Statistical Significance Competition Sees Many Winners

With a record number of 50 submissions to the annual JSM Statistical Significance competition, the ASA Scientific and Public Affairs Advisory Committee (SPAAC) recognized two first-place winners, three second-place winners, and five honorable mentions.

Ji Soo Kim, a postdoctoral student in The Johns Hopkins University Department of Biostatistics, and Lingyun Lyu, a PhD student in the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, each received $300 for their first-place entries.

Kim’s entry focused on how to maximize medical outcomes in personalized medicine by tailoring treatments to the individual characteristics of each patient. Lyu’s submission explained how, when addressing chronic diseases that require sequences of treatments, statisticians use data from health records and clinical trials to identify treatment strategies to optimize desired outcomes.

A JSM Statistical Significance entry is a one-page illustration of the value of statistics to society. The objective of the piece is to illustrate to a layperson how the statistical solution to the problem presented in the JSM presentation would help inform decisions that improve society in specific areas such as health, agriculture, economy, education, manufacturing, and medicine.

Started in 2009, the competition is designed to complement the ASA’s Statistical Significance documents, a series highlighting the contributions statisticians make to society, from health care and the economy to national security and the environment.

Statistical Significance Competition Winners

First Place

• Ji Soo Kim, The Johns Hopkins University, “Personalized Risk Estimates in Complex Diseases”
• Lingyun Lyu, University of Pittsburgh, “Multi-Stage Treatment Decisions”

Second Place

• Peng Jin, NYU School of Medicine, “Susceptible Populations and Heterogenous Effects”
• Sneha Rani, North Carolina State University, “Employment Opportunities and COVID-19”
• Seema Sangari, Kennesaw State University, “Statistics and Cyber Risk Quantification”

Honorable Mention

• Adam Elder, University of Washington, “Statistics Improves Vaccine Development”
• Tuo Lin, University of California, San Diego, “Role of Statistics in Survey Interpretations”
• Emily Luetschwager, University of Washington, “Statistics and the Environment: Detecting Natural Gas Leaks”
• Mark Ramos, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, “Statistical Testing Rises to the Challenge of Multiplicity in Genetic Studies”
• Jade Wang, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, “Statistics to Improve the Treatment of Cancerous Brain Tumors in Children”

View all the posters on the SPAAC website.

Learn about entering the competition in 2022.