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Volume 31, Number 2 Newsletter October 1, 1999
Fall Meeting - October 29, 1999
Speaker: Tom Boardman Topic: The Impact of Deming on Statisticians Discussion: Open Forum on Statistical Questions 4:00 - 5:30 P.M. Room 626 Tom Boardman of Colorado State University is a recent winner of the W. Edwards Deming Medal (see page 2). He will present some short comments on Deming’s impact on statisticians. In addition to Tom’s comments, we will have an open discussion with questions from the audience. The questions can cover any aspects of statistics and need not be related to the speaker’s comments. A goal of the local chapter for this year is to put more emphasis on the process of members helping members. The "open forum" aspect of the fall meeting is an implementation of this goal. So come and bring some nagging question you have on statistics. The answers will come from other attendees (we are not expecting the speaker to answer all questions). This meeting will be very informal. If you can’t come precisely at 4:00 P.M. , come a little later. We also encourage submitting questions in advance. This can be done by sending the question to any of the local chapter’s officers. Their e-mail addresses can be found on page 7. This meeting is being held in conjunction with CU-Denver's Statistical Discussion
Group, which normally meets on the last Friday of the month at 4pm. People who are
interested in discussing statistical problems from their jobs or their research are
invited to participate, either formally or on a drop-in basis. Please contact Craig
Williamson (cbwill3@advtech.uswest.com)
or Karen Kafadar (kk@math.cudenver.edu)
for further Member Activities Deming Medal We are pleased to report that Tom Boardman of Colorado State University is the recipient of the American Society for Quality’s (ASQ) W. Edward Deming Medal. The medal was established by the ASQ to recognize outstanding leadership in combining statistical thinking and management which leads to quality in products and services. The citation on Tom’s medal states that it was given, Chapter News Maurice Davies Memorial Awards The 1999 Maurice Davies Awards were announced at the spring meeting. These awards are presented to outstanding statistics majors from schools in the chapter area. The awards are in honor of Maurice Davies, a founder of the chapter. One undergraduate or graduate student from a school may receive an award. The award carries with it a one-year student membership in the American Statistical Association. This year’s recipients were: Elaine Parks Craig Williamson Kelly Cooper John Munn
[inserted Oct 13, 1999] National Undergraduate Contest Round four of the Annual Undergraduate Data Analysis Contest was completed this past academic year. Once again there 19 teams from a wide variety of schools participating in the competition. These teams had the difficult task of classifying a set of over 4000 mushrooms as poisonous or edible based on 22 different attributes. What made this classification problem even more difficult was that all 22 attributes were nominally valued. To build their classifiers, the teams were given a separate dataset of approximately 4000 mushrooms that did contain the correct classification. Each team submitted their predicted classifications as well as a written report and winners were selected in each category. The judging committee was composed of members of the local chapter. The committee was extremely impressed with the quality of the work submitted. The competition was extremely close with all of the submission demonstrating considerable thought and effort. This problem was also interesting in the number of different techniques used to tackle the problem. Some examples include: classification trees, neural networks, discriminant analysis, regression, similarity analysis, and nested contingency tables. The papers were evaluated by seven judges in ten separate categories. The overall winner was Andrea Nibbe of Winona State University who was advised by Brant Deppa. This is the second year in a row that Winona State has won and may be the beginning of a dynasty. Andrea received a cash award of $1000 for her work, as well as a crystal plaque commemorating her achievement. Three teams were selected as runners-up for best paper. These teams were Leda Schwartz and Michael Rempe from the University of Colorado, advised by Anne Dougherty; Chris Holloman and Paul Tanaka from the University of Tennessee, advised by Esteban Walker; and Troy Whetherhult from the University of Minnesota, advised by Douglas Hawkins. These teams received crystal plaques for their outstanding efforts. Spring Meeting Recap The annual spring meeting of the CO-WY Chapter of the ASA was a tremendous success. I would like to thank everyone who attended and assisted in running the meeting for their contributions. There was a great deal of interaction and interest from the participants. In addition, I would like to thank our sponsors; NCAR, DataVision, WEST Inc., Ball Corporation, and the University of Colorado at Denver. The meeting consisted of 10 fine presentations covering a broad spectrum of topics from AP Statistics to Strategies to Control the Genital Herpes Epidemic. The keynote speaker was Trevor Hastie of Stanford. He gave an outstanding presentation on boosting in relation to additive logistic regression from a statistical prospective. This year’s meeting promises to be another outstanding meeting. I look forward to seeing each of you there. Brad Warner Upcoming Workshop STATS: Statistical Thinking with Active Teaching Strategies Workshops for Mathematicians Who Teach Statistics Supported by the National Science Foundation, the Mathematical Association of America is conducting a series of faculty development workshops designed for mathematicians who teach courses in introductory statistics but have little formal training in the subject. Goals of the workshops are to help faculty participants to: * teach statistical thinking with more data and concepts, less theory and fewer recipes * explore active learning alternatives to the lecture method in their teaching of statistics * make effective use of technology in their statistics courses * use authentic assessment practices in evaluating the work of their statistics students * discover a myriad of print and electronic resources for teaching statistics * engender lasting collegial relationships among mathematicians who teach statistics. Each workshop features sessions led by two leading statistics educators. These sessions involve workshop participants actively in their own learning by presenting topics and activities that lend themselves to direct use with students. Each workshop is limited to an enrollment of 24 participants, selected through an application process. Pending final approval, a one-day STATS workshop will be held at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs on November 20, 1999. Support from NSF provides lunch and a variety of workshop materials related to teaching statistics. There is no registration fee for the workshop. Workshop participants or their institutions are expected to cover travel costs, and participants must have e-mail accounts. The application deadline is October 22, 1999. You may apply from the STATS web site at http://www.dickinson.edu/~rossman/STATS/ or by requesting an application form from: Maureen Callanan You may also direct questions to project directors Allan Rossman (rossman@dickinson.edu) and Tom Short (short@monet.vill.edu). Membership Dues Please check you mailing label. The date on the right side shows when your membership in the local chapter expires. Colorado-Wyoming Chapter annual dues are $6.00 per year for regular members and $2.00 per year for student members. You may pay chapter dues through ASA headquarters along with your society dues, OR you may pay them directly to the chapter treasurer. National membership is not a prerequisite for membership and participation in chapter activities. Please Note: paying the chapter directly results in the chapter getting the whole $6 vs. $5 if it is sent to ASA national headquarters. A dues payment form is on the back of this page. Please make checks payable to CO-WY ASA. Please note that we have a new treasurer. Bill Navidi has agreed to take on this post. Payments should be mailed to our treasurer at the following address: Bill Navidi The e-mail addresses for our other officers are:
Dues Form
NAME (first, middle initial, last) _________________________________________________________ ORGANIZATION_____________________________________________________________________ MAILING ADDRESS___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ CITY_________________________________ STATE___________ ZIP_______________________ PHONE (include area code)___________________________ E-MAIL___________________________ MAY WE POST YOUR NAME AND E-MAIL ON OUR HOMEPAGE UNDER MEMBERS? ____________________
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