Grant Weller

The audience fills in for Brad Carlin’s short course lecture.

The Twin Cities Chapter held its first Fall Research Conference October 30 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The conference was held in conjunction with the half-day ASA Council of Chapters traveling short courses “Bayesian Methods for Evidence Synthesis and Network Meta-Analyses,” taught by chapter member Brad Carlin of the University of Minnesota Division of Biostatistics. More than 130 people attended the short course, and more than 160 attended the afternoon events.

In the invited speaker session, attendees learned about the latest research in envelope methodology from R. Dennis Cook of the University of Minnesota School of Statistics. Dan Schaid of the Mayo Clinic Statistical Genetics and Genetic Epidemiology Lab presented methods for testing for pleiotropy and Ted Lystig of Medtronic discussed design considerations for medical device trials.

Attendees visit the 25 presentations at the poster session during the Fall Research Conference.

The conference concluded with a poster session with 25 participants. The chapter sponsored student poster competitions for both undergraduate and graduate students. Mark Ruprecht of the University of Minnesota won the undergraduate competition for “A Nonparametric Look at Self-Esteem Development,” while Cynthia Basu of the University of Minnesota Division of Biostatistics won the graduate student competition for her poster, “Hierarchical Bayesian Models for Understanding The Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Lorenzo’s Oil.” Nate Helwig of the University of Minnesota School of Statistics advised Ruprecht on his project, while Carlin advised Basu.

The conference helped chapter membership grow, which has increased to nearly 300 people. Members hail from several large academic departments at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic, as well as health care research and medical device manufacturing firms, liberal arts colleges, and other local organizations.

Conference materials are available at the ASA Twin Cities Chapter website.