Events
The Twin Cities Chapter will host a Fall Event on Friday, October 10, 2025, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM (CST) for our the American Statistical Association (ASA) Twin Cities Chapter Fall Traveling Course on Zoom. This practical workshop, led by Dr. Hemant Ishwaran and Dr. Min Lu of the University of Miami, emphasizes hands-on application and result interpretation of tree-based machine learning methods. The event is co-sponsored by the ASA, the Twin Cities Chapter and the Institute for Research of Statistics and its Applications (IRSA) at the University of Minnesota.
Details
• Course title: Tree-Based Machine Learning Methods for Prediction and Variable-Selection
• Instructors: Hemant Ishwaran, Professor of Biostatistics, University of Miami; Min Lu, Research Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, University of Miami
• Abstract: Tree-based machine learning methods offer several benefits in data analysis, including non-linearity, robustness, scalability and handling mixed data types. This course emphasizes practical learning with hands-on code examples and result interpretations, which is essential for understanding and applying these techniques. Based on the widely popular R package randomForesSRC, we will present methods for computing predicted outcomes, variable importance indices and other inference estimates. In addition, we will introduce a new model-independent variable selection method, called the rule-based variable priority, and present its implementation using the R package varPro. For all these analyses, we will cover different types of outcomes including continuous, categorical, multivariate, survival and competing risk outcomes. Utilizing real-world datasets from medicine and public health, topics in these analyses will provide hands-on code, working examples and result interpretations. We will provide additional code for visualizing model results and constructing coefficient tables for interpretation, and address scenarios such as imbalanced classes, unsupervised problems, fast implementation on big data and protection of confidential data.
• Venue: Zoom. The Zoom information will be sent on the day before the course
See the attached flyer for more details.
Sign up on the Registration Page by the end of Oct 7, 2025.
• Free for Student Members • $15 for Chapter Members • $25 for Non-Members (including one-year chapter membership)
Past Events
The 2025 Spring event will be held at UMN Campus Club on Wednesday, April 16th from 4:00-8:00pm. This event included a career panel, poster competition, networking opportunities and provided dinner. See attached flyer for more details on the itinerary, registration and poster competition.
Career Panel Speakers
Dr. Haitao Chu is Senior Director of Biostatistics at Pfizer. https://www.linkedin.com/in/haitao-chu-04253157/
Mr. Nicholas Dirckx is Senior Statistician at Abbott Laboratories. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-dirckx-mph/
Dr. Larissa Stanberry is Senior Director at Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lstanberry/
The 2025 Minnesota K-12 Data Visualization Poster Competition
The 2025 Minnesota K-12 Data Visualization Poster Competition Sponsored by the American Statistical Association (ASA) Twin Cities Chapter
For detailed information, please visit the following link: https://sites.google.com/view/asa-minnesota-k12/home
The Twin Cities Chapter will host a Fall Event on Thursday, October 10th 2024 at Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, Minneapolis
Details
In an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19 and keep our community safe, we will be limiting the capacity of this in-person event to 35-50 people to attend including the option for an on-site registration, and unlimited online (for free). Dinner will be provided along with drink. This event will include talks of statistical applications in biomedical sciences.
EVENT PROGRAM
2:00– 2:10 pm Opening remarks: Dr. Larissa Stanberry (Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation)
2:10– 4:10 pm Talks (Join Zoom broadcast at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82625152767)
2:10– 2:40 pm: Dr. Aaron Molstad (University of Minnesota) Objective and reliable methods for inference with modern omics data
2:40– 3:10 pm: Dr. Anne Eaton (University of Minnesota) A kernel estimator for cardiovascular event-free survival under component-wise censoring
3:10– 3:40 pm: Dr. Thierry Chekouo (University of Minnesota) Integrative Bayesian Methods for multi-omics data: Application to atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease
3:40– 4:10 pm: Dr. Larissa Stanberry (Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation) Clinical Prediction Models: signum aut sonos? A Case of Heart Failure
4:10– 5:00 PM Dinner & Networking
See the attached flyer for more details.
Sign up on the Eventbrite Page
The 2024 Spring event will be held at Can Can Wonderland on Wednesday, April 17th from 4:30-7:30pm. This event included a career panel, poster competition, networking opportunities and provided dinner. See attached flyer for more details on the itinerary, COVID restrictions, registration and poster competition.
Career Panel Speakers
Dr. Douglas Armstrong is Data Science Senior Manager at Securian Financial. https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-armstrong-99416289/
Dr. Biyue Dai is an Assistant Professor, Division of Biostatistics & Health Data Science, Schoolo of Public Health, University of Minnesota Twin Cities. https://directory.sph.umn.edu/bio/sph-a-z/biyue-dai
Dr. James Normington is Senior R&D Data Scientist at General Mills. https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-normington-61907759/
Mr. John Shen is President and CEO at OcTech Consulting, Inc.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-shen-383469162/
Twin Cities Chapter ASA Short Course
This year the Twin Cities Chapter will host an ASA Council of Chapters Traveling Course on Friday, September 30, 2022 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the University Club of Saint Paul. Instructors will include Emily Griffith, Julia Sharp and Zach Weller. Register on Eventbrite.
Navigating Tough Conversations in Statistical Collaboration
Statistical practitioners face difficult conversations in their interactions with their clients and collaborators. The topics of these conversations vary widely. There are no universal guidelines for navigating tough conversations. In this course, we engage with participants to effectively communicate with clients and customers when challenging topics of situations arise.
Schedule
-9:00 Continental breakfast
-9:30 Welcome and Introductions: instructors and attendees
-10:00 Conversation: A conversation among instructors and participants to define ``difficult conversations" share experiences, identify participants’ communication strengths and how they currently manage challenging conversations
-11:00 Focused Discussion: Explore specific scenarios through role-playing (script reading), discussion, and analyzing videos of meetings between a researcher and statistical collaborator
-12:00 Closing Discussion and Networking Luncheon
Instructors
Emily Griffith is an associate research professor of statistics at North Carolina State University. She is also a fellow in the Office of Research Innovation, working on development and strategy to further innovation in the university’s data science initiatives. In her free time, Griffith enjoys running (even in the North Carolina summer), cooking, and hanging out with her family.
Julia Sharp is an associate professor of statistics and the director of the Graybill Statistics and Data Science Laboratory at Colorado Stte University. She is a widely recognized expert in statistical collaboration and was recently awarded the Outstanding Mentor Award from the ASA’s Section on Statistical Consulting. When she is not working, Sharp enjoys baking, hiking, and enjoying the company of family and friends.
Zach Weller is an assistant professor of statistics at Colorado State University, where he works as a consultant in the Graybill Statistics and Data Science Laboratory. He also teachers statistics courses and advises undergraduates and graduate students on applied statistics projects. When he is not working, Weller enjoys hiking, camping, and fishing in the great outdoors of Colorado.
The 2022 Spring event was held at La Doña Cerveceria on Tuesday, April 19th from 4:30-7:30pm. This event included a career panel, poster competition, networking opportunities and provided dinner. See attached flyer for more details on the itinerary, COVID restrictions, registration and poster competition.
The 2021 Fall event was held in the Barrel Room at Urban Growler Brewing Company, St Paul. The event included boxed dinners and complementary drink tickets. For more details, see attached flyer.
The 2021 Spring event was held on April 15th, 2021 online via gather.town. This event included a poster competition for high school, undergraduate and graduate students. See attached flyer for details!
The 2020 Fall Event was an online workshop on November 6th and 7th. This workshop was designed for audiences with a statistics education background. This course bridged the gap between traditional statisticians and data scientists. See the attached flyer for detailed information.
The 2020 Spring Event was scheduled to be held at Van Cleve Recreation Center on Thursday, April 23rd at 5:45pm. See the attached flyer for more details.
The Twin Cities Chapter hosted a Fall Event on Friday, October 25th 2019 at Optum Conference Center in Eden Prairie, MN. This event included a short course on analysis of big healthcare databases hosted by Rebecca Hubbard as well as talks given by Nathan Paine, Jason Chan and Karen Hildebrand. See the attached flyer for more details.
Event speakers (left to right) Nathan Paine, Jason Chan, and Karen Hildebrand