The Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) started its 2011–2012 program on uncertainty quantification (UQ) in July with a summer school in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories; however, activities on UQ will take place all year at SAMSI. In conjunction with these, the recently formed SIAM UQ activity group will hold its first UQ conference in Raleigh from April 2–4, 2012, in cooperation with SAMSI, the American Statistical Association, and the United States Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM).

Also on tap is a program organized by Deepak Agarwal of Yahoo, Daryl Pregibon of Google, and David Banks of Duke University on computational advertising (CA), a new field that stems from mathematical research linked to algorithm development for page ranking, information retrieval, queries, auctions, and search in the context of Internet monetization. A two-week program on CA will be held from June 25 to July 7, 2012, with nonlocal continuum models being investigated from June 25–29. These models are increasingly being considered in mathematical, scientific, and engineering circles to model singular or anomalous behavior such as cracks and fracture in solids and, more generally, to develop multi-scale models.

Plans also are under way for the 2012–2013 SAMSI programs, for which ASA members will have numerous ways to get involved. Financial support is available for visiting researchers to be residents at SAMSI for one month to one year. Also, special opportunities exist for young researchers, and several postdoctoral positions will be funded for each SAMSI program. Dedicated workshops will allow graduate and upper-level undergraduate students to learn about the latest research and applications in the statistical and mathematical sciences. All involved researchers will have chances to broaden their interests and skill sets, participate in cutting-edge interdisciplinary projects, and make new connections. New researchers and members of under-represented groups are especially encouraged to participate.

The 2012–2013 programs include the following:

Data-Driven Decisions in Health Care
This program will focus on mathematical and statistical issues related to evidence-based health care decisionmaking. A first principal thrust is operations research modeling in health care with an emphasis on mathematical modeling and simulation (e.g., discrete-event and agent-based simulations) as evaluation tools. A second, more statistically oriented theme is comparative effectiveness research to determine what methods, surgeries, medications, and behavioral modifications work for whom and for which medical problems.

Statistical and Computational Methodology for Massive Data Sets
This program will focus on challenges posed by massive data sets. Data acquisition rates on the order of gigabytes per second necessitate innovative approaches toward computing environments, analysis, and algorithms. Techniques developed for small or moderate-sized data sets simply do not translate to modern massive data sets. Research foci will include inference; large-scale nonlinear optimization; online streaming and sketching; imaging; data visualization; systems and architectures; and applications to astronomy, high-energy physics, and the environment.

Visit the SAMSI website for more information about any of the SAMSI activities.