Statistics Newsletter 2018

In this issue Our Faculty

2-4

Staff Update

5

Our Students

6-7

Alumni News

8

SAC and SCC

9

Data Analytics Certificate

10

Greetings!

Welcome to the Statistical Science newsletter! There are many exciting things to share about the department and at UI in statistics, including news about our faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and friends.

This fall semester marks the first semester of our new B.S. degree in Statistics. The degree has two options: a General Option and an Actuarial Science and Finance Option. The Department of Statistical Science is essentially taking over the Statistics and Actuarial Science and Finance Options from the B.S. degree in Mathematics, which are being discontinued. Although the Actuarial Science and Finance Option is nearly identical to the courses from the math degree, the General Option has been redesigned to be more flexible and allow greater computational options for students interested in Data Science.

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Falll 2018

For more information about our new B.S. degree, check out: https://www.uidaho.edu/sci/stat/ academics/bs-degree Stay tuned for further developments at our department webpage www.uidaho.edu/sci/stat and in our LinkedIn discussion group www.linkedin.com/groups/6625685.

If you are not already a member of our LinkedIn group, LinkedIn is free to join, and you can send a request to join the group to either me or the department.

Chris Williams

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Our Affiliate Faculty: Ray Dacey Business Berna Devezer Business Ray Dezzani Geography Luke Harmon Biological Sciences William Price College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

The Journal of Theoretical Population Biology Special Issue in memory of Paul Joyce was published in November 2017. Erkan Buzbas was the managing editor for the special issue in memory of Paul Joyce, and Simon Tavare (Paul's advisor) was the other editor. The volume was published in November and had about 20 novel research articles, a short editorial piece introducing these papers and their connections to Paul's work, and a reminiscence piece by Steve Krone celebrating Paul's work. The authors of the articles in the volume span four generations of scientists, Paul's mentors, colleagues, students, and students of his students. There are research articles which are written by Paul's students and co-authored by their students. Such a diversity and span is a tribute to Paul's work and life.

Chris Remien Mathematics

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In 2016, Brian Dennis (professor, UI Dept Statistical Science) and José Ponciano (2004 M.S. Statistics, UI and 2006 Ph.D. Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, UI) were invited to give presentations and participate in a 2-week workshop on Evidence Statistics at the Institute for Statistical Mathematics (Akaike's life-long institute) in Tachikawa, Japan. They stayed at the "Akaike Guest House" on campus and studied Akaike's original research notebooks in the institute library.

In 2017, Brenda Hanley (2016 M.S. Statistics, UI and 2018 Ph.D. Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, UI) and Brian Dennis (professor, UI Dept Statistical Science), presented a paper arising from Hanley's M.S. statistics thesis titled "Analytical expressions for the eigenval-

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ues and other quantities arising from a 3stage wildlife population matrix" at the 6th International Conference on Mathematical Modeling in Tucson, Arizona.

Paul Hohenlohe and Erkan Buzbas were awarded an NSF grant this year. The project is titled ''Using experimental population genomics to test novel hypotheses and develop novel analytical tools". The award is $700,000 and it will allow us to hire a statistically oriented PhD student who will be in the BCB Program and a postdoc for three years.

Paul Hohenlohe contributed to an article published in Nature Communications (Epstein, B. et al. (2016) Rapid evolutionary response to a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils. Nat. Commun. 7:12684 doi: 10.1038/ncomms12684). This research project involved looking for signs of evolutionary change across animal genomes related to a transmissible, fatal cancer in Tasmanian Devils. Their research “suggests there may be genetic variants in the species that could lead to resistance to the disease,” Hohenlohe said. “It provides hope that Tasmanian devils will evolve in the face of the disease and persist in the wild.”

The article is available online at http:// www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12684.

The Vandal Ideas Project and CMCI sponsored the "Open and Reproducible Science Workshop" on September 22, 2017, organized by Berna Devezer (affiliate faculty in Statistics with appointment in Business) and Erkan Buzbas. The full day workshop included talks in the

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morning session from Patriciz A. Valdez (NIH), Bert Baumgaertner (UI philosophy), Erkan Buzbas (UI Statistics), Gustavo Nardin (Brandenburg University of Technology), and Gordon Watts (University of Washington).

College of Science Dean Ginger Carney addressed the participants of the workshop during lunch. A hands-on workshop on using the Open Science Framework tools in the afternoon was conducted by the Center for Open Science representative Ian Sullivan.

Bahman Shafii retired at the end of Spring 2017 semester.

Audrey Fu has continued working with postdocs Md. Bahadur Badsha and Rui Li (through June 2018), and Evan Martin (2016 M.S. Statistics, UI), a PhD student in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Audrey and Badsha have developed a machine learning algorithm for learning causal biological networks from genomic data, using the principle of Mendelian randomization. Their manuscript is available on biorxiv (https:// www.biorxiv.org/content/ early/2017/12/19/171348), the largest preprint repository. They have also released on CRAN the R package implementing the algorithm (https://cran.r-project.org/web/ packages/MRPC/index.html). Badsha, Evan, and Audrey further put together a manuscript on the R package and investigated its performance relative to other similar R packages. This manuscript is available on arXiv (https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.01899). Together, they have presented this work at popular genomics conferences, such as the Biology of Genomes meeting at the Cold Spring Harbor Lab in May 2017, and the American Society of

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Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting in Orlando in October 2017, and presented the updates at the ASHG Annual Meeting in San Diego in October 2018. Rui, Badsha, and Audrey also presented on deep learning algorithms for imputing missing values in single-cell RNA -sequencing data at the same ASHG meeting in October. In 2017, with her collaborators at Stanford University, Audrey published a novel method for identifying cell types relevant for complex traits or diseases from joint analysis of single-cell gene expression and genomewide association studies (http:// www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297 (17)30378-6). You can read their fun interview with the editor at the American Journal of Human Genetics here: https:// blog.ashg.org/2017/11/13/inside-ajhgdiego-calderon/.

Dr. Tim Johnson has been working on several research projects.

One recently finished and submitted for review for publication concerns the estimation of item response models for data where item responses have been selectively censored to reduce disclosure risk.

Another project nearing completion concerns models for unmatched longitudinal data. And a project that was recently started concerns new multivariate models for data collected using the "item count" method for sensitive survey questions.

Friends and colleagues of Dr. Dale Everson wishing to recognize his association with and service to the University of Idaho established an endowment in his honor in 1996. Dale Everson was Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Idaho from 1962 to 1996 and also served as Division Director.

The purpose of this endowment is to provide fellowships to students enrolled in the Department of Statistical Science at the University of Idaho who achieved excellence in academics.

Fellowship recipients receive a scholarship and certificate.

The 2017 recipients were Elizabeth Ehrsam and Chung Yan Wan. The 2018 recipient was Rosebella Capio.

Renae Shrum was promoted to Senior Instructor in Spring 2017.

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Dr. Stephen Lee had a productive year in research in 2018, with one paper appearing and four others submitted. Dr. Lee teaches a variety of courses, and plays a major role in staffing courses for our online MS degree. He is a key member of the faculty developing academic and research programs at the university in the area of Data Science, and his recently-created Stat 517 ‘Statistical Learning and Predictive Modeling’ http:// www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stevel/ stat517.htm course is a central course in our new Data Analytics Certificate.

The department welcomed a new staff member in Fall 2017.

Jessica DeWitt is the Administrative Financial Specialist, located in Brink Hall room 415A. If you’re on campus, stop by and say hello!

Dr. Michelle Wiest was on sabbatical for the 2017-2018 year working with Panhandle Health District in Hayden, Idaho. Idaho is consistently ranked among the states with the highest suicide rates. Michelle is compiling data from vital records, hospitals, and social media to analyze and present back to community stakeholders so they can better address the underlying causes of suicide. She is also developing data cleaning protocols and data analysis tools in freely available software for community health assessments. These tools help to free up time for epidemiologists and health promotion specialists to focus their energy on addressing the health needs of their community. Michelle hopes to disseminate these tools so that they can be used by other health districts in the future.

Marco Mesa-Frias’ current research interest is in the application of data science techniques in health outcomes research and precision medicine. He is also interested in the development of quantitative models to understand how policy interventions, within the domain or outside the domain of healthcare, impact population health and well-being in underserved populations. Currently, he is involved in several projects at Merck Research Lab in Pennsylvania, developing innovative solutions for health outcome research studies using artificial intelligence tools.

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http://www.uidaho.edu/sci/stat

Statistical Science Department Staff In 2015, the staff for the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Statistical Science joined together to become one team. Our staff team includes four members, each of which work with faculty and students in both departments: Jessica DeWitt is the Administrative Financial Specialist. Her office is in the main Statistical Science Department Office, Brink 415A.

Melissa Gottschalk is the Management Assistant. Her office is in the main Math Department Office, Brink 300.

Jaclyn Gotch is the Administrative Coordinator. Her office is in the main Math Department Office, Brink 300.

Have questions about the Department of Statistical Science? Contact one of our staff members!

Jana Joyce is the Program Manager.

Her office is in the main Math Department Office, Brink 300.

Thank you Donors!

Your generous donations allow us to provide some extras for our graduate students.

Louise Avery Eric D. Bennett '97 '99 Celeste Brown '00 and Christopher Williams Richard C. and Barbara Bull Caroline O. Christenson Mary Katharine Conitz Gerald L. '58 and Karrylle J. '59 Curnes Rodney Leon '77 '85 and Shelley Rae '78 Dale James and Jackie Frey Edward and Allene M. Goforth Barbara '82 and Arthur W. Gropp Bruce Hoerner Carl W. and Martha K. Hunt Jana Joyce Guohua Li '02 and Hua Feng '03 '06 '16 Youngtaik Lim '83 '05 and Myungsik Chun

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Janie G. Nirk ‘68 Susan A. Norris '04 Bruce M. '75 '90 and Kathryn Ann '76 '99 Pitman Susan Browning Roberts '83 Mike and Barb Skogsberg Cynthia Mae Spiker '95 '96 William Stellmon '71 and Rosalyn M. Hall Tim L. '86 '86 and Julie Ann '89 Taylor Matt E. '72 and Karen G. '71 Telin Jon Harlan and Mary Jo Van Gerpen Hester M. Wamstad Kenneth Mark '87 and Carrie Wamstad Information is on page 8, if you’d like to make a contribution to the department.

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Our Recent Graduates Spring 2016 Amanda Bowe Brenda Hanley Holly Knickerbocker Cara Leatherman Evan Martin Adam Young

Summer 2016 Vanessa Kercher Katrina Taylor Elizabeth Ng Kristen Petersen

Fall 2016 Philip Branigan Charlotte Milling Ildiko Roth Richard Tromacek

Spring 2017 Ensheng Dong Elizabeth Ehrsam Michael Willmorth

Colby Bland is from Livermore, California.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Conservation Biology from UI. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Statistics, in the Consulting Option. He intends to do an internship over the summer, either in a lab or with a natural resource organization, to help refine his future career focus.

Ernestina Boateng is from Ghana, West Africa. She received a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.

She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Statistics Rosebella Capio came to UI from Ghana, West Africa. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Statistics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Statistics. After finishing her degree, Rosebella would love to apply her knowledge in statistics in the pharmaceutical industry or work in a firm that deals primarily in data analysis.

Yazhuo (Brian) Deng is from China. He has earned an undergraduate degree in Exercise Science and a Mas-

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ter’s degree in Sport Administration. Brian is in the doctoral program, focusing on exercise and health and is currently working with Audrey Fu. After graduation he hopes to continue working in the field of exercise and health.

Dylan Hull-Nye earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at the University of San Francisco. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Statistics. He would like to work in Biostatistics applied to medicine and disease modeling and clinical trials.

Cary Lindsey is from Tupelo, Mississippi. She received a BS in Geology. In May 2018, she earned a PhD in Geology at UI, under the direction of Dr. Jerry Fairley. Her dissertation was titled “Exploratory and Spatial Statistics for Evaluating Heat and Mass Transfer in Geothermal Areas.” She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Statistics. Cary plans to pursue a career in academia in Geology/ Statistics focusing on spatial and geostatistics. Her work to this point has focused on characterizing hydrothermal systems.

Martyna Lukaszewicz was born in Poland and moved to Seattle during her teen years.

She received a B.S. in Biology from Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington.

She earned a M.S. in Statistics at UI in

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2018 under the thesis option. She is currently pursuing a Doctoral degree at UI in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.

Vignesh Muralidharan is from Chennai, India.

He received a B.TECH degree in Industrial Biotechnology from Anna University in Guindy, Chennai, India. He received a Master’s degree in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from University of Idaho before joining the Master’s in Statistics program.

He is interested in creating a model to help predict the production of biodiesel with all varieties of waste and with preserving them under extreme temperatures. He is also interested in analyzing the composition of glycerol content with purification steps involved in the greater part of producing biodiesel. After finishing his degree, Vignesh would like to use his previous work experience and statistical knowledge to analyze different issues in the field of Biostatistics.

Justice Nii-Ayitey came to UI from Ghana, West Africa. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Statistics. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Statistics. After completing his graduate degree, Justice intents to work with government agencies providing statistical consulting services. He is also interested in doing statistical consulting and working with universities with regard to research and teaching.

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Kylie Reich is from Nuevo, California. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from Humboldt State University. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Statistics.

Peng Song is from China. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He is currently working on a Master’s degree in statistics. After graduation he hopes to pursue a PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology or in Mathematics.

Our Recent Graduates Summer 2017 Keegan Hedge Justin Knox Thomas Schrempp Chung Yan Wan

Fall 2017 Noeer Alotaibi Jeremy Belsher Jensen Hegg

Spring 2018 Gavin Whitesitt is from Rathdrum, Idaho. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from UI and an Associate’s degree from North Idaho College. He is pursuing a Master's degree in Statistics and the Graduate Data Analytics Certificate. After finishing his degree, Gavin would like to be a data scientist. He also has aspirations of leveraging his quantitative background to start up a consulting company.

Fall 2018

Xinming Lin Michelle Londe Valerie Smith Vasile Alexandru Suchar

Summer 2018 Martyna Lukaszewicz Erik Luvaas

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We want to hear from you!

Send us an update on your life after UI. We’d love to hear about career updates, family news, and other highlights.

You may email us at: stat@uidaho.edu

Jenny Guarino, 2008 MS Statistics graduate, has been working as a statistician at the US Department of Transportation since May 2009 (2009 – 2013 in the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration since 2013). In November of 2016 she was chosen to represent the Department of Transportation (DOT) in the 12th Cohort of the President Management Council’s (PMC) Interagency Rotation Program. This program is run by The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and is aimed to assist the targeted training and development of current and future leaders. The PMC Interagency Rotation Program enables emerging Federal leaders to expand their leadership competencies, broaden their organizational experiences, and foster networks to leverage in the future. Specifically, the program aims to:  Deliver a collaborative, cross-agency program to reduce barriers to interagency mobility.  Enhance PMC participants’ leadership competencies through a meaningful rotational assignment and through other developmental opportunities outside of their current agencies.  Expand PMC participants’ interagency experience either within or outside their current area of expertise.  Offer engaging and insightful interagency cohort events that allow each participant to network and interact with other program participants, Federal employees, and Senior Executives.

grams, and updating the process by which USDA selects individuals for the White House Leadership Development (WHLD) Program. Jenny also participated in a number of cohort workshops aimed at developing competencies required for senior leaders in the federal government. These workshops included an introduction to the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ), completion of the Strength Finders assessment and a 360 review, peer coaching and an introduction to design thinking.

 In 2016, UI statistics students Cara Leatherman and Amanda Bowe presented their statistics thesis research at the International Statistical Ecology Conference in Seattle, WA. Ms. Leatherman's presentation was titled "When models get too large: estimability in the Gompertz state space model of density dependence with a covariate," and Ms. Bowe's presentation was titled "Parameter estimation issues in a simple occupancy model." They both received M.S. Statistics degrees in 2016 (major professor Brian Dennis).

 Holly Knickerbocker, 2016 MS Statistics graduate, worked as a Biostatistician in the Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine at Duke University’s School of Medicine: (https://precisionmedicine.duke.edu/).

For her rotation, Jenny served as the Special Assistant to the Provost of the Virtual University, Dr. Karlease Kelly, at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In this position she focused on items ranging from employee development and engagement, tracking the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), analyzing HR data to improve training and development pro-

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As a service, the Department of Statistical Science offers the Statistics Assistance Center (SAC) to help students taking Stat 251, 301, and 431 by providing individual tutors on a drop-in basis. We now have 2 teaching assistant positions for students working exclusively in the SAC. Our remaining teaching assistants all spend time working in the SAC in lieu of office hours.

The SAC is located on the 2nd floor of the library. Follow the "Drop-In Tutoring" signs.

Go straight after entering the second floor of the library, the SAC tables will be in the Drop-In Tutoring area to the right.

For more information, visit: http://www.uidaho.edu/sci/stat/about/sac

The Statistical Consulting Center has received a record number of visits this year, advising clients from Anthropology to Civil Engineering to Fire Science. To keep up with demand for statistical collaborators, we are working to expand our team and offer longer term statistical support for research. Our graduate students continue to do an excellent job of providing free consultation to UI’s diverse researchers.

The SCC moved to the new Integrated Research and Innovation Center (IRIC) room 119, located on the first floor of the IRIC building, in Spring 2017. We hope to continue to see exciting and interesting projects from across our campuses.

For more information, visit: http://www.uidaho.edu/sci/stat/about/scc

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The Graduate Data Analytics certificate has been developed to train students to manage and analyze data, and interpret results from data analyses, particularly from large data sets. The certificate leverages the expertise from faculty in several units to give students a strong interdisciplinary background in this emerging area. The three units primarily involved are Statistical Science, Computer Science, and Business. Each department offers a new course on some aspect of analytics.

For more information, visit the certificate webpage: http://www.uidaho.edu/sci/stat/academics/certificate-data-analytics

 Yes, I want to support the students and faculty in the Department of Statistical Science!

You can donate online or by mail.

To donate online, visit: https://www.givecampus.com/schools/UniversityofIdaho To donate by mail, please fill out this form and send it, with a check, to the UI Foundation: My Gift of $_________is enclosed (Please make checks payable to University of Idaho Foundation) Please direct my gift to: Department of Statistical Science Name _______________________________________________________________________________ Address _____________________________________________________________________________ City _________________________________________ State ______________ Zip _________________ Phone _______________________________________ Email __________________________________ University of Idaho Degree _______________________________________________ Year__________ News (career, family, etc.)_______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Please return to: University of Idaho Foundation, 875 Perimeter Dr. MS 3143, Moscow, ID 83844-3143

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Statistical Science News

Fall 2018