May

May

Newsletter of the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association )
Volume 61 Number 9 May 2013

IN THIS ISSUE
  • May 22nd 5:30 PM, "How Redbox is using Data Visualization to Solve Complex Business Issues"
  • Westat's David Morganstein Elected 110th ASA President
  • Chicago ASA Honored Dr. Roger W. Hoerl as Statistical Advocate of the Year
  • Workshop: A HUGE Success!
  • The CCASA Slate of Officers Finalized
  • Check out the ASA blog for the latest news on the International Year of Statistics
  • West Monroe Partners is Hiring!
  • Grainger: eCom Optimization Statistical Analyst
  •  

    Adam,

    Thanks for a great 2013 ASA Season!


     

    May 22nd 5:30 PM, "How Redbox is using Data Visualization to Solve Complex Business Issues"

    The CCASA is pleased to announce our first ever happy hour and statistics presentation. Save the date for May 22nd, 5:30 - 7:30 PM at Rockit Burger Bar 3700 N. Clark St.

    The event will feature Matt James (Sr. Director of Strategy and Analytics) from Redbox speaking on "How Redbox is using Data Visualization to Solve Complex Business Issues".

    Matt leads the Strategy & Analytics team at Redbox which is responsible for using analytics to make high value decisions for the company including international expansion, kiosk site selection, product mix optimization, and new business exploration. The team is also responsible for merchandising decisions - developing the analytics to drive the initial assortment of games and movies and then optimizing within the kiosk network.

    Prior to joining Redbox, Matt led consulting teams at Bain & Company and Marakon, advising clients across a variety of industries on growth strategy. Matt received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his BA from Northwestern University.

    Redbox is the number one destination for renting DVDs in America, renting more than 2 billion discs to date. Redbox has more than 34,600 locations in the US (more than Starbuck's and McDonald's combined) and 68% of the US population lives within a five-minute drive of a Redbox kiosk. Those kiosks generate a lot of data, and Redbox analysts eagerly consume it to provide analysis and recommendations to drive decision-making (big and recurring) for the company. We will share some of the unique challenges of the Redbox business and how analysis and data visualization is helping us to make the right decisions.

    RSVP on our meeting site here

     

    Westat's David Morganstein Elected 110th ASA President
    ASA

    ALEXANDRIA, VA, MAY 9, 2013-David Morganstein, MA, vice president and director of Westat's statistical unit, was elected the 110th president of the American Statistical Association (ASA)

    "I am greatly honored and humbled by the confidence placed in me by my peers in the American Statistical Association," said Morganstein,following his election as the ASA's top volunteer leader. "Our profession faces many challenges and has many opportunities. I very much look forward to guiding the ASA's work on the membership's behalfto advance the statistical sciences, to advocate for our members' interests and to raise public awareness of our profession's increasingly valuable contributions to our data-dependent world."

    At Westat, where he has worked for more than 35 years, Morganstein directs a unit of 65 statisticians. He specializes in the design and application of surveys and systems of evaluation, quality control, statistical analysis and estimation. He leads research and development tasks that improve or enhance Westat's survey and census projects and has developed best practices for several key survey processes

    Read the full press release

     

    Chicago ASA Honored Dr. Roger W. Hoerl as Statistical Advocate of the Year

    Thursday, May 9th 2013 The Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association was pleased to Honor Dr. Roger W. Hoerl as Statistical Advocate of the Year.

    Organizer George Bateman commented "The SAY event was a great success. Introduced by Dr. Gerry Hahn, the first SAY award winner, this year's award winner Dr. Roger Hoerl gave an outstanding presentation on Big Data and Statistical Leadership to a full house of attentive and enthusiastic interested parties. After his talk, Dr's Hoerl and Hahn joined with Dr. Ron Snee to discuss issues and offer advice on opportunities for leadership. Student attendees were particularly appreciative of the personal time with our honored guests following the formal event."

    Thanks to all those who attended!

     

    Workshop: A HUGE Success!

    A big thanks to everyone who attended the April 26th workshop led by Peter S. Fader on "Probability Models for Customer Analytics". The workshop was a huge success!

    Over 50 people were in attendance. The consensus was that it was a hugely informative and useful event. Attendee Chris Walker of Enova Financial said of the workshop, "The event was great. Professor Fader presented an incredible amount of useful information. I would highly recommend the ASA Workshops to anyone interested in statistical applications."

    We'd like to again thank our very generous sponsors of the workshop, West Monroe Partners and Orbitz! Without their fabulous support, the event would not be possible.

     

    The CCASA Slate of Officers Finalized

     

    The slate of officers for the 2013-14 year has been finalized.

    Mary Kwasny (President)

    Linda Burtch (Past President)

    Ed Hirschland (President Elect)

    Borko Jovanovic (Council of Chapters Representative)

    Adam McElhinney (VP Communications)

    John VanderPloeg (VP Conferences)

    Joe DeCosmo (VP Luncheons)

    Steve Olson (VP Membership)

    Mike Wise (VP Publicity)

    Richard Smiley (Secretary)

    Dan Hayes (Treasurer)

    Tony Babinec (VP Workshops)

    Directors:

    George Bateman

    Linda Clark

    Jerry Enenstein

    Lou Fogg

    Gerald Funk

    Kwang-Youn Kim

    Kathy Morrissey

     

    If you would like to be more involved in programs, we also have space for volunteers!�If you are interested, please drop me an email:m-kwasny@northwestern.edu. We are always looking for diversity and energy to continue to bring you the best programs possible!

     

     

     

    Check out the ASA blog for the latest news on the International Year of Statistics

    Make sure to check out theASA International Year of Statistics blogfrequently to stay up on the latest happenings.

    The ASA has many great celebrations planned, including some great upcomingactivities, agreat article on evidence informed policy making, and anupcoming statistics quiz for school-aged children!

     

    West Monroe Partners is Hiring!

    West Monroe Partners currently has 57 openings, many of them for quantitative and statistics professionals.

    Please check out theirwebsitefor full descriptions.

     

    Grainger: eCom Optimization Statistical Analyst

     

     

    Lake Forest, IL

    Primary Function:

    Effectively optimize Grainger.com website by translating data into actionable insights and conducting experiments to implement those insights to drive business results.

    Principal Duties & Responsibilities:

    * Use analytics (online and offline) to develop actionable insights

    * Translate business questions into effectively designed tests and experiments (e.g. A/B, multivariate tests) for different campaigns and programs.

    * Collaborate within the merchandizing team on improving product categories, internal search, product recommendations through A/B testing

    * Collaborate with eCommerce product management and eMarketing to improve features and functionality, email and landing pages via testing.

    * Collaborate with Optimization program project manager to successfully execute ab tests

    * Develop documentation for experiments and maintain internal repository e.g. develop test plans and lead test plan walkthrough with team

    * Collaborate with external vendors on tests where necessary

    Qualifications:

    * Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field (Statistics or mathematics degree preferred)

    * 2 years Applied data mining/predictive modeling/statistics experience - Ecommerce experience a plus

    * Knowledge of and experience in the design and analysis of experiments, estimating power and sample size requirements, estimating effect size

    * 2 years experience using statistical analysis tools (SAS, SPSS, R) -(Medium proficiency)

    * Experience with SQL in large database environments

    * Experience with web analytics tools (e.g. Coremetrics, Omniture)

    * Experience with online testing platforms; Test & Target is preferred

    * Superior analytical and problem solving skills

    * Knowledge of HTML/ Javascript a plus

    * Ability to communicate effectively in a manner that is clear, logical and consistent

    * Ability to work independently with minimum supervision

    *Please apply directly for the position at:http://tinyurl.com/c82c66y.

    *Please include a resume with your online application.

     



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