Symposium on Model Selection, Empirical Bays and Related Topics

This symposium took place March 24–26, 1999. It involved five technical sessions, the Howard Rowlee Lecture, a general discussion and several other presentations. Most of the events took place in the Cornhusker Hotel. The participants were welcomed at 3 p.m. on Wednesday by Jim Lewis, chair of the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at UNL, and Allan McCutcheon, director of the UNL Gallup Research Center. The following is what the participants did during this three-day symposium. Click HERE to see abstracts of the talks and papers from the symposium.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1999

2:30 P.M. Registration

3:00 P.M. Opening Session

Welcome from Jim Lewis, Chair, Dept. of Math./Stat.
Welcome from Allan McCutcheon, Director, UNL Gallup Research Center

3:30 P.M. - 5:30 P.M. Technical Session I

Chair: Linda J. Young, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Exchangeability in Hierarchical Models
M. Elizabeth Halloran, Emory University

Some Bootstrap Methods for Model Selection
J. Sunil Rao, Case Western Reserve University (joint with Robert Tibshirani)

Scales of evidence for model selection: Fisher versus Jeffreys
Bradley Efron, Stanford University (joint with Alan Gous)

6:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. Banquet and Poster Session

Coordinators: Dan Nettleton and Jane Meza, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Max Larsen (Gallup Organization) introducing Carl Morris on Thursday.

Carl Morris (Harvard University) delivering his lecture, Fitting Hierarchical Models.

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1999

7:30 A.M. Continental Breakfast

8:15 A.M. - 9:35 A.M. Technical Session II

Chair: Balgobin Nandram, Worchester Polytechnic

On an Asymptotic Theory of Conditional and Unconditional Coverage Probabilities of Empirical Bayes Confidence Intervals
Malay Ghosh, University of Florida, Gainesville (joint with Gauri Sankar Datta, University of Georgia, Athens, and Partha Lahiri, University of Nebraska, Lincoln)

Empirical Bayes Methods For The Variable Selection Problem
Edward George, University of Texas at Austin (joint with Merlise Clyde, Duke University, and Dean Foster, University of Pennsylvania)

9:45 A.M. - 11:45 A.M. Technical Session III

Chair: Allan McCutcheon, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Problems In The Application Of Model Selection Methods To Survey Nonresponse
John L. Eltinge, Texas A&M University

Robust Empirical Bayes Estimation of Local Mail Volumes Using United States Postal Service data
Stephen Woodruff, United States Postal Service
(joint with Mostafa Baladi and Joe Henningfield, Christensen Associates, Inc., and Partha Lahiri, University of Nebraska–Lincoln)

Model Selection for Estimating Small-Area Proportions
Michael Larsen, Harvard University

11:45 A.M. - 12:45 P.M. LUNCH

(Box lunches will be provided)

12:45 P.M. - 2:45 P.M. Technical Session IV

Chair: Dan Nettleton, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

"p-values for Bayesian model checking"
Susie Bayarri, Univ. of Valencia, Spain

Bayesian Model Selection via the Expected Posterior Prior
James O. Berger, Duke University

Bayesian Wavelet Regression on Curves with Application to a Spectroscopic Calibration Problem
Marina Vannucci, Texas A&M University

3:00 P.M. Buses will leave from Cornhusker to drop the participants to UNL city campus Oldfather parking lot.

1999 Howard Rowlee Lecture

3:15 P.M. Reception for Howard Rowlee Lecture - Burnett 106 (Math Resource Center)

4:15 P.M. - 5:15 P.M. Howard Rowlee Lecture

Chair: Jim Lewis, Chair, Math./Stat.

Shakespeare and the case of the suspicious statisticians
Bradley Efron, Stanford University

5:30 P.M. Buses will leave from the Oldfather parking lot to the Gallup Organization, 300 So. 68th Street, Lincoln

6:00 P.M. Reception, The Gallup Organization, 300 So 68th Street, Lincoln

7:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M. Fitting Hierarchical Models

Chair: Dr. Max Larsen, Senior Vice President, The Gallup Organization

Speaker: Carl N. Morris, Harvard University

8:05 P.M. Buses will leave from the Gallup Organization to the Cornhusker Hotel

FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1999

7:30 A.M. Continental Breakfast

8:00 A.M.-10:00 A.M. Technical Session V

Chair: Gauri Sankar Datta, University of Georgia, Athens

Bayes Factors and Posterior Probabilities for Evaluating Mixed Models
Donna Pauler, Harvard University

Model Checking, Model Selection, and Random Effects
Hal Stern, Iowa State University

On Pearson-χ² Testing with Unobservable Cell Frequencies and Mixed Model Diagnostics
Jiming Jiang, Case Western Reserve University (joint with Partha Lahiri, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and Chien-Hua Wu, TAP Pharmaceutical)

10:10 A.M. General discussions.

Discussion Leader: James O. Berger, Duke University (Box lunches will be provided in the meeting room at 10:15 A.M.).