#Success! WSDS a Celebration of Knowledge Once Again

Imagine this scenario: During the question-and-answer portion of a plenary presentation about collaboration, a member of the audience asks for advice establishing collaborative relationships in new work environments. The speaker provides excellent advice and encourages members of the audience to reach out. The audience actually responds. An exchange of contact information occurs and a new collaboration begins.

This scenario, which took place at the Women in Statistics and Data Science Conference (WSDS), affirms the accuracy of WSDS’ description as unique and a celebration of knowledge, community, and influence.

The approximately 400 participants had the opportunity to engage with colleagues during concurrent sessions, panel discussions, and speed sessions. Once again, the scope and quality of the presentations were incredible. Examples include the following:

Panels

• She’s ‘A Business (Wo)Man!’: Starting and/or Running Your Own Business
• Preparing for Increased Gender Diversity and Inclusion in Statistics and Data Science: Important Perspectives from Gender Non-Conforming and LGBTQ+ Scholars
• Statistical Innovations in Drug Development and Role of Data Science

Concurrent Sessions

• Intensive Longitudinal Data Models for Wearable Device Data
• Developing a Low-Cost Survey of Local-Level Criminal Victimization and Attitudes About Public Safety
• The Young Statistician’s Coding for Success

Speed Sessions

• Estimation of HIV Prevalence and Covariance Within High-Risk Groups with Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling
• Developing an Undergraduate Major in Data Science: A Statistician’s Perspective

To complement the formal program, there were informal roundtable lunches and dinners. WSDS 2018 also had the first walk-run on Friday morning. Emma Benn, Kathy Ensor, Amarjot Kaur, Leslie McCLure, Sally Morton, Dalene Stangl, and Jennifer Ward hosted meals and Claire Bowen planned a walk-run route.

The concurrent and speed sessions were accompanied by keynote and plenary presentations that challenged and energized the audience. The opening plenary presentation was given by Aarti Shah, senior vice president and chief information officer at Eli Lilly and Company. She shared lessons learned and encouraged everyone to keep a “learn list.”

On Friday, Claudia Perlich, senior data scientist at Two Sigma generated buzz with her plenary presentation about machine learning applications. Nancy Potok, chief statistician of the United States, presented the keynote and challenged listeners to be involved. The concluding plenary was presented by Alicia Carriquiry, distinguished professor in the department of statistics at Iowa State University, who offered advice about establishing and maintaining productive collaborations.

WSDS 2018 also included two service projects. The children’s book project, which is ongoing, will produce a book celebrating women in statistics and data science. And the hackathon benefited the nonprofit Laurels for Learning, which is devoted to providing extracurricular activities to students of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

The hackathon team—Lakisha Armstrong, Smitha Shivakumar, Sneha Diwan, and Huiying “Maggie” Mao—shared their shiny app, while teammates Emily Hadley and Candace Jones shared their analysis of optimal regions for recruiting volunteer tutors.

The work of the children’s book project—led by Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, Jessica Crowley, Stephanie Hicks, and Lucy McGowan—continues. Interested WSDS participants should contact ASA Director of Strategic Initiatives and Outreach Donna LaLonde to join the project.

Learn more about WSDS by reading this year’s tweets. Search for #WSDS2018.