USC STAT NEWS

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

(http://www.stat.sc.edu/)

December 2000
(803)-777-7800
William J. Padgett, Chairman
E-mail: padgett@stat.sc.edu


From the Chair

It is again time to wish you a very enjoyable holiday season from the Statistics faculty and staff! Another year has passed, and very quickly, I might add!

Looking back at this past year I am happy to report significant progress by the Department in several areas. We were fortunate to recruit another senior-level faculty member, Dr. Edsel A. Peņa who began his appointment as a full professor with us on August 16. This brings our number of faculty positions to twelve. We also hired a full-time Assistant Manager for the Statistical Laboratory. Ms. Michele Nichols started in that position in mid-June. These and other faculty-staff news are reported in more detail later in this newsletter.

The much-anticipated move of the remainder of the faculty and graduate students from the fourth floor of LeConte to new space on the second floor finally took place between February and August of this year! The Department occupies all of the second floor now except for two small classrooms that eventually are scheduled to be used primarily by Statistics. Graduate assistants are also housed in two rooms on the first floor, so now all faculty and graduate assistants are in close proximity to each other and to the Department Office.

We have seen several of you, either at professional meetings or when you have come by the department for a visit. There was again a good attendance at the "reunion dinner" at the August Joint Statistical Meetings in Indianapolis. We like to stay informed about your activities, so please continue to let us know any news about you or your family. We are continually updating the "Alumni News" on the department's Web site (www.stat.sc.edu), which I hope you will check out regularly. So, please take a few minutes to complete and return the form at the end of the newsletter any time you would like to let us know about promotions, awards, weddings, births, or other happenings. Don't be modest! Feel free to e-mail as well; all e-mail addresses are listed at the department's Web site. Also, details are given elsewhere in this newsletter about our plans for the 15th Anniversary Alumni Conference next March 30-31. This will be in conjunction with USC's Bicentennial Celebration taking place during 2001.

The Department continues to experience increased enrollments each year. The lower division courses (STAT 110 and 201) are steadily increasing, and we are anticipating a significant increase in STAT 201 students due to a recently approved requirement that all Biology majors must take 201. New courses are being introduced as the need arises--STAT 530, a multivariate methods course for undergraduates was just approved this fall, and STAT 778, Item Response Theory, cross-listed with the College of Education, will be offered for the first time next spring. Also, the department is moving toward including an emphasis in actuarial science in conjunction with the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Finance in the Darla Moore School of Business.

The number of undergraduate majors has stayed relatively constant at around twenty-five, but this year there was an increase in graduate students to forty. Twenty-seven of these are supported on assistantships of various types, and nineteen are doctoral candidates. The demand for statistics graduates is very high with a continued excellent outlook for several years to come!

A stated goal of our department is to become one of the top programs in the South within the next few years. This is consistent with USC's objective to become a top teaching and research university. Our growth and continued strong scholarly activities this year indicate that this goal is a real possibility, one that all of us can be proud of upon its achievement. The department's reputation comes from our faculty, alumni, former faculty, staff and students. We can advance even further with your help in student recruiting and support in many different ways. You can inform your network of colleagues and any potential students of the excellent opportunities for study in Statistics here at USC. Also, your Educational Foundation contributions go directly to these efforts by allowing us to offer fellowships and awards to outstanding students at all levels. We have just begun an undergraduate "Statistics Alumni Scholarship Fund" which will provide annual scholarships to undergraduate majors when it reaches endowment level. More will be said about this later.

We thank each of you for your strong and continued support!

Joe Padgett, Chair

 

Faculty and Staff News

Changes in the faculty and staff this year included the addition of a full professor, Dr. Edsel A. Peņa. Dr. Peņa joined us in August from Bowling Green State University in Ohio where he had been a faculty member since completing the Ph.D. at Florida State in 1986. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan. Edsel's wife, Dr. Marge Peņa, is a biologist and has a position in the Department of Biological Sciences at USC. They have two daughters, Judith and Michele.

 

Welcome Edsel!!

 

Two of the regular faculty members are on leave for the year 2000-2001. Dr. Lori Thombs is visiting the Statistics Department at Rice University in Houston, teaching and doing research with colleagues there. Dr. Todd Ogden is visiting in Biostatistics at Columbia University in New York. He is working on a research project with Columbia and the New York Psychiatric Institute on imaging of the human brain. We have two visiting faculty members this fall filling in for Lori and Todd. The visitors are Dr. Robert Lund from the University of Georgia and Dr. Susan Milton from Radford University in Virginia. Also, Dr. C. Kang from Korea has been a visiting scholar in the department for the calendar year 2000.

Tammiee Dickenson, a full-time instructor, is on maternity leave for the fall semester. Tammiee and husband, George, had twin boys on September 15, Bryce and Cole. Both are growing and keeping Tammiee busy until she returns to teaching in January!

Don Edwards is continuing as the Director of Graduate Studies and Assistant Chair, and Walt Piegorsch has been the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the past two and a half years. John Grego and Holmes Finch are still in the StatLab as the Director and Manager, respectively, along with a new Assistant Manager, Michele Nichols, who joined us in June. Holmes continues teaching an 8 a.m. section of STAT 201 and has become an avid tennis player!! Jim Lynch is still the Director of the Center for Reliability and Quality Sciences, offering short courses and consultations to industrial, business and government personnel.

There have been no changes in the Departmental Office in the past year: Debra Williams is the Business/Office Manager and Anita Wood is the Student Services Coordinator and general Administrative Assistant. Willia Robinson is in her third year as our part-time undergraduate office assistant.

 

Michele Nichols

 

 

15th Anniversary Alumni Conference

Come one, come all to our 15th Anniversary Alumni Conference on Friday and Saturday, March 30-31, 2001. The event begins with an Open House Reception on the 2nd Floor of LeConte from 7:00 - 9:00 PM on Friday. On Saturday, we will meet in the Daniel Management Center (8th Floor, Business Building) to celebrate our alumni with a series of short non-technical and technical talks. Registration begins at 8:30 AM with the first talk on the Department's history at 9:00 AM. The conference ends with a social hour and a dinner on Saturday evening.

A $30 registration fee will cover lunch, dinner, social hour, and refreshments. The registration deadline is March 15, 2001. For more details and the registration form, see the conference website at www.stat.sc.edu and click on "Anniversary Conference." If you wish to give a talk, e-mail spurrier@stat.sc.edu with the title of the presentation by January 15.

 


Statistics Alumni Scholarship Fund

This fall the Department set up a fund in the USC Educational Foundation which will eventually endow a scholarship for an undergraduate Statistics major. We hope that our alumni and former faculty will support this fund to build it to the endowment level of $15,000 for an annual scholarship to be awarded to an outstanding undergraduate Statistics student. This fund is the undergraduate equivalent of the Padgett Graduate Fellowship Fund, and is titled the "Statistics Alumni Scholarship" in recognition of the anticipated support by our graduates.

 


Awards

The College of Science and Mathematics (COSM) has awarded a senior year scholarship to an outstanding Statistics major every year since 1994. Our majors receiving the scholarship in the past six years were Scott Sheridan (1994-95), Anne McNair (1995-96), James Watts (1996-97), Michele Nichols (1997-98), Megan Meece (1998-99), and Sharon Dziuba (1999-2000). For 2000-2001, Caroline Hoffman is the COSM Scholarship recipient.

At the University Awards Day ceremony on April 20, the 2000 Stephen D. Durham Award for Outstanding Performance as a Statistics Major went to Jamie Winterton. Jamie was a double major in Mathematics and also received the J.S. Yang Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mathematics and was named to Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges for 2000. Sharon Dziuba received the department's Mu Sigma Rho Award in 2000 for her outstanding academic record. Mu Sigma Rho is the national Statistics Honor Society and the award is for outstanding academic performance. Both Jamie and Sharon entered our graduate program this fall.

Megan Meece (B.S. 1999), a current master's student in Statistics was recognized as the winner of the Mortar Board Graduate Fellowship at the April 20th awards ceremony.

Our incoming graduate students this fall again fared well in fellowship awards. The W. J. Padgett Graduate Fellowship for 2000-2001 was awarded to Sharon Dziuba and Jamie Winterton, first-year graduate students this fall. USC Graduate School Fellowships and College of Science and Mathematics Fellowships were obtained by Sharon Dziuba, Meredith Tomlinson, and Jamie Winterton. Dorota Staniewska also received a College Fellowship.

The 2000 Outstanding Graduate Student Award was presented jointly to Obaid Al-Saidy and James Gleaton at the University's Graduate Student Awards luncheon in April. The Outstanding First Year Graduate Student Award went to Brandon Julio. Departmental Outstanding Graduate Assistant Awards for 1999-2000 were given at the spring picnic to Michele Nichols, Wei Pan, Susan Simmons, and Wilma Sims.

Faculty receiving awards in 2000 were: John Spurrier, Amoco Outstanding Teaching Award and National Mu Sigma Rho Statistical Education Award; and Walt Piegorsch, USC Education Foundation Research Award in Science, Mathematics and Engineering.

 


2000 Graduates

Each year we have to say "good bye" to a number of students who are graduating. Although they will be missed, their success is gratifying and we wish them well in their careers. Receiving the Ph.D. degree in August was James Gleaton, who took a position for 2000-2001 as an Assistant Professor in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

M.S. degrees were awarded to Grimaldo Febres, Weiwen Li, Carl Miller, Michele Nichols, Brian Shaffer, Wilma Sims, and Craig Sipala. M.I.S. degrees went to Kenny Brown and Michael Vitti. Also, Audrey Dixon, Sharon Dziuba, Jessica Garrison, Charles Rawls, and Jamie Winterton received bachelor's degrees in December 1999 and May 2000.

Jamie, Jessica, and Charles.

Sharon and Charles.

Dinner in Indianapolis

A "reunion dinner" was held at the Annual Joint Statistical Meetings in Indianapolis on Monday evening, August 14, at Buca di Beppo Restaurant. Approximately fifteen former faculty, alumni, and current faculty and staff who were at the meeting attended. Thanks go to Dr. Wanzhu Tu (Ph.D. 1997) at Indiana University Medical School for organizing this dinner. Next year in Atlanta we will look forward to a large group for the dinner "reunion" there!!

 

Dinner Group at Buca di Beppo at the JSM in Indianapolis.

 

Beth Walters, Trevor Craney, John Spurrier and James Surles concentrate on winning!



Stat Club and Mu Sigma Rho

The Statistics Club and Mu Sigma Rho Chapter co-sponsored several special activities this year. In addition to regular meetings and picnics, they have traveled to the S.C. Chapter of ASA meeting in Charleston and organized a tour of the Pirelli Fiber Optics plant and a fall hike through the Santee National Wildlife Refuge. A new departmental T-shirt complete with another version of the "Top 10 Reasons to be a Statistician" was designed and printed. They are planning for a group to attend the ENAR Meeting in Charlotte next March.

A special speaker this fall, co-sponsored by Mu Sigma Rho and the Stat Club, was Ms. Jeri Williams, a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries from Companion Insurance. Jeri gave an outstanding presentation on the actuarial field as a career for statistics graduates.

The Stat Club and msr will again assist in developing our display "booth" for the USC Showcase, to be held on the Horseshoe on April 7, 2001. The members will work on some new "statistical and probability games" and exhibits to entertain the crowds.

 

 

Statistical Laboratory Activities

The StatLab has been very busy with a large number of funded projects this past year. The many activities and increasing demands resulted in the addition of an Assistant Director, Michele Nichols. Michele has been a familiar face around the department for a few years (B.S. 1997, M.S. 2000), and we are happy to be able to keep her here!

The Lab has continued to work with the Department of Mechanical Engineering on failure analysis of helicopters for the S.C. Air National Guard/Department of Defense (John Grego and Jim Lynch) throughout the year. Another major project was an extensive "safety belt use" survey for the S.C. Department of Public Safety (Holmes Finch). Other funded projects included one for the S.C. Bar Association, another for the S. C. Department of Natural Resources, and work for several other companies and agencies. The Lab also continued to work with the S.C. Alliance for Minority Participation, providing statistical support on retention and tracking minority students in science and engineering in the participating colleges and universities in South Carolina. Another project on Recruiter Assessment is underway for the U.S. Army at Ft. Jackson. One of Michele Nichols' duties is to work on statistical problems in Communication Science and Disorders for the USC School of Public Health. These projects provide valuable experience for the student research assistants!

 


DoStat.com

Two statistics faculty members have founded DoStat.com, an Internet company which has been accepted into the USC Incubator. The Incubator helps start-up high-tech companies get off the ground. Webster West who has been working on the concept, technology and software for DoStat.com for about five years, along with colleague Todd Ogden, will have office space in the Incubator beginning on January 1, 2001. The idea for the company is to create a Web site that allows users to analyze data via the Internet. An article in The State Newspaper appeared on November 11, 2000, which can be viewed in its entirety at http://web.philly.com/content/ columbia/2000/11/11/education/ incubator11.htm .

A subset of the software is being used as the statistical computation package for the regularly offered, multi-section course, STAT 110. Students can access the software and do their data analyses from anywhere that has an Internet connection and a Web browser!

 

 

Other Faculty News and Activities

All of our faculty have been very busy with professional activities, teaching, and statistical research. Several exciting examples of their work are:

Don Edwards and John Spurrier, with several graduate students, worked on evaluation of the performance standards used by the Commission on Higher Education for funding colleges and universities in South Carolina. Don and two graduate students are working on an analysis of an extensive set of water quality data with funding from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

Walt Piegorsch and Web West continued work in environmental statistics supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Jim Lynch and Joe Padgett obtained additional grant funds from the National Science Foundation to continue work on reliability of complex systems and composite materials. Todd Ogden and Web West received an NSF grant to develop technology for Internet-based statistical computing. Edsel Peņa is working on modeling and analysis of recurrent event data with NIH grant support.

Eight faculty members currently serve on the editorial boards of several statistical journals, in addition to regularly refereeing manuscripts and papers for publication and reviewing grant proposals for national agencies.

Don Edwards, John Grego and Jim Lynch continued to teach the short course on "Design of Experiments" to business and industry personnel this year with a relatively large enrollment. The course was also taught on site at Westinghouse Commercial Nuclear Fuels Division this fall, also. Versions of the course are currently under development for Internet-based instruction in conjunction with a new company, NetGen, which grew out of the USC College of Engineering and Information Technology.

 


Alumni News

Kenneth Brown, B.S. 1994, has accepted a position as Senior Statistician at Georgia Medical Care Foundation, Inc., and now lives in Duluth, Georgia. He completed the Master of Industrial Statistics degree at USC this year and was married on November 20, 1999.

Madeline Boyle-Whitesel, M.S. 1995, and husband, Carl, have a baby boy, Carl IV. They live just north of Charlotte in Cornelius, NC. Madeline is working part-time again at Bank of America. See her web page at http://hometown.aol.com/ whitesel3/myhomepage/babynews. html .

Devaris Davis, B.S. 1992, M.I.S. 1999, is now Quality Analyst, Security Printing Division, at Avery Dennison in Clinton, South Carolina.

Carlos A. R. Diniz, Ph.D. 1993, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics at Sao Carlos Federal University in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Tammiee S. Dickenson, M.S. 1996, and husband, George, had twin boys on September 14, 2000, named George Bryce and Thomas Cole. Tammiee is a full-time Instructor in the Department of Statistics at USC.

Jessica Garrison, B.S. 2000, is now a Systems Engineer I, serving as a reliability engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona.

James U. Gleaton, Ph.D. 2000, has accepted a faculty position for 2000-2001 in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville.

Leslie M. Jones, M.S. 1991, has joined Lautzenheiser & Associates as an Associate Actuary in the firm's South Carolina office in St. Matthews, SC. She was the Deputy Director of Insurance and the Chief Life and Health Actuary for the South Carolina Department of Insurance prior to her current position.

Nicholas Jones, B.S. 1986, is now Quality Engineer at BBA Nonwovens in Bethune, South Carolina. Nick has achieved Certified Quality Engineer and Certified Quality Auditor status with the American Society for Quality.

Jennifer Lasecki, M.S. 1997, and husband, Marc, just had a baby girl, Ashlee Marie Lasecki, on September 5th weighing 9 pounds 6 ounces (you can see pictures at www.growingfamily.com). Jennifer currently works for Blue Cross-Blue Shield of SC in Columbia.

Shiow-Jen Lee, Ph.D. 1993, has worked since January 2000 at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Washington, DC. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of West Florida, Pensacola.

Andre Lubecke, M.S. 1977, Ph.D. 1985, has been promoted to Professor in Mathematics at Lander University, Greenwood, South Carolina.

Michele Nichols, B.S. 1997, M.S. 2000, has accepted the position of Assistant Manager of the Statistical Laboratory, Department of Statistics, USC.

Richard A. Phillips, B.S. 1983, has recently joined Valley Industrial Plastics, Inc., in Winchester, Virginia, as its Quality Assurance Manager. He is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality, an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and Certified Quality Auditor. The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology has also appointed Phillips to the 2000 Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. In September, Richard and wife, Ann, traveled to Bulgaria and returned with two newly adopted sons, 3-year-old Nicholas and 20-month-old Andrew.

Dayton Pruet, B.S. 1997, is now working in the Applications Development area in the Information Systems Division at S.C. Electric & Gas Company in Columbia. He was previously at Colonial Life & Accident Insurance in Columbia.

John, B.S. 1988, and Vilinda (Son) Rodermund, B.S. 1990, have moved to Redwood Shores, California, where John has taken a position as Director of Clinical Data Management at Gilead Sciences, an international organization dedicated to advancing novel treatment solutions to the most challenging human diseases. Vilinda has been promoted to Senior Regional Data Coordinator at Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, NJ, supporting the Cardiovascular Data Management activities full time, working from home in California!

Scott, Ph.D. 1997, and Jennifer (Simsick) Street, M.S. 1995, had their first child, Walter Scott Street V, on February 2, 2000. Scott has a new position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, since August 2000. He and Jennifer had taught at Georgia Southern University since 1997.

James Surles, M.S. 1997, Ph.D. 1999, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Texas Tech University. He and wife, Gini, have a baby boy, Jonathan Gunn Surles, born April 7, 2000, weighing 7 pounds and 10 ounces!

Craig Wheatley, M.S. 1999, has accepted a new position as a statistician in the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia.

 

Do You Have News?

As always, we want to hear from you! Please send information regarding job changes, spouse, children, address, awards, travel, etc., to Joe Padgett, Department of Statistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (or padgett@stat.sc.edu). A form is included at the end of the newsletter for your convenience.

We are also interested in learning how your USC education has helped you. In addition, any suggestions you have to improve our programs are welcome. You might be quoted in our brochures!

 

You Can Participate In Our Continued Development!

As mentioned earlier, we are always looking for good students, and you are a vital part of our recruiting network. Please send names, addresses, and phone numbers of potential students for our undergraduate or graduate programs. Walt Piegorsch, (803) 777-4651, is our Undergraduate Director and Don Edwards, (803) 777-5073, is the Graduate Director. The address is Department of Statistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 and they can be reached by e-mail at piegorsc@stat.sc.edu and edwards@stat.sc.edu, respectively.

Contributions can be made to one of three funds for the Department within the USC Educational Foundation. Your gifts can be restricted in any way you specify. Some employers provide a matching gifts program, also.

The Department of Statistics Fund (Account 1A3410) supports annual awards for top undergraduate and graduate students, helps support student receptions, helps provide computer software for student use, and other activities. Major contributions could be used to support undergraduate scholarships or help to establish chaired professorships.

The newly established Statistics Alumni Scholarship fund will provide an annual scholarship to an outstanding undergraduate statistics major. The W. J. Padgett Fellowship Fund (account 1B1593) was established in 1993 and helps us attract outstanding graduate students to the Department by offering supplemental fellowships annually. The scholarships and fellowships are funded with interest from these two accounts. Thus, contributions to them will continue to help young statisticians into the future.

Contribution forms for these funds are enclosed for your convenience.



The Statistics Department Faculty and Staff Wish You a

Happy 2000 Holiday Season!




We Want To Hear From You!

We would like to share information about your accomplishments and activities with your classmates and other graduates. If you have changed jobs, received a promotion or award, earned a new degree, married, traveled, or anything new has happened to you, please let us know. Send this form to W. J. Padgett, Department of Statistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (or e-mail the information to padgett@stat.sc.edu).

Name: ____________________________________

Degree and Year: ________________

Address:

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

E-mail:

News of any kind:

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on how your USC statistics education has helped you. May we quote you in our Departmental brochures?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suggestions for the Department:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GIFT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS

Name ______________________________________ SSN _______________________

Address _______________________________________________________________

City ___________________________________ State _______ Zip ______________

My Total Gift Will Be: $__________ Matching Gift Company ______________________________________

(Please enclose the company's matching gift form .)

I will make this gift as follows:

___ to be paid monthly quarterly semi-annually annually

Reminders to begin __________________

___ I would like to give securities or other _______________________________

This gift is to be restricted for the use of the Department of Statistics (Account 1A3410).

Check payable to USC Educational Foundation is enclosed.

You may list my name in the Report of Private Giving; otherwise, treat this gift as anonymous.

RETURN TO: Development Office, University of South Carolina, Byrnes 6th, Columbia, SC 29208


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GIFT FOR "Statistics Alumni Scholarship Fund"

Name ______________________________________ SSN _______________________

Address _______________________________________________________________

City ___________________________________ State _______ Zip ______________

My Total Gift Will Be: $__________ Matching Gift Company ______________________________________

(Please enclose the company's matching gift form .)

I will make this gift as follows:

___ to be paid monthly quarterly semi-annually annually

Reminders to begin __________________

___ I would like to give securities or other _______________________________

This gift is to be restricted for the use of the Department of Statistics for the "Statistics Alumni Scholarship Fund."

Check payable to USC Educational Foundation is enclosed.

You may list my name in the Report of Private Giving; otherwise, treat this gift as anonymous.

RETURN TO: Development Office, University of South Carolina, Byrnes 6th, Columbia, SC 29208


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GIFT FOR "W. J. Padgett Fellowship Fund"

Name ______________________________________ SSN _______________________

Address _______________________________________________________________

City ___________________________________ State _______ Zip ______________

My Total Gift Will Be: $__________ Matching Gift Company ______________________________________

(Please enclose the company's matching gift form .)

I will make this gift as follows:

___ to be paid monthly quarterly semi-annually annually

Reminders to begin __________________

___ I would like to give securities or other _______________________________

This gift is to be restricted for the use of the Department of Statistics for the "W. J. Padgett Fellowship Fund." (Account 1B1593)

Check payable to USC Educational Foundation is enclosed.

You may list my name in the Report of Private Giving; otherwise, treat this gift as anonymous.

RETURN TO: Development Office, University of South Carolina, Byrnes 6th, Columbia, SC 29208