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[edit] Statistics Calendar of Events 2006-2007

Date Time Speaker(s) Topic
April 3 1:30 pm SC 182 Professor Katie Ziegler-Graham "Introduction to Likelihood"

Statistics aims to answer questions using data. Depending on the question we are asking, we need different statistical tools. If we are interested in answering the question “what do the data say?” likelihood and the evidential paradigm provide the proper tools. Using distributions as building blocks, we define and explore the likelihood ratio, the law of likelihood, the likelihood function and the probability of observing misleading evidence.

Graphical displays of likelihood functions allow us to explore parameter support based on observed data and distributional assumptions (a working model). We explore additional likelihoods from the evidential perspective: specifically, marginal likelihoods for several important parameters including the coefficient of variation, the one and two sample effect size, the overlapping coefficient, and the area under an ROC curve. The graphical display of parameter support and uncertainty provide clean alternatives to typically computationally intensive confidence interval calculations.
March 6 1:30 pm SC 170 Students form the 2007 Geneva Interim Trip "Geneva Interim Presentations" The students from the Geneva Interim on Global Health & Biostatistics will be presenting short summaries of three projects done in collaboration with the World Health Organization researchers. Two projects deal with estimating the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) for food borne disease and rotavirus, respectively. The group working on the food borne disease estimate faced considerable challenges regarding missing data. The rotavirus group performed an analysis to assess the model-dependency of GBDs with rotavirus as an example. The third group worked with pilot survey data from Tanzania, Ghana and India conducted to ascertain associations between< happiness and health utilization.
February 12 4:00 pm SC 280 Scott Zeger

Bloomberg School of Public Health

in The Johns Hopkins University		 "Iraq Mortality Since the US Invasion: When Counting is not as Easy as 1, 2, 3" The precision of the military fatality count in the current war is notable. In contrast, we know little about the number of Iraqi civilians who have died because of the invasion. Estimates vary from tens to hundreds of thousands. This talk will discuss scientific issues related to estimating and communicating about the number of Iraqi civilians who have died due to the U.S. invasion. It will consider the definition of “cause”, the influence of prior beliefs on estimation, the value of expert opinion, and contending with significant uncertainty. Data from two mortality surveys published in the Lancet (2004, 2006) will be relied upon..
Nov. 28 1:30 pm SC 182 Jim Scott

University of California

Berkeley		 "Factors associated with social connectedness in rural Ecuador: implications for disease transmission" Contact between individuals is an important factor for transmission of infectious diseases. Social networks represent potential pathways through which transmission may occur. Jim Scott examined social networks in 21 villages in rural Ecuador to identify characteristics that are associated with having social connections. These data may be used to inform potential public health intervention strategies.
Nov. 7 1:30 pm SC 182 Christine Kohnen, '00, St. Olaf College “But… it’s fake data!”

About the talk: Every time a laptop or data storage device that contains unencrypted personal data is lost or stolen, the potential to become a victim of identity theft becomes a reality for those whose information was misplaced. However, there are other ways individuals can have their personal information exposed and possibly misused, whether it is through their Internet surfing logs or published data sets.

One way to maintain the confidentiality of published data sets is through the application of disclosure limitation techniques. The creation and release of synthetic data is one of the ways to ensure data viability while at the same time protecting individual identities.

This talk will introduce the principles and underlying ideas behind synthetic data generation and discuss why I spend my time studying fake data.
Oct. 5 4:00 pm SC 182 Vijay Mehrotra '86 San Francisco State University "A Little Probability and Operations Research Can Go a Long Way!" In this light-hearted and easy-to-follow presentation, Vijay will describe two challenging problems that he has encountered in the "real world" of customer service operations. After providing some background, he will explain how these problems can be tackled using mathematical methods that Vijay learned at St. Olaf more than 20 years ago. If time permits, he will share a few war stories from his previous life as a consultant, entrepreneur, and executive. His talk will be accessible to students of all levels. A chance to meet and converse informally with Dr. Mehrotra will immediately follow his talk.
2006-2007 Calendar

2005-2006 Calendar

2004-2005 Calendar

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