2018

News from our Chairs

Catherine Calder, Chair (2017), Symanzik, Juergen (2018) - Statistical Computing


Michael Friendly, Chair (2017), John W. Emerson (2018)  - Statistical Graphics

Reports

Program Chair

Eric Laber (Computing)
Shirley Kenneth Edward (Graphics)

Statistical Computing Program Chair Elect

Hadley Wickham (Computing)  
We have a bumper crop of invited and topic contributed sessions at the upcoming JSM. A big thanks goes to everyone who put the hard working in to pulling together a session.
Invited sessions

• Academic publication is dead, long live academic publication, organized by Jeff Leek.
• Daunting Challenges and Innovative Solutions for Big Data Analysis, organized by Nusrat Jahan.
• Accessing resources from the web in data analysis, organized by Jenny Bryan.
• Cloud and Distributed Computing for Statisticians, organized by Ryan Hafen.
• Statistical Computing on Parallel Architectures, organized by George Ostrouchov.

Topic contributed:

• Statistical signal processing applied to physical activity research, organized by Marcin Straczkiewicz.
• Genomical is the new astronomical: big data algorithms and applications in genomics, organized by Min Zhang.
• Quantum computing: algorithms and applications, organized by Sergei Leonov.
• Statistical Computing and Statistical Graphics: Student Paper Award and Chambers Statistical Software Award, organised by Jun Yan

Isabella Ghement (Graphics)

Secretary / Treasurer

Allen, Genevera I. (Computing)
The Statistical Computing Section is in good financial health. During 2017 we sponsored the Women in Statistics and Data Science Conference. Send ideas to gallen@rice.edu or any other Section officer.
Wickham, Charlotte (Graphics)
The Statistical Graphics Section is in good financial health. We continue to be open to ideas for new initiatives to encourage membership. Send your ideas to wickhamc@oregonstate.edu or any other Section officer.

Council of Sections Representatives

Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, Cheryl Flynn, Jonathan Wesley Lane (Computing) 
At the Council of Sections annual business meetings in JSM 2017 the CoSGB introduced a new annual report (in the form of a survey) to better assess the needs of sections. CoSGB will be working on the wording of the survey questions throughout the year based on feedback from the sections to maximize its effectiveness.

The Committee on Applied Statistics launched a Collaboration Initiative to foster collaboration among sections. Chairs and chair-elects of each section attended a workshop during JSM to learn more about how their sections can get involved.

Additional ASA Board items that were discussed were as follows:

• Number of Bachelor's programs in statistics are rising, which is a potential for more ASA members. The Board encouraged all sections to think about initiatives for attracting these new members.
• The Board has also challenged all sections to recognizea the role of statistics in Data Science and there was a discussion on accreditation for Data Science. Many expressed that we should partner with other disciplines like Computer Science as these conversations go forward.

In the meeting successful initiatives from other sections were also highlighted. For example, the Statistical Education Section has a successful mentoring program. Some sections run webinars throughout the year with the goal of increasing reach within as well as outside of ASA members. These are fee events (with a sliding scale of price for members and students for free). These webinars provide a collaboration opportunity with other sections as well.

Sarah Hardy, Susan VanderPlas (Graphics)





2018 Officers




All communications regarding ASA membership and the Statistical Computing and Statistical Graphics Sections, including change of address, should be sent to

American Statistical Association
1429 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-3402
USA TEL (703) 684-1221
FAX (703) 684-2036
asainfo@amstat.org