June 7,
2000
AMSRL-WM-BC
SUBJECT: U.S. Army Conference on Applied
Statistics
Dear Colleague,
The Executive Board of the U.S.
Army Conference on Applied Statistics is pleased to announce
that Rice
University will host its sixth annual conference in Houston, Texas on October
18-20, 2000.
The U.S. Army Conference on Applied Statistics is a
forum for the presentation of theoretical
and applied papers relating
to the use of probability and statistics in solving Army problems.
Today's
Army faces far-ranging challenges that encompass many topics in
which probability and statistics can
contribute. To name a few, data
mining, simulation, linear and nonlinear modeling, statistical
control,
data fusion, survival analysis, and experimental design play
essential roles in the development and
advancement of Army systems. It
is the Board's goal that conference attendees include
scientists
ranging from statisticians with research interests to
practitioners in other disciplines involved in the
collection and
interpretation of data.
A short course entitled "Data, Knowledge, and
Information Integration to Support Decision
Making", taught by Dr.
Sallie Keller-McNulty and staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory, will
precede
the conference on October 16 & 17. The course will cover
structured, quantitative approaches for
combining data, knowledge, and
information from multiple sources and in various forms (including
both
quantitative and qualitative) to support decision making.
Techniques from various disciplines, including
state-of-the-art expert
elicitation, statistical and reliability analysis, and knowledge management,
will be
discussed and applied to develop formal methods for information
integration. Possible DoD applications
will be addressed.
The
conference program will consist of invited talks by prominent investigators in
various
branches of statistics and applied probability as well as
contributed papers of a technical, applied, or
clinical nature. To
date, the following distinguished researchers have been confirmed for
invited
presentations: J. Stuart Hunter (Princeton; keynote address),
Alan Agresti (Florida), Donald A. Berry
(Duke), Noel A. C. Cressie
(Ohio State), Stuart A. Geman (Brown), Naomi Oreskes (UC San Diego),
and
Emanuel Parzen (Texas A&M).
Three special sessions will
highlight this year's conference: 1) Biological Warfare, organized
by
Marek Kimmel of Rice University. In this session, statistical questions will be
examined in the context
of biological warfare; for example, the
population impact of an accidental epidemic and the accuracy of
impact
predictions. 2) Digital Government, organized by Edward Wegman of George
Mason
University. The basic premise and structure of the Digital
Government initiative will be the focus of this
session, along with
discussions on security issues and information warfare. 3) Reliability,
organized by
Arthur Fries of the Institute for Defense Analysis.
Highlights of the June 2000 National Research Council
"Workshop on
Reliability Issues of DoD Systems" will be shared in this session.
The
technical session of the conference will also feature contributed papers by Army
scientists,
and academic and industrial scientists, including
investigators under contract to the Army. Contributed
papers can vary
in content from new research to well-posed problems in which statistical methods
are
applied to solve specific Army problems. Speakers are strongly
encouraged to present their papers in
terms of the potential or real
problems that motivated the work. Results that rely on relatively recent
or
specialized results in the theory of statistics and probability
should be explained in sufficient detail to
permit an audience of
statistical practitioners with broadly varying backgrounds to use the results
to
enhance their own problem-solving capabilities.
A distinct
element of this conference is its Clinical Sessions. Presentations in these
sessions
feature applied statistics problems which have not been
completely or satisfactorily solved, and for which
the presenter seeks
assistance in developing a satisfactory approach. A panel of experts, composed
of
invited speakers and other distinguished attendees, is convened for
each clinical session for the purpose
of providing guidance. Authors of
a clinical paper must provide a brief description of the problem
by
September 22, 2000 in order that the panelists have sufficient time
to prepare their recommendations.
We invite you to consider this
opportunity to present a bothersome statistical problem to some of
the
country's leading applied and mathematical
statisticians.
Participation from many activities is sought to ensure a
mixture of science and application. A
call for papers is hereby
extended. Speakers will be notified regarding paper acceptance no later
than
September 8. It may become necessary to limit the number of
papers, so a timely response is
recommended. To submit a paper for
consideration, please send the following information by August 18
to
Barry A. Bodt, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, ATTN: AMSRL-CI-CD, Aberdeen
Proving Ground, MD
21005-5067. (Electronic mail sent to
babodt@arl.army.mil is preferred.)
1. Title of paper, and a short
abstract written in standard ASCII text.
2. Name of author(s) and exact title
of the organization(s).
3. Type of paper (technical or clinical).
4.
Equipment needed (overhead, slide projector, etc.).
5. Telephone number of
the author(s) (DSN or commercial).
6. E-mail address of the
author(s).
Clinical and technical papers are nominally 30 minutes and 20
minutes, respectively. Of the 30
minutes available for clinical papers,
approximately 10 minutes are recommended for the problem
statement,
allowing 20 minutes for panel discussion. The agenda will be structured to
provide some
discussion time between papers.
The conference also
marks the occasion when the Army Wilks award is presented for
significant
contributions to the U.S. Army in the areas of statistical
research, applications, and/or consulting. This
year the Board is
accepting open nominations for award candidates. Letters of nomination
should
include the nominee's vita relevant to Army service, and should
be mailed by July 14, 2000 to Jock O.
Grynovicki, U.S. Army Research
Laboratory, ATTN: AMSRL-HR-IS, Aberdeen Proving Ground,
MD
21005-5425.
The campus of Rice University is centrally
located in Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in
the nation.
Houston offers a tremendous variety of activities and attractions for visitors.
The area's top
tourist attraction is the Houston Space Center, a museum
celebrating the accomplishments of NASA and
the American manned space
flight program. Other nearby attractions include the Houston Museum
of
Natural Science, the Houston Zoo, the nearby Rice Village Shopping
Center, and several art galleries
and museums. Performing arts
attractions include the Houston Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera,
and
numerous venues for all musical tastes including regional blues, county-western,
and Tejano.
Sports fans can catch the excitement of Houston Rockets NBA
basketball, NCAA football at any of
several local universities, or
racing at Gulf Greyhound Park. Houston's culinary landmarks include
its
steakhouses, Cajun crab shacks, Tex-Mex taquerias and barbecue
joints, but the diversity of its
population has also spawned a wealth
of fine ethnic restaurants.
This year's conference is sponsored by the
U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Walter Reed Army
Institute of Research,
United States Military Academy, TRADOC Analysis Center - WSMR,
Army
Research Office, and National Institute for Standards and
Technology - with cooperation from Los
Alamos National Laboratory,
RAND, George Mason University, Rice University, Office of
Naval
Research, and Institute for Defense Analysis. Conference meetings
will convene in the newly
constructed Duncan Hall on the Rice campus,
and a block of rooms has been reserved at the nearby
Crowne Plaza
Hotel, Houston Medical Center. A host letter providing more detailed
information
regarding registration fees, additional lodging, agenda,
etc. will follow in August. Prior to this mailing,
information
concerning the conference and tutorial can be obtained via the Internet
at
http://rpstl.arl.mil/isb/acas/. Any additional inquiries concerning
the conference may be directed to Barry
A. Bodt at the address noted
previously, by phone (410-278-6659), or by fax
(410-278-4988).
Sincerely,
David W.
Webb
Conference Committee
ARL/WMRD/BWCD/AB
| ||
Barry A. Bodt, Chair |
J. Robert Burge Walter Reed Army Institute of Research |
David
F. Cruess Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences |
Paul J.
Deason U.S.A. Training and Doctrine Command |
Eugene
F. Dutoit U.S. Army Infantry School |
Arthur
Fries Institute for Defense Analysis |
Jock O.
Grynovicki U.S. Army Research Laboratory |
Robert L.
Launer U.S. Army Research Office |
Wendy L.
Martinez Office of Naval Research |
LTC David H.
Olwell Naval Postgraduate School |
Carl T.
Russell Joint National Test Facility |
Douglas B.
Tang Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences |
Deloris M.
Testerman U.S.A. Test and Evaluation Command |
James R.
Thompson Rice University |
Mark G.
Vangel National Institute of Standards and Technology |
David W.
Webb U.S. Army Research Laboratory |
Edward J.
Wegman George Mason University |
Alyson
Wilson Los Alamos National Laboratory |