The Quality and Productivity Section has a busy year ahead. Members are invited to present at and attend the annual Fall Technical Conference and Quality and Productivity Research Conference. The section also seeks nominations for the Gerald J. Hahn Q&P Achievement Award and outgoing section chair, Di Michelson, shares the section’s plans for a new social media coordinator.

The 59th annual Fall Technical Conference (FTC) will be held in The Westin Oaks Houston at the Galleria/Houston, Texas. The theme of the conference is “Statistics and Quality: Solving Problems Today and Tomorrow” and is intended to engage researchers and practitioners in a dialogue that leads to more effective use of statistics to improve quality and foster innovation. If you are interested in presenting an applied or expository paper at the conference—in any of three parallel sessions: statistics, quality control, or tutorial/case studies—contact any of the listed committee members by email.

Work should be strongly justified by application to a problem in engineering, manufacturing, Big Data, process/chemical industry, physical sciences, or a service industry. The mathematical level of the papers may range from basic to that of the Journal of Quality Technology or Technometrics. Note which level of audience is targeted (introductory, intermediate, or advanced) so the committee can assign papers appropriately and plan a balanced program. The program committee welcomes suggestions for special session topics or speakers. If you have ideas, contact one of the listed program committee members.

The abstract submission deadline is February 28, 2015.

QPRC

In addition to FTC, the section also is sponsoring the Quality and Productivity Research Conference, which will take place June 9–12 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The goal of the conference is to stimulate interdisciplinary research among statisticians, scientists, and engineers in quality and productivity, industrial needs, and the physical and engineering sciences. Statistical issues and research approaches drawn from collaborative research will be highlighted. This year’s theme is “Creativity and Innovation for a Connected World.” Abstracts can be submitted to Michelson at di.michelson@sas.com by March 1, 2015.

Gerald J. Hahn Award

The Gerald J. Hahn Q&P Achievement Award is presented at the Fall Technical Conference to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding and sustained achievement and leadership in developing, promoting, and successfully improving the quality and productivity of products and organizational performance using statistical concepts and methods over 20 or more years. This award is named after the first American Statistical Association Q&P chair, Gerald (Gerry) J. Hahn, who exemplified these traits throughout his long and successful career.

The award winner must have done the following:

• Delivered measurable and significant value to his/her organization, as recognized by peers and organizational leaders, in applying statistical concepts and methods to improving quality and productivity over a sustained period of time
• Successfully led and promoted the use of statistical concepts in methods to improve quality and productivity both within the organization and profession

Nominations are due February 28, 2015. For information about the nomination process, visit the Q&P website. For more information about the award, contact the committee chair, J.D. Williams, at jdwilliamsphdstat@gmail.com.

Message from Outgoing Chair

It has been an honor to serve as the 2014 chair of the Quality and Productivity Section. Although a simple “thanks” seems inappropriately small, I would like to thank the executive committee members for their support this year. Since being elected as secretary in 2008, I have served with many of them for a number of years in different Q&P positions and I can confidently say the section is in good hands going forward.

2014 was the inaugural year of the Gerald J. Hahn Q&P Achievement Award. The first winner of the award was Michael Hamada of Los Alamos National Labs. He presented the Q&P invited talk at the 2014 Fall Technical Conference. I would like to especially thank J.D. Williams for being the force behind this award.

It was a good year for Q&P at the Joint Statistical Meetings. Jason Gillikin, our webmaster, presented an invited poster on the history of the section. The section awarded six students with travel awards to JSM this year. Congratulations to Trenton Brown, Shuyu Chu, Caleb King, Yiming Peng, Weijie Shen, and Barbara Wendelberger. I attended a few of their talks and was impressed with the level of research I saw. Our mixer with SPES was well-attended and everyone had a good time.

In June, the Quality and Productivity Research Conference met with the Spring Research Conference to form the Joint Research Conference. The conference was hosted by the University of Washington in Seattle. Two students were awarded the Mary G. and Joseph Natrella scholarship. Congratulations to Erica Goodrich, a master’s candidate in the biostatistics program at Grand Valley State University, and Nathaniel Stevens, a PhD candidate in the department of statistics and actuarial science at the University of Waterloo.

Along with Mia Stephens of JMP, I am the co-chair of the 2015 QPRC. The conference will be hosted by JMP and North Carolina State University Department of Textiles and held in Raleigh on the NCSU campus. Our website and call for papers will be ready shortly.

To manage Q&P’s presence on social media, we are creating a new position on the executive committee. The office of social media coordinator will begin in 2015. This position will be responsible for creating and maintaining the section’s presence on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and others as required. This office is not responsible for creating content, but will post content, ask officers and members for content, and direct questions coming from social media to the appropriate officer. We hope a graduate student or recent college graduate will be appointed to this position yearly. I will share more information with you in an email before the end of the year.

And now, I’m happy to turn the reins over to David Edwards. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2015.