The Center for Demography's Methods and Statistics subcore is directed by Dr. Rick Nordheim, Professor of Statistics.
The Methods and Statistics subcore has three main activities: (a) a workshop series to introduce innovative statistical tools in demographic analysis, (b) a consulting unit and (c) a yearly seminar series on advanced applications.
Workshops for the enhanced application of statistics. This series of four to five workshops will explore the solution of a well-defined problem. The first in the series of workshops consists precisely of defining the problem. The second is a workshop to discuss alternative solutions to the problem after having read the most important work in the area. The third in the series of workshops is designed to bring to campus recognized authorities on the subject after having briefed them about the nature of the problem. The fourth and fifth (if necessary) workshops take place to provide resolution to the problem that was formulated at the outset. The themes or problem are chosen after having polled faculty, students and affiliates. We are planning to have two workshop series each year.
The first workshop is devoted to the issue of multiple imputation. Dr. Dick Campbell presented a problem that could, in theory at least, be resolved via imputation. In the second seminar there will be a discussion of available multiple imputation techniques and their rationale and justification. The third and fourth workshop will be organized around lectures offered by two recognized experts in multiple imputation. In the fifth workshop Dr. Dick Campbell will either resolve his original problem or reformulate it in light of the discussions held before. The workshops are attended by students and faculty from Statistics, Sociology, Economics, Political Sciences, Geography and Population Health Sciences. The theme for next semester workshop has to do with the use of different data sets to estimate a single model, a problem closely related but not entirely identical to multiple imputation
Consultation Unit: Dr. Rick Nordheim has organized a consulting unit that will work to solve problems that CDE affiliates may have with the application of new and old statistical techniques. The consulting unit is supported by three graduate students, one from CDE pursuing a degree in Statistics (Tara Becker) and two graduate students from Statistics pursuing specialization in population within CDE. The themes for consulting range from study design and sampling (for example, snowball sampling) to more theoretical exercises such as Bayesian Model Averaging.
Seminar Series: We plan a series of two seminars a year conducted by experts in a particular topic that will be selected by the committee identified above.
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