Dear Alumni:
When you were a student here at the Penn State Statistics Department, we are sure you used to wonder how you could utilize your education and skills in the workforce. To help current students who may also be thinking this, the Statistics Department and its Student Advisory Committee (SAC) will hold its Seventh Annual Alumni Workshop on Thursday, March 24, 2005, with interviews held the following day, Friday, March 25. The workshop will again be held in conjunction with our Prospective Student Days, providing a broad mix of experiences, perspectives, and research interests.
This year, Dr. Joseph Mckean, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Western Michigan University, will be our keynote speaker. Dr. Mckean is an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, and is a Fellow of the American Statistical Assocation. He has published widely on the topic of robust procedures for linear models. Recently, Dr. Mckean collaborated with Dr. Thomas P. Hettmasperger to publish Robust Nonparametric Statistical Methods.
The workshop will provide the opportunity for alumni of our department to give short talks about their current research and/or their professional careers, with specific reference to how they are using statistics in their present positions. In addition, several current Master’s and Ph.D. students, as well as faculty, will give short talks about ongoing research in our department. To help develop a strong network between alumni and current students, there will be opportunities for alumni to meet with students. The department now has 26 Bachelor’s, 27 MAS, 11 Master’s, and 39 Ph.D. students. Some of these students are expected to complete their degrees by August 2005. Space will be available for alumni to display recruiting information during the workshop and to hold private interviews with interested students. We hope that alumni will take advantage of this recruiting opportunity.
This year, the workshop will be held in the Eisenhower Auditorium building, next to Thomas Building. A group lunch, Palmer Art Gallery tour, and evening reception are being planned in conjunction with the day’s events. An updated schedule will be available in the coming weeks on our web page (www.stat.psu.edu/~sac/workshop2005/). We are also planning our second annual Alumni Workshop student poster competition. Graduate students will have the opportunity to display their current research with the chance of winning a monetary prize if they are judged to have the best poster. We are hoping that alumni would be willing to offer a donation of their choosing toward this prize. If you or your employer would like to do so, you may make a check out to “Penn State University“ and send it to The Department of Statistics-Alumni Workshop, Attn: Bonnie Cain, 326 Thomas Building, University Park, PA 16802-2111. We would love to have alumni judge the competition; if you would like to volunteer, please let us know!
We ask that you please complete and return the enclosed form (whether or not you decide to attend) to: The Department of Statistics, Attn: Liying Cui, 326 Thomas Building, University Park, PA 16802-2111. Alternatively, you may complete an online form at the web page www.stat.psu.edu/~sac/workshop2005/response.html. We are also asking for a nominal donation this year of $20 to help offset the cost of the event, including lunch and the evening reception. Donations will be collected the day of the workshop. If you have any general questions, please feel free to e-mail Ruth Hummel, SAC Chairperson at rmh247@psu.edu, or you may call (814) 863-2314, or send us an email through the link on the webpage. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you on March 24!
Sincerely,
The Department of Statistics and the Alumni Workshop Committee