Newsletter A Newsletter of the ASA’s Section for Statistical Programmers and Analysts Winter 2016
A Word from 2017 Section Chair Mike Carniello
Director Statistical Programming Astellas Pharma Global Development
I would like to write that I’m amazed at the success that our small section has had since its inception in 2009…but I would be wrong! I would be inaccurate on two major points: We’re not really small I’m not really amazed
Allow me to explain: Our section has grown from zero members in 2008 (non-existent) to 1293 (as I write this in November 2016). So, that’s not really too small! Our members have proven to be active participants –presenting and attending webinars throughout the year, as well as deeply participating in JSM by providing sessions and running our popular info booth. (Continued, p. 4)
Byline Company - Use this style to type the author’s company. A word from 2017 Program Chair A word from 2016 Section Chair SIDEBAR HEAD - Use this style to type a second-level heading in a sidebar article.
SIDEBAR SUBHEAD - Use this style to type a third-level heading in a sidebar article.
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SIDEBAR TITLE - Use this style to type first-level headings in a sidebar article. Mike Messener, Pandu Kulkarni FooterMathematical - Use this Statistician style to type the repeating text at the very bottomChief of Analytics each page. Officer and VP-Biometrics U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Heading1 - Use this style to create headlines for each article. Eli Lilly and Company
Heading2SSPA continues - Use this to be style one to of create ASA’s section most energetic headings and in an article.I am very glad to see you expressing your interest in engaging sections. You can join the excitement by contributing to the growth and success of this section Jumppresenting To and and Jump sharing From your - Use work these in Baltimore styles to atindicate JSM that anby article taking contin the timeues on to anotherread this page. newsletter. I would also 2017. like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for Mailing Address - Use this style in a mailing label to type the destination address. making my tenure as chair of SSPA very satisfying and JSM 2017 is now open for registration and submission of POSTAGE - Use this style in a mailing label to type postage information.gratifying. Many people have contributed, advised, and topic-contributed sessions and contributed papers, done a lot of work on my behalf and that of SSPA. We Returnposters, Address speed presentations - Use this style and in roundtables.a mailing label You to cantype your address.continue to grow as a section in both membership and submit topic-contributed sessions until January 11, and impact (please read the previous newsletter for more otherPicture items Caption (contributed - Use this papers, style to posters, type a descriptionspeed of a picturedetails). or illustration. If you are interested in participating or presentations and roundtables) until February 1. volunteering to grow your career and leadership, Subtitle - Use this style to type sub-headings in an article. please contact any of the officers and we would be (Continued,Use PullQuote p. to 4 excerpt) text from the main text of a storyhappy to todraw get ayou reader’s involved. attention Thank you to the again, page. and See have a wonderful rest of the year. page 4 for an example.
SSPA Newsletter 1
Key Updates Corner:
Scientific Working Group Grant Status
News Flash! Great News!
Stephen Wilson, Director, FDA has accepted invitation to join We have secured grants from two sponsors to support Vipin Arora and Melvin Munsaka as SWG member for SSPA. SSPA members who are students for knowledge sharing at JSM2017 (Baltimore, MD) and others remain in progress. Please share any topics to Vipin Arora via email - Vipin Arora [email protected] that you may have in mind especially on – Standardization of reports and data sharing, effective programming and associated statistical methods, visualization tools, etc. These topics don’t need to be limited to scope applicable to pharmaceutical industry.
Programming Heads Meeting Webinar
In September, SSPA sponsored two well-attended Web- Summary and Next step Based Lectures: In August, Pandu Kulkarni, our 2016 Section Chair invited On September 14, Abhijit Dasgupta presented “Best Practices in Data Analysis.” One key message: “The industries leaders in programming departments to
biggest reason for maintaining good practices is your participate a video conference hosted by Eli Lilly. SSPA own mental sanity.” plans to reach out to industry leaders to:
On September 27, Elizabeth Byerly presented “Parallel and Cluster Computing with R.” Encourage local efforts on sharing knowledge on Programming in parallel and cluster computing can Statistical Programming as a career speed up runtime, which allows us to run “more Enhance membership to SSPA within our iterations, testing and experimentation.” organization or groups that you network with
Look for upcoming Web-Based Lectures at Collaborating amongst the organizations we work http://www.amstat.org/ASA/Education/Web-Based- for and other organizations Lectures.aspx Networking and sharing the best programming practices to solve complex problems Want to give a Webinar in SSPA? Recruit and develop future SSPA volunteers and leaders SSPA is looking for Webinar topics for 2017 in R, SAS, JMP, Manufacturing and other topics. If you are or you know the Next meeting was scheduled in December. Stay tuned for expert in the above areas of interest that matters to the further updates on our progress to promote career and programming community, please contact Mike Messner at development opportunity for statistical programmers! [email protected].
SSPA Newsletter 2 JSM2016 Chicago SSPA Mixer Highlights: Student Award Winners Audience at SSPA Mixer
SSPA Executive Meeting JSM2016 Chicago
SSPA Newsletter 3
A Word from 2017 Section Chair A Word from 2017 Program Chair
(Continued from p. 1) (Continued from p. 1) Have Pictures to Share? Also, our ASA Community discussion group has proven SSPA welcomes all topics related to statistical to be a good method for our members to exchange programming and analysis. Papers on the theme set by Do you love taking pictures? Do you have pictures from the recent JSM or another ASA-sponsored event? The SSPA questions and answers, and share job postings or other 2017 ASA President Barry Nussbaum, "Statistics: It's would love to feature members in future newsletters. We can also post images on the SSPA web site. In fact, the site items of interest. Essential" are encouraged. contains several images from the 2015 JSM. Click on the “Library” link (login required) from the SSPA web site to see if
And as I take a moment to think about the people in our Of course, before you submit your proposal, you’ll need to you are in one of them! section, I am not amazed that they’ve created such an register. After that, submitting a proposal/abstract is a active, vibrant community for themselves – for us. snap. The instructions are here: If you have pictures you want to share, please contact Mike Messner. I’m grateful to be a part of that community, and look https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2017/abstracts/Instru forward to help all of us continue the good work that’s ctions.cfm already been done. You’ll be able to edit the abstract during the submission My objective as chair in 2017 is to see more involvement period (through January 11 for topic-contributed sessions in the monthly calls, to help this section generate new and through February 1 for other items) and then again ideas on how we can best serve our members – between March 30 and April 18. ourselves. Please consider submitting your ideas to our section. See you in 2017!
Letter from SSPA Student Member: 2017 SSPA Executive Committee Undergraduate Student’s Experience Chair: Michael Carniello ([email protected]) By Jessica Colson Chair-Elect: Melvin Munsaka ([email protected]) My time as an Undergraduate student at Lilly so far, has Past Chair: Pandurang Kulkarni ([email protected]) been an eye-opening and rewarding experience. I have learned a lot about the field of biopharmaceutical statistics Program Chair: Michael J. Messner ([email protected]) and have gotten to work with multiple teams within Program Chair Elect: Kuolung Hu ([email protected]) different stages of the process. The amount of work that it Secretary: Dominique Williams ([email protected]) takes to get from raw data to what consumers use/ see is impressive. Along the way I have been encouraged to self- Treasurer: Nakisha Boulware Reid ([email protected]) le arn in order to continue enhancing my technical skills, Publications Officer: Bala Dunghana ([email protected]) mainly my knowledge and ability to use R. I continue to be faced with tasks that allow me to exercise what I have Section Representative: Vipin Arora ([email protected]) learned. My ability to complete these tasks and contribute Council of Sections Representative: Cindy Wilson ([email protected]) at Lilly stands as a testament to how much I have learned Newsletter Editor: Bala Krishna Dhungana ([email protected]) and improved. Section web page: This opportunity at Lilly has also helped as I continue my http://community.amstat.org/SSPA/home/ education. I am able to use my experiences to approach problems from a new perspective and to resolve them more efficiently. My time at Lilly has been so rewarding Link to Webinars: that I often find myself encouraging others to pursue http://community.amstat.org/communities/community- analytic and statistic careers. home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=2071&MessageKey =cd0bd0d2-ea07-4d6f-9077- 9b8b6fae455d&CommunityKey=b654c6ea-da75-4930-9518- deeb81b2e25c&tab=digestviewer#bm0
SSPA Newsletter 4