IASC News August 2020
World Statistics Congress Going Virtual in 2022 and will be in Ottowa in 2023
The International Statistical Institute is pleased to announce that its flagship biennial World Statistics Congress 2021 – The Hague, will be held virtually in July 2021. This is an opportunity for the ISI to host a more inclusive conference than ever before. It will allow us to have the greatest ever participation, reaching out to a wide diversity of members who would not otherwise be able to afford to attend an international conference, at lower costs, and with a lower carbon footprint. We hope to see a large number of first time participants, including many early career statisticians and students along with colleagues from developing countries.
Holding a WSC in 2021 as planned will maintain the continuity of WSCs. There will still be a strong link with The Hague, the original venue, in the virtual conference. The ISI will take the opportunity to develop new formats and harness new technology to modernise our meeting. Further details, including a call for papers will be announced in due course.
The ISI is (also) pleased to announce that the World Statistics Congress 2023 will be held in Ottawa, Canada. The Congress will be held from 15 to 20 July, in the Shaw Centre, in the heart of the city. The venue was chosen after competitive bids from a number of venues in Canada were assessed. We are grateful to the Statistical Society of Canada and to Statistics Canada for their support. We are confident that the Congress will build on the experience of WSC 2021 and will include a virtual element. We look forward to meeting up with colleagues and friends again in Canada!
News from the IASC Executive Committee (August 2020)
Let me remind you that the 2020 IASC General Assembly (GA) has been scheduled for Thursday, August 27, 2020, 15:00 – 16:00 CEST (e.g., Berlin, Germany) [6:00-7:00 Pacific Time (e.g., Los Angeles), 9:00-10:00 Eastern Time (e.g., New York), and 22:00-23:00 JST (e.g., Tokyo)]. Updates and access information will be provided via e-mail a few days prior to the General Assembly.
After the virtual Data Science, Statistics, and Visualization (DSSV 2020) and the announcement of the virtual ISI WSC in July 2021, we may face additional regional virtual conferences in 2021, based on travel restrictions, quarantine requirements, and the possible development of a vaccine for COVID-19. Thoughts and input regarding such virtual conferences will be highly welcome during the discussion at our GA. Would it make sense to plan for hybrid conferences immediately where some of the presentations take place at the conference site, but others will be held electronically? Any thoughts and suggestions at the GA are welcome. If you participated at the virtual DSSV conference and received a survey via e-mail, please answer that survey if you haven’t done so already.
Virtual Virtuosity: The DSSV 2020 Experience
The virtual DSSV conference on July 29-31, 2020, was a success, thanks in large part to the tireless work of our younger, more tech savvy, colleagues. There were 144 participants, which seems like an auspiciously square number. The sessions were recorded and are available on-line to registered attendees, and, after a suitable interval, to all IASC members.
The execution of the conference was not the flawless, seamless triumph of social media engineering that we all expected. There were some minor hiccups and glitches, but the people made it work. We were proud to be a part of it. And we think that, going forward, all major conferences will have the option of a low-cost registration fee for virtual participation.
Synchronized engagement from all over the world is hard, and we learned many lessons about how to do things better. Nonetheless, it was an impressive achievement and the IASC should be proud of its members and their resilience and innovation.
Forthcoming Event: LACSC 2021 5th Latin American Conference on Statistical Computing
The 5th Latin American Conference on Statistical Computing LACSC 2021 will be held in Ciudad de México, México, from April 19 to April 21, 2021. This international conference is jointly organized by the Department of Statistics and the Department of Industrial & Operations Engineering of the Instituto Autónomo de México (ITAM), the Latin American Regional Section of the International Association for Statistical Computing (LARS-IASC) and the International Statistical Institute (ISI). The theme of this year is “Statistical Computing for Intelligent Decision Making” and the Keynote Speakers,
- Wendy L. Martínez, Bureau of Labor Statistics, USA
- Daniel Russo, Columbia University, USA
- Enrique Sucar, Inst. Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptima y Electrónica, México
- Renato Assunção, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Antonietta Mira, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland
LACSC 2021 invites to submit papers, contributed paper sessions and invited paper sessions before January 11, 2021. The call of papers and all the information is available at http://lacsc2020.itam.mx
The aim of LACSC is to foster the progress of the theory, methods and practice of statistical computing in Latin America, and to become the main meeting point of the statistical computing scientific community in LA. This year, the call of papers of the conference gives an account of the interest of academics, scientists and professionals in methodological aspects of statistical computing and relevant applications for the Latin American community.
You cannot miss LACSC 2021! The Local Organizing Committee is also organizing an interesting social program. Mexico City is the capital of the United Mexican States (official name of the country). Originally this city was built on an islet where some natives found an eagle devouring a snake and was called Tenochtitlan. Chinampas for agriculture were built around it and became the capital of the Aztec Empire. With the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521, Mexico City fell under its dominance and became the center of the economic activity of the power of New Spain. Its outstanding colonial architecture earned it recognition as the City of Palaces. Currently, Mexico City stands in a valley surrounded by volcanoes, proud of its heritage, the product of the fusion of two cultures. It is the largest and most populous city in Latin America and one of the most dynamic capitals in the world; It has a large number of museums, theaters, concert halls, archaeological ruins, theme parks and recreational parks. Also, it offers a great gastronomic variety typical of all regions of Mexico and the world. Please see more information on the following links: https://www.visitmexico.com/en/ and https://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/mexico-city
Forthcoming Event: 3rd LARS-IASC School on Computational Statistics and Data Science
The Third LARS-IASC School on Computational Statistics and Data Science will be held in Ciudad de México, México, from April 17 to April 18, 2021. This is a satellite event of the 5th Latin American Conference on Statistical Computing, LACSC 2021, jointly organized by the Instituto Autónomo de México (ITAM), the Latin American Regional Section of the International Association for Statistical Computing (LARS-IASC) and the International Statistical Institute (ISI).
This year the school theme is Stochastic Simulation and Reinforcement Learning (http://lacsc2020.itam.mx) and the instructors,
- Enrique Sucar, Inst. Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, México
- “Probabilistic Graphical Models: Principles and Applications”
- David Muñoz-Negrón, Instituto Tecnológico de México (ITAM)
- “Stochastic Simulation: Output Analysis and Applications”
- Eduardo F. Morales, Inst. Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, México
- “Reinforcement Learning”
The main purpose of the school is to spread the knowledge base and advances in Statistical Computing in Latin American countries and to increase the quantity of researchers and data scientists in the field. The program is organized around three axes: knowledge base and advances, software and data science applications and it is oriented to postgraduate students, researchers and practitioners in statistics and data science. For LARS-IASC students, the IASC will provide (a) up to 10 scholarships – 100% waiver in registration fee for people living in developing countries (low income countries https://data.worldbank.org/income-level/low-income and lower middle income countries https://data.worldbank.org/income-level/lower-middle-income); (b) 1 full scholarship that includes registration fee, travel, and stay expenses. To apply for these scholarships, the candidates must,
- Be a member of the International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC). More information on how to become a member can be found here: https://iasc-isi.org/become-a-member/
- At the time of the application and of the events be living and working/studying in a developing country.
ITAM’s mission is to contribute to the individual’s comprehensive education and to develop a freer, more just, and prosperous society. In order to achieve its research, teaching, and outgrowth endeavors, ITAM aims to reach the highest levels of academic excellence in an environment promoting the plurality of ideas and respectful of ethnic, cultural, and religious differences. Our institution’s goal is to prepare and educate women and men that are capable of acting in an informed, rational, responsible, critical way, and committed to creating, managing, and shaping public opinion, institutions, as well as further works. It also intends that these women and men be capable of creating and transmitting knowledge of the highest ethical, scientific, technological, and professional levels, allowing society to become aware of its problems and contributing to their understanding and solutions https://www.itam.mx/en
DOWNLOAD: 2020-08_IASC