In This Issue

SCASA: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHA P- E-Tidings Newsletter TER OF THE AMERI- CAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION SCASA Events and News

VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019

In This Issue

Page 2: New SCASA board Pages 3-4: Presidential address Page 5: Book Club Page 6: Online store Page 7: Statistics Poster competition Page 8: DataFest Page 9: Careers Day Page 10: Applied Statistics Workshop Page 11: Traveling course Page 12: Job Opening Announcement Page 13: Dr. Normalcurvesaurus, Ph.D. presents

The answer is at the bottom of this issue. http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 P A G E 2

SCASA Officers 2019-2020 : CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL ELECTED AND RE-ELECTED!!!

We have the newly elected SCASA board!!! Congratulations to Everyone!!!

President: James Joseph, AKAKIA [[email protected]]

President-Elect: Rebecca Le, County of Riverside [[email protected]]

Immediate Past President: Olga Korosteleva, CSULB [[email protected]]

Treasurer: Olga Korosteleva, CSULB [[email protected]]

Secretary: Michael Tsiang, UCLA [[email protected]]

Vice President of Professional Affairs: Anna Liza Antonio, Enterprise Analytics [[email protected]]

Vice President of Academic Affairs: Shujie Ma, UCR [[email protected]]

Vice President for Student Affairs: Anna Yu Lee, APU and Claremont Graduate University [[email protected]]

The ASA Council of Chapters Representative: Harold Dyck, CSUSB [[email protected]]

ENewsletter Editor-in-Chief: Olga Korosteleva, CSULB [[email protected]]

Chair of the Applied Statistics Workshop Committee: James Joseph, AKAKIA [[email protected]]

Treasurer of the Applied Statistics Workshop: Rebecca Le, County of Riverside [[email protected]]

Webmaster: Anthony Doan, CSULB [[email protected]]

http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters P A G E 3 VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2

“GROW STRONG” Presidential Address

Southern California may be the most diverse job market in the United States, if not the world. Our chapter's winning logo is an ode to statistics and all the backyards we play in. Statistics has evolved by its application in many different professions. It's a tool used by those who seek truth and those who act like they know it. Since being established in 1925, the Los An- geles Chapter, now a larger Southern California Chapter (SC-ASA), has actively promoted the Sci- ence of Statistics. This is only my fifth year in Los Angeles, but thanks to the warm welcome of board members before me, especially Past-President Olga Korosteleva, VP of Student Affairs Anna Yu Lee, and Secretary Michael Tsiang, and around me, like Harold and Madeline, I’ve become more ac- quainted with the broad community. Now, I’m glad to join new officers: President-Elect Rebecca Le, VP of Professional Affairs Anna Liza Antonio, VP of Academic Affairs Shujie Ma, and Webmas- ter Anthony Doan. Thank you, all, for carrying the torch and leading us into another year. I actually began my ASA journey at the Philadelphia Chapter (ASA-P). I was looking to break into the pharmaceutical industry after earning my Bachelor's in Statistics from Penn State. Fortunate to meet Past ASA President, Dr. Sally Morton, at the Summer Institute of Training in Bi- ostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh, she led me to reach out to my local ASA chapter. ASA-P welcomed me with open arms at their local events before formally inviting me to volunteer as their first Student Representative. Together, we spearheaded a local Career Panel and, with the help of my former AP Statistics teacher, Mr. Eric Reid, we hosted it at the high school I attended. By the way, did you know that much like our very-own AP Poster Competition in April, ASA-P members volunteer as judges at the Delaware Valley Science Fair? Anyways, before arriving here at SC-ASA, I also served a brief stint as Secretary on the ASA Council of Sections during which time I had the chance to attend an annual meeting at our association’s HQ in Alexandria, VA. I get really excited for our annual events. First, meeting local students at our AP Stat Poster Com- petition and DataFest. Then, joining professionals at our Careers Day. Next, everyone attends our Applied Statistics Workshop to learn from expert practitioners performing live "data science". Be- fore the new year, we host Traveling Course and Kick-Off Meeting to celebrate advances in the field, while dedicating some time to review the past year in order to prepare for the next.

Continues on the next page... http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters P A G E 4 VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 “GROW STRONG” Presidential Address

… continued from the previous page.

We notice that Statistics is the common thread between many practices - the quintessen- tial science. In fact, I minored in three different sciences: a social one, Psychology; a medical one, Biology; and, an engineering one, Six Sigma. I tied it all together by defending a Master's thesis that analyzed preventative healthcare programs as an investment area. Now, I love creating apps for clinical and financial researchers around the world as I learn to manage all the uncertainties in between! Becoming a member of the American Statistical Association helped me Grow Strong! As a professional society, our network, know-how and meetups not only give people a chance to get into the game , but also to get ahead of it. Our organization must adapt to survive various pressures like any other living thing. Trendy ML, AI and data sci events compete to engage our community. Our network, focused on advancing the science and application of statistics, has stood the test of time... so far. Legendary investor Peter Lynch once said, "invest in a business any idiot could run because someday one will." I say, join a chapter any data scientist could run, because someday one will! ;) I recently received the Charter and Gavel from our Past-President, Dr. Olga, to mark my transition into the Presidency. Of course, we want every elected board member to be successful in building a better SC-ASA. To do so, we need to ensure that our policies enable continuous im- provement in accordance to our chapter's vision and our society's mission. We must define and measure the direction we choose to go in order to identify and overcome obstacles on the way there. Our Chapter is at best when we draw from our entire range of perspectives in all of our multi-disciplinary glory! So, before then, I invite everyone to inquire deeply about our Chapter - past, present and future, failures and successes - to prepare a discussion about how to continue to Grow Strong, together.

Sincerely,

James Joseph SC-ASA President http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters P A G E 5 VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2

JOIN the SCASA Book Club!

In January and February, we are reading The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ulti- mate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World by Domingos, Pedro, Basic Books, 2015.

Everyone is welcome to join and chat about the contents, likes and dislikes, bounce ideas, ask ques-

tions, provide answers on our newly created book chat at t.me/sc_asa. More information about the club can be found under the tab “Book Club” at

https://community.amstat.org/scasa/home

http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 P A G E 6

WE ARE LAUNCHING

https://www.scasa.shop/shop

The purpose of this shop is to supply the SCASA community with en- viable goodies, and, as a byproduct, to raise funds for our chapter.

I took a sneak preview of the shop and couldn’t refrain from buying a lot of items. Now this is how my life looks like.— SCASA Past- President

http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters P A G E 7 VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 SCASA 14th Annual Stat Poster Competition

Date: Saturday, April 13th, 2019

Time: 10AM-5PM for judges and volunteers, 12:30PM-5PM for students

Location: Cross Campus HQ, 929 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA

Sponsors: LA Counts and The Los Angeles Times Data Desk

To register as a student or a judge, to read about rules, scoring, and

prizes, please visit postercomp.org.

CALLING ALL JUDGES

AND

http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 P A G E 8

ASA DataFest 2019 in Southern California UCLA • April 5-7 ◊ Chapman University • May 3-5

By Madeline Bauer, USC (retired), Michael Fahy (Chapman University), and Rob Gould (UCLA)

Professor Rob Gould started DataFest in 2011 at UCLA with just 30 students. ASA DataFest is now sponsored by the American Statistical Association. Last year, more than 2000 students took part at over 20 sites in the US, Canada, and Germany. This event has become so popular in Southern California that a second SoCal site was added at Chapman University for the 2017 ASA DataFest. In 2018, both the UCLA and the Chapman University sites had to turn students away!

How you can support DataFest: There are three ways you can support DataFestTM as either an individual or a business:

❶ Please consider visiting as a Visiting Consultant.

This is perhaps the most important support. Every year, students cite their interactions with the visitors as the most valuable component of DataFest.

UCLA DataFest: http://datafest.stat.ucla.edu/ (Look under "Support DataFest") Chapman DataFest: www.chapman.edu/datafest  Spend an hour or two getting to know the students and offering your sage advice.

 This is an excellent recruiting opportunity; you get to watch students working in teams, under pressure, striving to understand possibly the most complex data set they have encountered. In fact, each year, several students have received internships and interviews that have led to full- time employment. ❷ Please consider a financial contribution and, in particular, asking your employer to contribute. Chapman: Contact Michael Fahy at [email protected]

UCLA: http://giving.ucla.edu/Datafest

❸ Contribute Swag. Pens, thumb drives, notepads.

The students love these and they help make the event fun. If we get something special, we can give it away in a “midnight raffle” to help keep the energy level high.

See you at ASA DataFest! http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters P A G E 9 VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2

2019 ASA Careers Day February 23, 2019 9:00 am to 1:00 pm Chapman University, Orange, CA

http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 P A G E 1 0

SCASA 38th Annual Applied Statistics Workshop

Regression Modeling Strategies

Frank Harrell Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

One-Day Workshop: Friday, April 26, 2019, 8:30AM - 3:30PM Where: The Pointe Conference Center located in the Walter Pyramid at CSU, Long Beach Parking: $9 day pass, recommended lots G7, 8, 9, and 11 (map). Registration cost: Early-bird (on or before April 21): SCASA member—$70, student—$10 (includes 1-year free membership), non-member—$80 (includes 1-year free membership) Later registration (after April 21): SCASA member—$80, student—$10 (includes 1- year free membership), non-member—$90 (includes 1-year free membership)

To register go to https:?www.123signup.com/register?id=rxbsz

Workshop Schedule

8:30am – 9:00am Check-in, Late Registration, Breakfast 9:00am – 10:30am Welcome and Session 1 10:30am – 11:00am Break and Coffee 11:00am – 12:30pm Session 2 12:30pm – 1:30pm Break and Lunch 1:30pm – 3:00pm Session 3 3:00pm – 3:30pm Raffle (must be present to win)

http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters P A G E 1 1 VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 ASA Traveling Full-Day Course All Available Info

By Olga Korosteleva, SCASA Past-President

Dear SCASA Community, we have been lucky this year to be awarded an ASA traveling course with a local instructor. We are waiting until April to pick a date and book a venue for this event. Below is all the information that is available to us at this point.

Title: Guidelines for Using State-of-the-Art Methods to Estimate Propensity Score and Inverse Probability of Treatment Weights When Drawing Causal Inferences Instructor: Brian Vegetabile /ve-ge-tA-bi-lee/, RAND Corporation When: Saturday, October (date TBD) Where: TBD Cost: TBD

Biography: Brian Vegetabile is an associate statistician at the RAND Corporation. His prior research was motivated by problems arising from the Conte Center on Brain Programming and Adolescent Vulnerabilities at the University of California, where he also studied methods for quantifying predictability in mother-infant interactions as a marker for later behavioral outcomes in observational data settings. His current methodological research interests are in Bayesian inference and statistical machine learning techniques as they apply to causal inference in observational studies. Vegetabile earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Penn State University and spent four years working as a satellite systems engineer for Northrop Grumman. His Ph.D. thesis focused on methods for obtaining optimal covariate balance for causal inference in observational studies. He obtained his Ph.D. in statistics from the Universi- ty of California, Irvine. [ https://www.rand.org/about/people/v/vegetabile_brian.html]

Abstract: Estimation of causal effects is a primary activity of many studies. Examples include testing whether a substance abuse treatment program is effective, whether an intervention improves the quality of mental health care, or whether incentives improve retention of mili- tary service members. Controlled, random-assignment experiments are the gold standard for estimating such effects. However, experiments are often infeasible, forcing analysts to rely on observational data in which treatment assignments are out of the control of the researchers. This short course will provide an introduction to causal modeling using the potential outcomes framework and the use of propensity scores and weighting (i.e., propensity score or inverse probability of treatment weights) to estimate causal effects from observational data. It will also present step-by-step guidelines on how to estimate and perform diagnostic checks of the estimated weights for testing the relative effectiveness of two or more interventions. Attendees will gain hands-on experience estimating propensity score weights using boosted models in R, SAS and Stata; evaluating the quality of those weights; and using them to estimate intervention effects. Additional topics (if time allows) can also include methods for conducting sensitivity analyses for unobserved confounding and estimation of the effects of time-varying treatments. Attendees should be familiar with linear and logistic regression; no knowledge of propensity scores is expected. http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2 P A G E 1 2

JOB OPENNING

Associate Service Fellow Position

The Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking to fill an Associate Service Fellow position in its Fort Collins, Colorado, office beginning in August, 2019. The ideal candidate will have a strong mathematical background with a masters degree in Statistics or biostatistics and work experience at this level. The position is currently funded at the GS-11 level (Denver/Aurora locality) and expected to continue for 2 years, with renewal potential. Further information to interested parties available at the contact below.

Duties

The Fellow will collaborate closely with DVBD statisticians in support of all division statistical activities. Principle duties include application of a range statistical methodologies to division projects, including a variety of epidemiological, entomological, vertebrate biologi- cal, and microbiological studies performed in field and laboratory settings. Statistical methods used include but are not limited to exploratory data analysis; linear and general- ized linear mixed effects modeling; epidemiological statistics, including case-control studies; methods in diagnostic testing; complex surveys; categorical data analysis, including exact methods; statistical computing; sample size computation; stochastic processes; spa- tial statistics. Statistical support in the division includes study design consultation; data management; tabular and graphical presentation; analysis; report, manuscript, and presentation preparation; statistical computing, including code-development and software support. The statistical software package R is used principally, and proficiency in R or SAS is expected; other software tools are used as needed, including StatXact and PASS.

Contact Brad Biggerstaff, Ph.D. Mathematical Statistician

Division of Vector-Borne Diseases Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 3156 Rampart Road, Fort Collins, CO 80521 (970) 221-6473 +++ [email protected]

http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters P A G E 1 3 VOLUME 8, ISSUES 1 - 2

Dr. Normalcurvesaurus, Ph.D. presents

If you would like to submit an entry to the next issue, please contact me at Ol- [email protected]. Yours Truly, Olga Korosteleva

Your Editor-in-Chief Solution to problem on page 1: Suppose the man had $100 in his pocket. At the end of these transactions he will have $120. So, he made $20. Easy. http://community.amstat.org/scasa/newsletters