The ASA Section on Statistical Computing's mission is to promote computational applications that solve problems arising in statistics and data science. Through these efforts, we advocate efficient and user-friendly computational applications arising from methodological and software developments. In addition, we encourage the joint application of computational statistical and data science techniques in other fields, and act as a focal point for computational activities within the ASA. The importance of these activities is becoming even more critical with the advance of data technologies that challenge us with new problems.
The ASA Section on Statistical Graphics's mission is to foster understanding and proper use of statistical graphics in statistics, in other scientific fields, in the greater data visualization community, in the mass media, and among the general public. In addition, we encourage the teaching of statistical graphics in universities, colleges, secondary schools, and primary schools and we encourage research in statistical graphics and data visualization to provide a focus within the Association for it. The importance of these activities is becoming even more critical with the advent of enormous datasets of extremely high dimensionality.
If these activities interest you, please consider adding either or both sections to your ASA membership.
JSM 2026 Invited Session Proposals
The submission portal is open now through September 3rd for proposals for invited sessions for JSM 2026 in Boston, MA. We at the Statistical Computing Section and Statistical Graphics Section look forward to receiving your proposals on computing & graphics-related topics.
For more information or to submit, please visit: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2026/.
Reach out to Sherry Zhang (Statistical Graphics Section, Program Chair-Elect 2025) at huize.Zhang@austin.utexas.edu or Ben Baumer (Statistical Computing Section, Program Chair-Elect 2025) at bbaumer@smith.edu with questions.
Congratulations 2024 Data Challenge Expo Winners!
Student Winners
FIRST: Understanding Confidence in American Institutions Over Time: Comparing Two National Surveys
Andrew Forrester, University of Maryland and co-author Ujjayini Das
SECOND: Exploring the 2024 GSS
Yichi Song, Carleton College, and co-authors Bryanna Schaffer and Adam Loy
THIRD: Investigating American Optimism: Evidence from 2022 General Social Survey (GSS) Data
Wooyoung Kim, Washington State, and co-authors Jacqueline Carlton, David Rice, Daryl DeFord, and MdMahedi Hasan
HONORABLE MENTION: A Matter of Perception: An Analysis of Factors Influencing Perceived Crime in Selected U.S. Cities
Hiyang Wang, Duke University, and co-authors Erick Jiang, Ziyao Cui, Nicholas Sortisio, Cynthia Rudin, and Eric Chen
2025 JSM Mixer
The Joint Statistical Computing and Graphics mixer will be held at 5:30 pm PDT on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, at the Omni Nashville Hotel Room: H - Cumberland 6. With many thanks to our sponsors CRC Press, and O'Reilly.
2025 Student Awards announced!
The review panel of the John M. Chambers Statistical Software Award consisted of David Dahl, Arun Chind, Thomas Yee, Sherry Zhang, and Philip Waggoner (Awards Chair). The 2024 John M. Chambers Statistical Software Award goes to:
The review panel of the Student Paper Award consisted of Susan VanderPlas, Panpan Zhang, Yu Wang, Eduardo Charles, Huanjun Zhang, and Philip Waggoner (Awards Chair). The 2025 Student Paper Awards go to:
- Brian Liu, MIT, “FAST: An Optimization Framework for Fast Additive Segmentation in Transparent ML";
- Shushan Wu, University of Georgia, “Fisher Contrastive Learning: A Robust Solution to the Feature Suppression Effect";
- Xinlei Chen, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Biostatistics, “Federated Learning of Robust Individualized Decision Rules with Application to Heterogeneous Multi-Hospital Sepsis Population";
- Nathan Rethwisch, Programs of Data Science and Statistics, Iowa State University, “Interactive Visualization Framework for Forensic Bullet Comparisons".
The student award recipients will present their work in a topic-contributed session of the 2025 Joint Statistical Meetings. They will also receive their certificate and cash prize at the mixer of the Section on Statistical Computing and the Section on Statistical Graphics.