IASC News July 2019
Course on Text as Data in Economics
16 – 17 July 2019, Mannheim, Germany
LECTURER: Leif Anders Thorsrud | Norges Bank and BI Norwegian Business School
The course introduces participants to economic literature in which text is
used as data and provides information on methods and software for
working with textual data. By the end of the course, you will know more
about how text can be, and has been, applied to answer economically
relevant questions. You will be able to do some analysis yourself and will
be well equipped to take more detailed and advanced courses on the
topic.
The course is addressed to PhD and advanced Master’s students interested in using text as data for economic analysis. A preliminary course to learning the basics of Python will be provided on 15 July in the afternoon. The participation fee is 80 Euros. Travel and accommodation costs have to be covered by the participants.
ORGANISATION: Irene Bertschek · Georg Licht · Peter Winker
CONTACT:
ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (Mannheim, Germany)
ZEW – Research Departments “Digital Economy” and “Economics of Innovation and Industrial Dynamics”
P.O. Box 10 34 43
68034 Mannheim · Germany
E-MAIL: textasdata@zew.de
INTERNET: www.zew.de/Textasdata2019
The Conference of Data Science, Statistics & Visualisation (DSSV 2019)
The conference of Data Science, Statistics & Visualisation (DSSV 2019) will take place on August 13-
15, 2019 in Kyoto, Japan. This conference is a satellite meeting of the 62nd ISI World Statistics Congress. The
venue of DSSV 2019 is the Imadegawa Campus of Doshisha University (neighboring Kyoto Imperial Palace).
The details can be found at the website.
The conference consists of contributions to practical aspects of data science, statistics and
visualization. They cover topics such as machine learning, verbalization of data, big data
infrastructures and analytics, advanced computing, and other important themes.
In addition, the invited talk sessions from the International Society for Business and Industrial
Statistics (ISBIS) and others will contribute to an exciting program. The invited talk sessions
include the three ones for the topics “Machine Learning”, “Bio-Statistics/Informatics”, and
“Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience” from Japanese statistical societies and
neuroscientist group.
Keynote talks are presentd by Di Cook, Kwan-Liu Ma, and Richard Samworth. Invited talks are
given by Genevera Allen, Yongdai Kim, Hidetoshi Shimodaira, and Huixia Judy Wang. Those
talks ensure a high-quality scientific program.
The venue can be reached within 10 minutes via a subway from the Kyoto central station. The
welcome reception and conference dinner will be thrown at the areas close to the downtown,
to which attendants can move from the venue by courtesy buses. Since 794 to 1868, Japanese
emperors had lived in Kyoto, and there are 17 world heritages (including Kiyomizu-dera
presented right), each of which can be reached by a half-day travel at most from the venue.
Call for Contributed Talks and Posters for the 2019 IASC-ARS Conference
2-5 December 2019, Hong Kong
The 11th IASC-ARS Conference will be held at the University of Hong Kong, China, on 2-5
December 2019. The theme of the conference is “Statistical Computing for AI and Big Data”.
The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for the discussion and exchange of ideas, new
concepts and recent methods in statistics.
This conference will provide a platform for researchers from academia and industry to share
their latest findings, exhibit the latest studies and applications, and build up networks with peers
in variety areas, including but not limited to, Bayesian computation, big data analytics,
biostatistics, computer graphics, computer intensive inferential methods, data mining and
machine learning, econometrics, graphical models, image processing and uncertainty
quantification.
The conference will consist of keynote speeches, tutorials, invited talks, contributed talks and
posters. The official language for all submissions is English. To encourage more young
statisticians including postgraduate and senior undergraduate students to participate, in
addition to two YSI-ISI invited sessions organized by Prof. Hank Wu, the following two more
activities will be organized:
• Luncheon Forum “How to Build a Career in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence”
to be held during the lunch time on Dec 4, 2019. There are two confirmed speakers
from Microsoft (Hong Kong) and Facebook (Hong Kong).
• Student prizes for contributed talks and posters delivered by students.
Registration system has been open. The early-bird deadline is July 31, 2019.
There will be two half-day tutorials (1: Statistical network data analysis; 2: Anomaly
detection using unsupervised learning algorithms) to be held on December 2, 2019.
Registration for the tutorials will be accepted on a first come, first served basis due to limited
seats.
Keynote Speakers: Wolfgang Karl Hardle, Jun Liu, and Qiwei Yao
Local organizer: Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, The University of Hong Kong
We look forward to seeing you in Hong Kong to attend the IASC-ARS 2019 conference and to
experience the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures and beauty of Hong Kong!
2019 IFCS conference
The IFCS 2019 conference theme is ‘Data Analysis and Rationality in a Complex World’ and will take place in the
Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Thessaloniki, Greece. The venue is located along the coast of the city, close to the
city center and the airport. The conference opening will take place on August 26 late afternoon and pre-conference
workshops will be held.
The conference sessions will start on August 27 in the morning, and will close on August 29
with a full day conference program and a conference dinner. Details can be found at ifcs.gr.
IASC members qualify for discounted registration fees.
The International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS) was founded in 1985 and is
composed of many statistical societies all over the world. IFCS is an interdisciplinary and
international organisation whose main purposes are to promote the scientific study of
classification and clustering (including systematic methods of creating classifications from
data), and to disseminate scientific and educational information related to its fields of interests.
The conference will bring together some of the leading researchers and practitioners in the
related areas and will provide an opportunity for exchanging ideas, between researchers and
practitioners, and establishing networking and collaborations. Keynote speakers include Sofia
Olhede, Professor of Statistics at University College London and director of UCL’s Centre for
Data Science, Andy Mauromoustakos, Statistician for the AGRI STAT LAB at the University
of Arkansas Fayetteville campus, Julie Josse, Professor of Statistics at Ecole Polytechnique
in France specializing in missing data, visualization and the nonparametric analyses of
complex data structures, David Hunter, Professor at Penn State Department of Statistics
working on statistical computing, models for social networks, and statistical clustering, Michael
Greenacre, Professor of Statistics at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona working mostly
on correspondence analysis and on compositional data analysis, Theodoros Evgeniou,
Professor of Decision Sciences and Technology Management at INSEAD in France and an
Academic Director of INSEAD eLab, a research and analytics center, Vladimir Batagelj,
Professor Emeritus of the University of Ljubljiana, Slovenia, known for the book he coauthored
on Generalized Blockmodeling and Maria-Florina Balcan, Associate Professor at the School
of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University where her main research interests are in
machine learning, artificial intelligence, and theoretical computer science.
The conference city was founded in 315 BC by Cassander, in honor of his wife Thessaloniki,
sister of Alexander the Great. Since then, and due to its strategic position, Thessaloniki has
been a commercial and cultural crossroad that brought together people and ideas from all over
the world. The signs of this uninterrupted urban activity for more than 2,300 years are evident
in each corner of the city. Nowadays, Thessaloniki is a big, modern city, with a population of
around one million, and an important administrative and financial center of the Balkans. The
warm and vibrant city life is largely influenced by the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki; the largest university in Greece, with more than 72,000
undergraduate and 8,000 postgraduate students. Thessaloniki is surrounded by
places of great natural and historic beauty such as Olympus National Park, Vergina,
where the Royal tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great was found, the
autonomous Mouth Athos, which is forbidden to women and children, and
Halkidiki with its beautiful sandy beaches.
Cluster Benchmarking Challenge Call
Neutral Benchmarking Studies of Clustering
The Cluster Benchmarking Task Force of the International Federation of Classification
Societies (IFCS) is calling for neutral benchmarking studies in cluster analysis.
This call is part of a challenge connected with the 2019 IFCS conference in Thessaloniki,
Greece, August 26-29.
To achieve a cumulative building of knowledge on clustering and classification, careful
attention to benchmarking (performance comparison of methods) is very important. New
methods of data pre-processing, new data-analytic techniques, and new methods of output
post-processing, should be extensively and carefully compared with existing alternatives, and
existing methods should be part of neutral comparison studies. Benchmarking studies can
frequently been found in supervised learning, but are less common in unsupervised learning.
The Task Force has written a white paper (see a preprint) that addresses the theoretical and
conceptual underpinnings of benchmarking in cluster analysis, and some practicalities for
performing sound benchmarking studies.
Competition guidelines:
• Contributions to the challenge will be evaluated by the IFCS Task Force on
Benchmarking.
• Major evaluation criteria will be:
• the technical correctness and clarity of the report,
• that the study shows a critical reflection on principles on which a sound
benchmarking study should be based (which may be either in line or at odds
with the principles outlined in the white paper contributed by the Task Force),
• a detailed specification of the choices made in the benchmarking study at issue
along with a justification of these based on the principles referred to above.
City of Thessaloniki
• Up to 8 contributions will be selected for a short presentation during one or two invited
sessions at the 2019 IFCS conference in Thessaloniki, Greece (such a presentation
will not conflict with giving another presentation at that con¬ference). Authors of
selected contributions who cannot attend the conference will be invited to prepare a
few slides on their contribution.
• During the closing session of the IFCS conference one or two of the selected
contributions will be proclaimed winners of the challenge. The winners will receive a
CRC/Chapman and Hall book voucher.
• Contact for questions: Iven.VanMechelen@kuleuven.be.
All researchers interested in clustering and classification are most welcome to
participate in this challenge!
Task force members: Anne-Laure Boulesteix, Rainer Dangl, Nema Dean, Isabelle Guyon,
Christian Hennig, Friedrich Leisch, Douglas Steinley, Iven Van Mechelen, and Matthijs
Warrens.
New IASC and Taylor & Francis Affiliate Program and Discounts on Book Purchases for IASC Members
Summary: IASC and Taylor & Francis have agreed on a new affiliate program that gives IASC
members a 20% discount on book purchases.
IASC is pleased to announce its new affiliate agreement with Taylor & Francis. Taylor & Francis
(and their CRC Press and Chapman & Hall branches) are the publishers of numerous statistical
book series such as The R Series and Texts in Statistical Science and of numerous books in
the area of Computational Statistics.
Our agreement with Taylor & Francis offers current IASC members a 20% discount on book
purchases when initiated through the IASC web page. You have to start at iasc-isi.org and
then click on the “IASC ISI Members Save 20% on CRC Press Books” link at the bottom of this
page. This redirects you to the IASC ISI web page maintained by Taylor & Francis / CRC
Press. Make your online order as usual. At the time of checkout, please enter IAS18 as promo
code (if necessary). Enjoy your discounted book purchases from Taylor & Francis.
Download: 2019-07_IASC