Albuquerque Chapter

American Statistical Association

Chapter Officers

11/2008 through 9/2009

Kevin Anderson, President
Intel
kevin.c.anderson@intel.com web

Oleg Makhnin, Vice President
New Mexico Tech
olegm@nmt.edu web

Richard Warr, Secretary/Treasurer
University of New Mexico
rwarr@unm.edu web

Curtis Storlie, Chapter Representative
University of New Mexico
storlie@stat.unm.edu web (webmaster)



2009 Annual meeting. Mu Sigma Rho.
Officers (please help us complete our history).
Newsletters. Jobs.
Science Fair. Chapter constitution.
(internal reference for planning).

General Information


The Albuquerque Chapter of the American Statistical Association (ACASA) serves Northern New Mexico. The Chapter meets once each year, and these meetings serve to bring together those who are interested in statistics in this region. If you are interested in joining the Chapter, please contact any of the Chapter officers or visit the American Statistical association membership web site.  Since 2006, ACASA is affiliated with Mu Sigma Rho, the national honorary society for statistics (ACASA/MSR).

2009

Upcoming Events
There are several upcoming events this year.

Previous Years

2008

The 2008 Albuquerque Chapter meeting was held on November 7 at the Glorieta Conference Center in Gorieta, NM.
Meeting Speakers
State Science Fair Winners
  • "Best Use of Statistics" awards at the New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair (NMSEF), at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NM Tech) in Socorro, NM, April 15.
    Rio Rancho High School has done extremely well in it's preparation of students, more news.
    • Judges: Erik Erhardt, Earl Lawrence, Jessica Lawrence, Oleg Makhnin, Kary Myers
    1. First prize ($100): Kevin Wymer (environmental sciences), "The Effects of Agricultural and Urban Development on Bacterial Populations in the Rio Grande River", Rio Rancho High School
    2. Second prize ($75): Megan Johnson (behavioral and social sciences) "How We Think, Who We Are: Who We Learn?", Rio Rancho High School
    3. Third prize ($50): Amber Porter (behavioral and social sciences) "Who's Got the Power? Political Election Analysis - Phase II", Rio Rancho High School

    2007

    The 2007 Albuquerque Chapter meeting was held on October 12 at Bishop's Lodge Resort & Spa in Santa Fe.  This year's theme was the "Metrology" with guest speakers from UNM, LANL, SNL, and U of Chicago.  Kary Myers reported on the Intel Science fair and Scott Vander Wiel reported on the NM state science fair. Elections and other activities completed the meeting.

    Meeting Speakers
    • Rob Easterling (Itinerant Visiting Professor), "Passion-Driven Statistics"
    • Jenifer Hoffman (Los Alamos National Laboratory), "Risk-Based Prioritization for Nuclear Material Disposition - An Approach Combining Decision and Statistical Science Techniques"
    • Michele Guindani (University of New Mexico), "The Optimal Discovery Procedure and Bayesian Decision Rules"
    • Rob McCulloch (University of Chicago), "Fully Non-parametric Bayesian Ensemble Modelling"
    • Floyd Spencer (Sandia National Laboratories), "Wrinkles in Statistical Applications for Reliability Analysis of Nondestructive Inspection"
    Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Winners
  • "Best Use of Statistics" awards at the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), held in Albuquerque, NM, May 13--19.  Kary Myers at LANL organized event.
  • Pictures of awards ceremony: Flickr, Chapter Rep Erik Erhardt presenting.
      • From among the 1,211 projects:
    1. First prize ($1,000): AS018 - Alex Heeb, Dispersal Patterns of Relocated Three-toed Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina triunguis).
    2. Second prize ($500): EA023 - Terik Daly, Chemical Aspects of the Impact Process.
    3. Third prize ($250): AS063 - Ethan Sperry, Detecting Evolutionary Forces in Populations of White-tailed Deer.
    4. Honorable mention: EN044 - Nicholas Ekladyous, Yielding to Pedestrians.
    5. Honorable mention: MA304 - David Price, Stephanie Chan, and Jacob Shapiro, Mathematical Developments of the Contact Network Model.
      6. All of these students also get subscriptions to STATS and Chance.
    State Science Fair Winners
  • "Best Use of Statistics" awards at the New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair (NMSEF), at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NM Tech) in Socorro, NM, April 14.
    • Judges: Erik Erhardt, Oleg Makhnin, Xiaomei Qiu and friend, Scott Vander Wiel
    1. Francesca Garcia (behavior and social sciences), "The Word Factor: Studying the Effect of Age on Odor. Interpretation Phase II"
    2. Alexander Caldwell (microbiology), "Does Bisphenol-A Present in Plastic Water Bottles Stimulate Bacterial Growth?"
    3. Suzanna Wood (behavior and social sciences), "What Family Factors Affect a Student's High School GPA?"

    2006

    The 2006 Albuquerque Chapter meeting was held on September 29 at Sunrise Springs in Santa Fe.  This year's theme was the "Role of the Statistician" with guest speakers representing academia, government, industry, and consulting.  Additionally, technical talks were held in the afternoon, as well as the Mu-Sigma-Rho certificate presentation, elections, and other activities.

    Guest speakers
    Gabriel Huerta – statistician role in academia.
    Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico.
    Dave Higdon – statistician role in government.
    Statistical Sciences Group, CS-6 Los Alamos National Laboratory.
    Todd Sanger – statistician role in industry.
    Director, Global Statistical Sciences, at Eli Lilly and Company and will present his experience in managing a group of about 150 statisticians.
    Ron Iman – statistician role as consultant.
    Southwest Technology Consultants and Past President of the ASA (wiki).

    Technical Slot
    Earl Lawrence, "Some Advances in Network Tomography".
    Statistical Sciences Group, CS-6 Los Alamos National Laboratory.
    Daniel Briand, Tamara Brown, Valerie Peters, "DoD Transformation".

    Science Fair Winners
    Judges: Erik Erhardt, Larry Pratt, Cedric Sallaberry (others?)
    1. Zachariah Harris (Los Lunas High School), "To Flea or Not to Flea: Phase II"
    2. Rachel Clements and Leah Crowder (Hope Christian School - Albuquerque), "War on a Weed: Exterminating the Saltcedar"
    3. Ayesha Sharrif (Rio Rancho High School), "The Obesity Epidemic"
    We affiliated with Mu Sigma Rho: The National Statistics Honorary Society.  Undergraduate and Graduate students check the qualifications and visit the ACASA Mu Sigma Rho website to become a member.

    2005


    The 2005 Albuquerque Chapter meeting was held on September 16 at the Santa Fe Hilton in Santa Fe.  Two ASA past presidents, the current president, and the president elect were present.  The speakers were
    • Fritz Scheuren, "The Pro Bono Role of Statisticians",
    • Sallie Keller-McNulty, "From Data to Policy: Scientific Excellence Is Our Future",
    • Bob Mason, "Future Trends in Statistical Science",
    • Kevin Anderson, Intel, "On Yield Modeling in the Semiconductor Industry",
    • Calvin Chiu, LANL, "A Dempster-Shafer Approach to System Reliability: Modeling and Prediction",
    • Joanne Wendelberger, LANL, "Spectral Data and Functional Data Analysis", and
    • Gabriel Huerta, UNM, "Time-Varying models for Extreme Values".
    The Albuquerque chapter of the ASA sponsored the short course September 22 presented by  Tim Hesterberg (Insightful) entitled "Bootstrap Methods and Permutation Tests."

    We presented "Best Use of Statistics" awards at the New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair.

    Science Fair Winners
    Judges: Winston Crandall, Erik Erhardt, Sarah Michalak, Larry Pratt, Cedric Sallaberry
    1. Neelima Navuluri, Hobbs High School, "A Study on the Relationship between Backpack Use and Neck and Back Pain in 7th and 8th Graders"
    2. Susannah Clary, Los Lunas High School, "A Statistical Comparison of a New Morphological Characteristic in Male and Female Kokanees"
    3. Abigail Gray, Manzano High School, "Nitrate and Groundwater in the East Mountains---Phase 3---Evaluation of Aquifer Recharge"

    2004

    The 2004 Albuquerque Chapter meeting was held on September 23 at Sunrise Springs in Santa Fe. The speakers were

    2003

    The 2003 Albuquerque Chapter meeting was held on April 10, 2003 at Intel in Rio Rancho. The meeting consisted of a short course given by Dr. Luis A. Escobar entitled "Statistical Methods for Reliability Data."  The course was jointly sponsored by the ASA, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UNM, Los Alamos National Labs, and Intel.

    Short course:  Dr. Luis A. Escobar, "Statistical Methods for Reliability Data."

    2002

    The 2002 Spring Chapter Meeting was held on April 11, 2002 at Sunrise Springs Resort in Santa Fe. The speakers were
    • David Higdon (Los Alamos National Laboratory) on "A Space-Time Model that Combines Simulations and Flight Test Data for Assessing Missile Launches from the F-22 Prototype Aircraft";
    • Larry Pratt (Intel Corporation) on "Development and Proliferation of a Sampling Frequency Optimization Tool in Industry"; and
    • Valen Johnson (Los Alamos National Laboratory) on "Bayesian Analysis of Rank Data with Application to Primate Intelligence Experiments."

    2001

    The 2001 Spring Chapter Meeting was held on April 19, 2001 at Sunrise Springs Resort in Santa Fe. The speakers were
    • Tom Kepler (Santa Fe Institute) on "Gene Expression, DNA Microarrays, and Data Analysis";
    • Laura Salter (University of New Mexico) on "Phylogenetic Inference in the Era of the Human Genome Project"; and
    • Kevin Anderson (Intel Corporation) on "The Power of Positive Spatial Statistics."

    Science Fair Winners
    At the 2001 New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair Saturday April 7, 2001 at NM Tech, Socorro, the winners in the ASA Statistics Special Awards Category were:
    1. Megan Lockwood, Junior Division, "Let them have cake and eat it 2"
    2. Christopher Alme, Junior Division, "Am I a bell-shaped marksman?"
    3. Daniel Appel, Junior Division, "BioPol: Extraction of biodegradable PHA polymers from transgenic arabidopsis thaliana"


    2000

    Science Fair Winners
    At the 2000 New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair, the winners in the ASA Statistics Special Awards Category were:
    1. Brianne Douthit, "Trafalgar: A Statistical Probability Model of the Historic Naval Battle" (Senior Division)
    2. Marian Daigle, "Multiple Intelligences: A Key to Increasing Student Performance" (Senior Division)
    3. Michelle Carroll, "Learning Disabilities Awareness: What Every Teacher Should Know" (Senior Division)
    1. Dan Appel, "Eubacterial Responses to Extremophilic Environments" (Junior Division)