Call for Abstracts
Third Joint Mini Conference of the Upstate Chapters of the American Statistical Association
Geneseo, NY, April 12th, 2014

You are cordially invited to submit an abstract for presentation at the Third Joint Mini Conference of the Upstate Chapters of the American Statistical Association, which will be held at the State University of New York at Geneseo on Saturday, April 12, 2014.

The theme for this year’s meeting is “Creating and Applying Tools for Massive Data Analytics.” We are interested in all submissions related to the creative ways that statisticians can contribute to solving the many complex and interesting problems involving “big data” that have become ubiquitous in many fields of application.

 Novel approaches to analyzing “big data” – If you have developed new mathematical, statistical, or computational methods or approaches to the analysis of large, complex data sets, we strongly encourage you to consider submitting an abstract to present your work.
 Applications of statistical and computational tools to massive data sets – If you are an applied statistician working in academia or in industry, and have worked on interesting problems involving large, complex data sets, then consider submitting an abstract to present your problem and the analysis that you performed to gain insight into your scientific question.
 Re-thinking statistics education in the era of “big data” – The explosion in the interest in massive data analytics in many fields has important implications for the future of statistics education. What should we be teaching the next generation of high school students, undergraduate students, and graduate students in order to equip them to address the complex analytical challenges that they are likely to face? What role should other disciplines play in this education? If you have ideas on this topic or examples that you would like to share on how you have altered educational practices, an abstract submission would be most welcome.

Although the theme of the Mini Conference is related to massive data analytics, we strongly encourage abstract submissions on other aspects of statistical methodology and applications. In addition, given the vital importance of promoting statistics in secondary education, we would especially encourage abstract submissions dealing with statistics education in secondary schools (and beyond). Presentations could involve motivating examples of experimental design or statistical analysis derived from real-world problems; strategies for emphasizing the connections between probability and the development, evaluation, and implementation of statistical methods that are used to analyze data; ideas on how to integrate frequentist and Bayesian philosophies in a balanced curriculum; or any other innovative ideas concerning this topic. As part of this education sub-theme, we are soliciting one session of “fun statistics” examples. This might include short demonstrations of probability examples (e.g., the Monty Hall problem or the birthday problem) at a widely accessible level that others could replicate and show to their students. We will award a prize for the best presentation in this session, and this competition is open to students, high school teachers, and any one else with interesting, informative, and entertaining examples.

As you prepare your abstract and presentation, please keep in mind that the focus is not on technical rigor, but instead on clarity of exposition and ease of access by our audience, which may have a substantial number of students and AP Statistics teachers. As a matter of fact, we strongly encourage students and AP Statistics teachers to participate actively. Prizes will be awarded to students for the best oral presentation, the best poster presentation, and the best application of statistics.

Abstracts must contain at most 300 words. The deadline for the submission of the abstract is Friday, February 21, 2014, and notification of acceptance will be sent out on Friday, February 28, 2014. To submit your abstract, please send a pdf version of it to the Conference Program Chair, Dr. Michael McDermott, e-mail: abstracts@up-stat.org. Please indicate ASA–Upstate Abstract in the “Subject” line of the e-mail and also indicate whether you intend to give an oral presentation or a poster presentation.

To further encourage student participation, we will hold a predictive modeling competition. A team of no more than 4 students may enter the competition by submitting their entry information on the conference website at http://up-stat.org by Friday, February 14, 2014. The information should indicate the team name, school, and the names of the team members. The data set will be accessible from the conference website on February 14 to teams that have entered the competition. Teams will be required to submit their results and the code that they used to obtain their results by Monday, March 17, 2014. Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 teams, all of whom will be asked to present their results at the conference. Further details concerning this competition are available on the conference website at http://up-stat.org.

This year, we are extremely fortunate to have Professor David Banks from the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University as our keynote speaker. Professor Banks is an entertaining and engaging speaker with vast experience in data mining in many applications, including national security, medicine, electronic commerce, and social networking.

Please, be sure to visit the conference website at http://up-stat.org for more details on registration and other important aspects of the conference.

We eagerly look forward to seeing you at the Mini Conference at SUNY Geneseo on April 12th, 2014.

Yours sincerely,
Michael P. McDermott, Ph.D.
Conference Program Chair