Stephanie DeHart
In my January message, I encouraged everyone to make a New Year’s resolution to pick one or two ways to get involved and take advantage of all that membership in SPES has to offer. So how did you do? Were you able to keep your SPES resolution this year? Hopefully you were able to do so, because we had a great year, full of fantastic events!
The 22nd ASA/IMS Spring Research Conference (SRC) on Statistics in Industry and Technology was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, in May. The theme was “Bridging Statistics Research and Application to Foster Innovation.” While I was not able to attend, I heard nothing but positive feedback about the event. Thanks to Bill Myers, William Brenneman, and the rest of this year’s conference committee, as well as Peter Qian and the other members of the SRC management committee.
In August, SPES sponsored numerous sessions and roundtables at the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Seattle, Washington. Thanks to William Li and Ananda Sen for organizing the great SPES lineup. As always, the joint mixer with the Quality & Productivity Section was full of fun and fabulous door prizes! Thanks to all our members and donors for continuing to make this a highlight of the conference.
The 59th ASA/ASQ Fall Technical Conference (FTC) was held in Houston, Texas, in October. The theme was “Statistics and Quality: Solving Problems Today and Tomorrow.” Zhen Wang helped put a great program together, and Byran Smucker arranged for the time series short course by David A. Dickey. The conference also included a new SPES-sponsored happy hour and afternoon session on Friday. The session this year was a panel discussion titled “Success! How Is It Defined and Achieved?” Each panelist offered an insightful perspective on the topic. Kathleen Higley also offered gift bags from Shell to all attendees. A special thanks goes to Phil Scinto for organizing and moderating this thought-provoking session. SPES has already started to make plans for this event again in 2016, so make arrangements to stay around on Friday afternoon at next year’s FTC.
Looking forward to 2016, keep your eyes open for some exciting changes. First, the Marquardt Memorial Industrial Speakers Program has increased the funding available for universities to sponsor speakers to $1,000. If you would like to have an industrial speaker visit your campus or you would like to tell the world about life as an industrial statistician, contact the program’s chair, Greg Piepel, at greg.piepel@pnl.gov.
Second, SPES will be moving into the 21st century with a virtual newsletter. We will discontinue print, PDF, and email versions. Instead, you will find up-to-date information, announcements, and messages on our website and ASA community page.
Finally, be on the lookout for the new Industrial Statistics Virtual Collaboratory coming soon to the SPES site. This blog post will provide the opportunity for public discussion on real-world statistical problems and potential research topics and solutions. For more information, contact Jennifer Van Mullekom at jennifer.h.van-mullekom@dupont.com or Byran Smucker at smuckerb@miamioh.edu.
In closing, I would like to thank all the 2015 SPES officers for a successful year. Your dedication and service makes SPES a valuable organization for our members. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your chair this past year. I wish you all a happy holiday season and continued success in 2016.
Nominations Invited for 2016 SPES Award
Ming Li, SPES Award Committee Chair
The Statistics in Physical & Engineering Sciences Award was established in 1990 to recognize outstanding collaborative endeavors between statisticians and chemists. Beginning with the 2015 award year, the award’s scope has been expanded to recognize outstanding collaborative endeavors between statisticians and scientists throughout the physical and engineering sciences.
Nominations are due by February 20 each year, and the award is presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings the same year. For details, see the SPES website.
“SUCCESS!” Is Successful
Philip Rocco Scinto, SPES Council of Sections Representative
The ASA/ASQ Fall Technical Conference is an annual plethora of useful and inspiring statistical research, tools, and methods in experimental design, analysis, simulation, and quality. This years’ conference held an added bonus in which the Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences hosted a special panel discussion on the topic of success.
“Success! How Is It Defined and Achieved?” was chaired and moderated by Phil Scinto and composed of a diverse panel representing statisticians, nonstatisticians, former statisticians, managers, business owners, entrepreneurs, consultants, technical fellows, and academics. Kathleen Higley, Cassandra Garcia, Simon Sheather, and William Brenneman each provided a thought-provoking and entertaining perspective on success and then took questions from the audience. Higley also provided the audience with gift cards and “swag” bags from Shell.
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