Charminar (courtesy: http://www.fullhyderabad.com/)

Advisory Committees  Organizing Committee  Sessions Registration Housing Abstract Information (Final Deadline is OVER) Travel to Hyderabad & Area Attractions Travel to & Tourism in India  Workshops Satellite Conference in Tirupati Jan 3-4, 2005 Young Researchers Competition Update: January 7, 2005

During this conference, in order to increase the participation from young researchers and also to provide an opportunity for them to present their research work to a broad and expert audience, we have planned to present two "best paper presentation awards" for young researchers (that is, within three years of completion of Ph.D.).  One of these awards will be given for the "best paper dealing with methodlogical advances" while the other will be awarded to the "best paper dealing with applied aspects" of Statistics. The award, in addition to exemption of registration fee, will involve a cash prize will be presented during the inauguration ceremony of the conference.

Those who wish to participate in this "best paper presentation competition" should register for the conference and then submit their complete paper (in electronic form) to the organizers (N. Balakrishnan or P. Bhimasankaram).  Winners will be decided by a  committee.
 
 

The following two workshops have been planned just before and after the conference in Hyderabad.

This workshop is intended for researchers and graduate students interested in the design and analysis of gene expression microarray experiments and in gene sequence and network analysis.  A wide range of topics will be discussed at various levels of complexity and understanding.   However, as far as possible, technical details will be kept at the very minimum so that the workshop is accessible to a broad audience.

This short course begins with an introductory overview of data mining: its scope, classical approaches, and the heuristics that guided the initial development of theory and methods.  Then the course moves towards the treatment of more modern issues such as boosting, overcompleteness, and large-p-small-n problems.  This leads to a survey of currently popular techniques, including random forests, support vector machines, and wavelets.  The main focus is upon regression inference, as this is a paradigm that informs all data mining applications, but we also discuss clustering, classification, and multidimensional scaling.  The only prerequisites for the course are a basic knowledge of applied multivariate inference and a general level of statistical knowledge comparable to a weak master's degree.  Any math will focus upon conveying general insight rather than specific details.  Topics covered are:

1. Background and Overview:  Nonparametric Regression, Cross-Validation, the Bootstrap
2. Key Ideas and Methods:  Smoothing, Bias-Variance Tradeoff
3. Search and Variable Selection:  Experimental Design, Gray Codes, Fitness
4. Nonparametric Regression:  Heuristics on Eight Methods
5. Comparing Methods:  Designing Experiments in Data Mining
6. Local Dimension:  How to Pick Problems Wisely
7. Classification:  Boosting, Random Forests, Support Vector Machines
8. Cluster Analysis:  Hierarchical, k-Means, and Mixture Models; SOMs
9. Issues with Bases:  Hilbert Space, Shrinkage, Overcompleteness
10. Wavelets:  Introduction, Construction, Examples
11. Structure Extraction:  Regression and Multidimensional Scaling.

Since its conceptualization in the year 1979 at Motorola, Six Sigma has revolutionized the industrial world and brought in a paradigm shift in the way business is to be done - the analytical, scientific, statistical and  strategic way. The core concept of the methodology is modeling the business processes : Output is a function of the Inputs or Y = f(x).   The superior is the ability to recognize and define the need and requirements (customer), the efficient becomes the characterizing & optimizing the product/process conditions through measurement, analysis, improvement and control - The Six Sigma DMAIC and DFSS Journeys.

The objective of this one day workshop is to bring in awareness in the Six Sigma Methodology and its appreciation through successful implementation cases and the resultant benefits. The workshop also aims at bringing out the recent developments in this methodology. It has been well established over the years that the success of Six Sigma is due to the excellent integration the statistical tools and techniques with the highly structured approach. An effort is being made in this workshop to highlight this integration without going in to the technical and statistical depth of the tools and techniques.  Topics covered are:

1. What is Six Sigma
2. Driving Need for Six Sigma
3. Understanding Six Sigma
4. The methodology - Six Sigma DMAIC
5. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
6. TRIZ for six sigma
7. Six Sigma Metrics
8. Six Sigma Tools & Techniques and the Integration
9. Strategic Deployment of Six Sigma
10. Driving Six Sigma Projects
11. Success Stories - DMAIC & DFSS Case Studies

The conference will be held at the campus of Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad where most of the conference participants will be housed. For the evolving details about the conference and the associated workshops please revisit this conference web site http://www.stat.ohio-state.edu/~hnn/hydstatconf.html

LOCAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

M. R. Rao, Dean, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; J Anantha Swamy, Vice-chancellor, Osmania University; K Harinarayana, Vice-chancellor, University of Hyderabad; K Subba Rao, Director, NIMS; G. V. Subrahmanyam, Vice-chancellor, Telugu University & IGNOU; Vidyasagar, Executive Vice-president, TCS.

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

P.  Bhimasankaram, Indian Statistical Institute (pbhim@rediffmail.com), Chair
Members:  A. L. N. Murthy, G. S. R. Murthy, S. V. S. N. Murthy,  G. Murali Rao, S. B. Rao, Atanu Sinha, Sobha,  S. M. Subhani, R. J. R. Swamy, R. Tandon, P. Udaya Shree,  K. Viswanath.

FEE: The registration fee is US$150 (till Sept. 30, 2004; US$175 thereafter) for residents of developed countries and US$75 (till Sept. 30, 2004; US$100 thereafter) for residents of developing countries as identified by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics for reduced dues.  For the participants from South Asian countries, the fee is US$50 (till Sept. 30, 2004; US$60 thereafter). The fee is Rs. 2000 for residents of India (till Sept. 30, 2004; Rs. 2500 thereafter).  Students pay half the applicable registration fee.  The fee will cover the conference registration package, lunch, coffee breaks, the conference banquet, and the cultural program.  The workshops carry separate fee.  See under workshops.

FORMS

• For International Participants
• For Participants from India

NOTE:   Additional charge for accompanying person is US $20 or Rs. 900/- per day for all the meals for any type of accommodation.  Please add the cost of housing for TWO days with the registration fee for guaranteed housing reservation.  Transportation to and from these housing locations to the conference site will be provided by the organizers.

These are in the center of the city at about 15 kms away from the conference location. Details about tariffs and reservations can be found here.

Please observe the following instructions while preparing the abstract.

Title: Limited to 180 characters in length.  Use initial caps in the title; do not use all caps.
Author(s): Type all authors' names with initial caps.  Include affiliations for all authors using tags if necessary.
Address: Contact/Presenting authors' names and mailing address and e-mail addresses.
Keywords: Upto 6 key words or phrases. Use semicolons to separate the keywords.
Abstract Body: Limited to 200 words.
Equipment needs:  Indicate your audio-visual equipment needs at the end of the abstract.

As December is a busy season for international travel to and from India, please contact your travel agent as soon as possible.  Generally, the discounted (consolidator) tickets are gone by the middle of summer for the December travel, and the savings are substantial.

Hyderabad  has an international airport with some direct flights from abroad.  Major domestic airlines are Jet Airways and Indian Airlines which have flights to Hyderabad from Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Delhi and Kolkata. Air India, India's International airline, also has flights to and from Hyderabad.   Hyderabad, a dynamic cybercity, is the capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh known for its rich history and traditions. Details about travel and attractions at Hyderabad and in surrounding areas  may be found at http://www.fullhyderabad.com/  and at http://www.indiantravelportal.com/andhra-pradesh/, and other links. A mild winter falls between November and February when the climate is pleasant in Hyderabad. 

International travel arrangements need to be made quite in advance (6 months or earlier), as India is a very heavily booked destination in December every year. Please contact your nearest Indian Consulate/Embassy office regarding visa requirements. A listing of these offices and tourism related info. are available on: http://www.tourindia.com. Some helpful information is also available at  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/ind/ind.htm, and numerous other webpages. For information on train travel in India, please visit http://www.indianrail.gov.in/

Travel assistance will be provided at the conference location by the following travel agency.  UNIQUE TRAVELS, Manager: M.Suresh kumar,  Shop no. 65 & 66, Groun floor, Babu Khan Estate, Basheerbhag Hyderabad -500 001, AP, India, uniquetravels1989@yahoo.com
tel. nos. mobile 9440437937,  040-5525 5555( 8 lines) , fax 040 5525 0506
[Use country code 91 and city code 40 (instead of 040) while dialing from outside India.]

An International Conference on Recent Developments in Statistics and its Applications will be held at Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, on 3 and 4 of Jan 2005, immediately after the conference in Hyerabad. Those who wish to attend this conference are requested to contact  Prof. K.V.S.Sarma, sarma_kvs@rediffmail.com
for details of registration, travel to and accommodation at Tirupati and presentation of papers. The organizers will be glad to help those who wish to visit the famous Lord Venkateswara Temple.