March

March

Newsletter of the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association )
Volume 60 Number 7 March 2012

IN THIS ISSUE

  • ASA Luncheon Series March 20
  • March 30, 2012: Workshop "Tetrad: Machine Learning and Graphical Causal Models"
  • Articles to Help You Win Your NCAA Office Pool
  • May 4, 2012- Conference: America the Predictable?
  • BMO Harris: Marketing Analyst
  • BMO Harris: Senior Marketing Analyst
  • Visiting Senior Research Specialists (Biostatisticians)

  • About the Parameter
  • Adam,

    March Madness is almost under way! Grab your copy of the Parameter to discover how to win the office pool.

    march


    ASA Luncheon Series March 20
    Luncheon Program Logo




    The Role of Statistics in Electronic Discovery

    Dave Lewis, PhD
    David D. Lewis Consulting

    March 20, 2012

    Noon - 1:30 PM
    The East Bank Club
    500 N. Kingsbury, Chicago 60610




    Abstract:

    Changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in December 2006 led to an explosion in the amount of electronically stored information that needs to found and turned over in civil litigation in the United States. Traditional manual review approaches (rooms full of lawyers reading paper documents) have collapsed under this burden, spawning a multi-billion dollar electronic discovery (e-discovery) software and services industry.

    I will discuss two major roles that statistical techniques play in this new industry. First, statistical information retrieval techniques such as supervised learning of text classifiers have seen intense interest for their potential to reduce human effort and cost. Second, random sampling and statistical evaluation of the effectiveness of the review process, regardless of how it is carried out, are increasingly playing a role in legal cases. Among other things, I will discuss results from cooperative evaluation efforts, in particular the National Institute of Standards TREC Legal Track.

    Biography:

    David D. Lewis, Ph.D. (www.DavidDLewis.com) is a Chicago-based consulting computer scientist working in the areas of information retrieval, data mining, natural language processing, and the evaluation of complex information systems. He formerly held research positions at AT&T Labs, Bell Labs, and the University of Chicago. He has published more than 75 scientific papers and 8 patents, and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006. He has consulted to e-discovery software and services companies, and has served as a consulting expert and expert witness in US Federal Court cases.

    Lunch is $30 for CCASA members, $35 for non-members. Non-members, join the chapter for a year for only $15 and get the discount plus all of the other benefits of membership! As usual, 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 708-957-1923 or gfunk@luc.edu

    Questions : Call Gerald Funk 708-957-1923 for more information

    Reduced fee parking available at EBC with validation.

    Please register for the luncheon by Friday March 16, 2012. Register Here

    March 30, 2012: Workshop "Tetrad: Machine Learning and Graphical Causal Models"

    Richard Scheines, Carnegie Mellon University
    Joseph Ramsey, Carnegie Mellon University

    8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
    The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
    680 North Lake Shore Drive, Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611

    The CCASA is pleased to present to you our March 30th workshop, "Tetrad: Machine Learning and Graphical Causal Models". This workshop should be of great use to researchers in many areas.

    Abstract:
    Tetrad (free software) contains over 20 algorithms for searching for a variety of model classes, e.g., path analytic models, Bayes nets, factor analytic and structural equation models, general latent variable models of conditional independence structures, and Markov blankets. In this workshop, we will briefly introduce graphical causal models, show how to build, simulate data from, and estimate such models in Tetrad, explain model search, teach how to use a variety of the search algorithms in Tetrad on real and simulated data including fMRI data to find causal relations between brain regions.


    Who Should Attend:
    Researchers in the social and behavioral sciences as well as in the life sciences could benefit from this class.
    Note: wireless access will be available at the venue, participants are encouraged to bring laptops or tablets.

    Speaker Biographies:
    Richard Scheines is the Head of Philosophy, with joint appointments in Machine Learning and Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. Along with Peter Spirtes and Clark Glymour, Scheines has published several books and dozens of articles on graphical causal models over the last 20 years. He has used model search in Tetrad to model the effect of lead on IQ, the effect of online courseware on student learning, and several other social scientific questions. Scheines has also served on several IOM committees reviewing the statistical evidence for causation in veteran's disability claims and for the effect of food marketing on childhood obesity.

    Joseph Ramsey is a PhD in Philosophy of Science from the University of California, San Diego, and is currently the Director of Research Computing at Carnegie Mellon's Lab for Symbolic and Educational Computing, as well as the chief developer of the Tetrad programs. Ramsey has done extensive algorithm development and applied work in causal modeling, including spectral identification of carbonate content, and most recently the identification of causal pathways in brain processing from fMRI data, work that is recently published in NeuroImage.

    The workshop is $200 for CCASA members, $250 for non-members, $50 for students. Non-members, join the chapter for a year for only $15 and get the discount plus all of the other benefits of membership Questions: contact Tony Babinec, for more information at: (708) 805-1409 or tbabinec@sbcglobal.net

    Parking: Parking is located at Erie-Ontario Self Park, 321 E. Erie.

    Please register for the seminar by Friday March 23rd, 2012.

    Articles to Help You Win Your NCAA Office Pool
    nracket

    With the NCAA tournament about to begin, we discuss the time-honored tradition, the office pool. The question for us statisticians is, "How can we use statistics to pick the right teams?" The articles below may offer some clues!

    The Geeks Guide to the NCAA Tournament Pools

    Bracketology 101: The Wired Guide to March Madness

    More March Madness with Minitab and Nonlinear Regression

    May 4, 2012- Conference: America the Predictable?

    Different approaches to understanding and forecasting political election results.

    Register:

    Contact: John Vanderploeg ( John.Vanderploeg@arcww.com , 312.220.1739)

    Date: Friday, May 4, 2012

    Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm

    Location: Loyola University, Downtown Water Tower Campus

    Conference Program

    9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast

    9:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. Conference Welcome by John VanderPloeg, Conference VP

    9:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Session One Speaker: Allan Lichtman

    (Distinguished Professor of History, American University)

    Title: The Keys to the White House: Forecast for 2012

    10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Morning break

    11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Session Two Speaker: John G. Geer

    (Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University)

    Topic: Political Attack Advertising

    12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Lunch

    1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Session Three Speaker: Scott Stantis

    (Editorial Cartoonist, Chicago Tribune)

    Topic: Drawing the line: Cartooning the 2012 election

    2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Session Four Speaker: Forrest Nelson

    (Professor, University of Iowa)

    Topic: Iowa Electronic Markets

    3:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. Afternoon break

    3:15 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. Session Five Speaker : Filippo Menczer

    (Professor of Informatics and Computer Science, Indiana University)

    Title: Tracking the Diffusion of Political Ideas in Social Media

    Speaker Detail:

    Speaker: Allan Lichtman (Distinguished Professor of History, American University)

    Title: The Keys to the White House: Forecast for 2012

    Learn more:

    Allan J. Lichtman received his PhD from Harvard University in 1973 with a specialty in modern American history and quantitative methods. He became an Assistant Professor of History at American University in 1973 and a Full Professor in 1980. He was the recipient of the Scholar/Teacher of the year award for 1992-93. He has published seven books and several hundred popular and scholarly articles. He has lectured in the US and internationally and provided commentary for major US and foreign networks and leading newspapers and magazines across the world. He has been an expert witness in more than 75 civil and voting rights cases. His book, White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction. His prediction system, the Keys to the White House, has correctly predicted the outcomes of all US presidential elections since 1984.

    Speaker: John G. Geer (Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University)

    Topic: Political Attack Advertising

    Learn More:

    John G. Geer (PhD, Princeton University) is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. He has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University and a research fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University. Geer is the former editor of The Journal of Politics. He has published numerous articles and several books, including In Defense of Negativity (2006), which won the Goldsmith Book prize from Harvard University in 2008. He has provided extensive commentary in the news media on politics, including live nation-wide interviews for FOX, CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, ABC, and NPR. Geer has also written op-ed pieces for Politico, The Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today, and Chicago Tribune. His lecturing has earned him a number of awards at Vanderbilt, including the "Squirrel Award." In 2005, he won The College of Arts and Sciences' Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2009, he won Vanderbilt University's Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching.

    Speaker: Scott Stantis (Editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune and creator of the comic strip Prickly City)

    Topic: Drawing the line: Cartooning the 2012 election

    Learn more:

    Since September 2009 Scott Stantis has been the editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. Filling the spot left vacant for nearly a decade by the death of Jeff MacNelly. His work is syndicated to well over 180 newspapers and has been featured by Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, "CBS This Morning" and "Nightline." He has been an editorial cartoonist for the The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee, The Arizona Republic and The Birmingham News.

    Speaker: Forrest Nelson (Professor, University of Iowa)

    Topic: Iowa Electronic Markets

    Learn more:

    Forrest Nelson is a Professor of Economics and Tippie Research Fellow at the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business. His fields of interest include Econometrics and Prediction Markets. He was one of three founders in 1988 of the Iowa Electronic Market, the pioneer of all prediction markets, and has been involved with the extension of these markets to health issues since 2003. Previous positions include Assistant Professor at California Institute of Technology and visiting Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark.

    Speaker: Filippo Menczer (Professor of Informatics and Computer Science, Indiana University)

    Title: Tracking the Diffusion of Political Ideas in Social Media

    Learn more:

    Filippo Menczer is a professor of informatics and computer science, adjunct professor of physics, and a member of the cognitive science program at Indiana University, Bloomington. He holds a Laurea in Physics from the University of Rome and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Menczer has been the recipient of Fulbright, Rotary Foundation, and NATO fellowships, and a Career Award from the National Science Foundation. He currently serves as director of the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research. He previously served as division chair in the IUB School of Informatics and Computing, as Fellow-at-large of the Santa Fe Institute, and as Lagrange Senior Fellow at the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation in Torino, Italy. His research is supported by the NSF and McDonnell Foundation, and focuses on Web science, social networks, social media, social computation, Web mining, distributed and intelligent Web applications, and modeling of complex information networks.

    Fee and Registration

    Member $175

    Non-Member $225

    Student $95

    Register:

    BMO Harris: Marketing Analyst
    BMO

    At our company, we have been helping our customers and communities for over 125 years. Working with us means being part of a team of talented, passionate individuals with a shared focus on working together to deliver great customer experiences. We stand behind your success with the support you need to turn your potential into performance.

    BMO Harris is committed to an inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. By embracing diversity, we gain strength through our people and our perspectives.

    Our goal is to become the powerful, proactive analytical workforce that BMO Harris needs to succeed.

    BMO Harris Analytics provides the organization with thought leadership. We help the business to create linkages between the data and the front-line. We listen to our clients, determine how the data can help address what are clients want, and draw insights that can help solve problems or create new opportunities.



    Knowledge Desired:

    Minimum of 2+ years of experience in marketing analytics and statistics required.

    Bachelor level or higher degree in Quantitative Degree (e.g., Statistics, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering), Master's degree preferred.

    Retail and Commercial Banking knowledge preferred, but will consider experience in Insurance, Credit Card, TeleComm, CPG, Retail and Pharma.

    Skill Levels Desired:

    Analytical thinking (Very High Proficiency)

    Ability to translate business problems into analytic solutions that drive and support business strategies and tactics (High Proficiency) Communicating and presenting solutions to technical as well as non-technical audiences, and to all levels of management, including senior executives (High Proficiency)

    Statistical Modeling and Data Mining (Strong Proficiency)

    SAS, SQL, Excel, and database skills (Strong Proficiency) Problem-solving skills (Strong Proficiency)

    Ability to develop creative and innovative solutions to problems (Average Proficiency)

    Strong project management skills with high attention to details (Average Proficiency)

    Interpersonal and relationship skills with the ability to interact well within group and across departments (Average Proficiency)



    To explore this opportunity to join BMO Harris N.A., visit our website and apply for position #95241 at www.harrisbank.com.

    BMO Harris thanks all applicants. We advise only those who qualify for an interview will be contacted.

    BMO Harris: Senior Marketing Analyst
    BMO

    At our company, we have been helping our customers and communities for over 125 years. Working with us means being part of a team of talented, passionate individuals with a shared focus on working together to deliver great customer experiences. We stand behind your success with the support you need to turn your potential into performance.

    BMO Harris is committed to an inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. By embracing diversity, we gain strength through our people and our perspectives.

    Our goal is to become the powerful, proactive analytical workforce that BMO Harris needs to succeed.

    BMO Harris Analytics provides the organization with thought leadership. We help the business to create linkages between the data and the front-line. We listen to our clients, determine how the data can help address what are clients want, and draw insights that can help solve problems or create new opportunities.



    Knowledge Desired:

    Minimum of 6+ years of experience in marketing analytics and statistics required.

    Bachelor level or higher degree in Quantitative Degree (e.g., Statistics, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering), Master's degree preferred.

    Retail and Commercial Banking knowledge preferred, but will consider experience in Insurance, Credit Card, TeleComm, CPG, Retail and Pharma.

    Skill Levels Desired:

    Analytical thinking (Very High Proficiency)

    Ability to translate business problems into analytic solutions that drive and support business strategies and tactics (Very High Proficiency) Communicating and presenting solutions to technical as well as non-technical audiences, and to all levels of management, including senior executives (Very High Proficiency)

    Statistical Modeling and Data Mining (High Proficiency)

    SAS, SQL, Excel, and database skills (High Proficiency) Problem-solving skills (High Proficiency)

    Ability to develop creative and innovative solutions to problems (High Proficiency)

    Strong project management skills with high attention to details (High Proficiency)

    Interpersonal and relationship skills with the ability to interact well within group and across departments (Strong Proficiency)



    To explore this opportunity to join BMO Harris N.A., visit our website and apply for position #95224 at www.harrisbank.com.

    BMO Harris thanks all applicants. We advise only those who qualify for an interview will be contacted.

    Visiting Senior Research Specialists (Biostatisticians)

    Visiting Senior Research Specialists (Biostatisticians)

    The Institute for Health Research and Policy (IHRP) at the University of Illinois at Chicago seeks to expand its Methodology Research Core by adding two Visiting Senior Research Specialists (SRS). Members of the Methodology Research Core provide biostatistical support to principal investigators, from study development through analysis and interpretation; and pursue their own research interests. Quantitatively and qualitatively orientated scholars are encouraged to apply. IHRP is engaged in a wide range of health-related studies including community interventions, school-based prevention, health behavior change; IHRP research incorporates diverse urban populations.

    The SRS positions require a Ph.D. in biostatistics, statistics or a relevant discipline with a substantial concentration in research methodology and two years' training and demonstrated experience in a scientific research environment.

    For fullest consideration, please send or e-mail a cover letter, CV, selected publications and the names and contact information for three references to:

    John Brach
    SRS Search, IHRP-HR
    1747 W. Roosevelt Rd., Rm. 558, M/C 275
    Chicago, IL 60608

    Or email jebrach@uic.edu


    UIC is an AA/EOE.


    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, Adam McElhinney, email: adam.m.mcelhinney@gmail.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:

    adam.m.mcelhinney@gmail.com

    ©CCASA 2009