SPES Sessions at the Joint Statistical Meetings
New York, Aug 11-15, 2002

Russ Lenth, University of Iowa
2002 SPES Program Chair

Invited Program
Highlights
Awards for Outstanding Presentations
Mixer Pictures!

Invited Program

SPES will be the primary sponsor of three invited sessions at the 2002 Joint Statistical Meetings in New York City. One of the sessions is organized by the Chemometrics Committee. SPES will also likely co-sponsor other invited sessions sponsored by other ASA sections.

The sessions are as follows:

Experimental Design and Dimension Reduction in Gene Expression (Microarray) Data (Chemometrics Invited Session)
Organizer/Chair: David Gruben, Therakos

Massive amounts of data can be generated by microarray techniques. The quality and information content of the data depends on the experimental design. Data-compression and dimension-reduction techniques are also considered for managing the volumes of data.

Speakers:
David Rocke and Parul Purohit, UC-Davis
Bin Yu and Rebecka Jornsten, UC-Berkeley
Kathryn Kerr, University of Washington

Design of experiments and linear models: A session in memory of Oscar Kempthorne
Organizer/Chair: John Stufken, NSF and Iowa State University

Oscar Kempthorne passed away on November 15, 2000. He has made lasting contributions to the fields of statistics and genetics, and has always been a tremendous inspiration for many researchers and students in these areas. The session will exhibit current research in two areas of statistics where Kempthorne has had a great impact: Design of Experiments and Linear Models.

Speakers:
David A. Harville, IBM
Rosemary A. Bailey, University of London
Ching-Shui Cheng, UC-Berkeley

Statistical Signal and Image Processing
Organizer/Chair/Discussant: Prem Goel, Ohio State University

Pattern recognition has long been studied in relation to diverse applications such as remote sensing, computer vision, automatic target recognition, signal processing, wireless communications, and machine learning. Statistical approaches involve signal detection (hypothesis testing), estimation, and decision making for k-action problems (pattern recognition). The models are based on knowledge of the underlying physical phenomena. Trade-offs between optimality and computational complexity are real issues. These talks present some interesting cross-disciplinary research problems involving statisticians and electrical and computer engineers.

Speakers:
Alfred Hero, University of Michigan
Robert Nowak, Rice University
Anuj Srivastava, Florida State University

Highlights

There are many good reasons to attend the Joint Statistical Meetings, to take place August 11-15 in New York City. SPES-sponsored sessions comprise 14 of those good reasons.

The three invited sessions are:

"Statistical Signal and Image Progessing", organized by Prem Goel, 4:00-5:50 on Sunday, Aug. 11. Speakers are Alfred Hero, Robert Nowak, and Anuj Srivastava.
"Experimental Design and Dimension Reduction in Gene Expression (Microarray) Data (Chemometrics Session)", organized by David Gruben, 10:30-12:20 on Tuesday, Aug. 13. Speakers are David Rocke, Bin Yu, and Kathleen Kerr.
"Design of Experiments and Linear Models: A Session in Memory of Oscar Kempthorne", organized by John Stufken, 2:00-3:50 on Wednesday, Aug. 14. Speakers are Ching-Shui Cheng, Rosemary Bailey, and David Harville.

SPES is sponsoring four topic contributed sessions on computer experiments (organized by Michael Trossett), measurement issues (Mark Vangel), statistical applications in the computer industry (Bonnie Ray), and classifiction, prediction, and estimation (Li Zhang). SPES has seven regular contributed-paper sessions with themes such as reliability and aging, experimental design, signals and patterns, and multivariate methods for process data. Add to that five roundtable luncheons, some poster sessions, and several co-sponsored sessions, and you see that there is plenty to hold our section members' interests. It looks like this will be the biggest JSM program ever.

For more details, visit the JSM program web page, and do a "search by sponsor" (select "Section on Physical & Engineering Sciences").

SPES Awards for Outstanding Presentations

William Li, Awards Chair, University of Minnesota

The Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences is pleased to announce the results of its annual Outstanding Presentation competition for papers given at the 2001 JSM in Atlanta. These awards are based on audience evaluation of papers contributed to SPES-sponsored sessions at the Joint Statistical Meetings. The purpose of the awards is to encourage continuous improvement in the presentation of statistical information by recognizing at least some of the truly excellent talks given each year in SPES sessions. The winners will receive cash awards as part of their recognition. $100 will be awarded for best presentation, $50 will be awarded for runner-up, and $25 will be given for honorable mentions. Certificates will also be awarded. The awards this year are shown below, along with pictures of their presentation at the SPES mixer during the meetings in New York City. (Thanks to Bob Rodriguez for the photos.) Click on the thumbnails to see larger versions.

Outstanding Presentation Award Dr. William Meeker, of the Iowa State University, for his SPES Contributed Paper presentation, “Use of Sensitivity Analysis to Assess the Effect of Model Uncertainty in Analyzing Accelerated Life Test Data”
Runner-Up Outstanding Presentation Award Dr. James Mays, of the Virginia Commonwealth University, for his SPES Contributed Paper presentation, “Small-Sample Model-Robust Confidence Intervals in Regression”
Honorable Mention Outstanding Presentation Award Dr. Joseph Cavanaugh, of the University of Missouri - Columbia, for his SPES Contributed Paper presentation, “Self-Similarity Index Estimation via Wavelets for Locally Self-Similar Process”
Honorable Mention Outstanding Presentation Award Dr. Thomas Ferryman, of the Battelle Memorial Institute, for his SPES Contributed Paper presentation, “Cluster Analysis of Digital Flight Data for the Aviation Performance Measurement System”	Sorry, no picture!
Honorable Mention Outstanding Presentation Award Dr. Gregory F. Piepel, of the Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, for his SPES Contributed Paper presentation, “A Component Slope Model for Mixture Experiments”
Honorable Mention Outstanding Presentation Award Dr. Stephan Sain, of the Southern Methodist University, for his SPES Contributed Paper presentation, “A Mixture Approach for Multivariate Response Regression Trees”

I would also like to thank Dr. Wayne Nelson who helped with the data collection for the awards the Indianapolis meetings. Without the help of dedicated volunteers, the SPES awards program would not be possible.

If you would like to see your name listed among the SPES Outstanding Presentation Award winners next year, just start sharpening your speaking skills for New York City! If you would like to help with the data collection for the Presentation Awards at future meetings, please contact me at wli@csom.umn.edu or 612-625-6841. Volunteers will be recognized on the SPES web site and in the Newsletter. Your involvement would be much appreciated.