Survey Research Methods
Course to Cover Methods for Obtaining
Samples from Networks
S
RMS is pleased to cosponsor Sampling Course participants will learn basic ideas For details about this course, visit www.
in Networks—a short course to be and modern methods for network sampling amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2008/onlineprogram
taught by Steven K. Thompson of
and inference. Introduction to available or contact Leyla Mohadjer at leylamohadjer@
Simon Fraser University—Sunday, August
software and computational methods will
westat.com. Anyone who has suggestions for
3, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at JSM in
facilitate course participants in implement-
short course topics or is interested in finding
Denver. Registration for JSM 2008 is now
ing network sampling and inference meth-
out more about how to submit a proposal to
open, and significant cost savings can be
ods in their own work.
teach a short course at a future JSM confer-
had if you register for the meetings and ence also should contact Mohadjer. n
short courses on or before July 17.
This short course will cover methods
for obtaining samples from networks and
using the sample data to make inference
Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences
about characteristics of the population
network. Network models are increasingly
SPES Gives Generously
used to describe populations, including
socially networked human populations,
computer and communication networks,
to 2008 JSM Program
and gene regulatory networks. A network
has nodes (e.g., people) and links (e.g.,
Randy Tobias, SPES JSM Program Chair, SAS Institute Inc.
relationships between people). The nodes
may have characteristics of interest, and
the relationships may be of different types
and strengths. However, network data gen-
M
ore than 70 independent abstracts were submitted to the Section on Physical
and Engineering Sciences for the 2008 Joint Statistical Meetings in Denver.
The SPES program chair, with the help of fellow members of the JSM
erally represent a sample from the wider
program committee, strove to put these abstracts into coherent sessions that reflected
population network of interest.
broad themes. About half the 11 contributed sessions thus constructed reflect the
In many cases, the only practical way
general statistical problems with which SPES members are typically concerned: exper-
to obtain a large enough sample from the
imental design and analysis, reliability, and computer experimentation.
population is to follow links from sample
Many of the remaining contributions involve novel applications of statistics to
individuals to add more participants to the
problems in physical and engineering sciences, so several contributed sessions were
sample. For example, in studies of the risk
organized around applied themes. Some of these applications are isotope identifica-
behaviors of people at risk for HIV/AIDS,
tion for detecting nuclear threats, wireless sensor network design, disaster recovery
the population is hidden, so standard sam-
planning, and predicting surface roughness in a micro-cutting process.
pling designs cannot be applied. Instead,
In addition to traditional paper presentations, more and more JSM participants
researchers follow social referrals from indi-
are recognizing that a poster is a great way to present contributed work to as many
viduals in the sample to find more mem-
colleagues as possible—without the time constraints of a contributed talk. Thirteen
bers of the hidden population. Similarly,
posters were submitted to SPES for the Denver meetings, and they will be presented
in studies of the World Wide Web, links
in the regular poster sessions on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Topics run from
or connections from sites in the sample are
theoretical to applied, including “Numerical Error in ODEs,” “Equivalency Criteria
followed to add more sites to the sample.
in Pharmaceutical versus Engineering Applications,” “Software To Support Weibull
Network methods also turn out to be
Inference,” and “Parameter Estimation in Astrophysical Accretion Disk Models.”
useful for spatial sampling in environ-
mental and ecological sciences, where the
SPES Mixer
populations tend to be highly clustered or
Don’t forget the joint business meeting/mixer of SPES and Q&P (Quality and
rare. Link-tracing sampling designs will
Productivity). It will be held in Capitol Ballroom 6 in the Hyatt Regency Denver
be described, together with design-based
Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Come meet the section officers, hear the very latest section
and Bayes methods for estimating popula-
news, congratulate the winners of the best paper and best posters from JSM 2007
tion characteristics based on such samples.
(see last December’s issue of the SPES/Q&P newsletter for who they were), eat and
Computational methods and available
drink, and generally enjoy one another’s company. And don’t forget the fantastic door
software also will be described.
prizes! If your organization would like to donate door prizes for the mixer, contact
Tom Loughin at tloughin@sfu.ca.
JULY 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 47
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