Peter Kennedy on "Getting the Wrong Sign"

The late Peter Kennedy spent most of his career in the Department of Economics at Simon Fraser University. He was a well-liked "just across the water" academic neighbour of mine.

Peter was an excellent and passionate teacher. He was adept at explaining econometrics to reluctant listeners! Several years ago, he gave a seminar in our department titled, "Oh No! I Got the Wrong Sign! What Should I Do?"

The paper was later published in The Journal of Economic Education, 2005, 36(1), 77-92.

If you haven't seen it before, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

© 2013, David E. Giles

The Unconference

Another item from the September issue of the International Year of Statistics Newsletter:

'Nearly two weeks before the Future of the Statistical Sciences Workshop*, the Unconference on the Future of Statistics will be staged. Organized by two of the authors of the Simply Statistics blog, the Unconference will be a virtual event hosted on Google Hangouts. 

“It is a great time to be a statistician and discussing the future of our discipline is of utmost importance to us,” say Roger Peng and Jeff Leek, Unconference organizers, referring to the Future of the Statistical Sciences Workshop. “In fact, we liked the idea so much we decided to get in the game ourselves. We are super excited to announce the first ever ‘Unconference’ hosted by Simply Statistics. Our goal is to compliment and continue the discussion inspired by the Statistics 2013 Workshop.” 

The Unconference, which will focus on the future of statistics from the perspective of junior statisticians, will be held October 30 from noon to 1 p.m. EST on Google Hangouts and simultaneously live-streamed on YouTube. 

The event will feature several of the most exciting and innovative statistical thinkers discussing their views on the future of the field, especially those issues that affect junior statisticians the most: education, new methods, software development, collaborations with natural sciences/social sciences, and the relationship between statistics and industry. 

You can sign up for the Unconference here. During the lead-up to the conference, organizers ask that you submit your thoughts on the future of statistics via Twitter using the hashtag #futureofstats. They will compile all comments and make these available along with the talks.' 

* The Future of Statistical Sciences Workshop is a capstone event for the International Year of Statistics, which will take place in London, England in November of this year. There'll be more on this in a post closer to that date.

© 2013, David E. Giles