February

February 2011

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Newsletter of the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association )
Volume 58 Number 2 February 2011

IN THIS ISSUE

  • Chicago Chapter ASA Lunch Meeting

  • In Retrospect...

  • Save the Date for the Spring Workshop!

  • A Pioneer Passes On

  • Math Education + Quantitative Job = Career Satisfaction

  • Take Me Out to the...

  • About the Parameter

     

  • Hello Member,

    February flurries persist, so grab a mug of something warm, and cozy up with the Parameter!



    Happy Valentine's Day, Chicagoans!

     


    Chicago Chapter ASA Lunch Meeting


    CCASA Luncheon Program








    Join us for our next two luncheon presentations scheduled for
    March 1st and March 29th, 2011!

    March 1, 2011
    Ronald L. Wasserstein
    Executive Director American Statistical Association
    Noon - 1:30 PM
    The East Bank Club
    500 N. Kingsbury, Chicago 60610

    Please join us in welcoming Ronald L. Wasserstein, Executive Director American Statistical Association who will talk to us about National ASA activities and the program for accreditation for statisticians. Ron is a member of the Accreditation Committee. Accreditation is a voluntary credential offered only to members of the ASA. In 2010, the ASA Board of Directors approved a set of guidelines for accreditation developed by the ASA Accreditation Committee. The accreditation process is now underway and we are interested in Ron's insights on how well this is progressing and how this may effect statistical consultants.

    Details:
    • CCASA Members: $30
    • Non-members: $35
    Non-members, join the chapter for a year for only $15 and get the discount plus all of the other benefits of membership!

    The Lucile Derrick Fund will purchase a limited number of tickets for students who wish to attend. If you are a student and would like to take advantage of this offer, please register online below, and contact Gerald Funk, expressing your interest.

    Please e-mail Gerald Funk at gmf@math.luc.edu for more information.


    Reduced fee parking available at EBC with validation.

    Please register for the luncheon by Friday February 25, 2011.
    Register online at http://www.123signup.com/calendar?Org=chicagoasa

    Please join us in welcoming Ronald L. Wasserstein, Executive Director American Statistical Association who will talk to us about National ASA activities and the program for accreditation for statisticians. Ron is a member of the Accreditation Committee. Accreditation is a voluntary credential offered only to members of the ASA. In 2010, the ASA Board of Directors approved a set of guidelines for accreditation developed by the ASA Accreditation Committee. The accreditation process is now underway and we are interested in Ron's insights on how well this is progressing and how this may effect statistical consultants. Reduced fee parking available at EBC with validation.Please register for the luncheon by.Register online at

     

    Please join us in welcoming Ronald L. Wasserstein, Executive Director American Statistical Association who will talk to us about National ASA activities and the program for accreditation for statisticians. Ron is a member of the Accreditation Committee. Accreditation is a voluntary credential offered only to members of the ASA. In 2010, the ASA Board of Directors approved a set of guidelines for accreditation developed by the ASA Accreditation Committee. The accreditation process is now underway and we are interested in Ron's insights on how well this is progressing and how this may effect statistical consultants. Reduced fee parking available at EBC with validation.Please register for the luncheon by.Register online at

     

    March 29, 2011
    Veena B. Mendiratta, Ph.D.
    Next-Generation Solutions
    Services and Systems Reliability Practice Leader
    Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent
    What Can We Learn From Software Failure Data?
    Noon - 1:30 PM
    The East Bank Club
    500 N. Kingsbury, Chicago 60610


    This joint Chicago Chapter ASA / INFORMS Chicago Chapter luncheon presentation features Veena B. Mendiratta, Ph.D., who leads the Next-Generation Solutions, Services and Systems Reliability work in the Bell Labs CTO organization at Alcatel-Lucent, Naperville, IL.

    This presentation describes a new methodology that combines the use of control charts, trend analysis, and software reliability models.

    Details:
    • INFORMS/CCASA Members: $20
    • Non-members: $25
    $20 registration available to non-members who join INFORMS Chicago Chapter at the same time.

    INFORMS Chicago Chapter will pay the event registration for a limited number of full-time Operations Research or Management Science students. Interested students should contact Dr. James S. Weber at jsweber@uic.edu (copy to JamesSWeber@gmail.com). Include the full-time program in which you are currently enrolled and an email address for your academic adviser or academic department secretary.

    As mentioned above, the Lucile Derrick Fund will provide a limited number of tickets to students as well.


    Register online at http://www.123signup.com/calendar?Org=chicagoasa

    This joint Chicago Chapter ASA / INFORMS Chicago Chapter luncheon presentation features Veena B. Mendiratta, Ph.D., who leads the Next-Generation Solutions, Services and Systems Reliability work in the Bell Labs CTO organization at Alcatel-Lucent, Naperville, IL. This presentation describes a new methodology that combines the use of control charts, trend analysis, and software reliability models.Register online at

     

    This joint Chicago Chapter ASA / INFORMS Chicago Chapter luncheon presentation features Veena B. Mendiratta, Ph.D., who leads the Next-Generation Solutions, Services and Systems Reliability work in the Bell Labs CTO organization at Alcatel-Lucent, Naperville, IL. This presentation describes a new methodology that combines the use of control charts, trend analysis, and software reliability models.Register online at

     

     


    In Retrospect...


    January's luncheon meeting was an enjoyable and profitable experience for a sellout crowd!

    Steve Quigley proved himself to be an interesting speaker and the CCASA's next generation Phil Donahue of "Open Forums".

    Editor-in-Chief, Bala, shared his top picks for emerging trends in Statistics which provided a perfect segway into our April 8th workshop.

    Adding even more excitement to the luncheon, nearly one out of every ten attendees won a free one year online subscription to Wiley's "Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences 2nd edition"-- valued on Wiley's price list at $1,690.00 each!

     


    Save the Date for the Spring Workshop!

    "Regression Modeling with Many Correlated Predictors"

    Jay Magidson, Statistical Innovations
    Tony Babinec, AB Analytics

    Friday, April 8, 2011
    8:30 AM - 4:30 PM

    Rush University Medical Center
    1653 W. Congress Parkway
    Chicago, IL 60612

    Sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association

    Jay Magidson, Statistical InnovationsTony Babinec, AB AnalyticsFriday, April 8, 20118:30 AM - 4:30 PMRush University Medical Center1653 W. Congress ParkwayChicago, IL 60612Sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association

    Jay Magidson, Statistical InnovationsTony Babinec, AB AnalyticsFriday, April 8, 20118:30 AM - 4:30 PMRush University Medical Center1653 W. Congress ParkwayChicago, IL 60612Sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association

     

    Registration Fees:
    Member $200
    Student $50


    The Chicago Chapter accepts payment by Visa or Mastercard. Register at: http://www.chicagoasa.org

    The Chicago Chapter accepts payment by Visa or Mastercard. Register at:

     

    The Chicago Chapter accepts payment by Visa or Mastercard. Register at:

     

    Our Speakers...

    Jay Magidson is founder and president of Statistical Innovations Inc., a Boston based consulting, training, and software development firm specializing in innovative applications of statistical modeling. His clients have included A.C. Nielsen Co., The Kellogg Company, and Pfizer. He taught statistics at Tufts and Boston University and is widely published on the theory and applications of multivariate statistical methods. Dr. Magidson designed SPSS CHAID, GOLDMineR and CORExpress, and is co-developer with Jeroen Vermunt (Tilburg University) of the Latent GOLD and Latent GOLD Choice programs.

    Tony Babinec teaches statistics and data mining classes for IBM clients. He also presents classes for Statistics.com. He has given talks and workshops at the Joint Statistical Meetings, the Sawtooth Software Conference, the AMA's Advanced Research Techniques Forum, and Statistical Modeling Week. Tony is a past President of the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association and currently is their Workshops VP.

    Tony Babinec
    tbabinec@sbcglobal.net

    What you could learn:

    • How to develop reliable models, even in the presence of extreme multicolinearity and when # predictors >> number of sample observations
    • Why many popular variable selection techniques are suboptimal
    • About a new powerful step-down variable reduction technique in CORExpressTM
    • About free and commercially available software for handing high dimensional data

     

     

    In addition...

    We will be discussing software in general, and how stepwise regression does not work at all well, either in general, or in the presence of multicolinearity, or when the number of variables exceeds the number of cases.

    More specifically, Statistical Innovations is developing software currently named CORExpress. This software implements a version of Naïve Bayes regression, as well as a new approach called correlated components regression, along with various other approaches. We will present the results of simulation studies that include approaches implemented as R contributed packages, including especially GLMNET- which implements the penalized approaches such as LASSO and Elastic Net. These latter are associated with Hastie, Tibshirani, and Friedman and their protégés.

    Workshop attendees will receive a complimentary demo version of CORExpress.
    http://www.chicagoasa.org/

     


    A Pioneer Passes On


    Financial mathematical modeling pioneer, Edmund O'Connor passed away January 17th at the age of 85. O'Connor reinvented much of the way Chicago Trade operated, launching an exchange with its focus on security options-a significantly less precarious endeavor than Chicago's previous focal point, grains. His contributions to the field lead to the creation of several very influential companies including, Goldman Sachs, UBS, and ABN AMRO.

    For more information on his life and contributions to the growth of Chicago's financial engineering sphere, please click here.

     


    Math Education + Quantitative Job = Career Satisfaction


    In the microcosm that is high school, clinging onto the social ladder can be an unnecessarily stressful burden for teenagers-especially when flanked by term papers, exams, and college decisions. The title of "math geek" ranks pretty low on the societal hierarchy.

    The Jobs Rated report was developed to determine which careers offer the highest sense of gratification for the majority of workers in each profession. The last laugh, therefore, belongs to these mathematically savvy individuals, as they rank higher than most in the long haul...

    The top job spot in 2011 goes to software engineer - not exactly in the statistical realm, but still reliant on a firm mathematical background. But scrolling down the list just a bit, it's important to note that mathematician ranks number two, with an excellent hiring outlook. Actuary comes in a close third, followed by statistician at number four. That's three of the top five rated careers belonging to math majors, each with excellent hiring outlooks.

    The important thing to note (and perhaps use to encourage your teenage math wiz) is that high school standings are momentary at best, and following a career path in mathematics could very well lead to life-long fulfillment. When you find a career that offers opportunities to do what you love, work is not work. For those of you who have already chosen the quantitative path, your long-term prospects are looking good.

    For a more personal look at the adolescent mathematician's plight, click here.

     


    Take Me Out to the...



    Sports Statistics Conference!

     


    Become a statistical allstar by attending this year's Spring CCASA Conference:


    Friday, May 6, 2011
    Leo Burnett offices
    35 W. Wacker Dr.
    Chicago, IL 60601

     

     




    Presenters include:

       

    • Jay Jaffe (Baseball Prospectus and Futility Infielder)
    • Ben Alamar (Editor for the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports and Oklahoma City Thunder NBA franchise)
    • Allen Sanderson (University of Chicago)
    • Aaron Schatz (Football Outsiders and ESPN columnist)

     

     

     

    The Conference VP for this event is John Vanderploeg.

    For more details, please see our website.

    Look for more details on the Sports Statistics Conference in upcoming issues of the Parameter!

     


    About the Parameter

    PARAMETER, newsletter of the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association, is published 10 times a year as a service to its members. To submit material for publication, contact the Editor, Linda Burtch, email: lburtch@burtchworks.com

    PARAMETER provides a job listing service by publishing Positions Available and Positions Wanted, the latter being free to Chapter members. Companies may list positions for $75. Contact the Editor for more information.

    For additional information about Chicago Chapter ASA, please visit us on the web at: www.ChicagoASA.org.

    Also, visit the National ASA web site www.amstat.org.

    Email change of address to: smileyr@georgetown.edu

    ©CCASA 2009



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