Affiliates Update: March 2005

National Institute of Statistical Sciences

19 T.W. Alexander Drive P.O. Box 14006 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-4006
919.685.9300 FAX 919.685.9310 admin@niss.org

NISS Affiliates Program

NISS/SAMSI University Affiliates Program

Update: March 2005

1. AFFILIATES ANNUAL MEETING. An extremely successful meeting was held on March 3 and 4. Copies of all presentations are available on the affiliates web site shortly. Two SAMSI-related suggestions arising in breakout discussions at the meeting are in the process of being addressed, although not necessarily on the same time scale:

Early information about, and opportunities for remote participation in, SAMSI program working groups. The SAMSI directorate has committed ourselves to placing information about working groups on the SAMSI web site within one week of the opening workshop, and to allowing all working groups to engage external participants by teleconference.
Remote access to NISS and SAMSI events, such as technology days and workshops. Jim Berger and I have agreed consider the issues and options carefully, but some solutions may have to wait for a potentially expanded NISS building.

Also, I have been discussing with Thomas Gerig, Assistant Director for University Affiliates, a scheme to make the annual meeting mobile in both space and time. We are likely to have more to say about this at the August 7 Affiliates JSM Lunch.

2. TSE WORKSHOP WEB PAGE. Presentations from the March 17-18 Workshop on Total Survey Error are available at

http://www.niss.org/affiliates/totalsurveyerrorworkshop200503/tse_presentations.html

I thank Paul Biemer, Steve Cohen, Katherine Kantner and Jerry Reiter for their efforts in organizing and staging a highly successful event.

3. 2005 APDF. The full announcement of the 2005 Affiliates Proposal Development Fund (APDF) awards competition for 2005 will appear later in April. Three important changes have been made:

Rather than two awards of up to $10,000, we have set aside a pool of $25,000, from which we will make one, two (or conceivably but not likely more) awards. Proposals may request up to the entire pool of $25,000.
The formal cost-sharing requirement has been dropped.
Depending on circumstances, APDF award funds can either be sent to another institution or maintained in an account at NISS. This adds flexibility for recipients.

The likely target date for submission of proposals is June 1. The award(s) will be announced at the NISS/SAMSI JSM reception on August 8.

4. KETTENRING CONFERENCE. In recognition of (among many achievements) Jon Kettenring's role as founder/instigator of the affiliates programs, we will be holding a one-day conference in Jon's honor. The focus, admittedly broad, is on "The Future of Data Analysis." The conference will be on Friday, September 30, 2005, at Avaya Labs Research in Basking Ridge, NJ. Confirmed speakers include Sallie Keller-McNulty, Diane Lambert, Colin Mallows, Daryl Pregibon, me and Jon himself, with others TBA. The occasion will be festive as well as scientifically stimulating, and I hope that many of you will be able to attend.

5. 2005 AFFILIATES EVENTS

Workshop: Latent Variable Models and Survey Data for Social and Health Sciences Research (5/4-6/05, Montreal; hosted and co-sponsored by the Canadian National Program on Complex Data Structures)
SAMSI LVSS Closing Workshop (Tentative: 5/19-21/05, RTP)
SAMSI CompBio Closing Workshop (5/22-24/05, RTP)
SAMSI Undergraduate Workshop (5/30-6/3/05, NCSU)
SAMSI Data Assimilation Summer School (6/11-17/05, Boulder, CO; hosted and co-sponsored by NCAR)
SAMSI Workshop: Random Graphs and Stochastic Computation (6/13-14/05, NISS/SAMSI)
SAMSI Technology Transfer Course: Data Mining and Machine Learning (6/20-24/05, NISS/SAMSI)
Technology Day: Metabolomics (Summer 2005, NISS)
IMSMW ’05: Industrial Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Workshop for graduate students (7/25-8/2/05, NCSU)
JSM Affiliates Meeting (8/7/05, Minneapolis)
NISS/SAMSI JSM Reception (8/8/05, Minneapolis)
SAMSI National Defense and Homeland Security (NDHS) Kickoff Workshop (9/11-14/05, RTP)
SAMSI Financial Mathematics, Statistics and Econometrics (FMSE) Kickoff Workshop (9/17-20/05, RTP)
The Future of Data Analysis, A Conference in Honor of Jon Kettenring (9/30/05, Basking Ridge, NJ)
Workshop: Overarching Issues in Risk Assessment (10/27-29/05, Ames, IA; hosted and co-sponsored by Iowa State University)
Workshop: Statistical Disclosure Limitation for Geospatial Data (Fall 2005, NISS)

Affiliates reimbursement accounts may used to attend all of these events.

6. 2006 AFFILIATES EVENTS

SAMSI Astrostatistics (ASTRO) Kickoff Workshop (1/22-25/06, RTP)
SAMSI FMSE Closing Workshop (2/26-28/06, RTP)
Affiliates Annual Meeting (3/2-3/06, NISS)
SAMSI NDHS Closing Workshop (5/15-16/06, RTP)
SAMSI ASTRO Closing Workshop (6/11-14/06, Penn State)

7. SAMSI PROGRAMS FOR 2006-07. SAMSI expects to conduct 2006-07 programs on

Development, Assessment and Utilization of Complex Computer Models. Possible subprograms, with complementary emphases, include: engineering models, biomedical models, social network models, microsimulation models, environmental/ecological models, and combinatorial algorithms.
Random Matrices and High-Dimensional Inference (primarily in Fall, 2006). Potential emphases include extreme sample eigenvalues, properties of sample eigenvectors, empirical distribution of eigenvalues, design of snapshots for computer model approximation, nonlinear/topological approaches to dimensional reduction, Bayesian utilizations of random matrices, stochastic evolution of random matrices, and statistical issues involving EOFs in climatology.

Opportunities for participation are available for those at all career stages.

8. AJL REMINDER. Send material for the Affiliates Job Listings to Katherine Kantner (kak@niss.org). The AJL is located on the NISS web site at http://www.niss.org/affiliates/ajls.html

9. NISS NEWSLETTER. Volume 5, number 4 will be available soon, at http://www.niss.org/newsletter.html

Back to Affiliates Programs Monthly Updates Index

This page updated on April 1, 2005 10:41 AM