Washington Statistical Society
        Washington Statistical Society on Meetup   Washington Statistical Society on LinkedIn

April 2012

Contents:


Save The Date
2012 President's Invited Seminar: State of the Statistical System

Katherine Wallman, Chief Statistician, OMB (speaker)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 pm

Katherine Wallman serves as Chief Statistician at the United States Office of Management and Budget. She provides policy oversight, establishes priorities, advances long-term improvements, and sets standards for a Federal statistical establishment that comprises more than 80 agencies spread across every cabinet department. She will be discussing the various challenges that the current federal statistical system is facing, what works and what we should be thinking about.

Chaired by Jonaki Bose, WSS President and sponsored by WSS. Seminar will be held at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Conference Center, room 7.

To be placed on the seminar attendance list at the Bureau of Labor Statistics you need to e- mail your name, affiliation, and seminar name to wss_seminar@bls.gov (underscore after 'wss') by noon at least 2 days in advance of the seminar or call 202-691-7524 and leave a message. Bring a photo ID to the seminar. BLS is located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE. Use the Red Line to Union Station.

NOTE: Video conferencing will not be available.

Return to top

Seminars, Conferences, Symposia & Call For Papers
Summer Conference Preview/Review 2012
June 21-22, 2012
Bureau of Labor Statistics Conference Center, Washington DC

DC-AAPOR and WSS are teaming up to bring you a sample of the many amazing talks taking place this year at the National conferences. We know that you can’t travel to every conference, so we want to give you the opportunity to join your local colleagues, share the ground-breaking work that you are doing, and hear what they have been presenting in far-off locales.

We are seeking speakers who will be presenting at the following 2012 conferences:

Please submit your abstracts (that have already been prepared, submitted and accepted to a 2012 Survey Methodology-related conference) by midnight (EST) April 30, 2012 to DCAAPORconference@gmail.com.

WPlease include the following with your submission:

  • Title
  • Abstract (no longer than one page)  Conference your talk has been accepted to
  • Co-authors and/or co-presenters
  • Length of talk

Registration for this two-day conference will be open to everyone, but speakers will get approximately half-off the cost of their registrations ($65 instead of $125). Students also will get approximately half-off their registration fee, so students who are speakers get to register for free! We hope that this will especially encourage students to submit their abstracts and join us.

Registration will open at the beginning of May. Stay tuned for details!

Return to top

Classes and Workshops
Graduate Courses at Johns Hopkins University/Applied and Computational Mathematics (ACM) Program

Classes will be offered in the summer 2012 semester online or at locations in the Baltimore-Washington area (Howard and Montgomery Counties, Maryland).

Subject to meeting admission criteria, a non-degree candidate may register as a special student to take one or more courses to enhance mathematical and statistical skills. These courses are scheduled at times convenient for the working adult. Registration and general information is at ep.jhu.edu. Information specific to the ACM Program is at ep.jhu.edu/graduate-degree-programs/applied-and-computational-mathematics.

Further information related to academic requirements and course content is available from Dr. James Spall, Program Chair (240-228-4960). Courses offered in summer 2012 are listed below. Detailed information for all courses listed below is available at the course webpages ep.jhu.edu/course-homepages/.

625.201 General Applied Mathematics (This online course is designed for students who wish to take a refresher course in calculus and elementary differential equations; this course does not count for graduate credit) Instructor: Cleon Davis Time & location: 05/29/2012 - 08/03/2012 online Prerequisites: Differential and integral calculus. 625.403 Statistical Methods and Data Analysis Instructor: Barry Bodt Time & location: 05/29/2012 - 08/03/2012 online Prerequisites: Multivariate calculus. 6625.409 Matrix Theory Instructor: Daniel Rio Time & location: Tuesdays, 4:40 - 7:55 p.m., 06/05/2012 - 08/21/2012, Montgomery County Campus (Rockville, MD) Prerequisites: Multivariate calculus. 625.436 Graph Theory Instructor: Jason DeVinney Time & location: Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:00 - 7:40 p.m., 06/04/2012 - 07/18/2012, Applied Physics Laboratory (southern Howard County) Prerequisites: Linear algebra. 6625.703 Functions of a Complex Variable Instructors: J. Miller Whisnant and Michael Weisman Time & location: Wednesdays, 5:00 - 8:05 p.m., 05/30/2012 - 08/15/2012, Applied Physics Laboratory (southern Howard County) Prerequisites: Real analysis and ordinary differential equations. 625.714 Introductory Stochastic Differential Equations with Applications Instructor: John Burkhardt Time & location: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:20 - 10:00 p.m., 06/05/2012 - 07/17/2012, Applied Physics Laboratory (southern Howard County) Prerequisites: Multivariate calculus and a graduate course in probability and statistics. Exposure to ordinary differential equations. 625.725 Theory of Statistics I Instructor: Mostafa Aminzadeh Time & location: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:30 - 7:35 p.m., 05/29/2012 - 07/05/2012, Applied Physics Laboratory (southern Howard County) Prerequisites: Multivariate calculus and a graduate course in probability and statistics. Return to top

Get Involved!
Seeking Volunteers for the USA Science and Engineering Festival/Expo ASA Booth

WSS is seeking volunteers for the ASA booth at 2nd USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo, to be held at the DC Convention Center April 28-29, 2012. The festival features more than 3,000 exhibits, stage shows, and author presentations. The festival hours are 10am-6pm on Saturday (April 28) and 10am-4pm on Sunday (April 29).

Even if you can’t volunteer, bring your whole family and give your future and current scientists the experience of a lifetime. Remember to check out the ASA booth! Visit the official festival website to view all exhibit and stage shows, download a map of the expo grounds, and view the entire festival calendar.

To volunteer, please contact Jill Montaquila (jillmontaquila@westat.com).

Return to top

Get Involved!
Meetup Groups Near You

There are several local professional Meetup groups that may be of interest to WSS members. All are welcome — to attend, to meet others, and to present their work.

Data Science DC meets monthly, on weekday evenings, to discuss diverse topics in predictive analytics, applied machine learning, statistical modeling, open data, and data visualization. Meeting topics are varied and range from tutorials on basic concepts and their applications, to success stories from local practitioners, to discussions of tools, new technologies, and best practices.

http://www.meetup.com/Data-Science-DC/

The DC useR Group also meets monthly, and is dedicated to bringing together area practitioners of R to exchange knowledge, inspire new users, and spur the adoption of R for innovative research and commercial applications.

http://www.meetup.com/R-users-DC/

Return to top

Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

Items for publication in the May 2012 issue of the WSS NEWS will be accepted until the 15th day of the preceding month.

Email items to wss.editor@gmail.com.

Please submit all materials in MS WORD or plain text.

Please do not submit your items in pdf.

Return to top

Click here to see the WSS Board Listing (pdf)
Return to top