Alabama-Mississippi Chapter Hosts Annual Conference

The Alabama-Mississippi Chapter hosted its annual conference April 1, 2022, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Nearly 50 current and prospective chapter members attended from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Auburn University.

Eric Laber, a professor in the department of statistical science and department of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke University, gave the keynote address, titled “Hierarchical Surrogate Outcomes in mHealth.” Student presenters and their topics included the following:

• Mengna Zhang of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, “An Unweighted Polygenic Risk Score for QT Interval Prolongation in African American Sickle Cell Disease Patients” (first-place student winner)
• Mathias Muia of the University of Mississippi, “Dependence and Mixing for the Perturbations of Copula-Based Markov Chains” (second-place student winner)
• Jordan Eckert of Auburn University, “Which Trap Is Best? Alternatives to Human Landing Catches for Malaria Vector Surveillance: A Meta-Analysis” (third-place student winner)
• Tran Le of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, “Using Machine Learning Approaches to Identify Novel Factors and Interactions Associated with Dementia: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study”
• Fekadu Baysia of Auburn University, “Spatial Point Process Modeling of Ambulance Call Risk”
• Mohiuddin Adnan of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, “A Run-In Phase Design and Classification Framework for Comparative Therapeutic Trials”

The chapter also held a brief business meeting. Topics of discussion included a look back at recent Alabama-Mississippi Chapter activities, a report on the ASA Council of Chapters meeting, and a chapter treasurer’s report.