - this covers their initial consultation plus up to 2 hours of work on the project.  Typical DNP/NAP projects generally will fit within that two hour window.  Atypical projects requiring additional hours are billed at $30 per additional hour, which will be discussed with students as the need arises.  Additionally, graduate students should ensure that they are clicking the correct link when filling out the consultation request form!

The Burkardt Consulting Center (BCC) offers necessary statistical support for research and publication to faculty and students at Northern Kentucky University, as well as members of the surrounding community.  Our faculty and students work directly with those in other disciplines to aid them in producing quality scholarly work for publication.  We provide assistance with a wide variety of projects, studies (including clinical trials), and experiments that involve elements of statistics and/or mathematical modeling. The BCC also provides a venue for undergraduate math/stat majors at NKU to gain a valuable internship experience in which they (under the direction of our faculty) consult with clients on real-world problems.

Our recent clients have included faculty and students from Biology, Business, Chase College of Law, CINSAM, Informatics, Kentucky Center for Mathematics, Nursing, Psychology, Social Work, and Steely Library, among others.  We have also prepared statistical reports for members of regional entities such as Great Parks of Hamilton County, St. Elizabeth Hospital, Mercy Health, Boone County Schools, and Gateway Community College.

We can help you with almost any aspect of a research study that will involve statistics.  This includes:

• Assistance in formulating research questions
• Planning of sampling frame and data collection
• Basic data management using SAS, EXCEL, or other software
  
• Advice on statistical methods and software
• Data analyses (and help understanding them)
• Assistance in writing up results and/or prepping a presentation

We can best provide advice when we become involved in a project prior to the collection of data.  In the words of esteemed statistician Ronald Fisher, "To consult the statistician after an experiment is finished is often merely to ask him to conduct a post mortem examination."

While no longer have staff who support mathematical modeling directly within the center, if your project involves mathematical modeling we can help connect you to faculty and/or students within the Department of Mathematics and Statistics who might be able to assist.

Our fee structure for graduate students is as follows:

• NKU Grad Student:  $60 initial consultation fee
• Other University Grad Student:  $100 initial consultation fee

For graduate students, fees are invoiced and must be paid prior to initial consultation.  These fees cover the initial meeting plus up to two hours of work on a project.  Additional work beyond two hours is billed at a $30 / hour rate for NKU students and a $35 / hour rate for students from other universities.  (Note:  Undergradate NKU rates remain at $20 per hour).

For NKU faculty and external clients:

• An initial consultation (up to one hour) to discuss your project is offered at no charge.  If your project is found to be within the scope of BCC services, we are then able to provide service according to the fee schedule below.
• NKU Faculty are billed at a rate of $35 per hour
• External clients are billed at a rate of $50 per hour

Note that for external clients, particularly those who use us for multiple projects or large projects (exceeding 10 hours of work), we are often able to provide a negotiated rate at a lower cost.  This can be discussed during the initial meeting or by contacting the center director.  

To request an initial consultation, please fill out our project request form found here:

REQUEST OUR SERVICES - Graduate Students

REQUEST OUR SERVICES - All Others

In order to help us best serve you, please include as much information as you can when completing the form.  Once we receive your completed form and determine that the project is within the scope of the center, we will contact you by email to arrange an initial meeting.  If you have any problems or questions please also feel free to call us at (859) 572-1325 (leave a message so that we can return your call) or send us an email at bcc@nku.edu.