Message from Outgoing Chair

Pete Hovey, SPES Chair

Time flies when you’re having fun—and when you’re busy. I knew SPES had many activities, but it really hit home when I was contacted about so many details. But being busy is fun, and I got to meet a lot of new SPES volunteers this year.

This has been another successful year for SPES. The main SPES activities included the Joint Spring Research Conference and Quality and Productivity Conference, hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory; the Joint Statistical Meetings, at which SPES hosted several successful invited and contributed sessions; and the Fall Technical Conference, held in West Palm Beach, Florida. The success of each conference depended on the generous contributions of volunteers as they managed arrangements, lined up speakers, and kept things running smoothly once the conferences began. I want to express my thanks—and the thanks of the entire section—to this year’s volunteers, who kept SPES conferences running.

Somewhat less visible are the other SPES officers and appointees who form the executive committee. These volunteers keep the other functions going, such as keeping the books and reporting on business meeting discussions, lining up short courses and webinars, arranging for industrial speakers at universities, and keeping the SPES members informed through regular articles in Amstat News. I want to thank all these officers, as well, for their important work.

Last, if you have been a member and thought about volunteering, please make next year the year you do. Contact me or any of the new officers next year and let us know what you would like to do. It is too late to run for office in 2019, but there are many volunteer positions. And if you see a need, we are always looking for new ideas for services for SPES members.

Thanks again to all who helped make this a great year for SPES.

2019 Spring Research Conference

Robert B. Gramacy, SRC Program Chair

Save the date! On behalf of the 2019 Spring Research Conference (SRC) organizing committee (Yili Hong, Xinwei Deng, and me), I extend an invitation to you, your colleagues, and your students to join us at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, May 22–24, 2019. The SRC is the annual meeting of the Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences. Although historically emphasizing industrial statistics, design, quality, and reliability, the meeting has increasingly emphasized modern methods in learning and high-performance computing in statistical methodology.

The tentative invited program is now online. A call for contributed papers and information about student travel support are coming soon.