Adam L. Pintar, 2019 FTC General Committee Chair
The 63rd annual Fall Technical Conference (FTC) was held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, September 25–27. The FTC brings together researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, and government to discuss ways to more effectively use statistical methods for research, innovation, and quality improvement.
The conference theme, “Statistics: Setting the Standard for Success in Quality,” highlighted the deep connections between statistics, standards, and quality. Three short courses were held September 25, with topics in experiment design (Martin Beezner of Stat-Ease), functional data analysis (Jiguo Cao of Simon Fraser University), and statistical process control (William Conover of Texas Tech University and Victor Tercero-Gómez of Tecnológico de Monterrey México).
There were four plenary and lunch speakers. Peter Parker from NASA opened the conference Thursday morning by discussing his experience with the rise of statistics and statistical thinking at NASA. ASA President Karen Kafadar spoke Thursday during the lunch session about eyewitness reliability, and Jim Filliben of NIST gave the W.J. Youden Address Thursday afternoon. The Friday lunch speaker was John Butler of NIST. He introduced and screened an Emmy-winning short film about Wilmer Souder, a pioneer in forensic science.
There were many highlights besides the plenary and lunch sessions. A session by Ron Wasserstein and Allen Schirm about the ASA’s statement on p-values, titled “Time to Say Goodbye to Statistical Significance,” generated discussions that continued into the evening social activities. The Friday afternoon panel session sponsored by SPES and titled “Training the Next Generation of Statisticians: What Do They Need to Know?” also led to a vigorous discussion and was a great way to close the conference.
Next year’s conference with the theme is “Mining for Quality with Statistics and Data Science” will be held October 7–9, 2020, in Park City, Utah. It will be chaired by Richard Warr of Brigham Young University. Visit the website for conference information and the call for papers.
Abstracts for the contributed program must be submitted through the website by February 29, 2020. If you are interested in getting involved, contact Richard Warr for potential opportunities using the contact feature on the website.
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