Statistics for Social Good

Statistics for Social Good
August 4, 2016
Joint Statistical Meetings, Chicago

How can statistics be used for social good? In recent years, government and non-profit organizations are increasingly using data to drive policy change and solve problems with positive social impact. In this session, held during the Joint Statistical Meetings 2016, we will introduce methodological innovations employed to address the issues and challenges faced when working with social good data, as well as highlight interesting applications of statistical methods for social good. This session will shed light on the current status of the field and its open problems.

The session is sponsored by the American Statistical Association's Social Statistics Section.

News

Thank you for your submissions. We have selected 4 papers. Come by our session, and stay tuned for next year's submission process.

Schedule

When: Thursday, August 4, 2016, from 10:30am to 12:20pm
Where: McCormick Place Convention Center W179a

• Cascaded High Dimensional Histograms and an Application to Criminology
  Siong Thye Goh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; Cynthia Rudin, Duke
• Detecting Text Reuse in State Legislative Bills
  Joe Walsh, University of Chicago ; Matthew Burgess, University of Michigan ; Eugenia Giraudy, YouGov ; Julian Katz-Samuels, University of Michigan ; Derek Willis, ProPublica ; Rayid Ghani, Center for Data Science and Public Policy, University of Chicago
• Testing for Discrimination in Police Searches
  Camelia Simoiu ; Sam Corbett-Davies ; Sharad Goel, Stanford University
• Predicting Patient Cost Blooms: a Longitudinal Population-based Study
  Suzanne Tamang, Stanford Univeristy ; Jean-Raymond Betterton, Stanford University ; Lester Mackey, Stanford University ; Lucas Jansen, Stanford University ; Arnold Milstein, Stanford University ; Henrik Sorensen, Aarhus University ; Lars Pedersen, Aarhus University ; Nigam Shah, Stanford University

Organizers

Sarah Tan (Cornell University), Rayid Ghani (Center for Data Science and Public Policy, University of Chicago), Hadley Wickham (RStudio)

Contact Info

Please email ht395 AT cornell DOT edu with any questions.

Call for presenters

We are soliciting contributions for 20 minute presentations on research that fits the theme of statistics for social good. Broadly construed, this could be statistics-related social good applications, or new statistical methods or theory of particular interest for social good applications. New, previously published, and in progress research will all be considered.

Submission process

Email ht395 AT cornell DOT edu an abstract (1200 characters limit) and optionally, any supporting materials (e.g. paper or slides in progress, github project repo, blog post, etc.).

Deadline: end of day Saturday, Jan 9, 2016 Tuesday, Jan 12, 2016

Further Info

Selected presenters will have the opportunity to publish their paper in conference proceedings if they wish. This conference's proceedings are not exclusive. Note that by conference participation guidelines, each participant can present no more than one paper during the conference. However, the presenter need not be the first author on the paper.

Important Dates

January 9, 2016 January 12, 2016 end of day - Abstract submission deadline

May 17, 2016 - Proof of work in progress (e.g. paper in progress, presentation slides) deadline

July 30 to August 4, 2016 - Conference