WSS NEWS

News about activities of the Washington Statistical Society
A Chapter of the American Statistical Association

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Summer 1997

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Contents:

• 1997 Annual Dinner
• 1997 Science Fair Winners
• SIGSTAT
• Mentoring For Science Fair Projects
• Presidential Invited Address
• Elder To Teach Short Course In Alexandria
• 32nd Annual Symposium of the Washington Operations Research-Management Science Council
• WSS NEWS Schedule For The Program Year Of 1997 - 1998
• Note From The WSS NEWS Editors
• WSS People

In granting the 1997 award, the committee cited Dr. Triplett's broad contributions to the field of economic measurement, including the development and introduction of hedonic price index measurement techniques and superlative price and quantity indices in the National Income and Product Accounts and, most recently, the development and implementation of the North American Industry Classification System.

Martin Fleming, Chairman of the Award Committee said "Jack's work is at the heart of the most important efforts, today, to provide improved economic information to policy makers in the Administration, Congress and the Federal Reserve." Dr. Fleming also said "Jack's contribution to the effort to develop new and sophisticated price indices, while somewhat arcane to many, has been very important in the effort to separate the effects of inflation and real growth and to ultimately understand the true wealth creating potential of the US economy." The current launch of the North American Industry Classification System by the US statistical agencies was termed "a critical piece of the foundation for the future of our economic statistics system" by Dr. Fleming and he said "Jack's hard work and perseverance have made all the difference in the success of this massive undertaking."

The Julius Shiskin Award was established by the family of the late Julius Shiskin and is administered by the Washington Statistical Society and the National Association of Business Economists. The committee said that the award was intended to honor original and important contributions in the development of economic statistics and in their use in interpreting economic events. Mr. Shiskin's government career as an economic statistician spanned more than 30 years during which time he worked at the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the Office of Management and Budget and culminated at the U.S. Department of Labor as the Commissioner of Labor Statistics.

In recent years the award has also been received by David Findley of the Census Bureau; Fritz Scheuren formerly of the Internal Revenue Service; Richard D. Allen of the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and Joel Popkin of Joel Popkin and Company.

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The judging was coordinated by Lee Abramson. Thanks to all WSS members who volunteered as judges. They are: Eugene Burns*, Jo Burns, Bill Cleveland, Bob Clickner*, Michael Cohen, Brenda Edwards*, Linda Hardy, Ellen Hertz, Gene Heyman*, Bill Iwig, Tzu-Cheg Kao, Fotios Kokkotos, Jurate Landwehr, Ruey-Ping Lu, Mary Marion, Fred Olson, Amy Rathbun, Arnold Reznek, Louis Rizzo, John Rogers, Sid Schwartz, John Schwemberger, Mike Stoto, Leslie Wallace, Glenn White*, David Whitford, Lorie Wijntjes. (* Chief Judge)

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S-PLUS 4.0 is a major new release that integrates the complete functionality of the S-PLUS data analysis system and object-oriented programming language with a user interface that is full-featured and customizable. Data sets are managed through an intuitively designed visual interface. Editing presentation-quality graphics is as easy as pointing and clicking. The S-PLUS 4.0 user interface contains six types of windows: the Object Browser, Data Editor, Graph Sheet, Command Window, Script Window, and Output Window. New statistical features include functions for multiple comparisons, bootstrapping and jackknifing, linear and non-linear mixed effects models, a clustering library for six methods of cluster analysis, two functions - hexbin and rayplot - designed for visualizing spatial data, and a function validate for validation.

Information on S-PLUS can be found at http://www.mathsoft.com/splus.html.

If this is your first SIGSTAT meeting, contact Charlie Hallahan at 202-501-6928 or hallahan@econ.ag.gov to get your name on the roster. Further information on SIGSTAT can be obtained from its website at http://www.ers.usda.govsigstat/ or from the Members/Sigs page of http://www.cpcug.org.

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Tools for Discovering Patterns in Data will survey the leading computer-intensive methods for data analysis, classification, and inductive modelling, drawn from statistics, machine learning, and data mining. The course will be taught by John Elder on Friday, October 3, 1997 at the George Washington University Alexandria Graduate Education Center from 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

It will describe the key inner workings of various algorithms, compare their merits, and (briefly) demonstrate their relative effectiveness on practical applications. Dr. Elder will first review classic statistical techniques, both linear and nonparametric, then outline the ways in which these basic tools are modified and combined into more modern methods. The course pays particular attention to four powerful approaches: neural networks, polynomial networks, kernels, and decision trees, and uses actual scientific and business problems to demonstrate useful accompanying techniques (such as scientific visualization, resampling, and bundling) employed by experienced analysts.

For a tuition fee of $350, students will receive comprehensive notes and the recent book chapter, "A Statistical Perspective on Knowledge Discovery in Databases," by Elder and Pregibon, in addition to refreshments and lunch. The facility is located across the street from the King Street Metro Station, only two stops from National Airport. It is adjacent to the Embassy Suites Hotel on Duke Street in Old Town, Alexandria. John Elder is chief scientist of Quantitative Solutions, a data mining research firm in Charlottesville, Virginia, and an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia. He has more than a decade of experience developing and applying adaptive, data-driven techniques to practical problems. He has been a researcher at Rice University and director of research at an engineering consulting firm and for an investment management company. He has authored four book chapters and numerous articles on pattern discovery and is the technical chair of the Adaptive and Learning Systems Group of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.

Those from industry and academia who work with data and wish to understand recent developments in pattern discovery, data mining, and inductive modeling will most benefit from this course. At its conclusion, participants should be able to discern the basic strengths of competing methods and select the appropriate tools for applications. Participants should have prior working experience with computers and knowledge of, or interest in, applied statistical techniques.

For more information or a registration form, contact Sue Kulesher, sue@amstat.org, at the American Statistical Association, 1429 Duke Street, Alexandria VA 22314 or by fax at 703-684- 2037 or check it out on the ASA CE website. Visit the ASA home page: http://www.amstat.org.

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The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036-2188

The Symposium has simultaneous, day-long tracks of interesting speakers and topics:

Plenary Session
Honorable James L. Witt

Subject Tracks and Chair
Public Policy - Phil DePoy, President, National Opinion Research Center
Transportation Systems - George Donohue, Associate Administrator FAA
Military Applications - Clayton Thomas, Chief Scientist, Air Force Studies & Analysis
Cost and Financial Analysis - David Chu, RAND Corporation Information
Systems Technology and Management: Invitation pending

Plan now to attend.

For additional information on presenting your paper, please contact:
Bruce MacDonald, Program Chair <bmac@mcri.com>
Phone 703-506-4600

Information: http://www.sundown-vmp.com/wormsc/symposium.html or 301-939-3012

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First posted July 29, 1997
Last modified July 29, 1997

Webmaster: Dan Jacobs, Maryland Sea Grant