California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Depar tment FALL 2009 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Greetings 1 Statistics Dept Hist. 4 Joyce Curry-Daly Scholarship 6 Report on CBF 7 Focus on Faculty 8 Speakers/Awards 15 Awards Banquet 16 Divorce: Santa Barbara Style 17 Computing Curriculum 18 Hybrid Stat 217 18 Spring Graduation ‘09 19 Student Awards 20 Summer Research 20 Summer Travels 21 The Summer Before Forever 22 Keeping in Touch 25 Donors 33 GREETINGS FROM Statistics THE CHAIR Hello again. This was a busy year for us, starting off with work on a five-year self-study and finishing with a budget crisis that has led to faculty furloughs for the 2009-2010 academic year. But, most importantly, we graduated 22 students with a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics— our largest graduating class ever. For you not­ so-recent grads, students now present the re­ sults of their senior projects to faculty and other students; these showed that this year’s seniors Bob Smidt completed a wide variety of interesting projects. The recent graduates will be fine representa­ tives of Cal Poly and the Statistics program. The face of the Statistics Department has changed because of the excellent faculty we have added over the last few years; next year the changes will be because of subtractions. The Statistics Department’s first chair and one of the driving forces behind the department’s creation is finally going to call it a day. Jim Daly will be teaching under the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP) one last time during fall quarter, 2009. Jim has enjoyed his semi-retirement and planned to stop teaching after the 2008-2009 academic year. But when two of our faculty members, Andrew Schaffner and Ulric Lund, received well-deserved sabbaticals that included fall quarter, we did not have enough faculty to teach needed classes. When I asked FERP’s who were not teaching in the fall to consider doing so, Jim changed his retirement plans and stepped for­ ward. Both on a professional and personal level, I will sorely miss Jim when he finally totters off into retirement. (He has written a bit of his­ tory about the department that you can enjoy later in this newsletter.) Another notable retirement is that of Roxy Peck; she plans to retire in December. While she has served as associate dean for the College of Science and Mathematics since the mid 1990s and only taught an occasional statistics course, she was an important member of the department before her “promotion” to associate dean (I put promotion in quotes because how good can it be to go from teaching Statistics to becoming primarily a paper-pusher—oops, I think that happened to me, too). Anyway, she succeeded Jim Daly as depart­ ment chair and did a great job of advancing the department during her tenure. She is also an innovative instructor, a textbook author, and (Continued on page 2) S t a t i s t i c a l M ? s i n gs Page 2 Robert Smidt Greetings (Cont.) continues to work in statistical education. I hope she will think about FERPing in the future. I have long claimed that we have one of the finest (I actually claim it is THE finest) fac­ ulty group at Cal Poly. As evidence of this, one of our faculty members, Allan Rossman, has been selected to receive a very prestigious award. The Mathematical Association of America voted to honor him with the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. The prize, given annually to only three faculty across the nation, will be presented at the Joint Prize Session to be held in San Francisco in January 2010. At the prize session dinner, Allan will give a 20-25 minute talk about teach­ ing. Allan is an innovative, excellent professor and well-deserving of this honor. Another of our faculty members, Heather Smith, was named a Distinguished Lecturer, a notable University award. Heather, besides the usual lecturing assignment, team-teaches our capstone class (which she helped develop) and teaches survey sampling; she does a great job in all. She is active professionally, directing students in undergraduate research projects, consulting on fac­ ulty research, and guiding many students on senior projects (last year, she advised more senior projects than any other of our faculty). While not everyone had life-changing events, most faculty members have had interesting years. Kent Smith completed his first year as a FERP and seems to be enjoying his life as a sage. Jimmy Doi received tenure and promotion to associate professor; not that there was a doubt—Jimmy is doing outstanding work. Soma Roy successfully completed her first year with us, after a last-minute trip to India in the fall to straighten out some visa (or was it master card?) problems. Lina Ignatova and Sam Frame completed their second tenure-track years and were deservedly reappointed for two more years. Karen McGaughey returned from her stay at AMD in the Bay Area and smoothly transitioned back into life as a university professor. John Walker, Soma Roy, Beth Chance, Allan Rossman, and Roxy Peck attended the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) this summer. Matt Carlton, Beth Chance, Roxy Peck, Allan Rossman, Mary Mortlock (a former lecturer who remains a friend to the department), and I traveled to Louisville in June to help grade the Advanced Placement Statistics exam. Allan Rossman served as the “Chief Reader Designate,” and will be the Chief Reader (the field gen­ eral) for the exam over the next three years. Over the last two summers Sam Frame, Matt Carlton, and Andrew Schaffner (twice) attended workshops in Berkeley on computing in the statistical curriculum; their experiences should improve what and how our students learn com­ puting. Beth Chance led our assessment efforts and became co-chair (with Roxy Peck) of the college’s assessment committee. Beth also designed and has started to teach one of our classes in a hybrid form (described later). As mentioned earlier, Ulric Lund and Andrew Schaffner received sabbaticals and will spend some of their time outside the classroom work­ ing on a text (Andrew) and research (Ulric); it should be a fruitful year for both. Jeff Sklar designed a new course, STAT 417 Introduction to Survival Analysis Methods, which he will teach for the first time in the winter quarter, 2010. Jay Devore taught as a FERP during win­ ter quarter. Steve Rein continued to wear multiple hats, teaching a variety of courses, serving on the Academic Senate, as our technology committee chair, and a final year as the editor of this newsletter (Lina Ignatova is taking over as editor). And our fine group of lecturers, Becky Ottesen, Nina Schleicher, Olga Dekhtyar, Len Deaton, Les Pennelly, and Gary Hughes all did a fine job in the classroom. (Continued on page 3) Fall 2009 Page 3 Robert Smidt Greetings (Cont.) Saving the most important for last, Carol Morris has returned from an extended fight against cancer. She had some very tough times, but has returned as perky as ever (I hate perky). Other than having naturally curly hair for the first time in her life, she seems to be back into the swing of things and doing well. The department appreciated the wonderful job that Jennifer Lemke did during Carol’s absence. We are going through a two-year program review. Last year was the “self-study” por­ tion of the process. We are supposed to look at what we have been doing and assess how successful we have been in reaching our goals for the students. (I just summarized a long, turgid set of instructions into one sentence.) Because the departments at Cal Poly are so dif­ ferent, sometimes the instructions for the self-study don’t apply well to us and led to some silliness, but the major thrust of evaluating how well we are doing is worthwhile. During the fall quarter, we will be visited by three program reviewers: Brian Jersky (Dean, School of Sci­ ence, St. Mary’s College of California), Jessica Utts (Professor, Statistics Dept., UC Irvine, and statistics text author), and Louise Berner (Professor, Food Science and Nutrition Dept., Cal Poly). They will examine the self-study, interview faculty, staff, and students, and, generally, assess the effectiveness of our program (again, I am simplifying). They will then produce a report that will provide guidance for the future. It should be an interesting process. As I am sure you realize, we are going to be taking furloughs this academic year. While there are a few vagaries about how these furloughs will be implemented, it looks like each faculty member will need to take six furlough days during each quarter. The impact these will have on students will depend on how each faculty member chooses the days on which he or she is forbidden to work, but we hope to minimize the negative effects. This is being done to meet the needs of students that have already been admitted to Cal Poly and the CSU. But next year, there are plans for fewer students to be attending Cal Poly and the rest of the CSU. Theoretically, if this plan is successful, there will be fewer classes and no need for furloughs. We’ll see. It will be unpleasant for the students who otherwise would have been admitted to Cal Poly and for the lecturers who will have fewer or no classes to teach. Thanks to all of you who have supported the department financially this last year—your names appear later in this missive. Although we can’t use those funds to pay for classes, we do use that money in ways that benefit students and faculty. It helps us to keep the depart­ ment running as a cohesive whole, where the students are able to recognize that we are very much interested in their success. One last thing. In one of the few romantic comedies I ever enjoyed, The American President, Michael Douglas talks about a gun-control bill, saying that he will go door-to-door to “get the guns.” In the last few Musings, we have asked you to send us an update about what has been going on with you. While some have sent blurbs about their lives, some of you have been rather reticent to do so. Okay, here is your warning—you need to send us an up­ date about how you are and what you have been doing. Otherwise, a crotchety old depart­ ment chair will be going door-to-door to “get the updates.” You have been warned! Have a great year—keep (or get) in touch with us and let us know how you are doing! Bob Smidt, Dept Chair ’ S t a t i s t i c a l M ? s i n gs Page 4 A H I S T O R Y O F T H E S TA T I S T I C S D E PA R T M E N T A N D T H E S TA T I S T I C S M A J O R By Jim Daly Statistics as a major did not exist at Cal Poly until the early 1970’s. Until 1969 all the faculty that taught statistics courses were mem­ bers of the Mathematics Department, and the closest thing to a B.S. degree in Statistics was a B.S. in Mathematics with a Statistics Op­ tion. In 1969 the university (at that time a college) decided that the Mathematics Department had too many faculty members. The de­ partment included, in addition to all the mathematics faculty, faculty Jim Daly & Bob Smidt teaching computer science courses, statistics courses, and philoso­ phy courses. During this year the faculty of the last three disciplines created the Computer Science and Statistics Department, where philosophy was considered a section within the new department. Within one year the philosophy faculty were given their own department, and Computer Science and Statistics functioned as a joint department for the next 14 years (1970— 1984). Leon Maksoudian, John Groves, Bob Butler, and Gary Fuller were members of the Mathematics Department teaching primarily statistics courses. These individuals transferred across to the new department, while Sing Chou Wu, John Rogers and I were hired in the first four years of the new department. Bob Butler and Gary Fuller retired in the early years of the new department, but all of the other individuals continued to teach statistics at Cal Poly for at least the next twenty years. A Bachelors degree in Statistics wasn’t created immediately, but first showed up in the 1973-1975 Catalog. The first three graduates with a B.S. in Statistics (Pam Miley, Ken Ristow, and Ken Gerald) completed their degrees in the Spring and Summer of 1973. There was only one graduate in 1974, but there were six graduates in 1975, and the major was off and run­ ning. The department and faculty offices were located in the courtyards just off the second floor of the Computer Science Building (Building 14, now known as the Frank E. Pilling Com­ puter Science Building). Leon Maksoudian served as chair of the joint department in 1972 and 1973, but otherwise the chair was always a member of the computer science faculty (they had more people and more machines). Dan Stubbs, the chair of the department in the mid-1970’s, created a position of Statistics Coordinator within the joint department, and let the statistics faculty make most decisions affecting its major, the hiring of new statistics faculty, and the de­ veloping of new statistics courses. I was lucky (?) enough to serve in this position until the Statistics Department was created. In the period from 1977 through 1981, four tenure-track faculty were hired-Jay Devore, Bob Smidt, Roxy Peck, and Kent Smith. All of these individuals remained full-time at Cal Poly until Jay Devore retired in 2006. In a reorganization of Cal Poly in 1984, the campus administrators decided that the com­ puter science faculty and major belonged in the College of Engineering, and not in the College of Science and Mathematics, where the Computer Science and Statistics Department then re­ sided. Because the statistics faculty taught service courses in statistics to departments in all of the other colleges, it made very little sense to have the statistics faculty and the major go to the College of Engineering. The university considered two possibilities with respect to the sta­ tistics faculty and the statistics major: putting the faculty and major back in the Mathematics Department, or creating a new Statistics Department. We are forever grateful that they made the correct choice. (Continued on Page 5) Fall 2009 Page 5 S T A T I S T I C S D E P T . H I S T O R Y (Cont.) The new department had its first office in 14-240. I was elected as the first chair of the Statistics Department, and Patricia Fleischauer was our first office manager. Most faculty con­ tinued to have their offices in the courtyard off the second floor. In the late 1980’s, the Statistics Department office and the offices of statistics faculty were relocated to building 47 (formerly Faculty Offices Building, now Faculty Offices North). We were located on the second floor directly across from what was then the Cal Poly Fire Station (now part of the Cal Poly Police Station). The faculty knew that any student who showed up at office hours was very dedicated, since people easily got lost in this maze that was called an of­ fice building. The department stayed in this location for about four years (until the early 1990’s). In 1990 Roxy Peck took over as chair of the department. During her six years as chair, the department moved into its current location (first floor, north side, of Faculty Offices East), and hired our first full-time faculty member in more than a dozen years, Rick Rossi. Un­ fortunately, the lure of the great trout streams in western Montana beckoned, and he only stayed with us a few years. We also got a new office manager, Maria Burton. Leon Mak­ soudian retired during this time (1994), but continued to teach part-time through the Faculty Early Retirement Program. The move into the new Faculty Offices East (the department’s current location) had a number of benefits for the department faculty and majors. The department now has its own conference room and a study/work area for the students. Due to the great generosity of one of our alums, Mark Newland, we were able to make this area into the Newland Family Statistical Laboratory. Since the creation of this Laboratory, the statistics majors (especially juniors and seniors), have spent numerous hours working on the lab computers, discussing and completing class assignments, and even socializing. Bob Smidt served as chair from 1996 to 1998. Andrew Schaffner, a graduate of Cal Poly with a B.S. in Mathematics who then earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from the the University of Washington, joined our department in 1997. Andrew was the first of thirteen new tenure-track individuals to join the department in the next dozen years. Heather Smith, an outstanding lec­ turer in the statistics program, also joined our department during this time. Jay Devore took over as chair in the fall of 1998, and would serve as chair until the fall of 2006. Carol Erickson also started at this time as our department manager, and served in this position for nearly the entire time Jay was the chair. The “old guard” was starting to retire, with Sing Chou Wu, John Rogers, and John Groves retiring in the next three years, but the loss was definitely made up by hiring six new faculty in that same period—Steve Rein, Matt Carlton, Beth Chance, Ulric Lund, Allan Rossman and John Walker. Jimmy Doi, Karen McGaughey (both in 2003) and Jeff Sklar (2005) were also hired while Jay Devore was chair of the Department. Becky Ottesen, a graduate of Cal Poly with a B.S. in Statistics, also returned to teach part-time for us after receiving her M.S. from U.S.C. in Biostatistics. We started to lose more of the old guard in the last four years as I retired in fall of 2005, Jay Devore in the fall of 2006, and Kent Smith in the fall of 2008. The three of us do continue to teach part-time by participating in the FERP (Faculty Early Retirement Program). With Jay (Continued on Page 6) S t a t i s t i c a l M ? s i n gs Page 6 S T A T I S T I C S D E P T . H I S T O R Y (Cont.) Devore retiring in fall of 2006, Bob Smidt took over again as chair. Carol Morris, our current administrative coordinator, started shortly before Bob took over as chair. Since he became chair, three more faculty members were hired—Samuel Frame, Lina Ignatova (both in 2007) and Soma Roy (2008). Samuel is another graduate of our B.S. program, who then earned his Ph.D. in Statistics at University of California at Santa Barbara. This brings us to the present where the department has fourteen tenure track individu­ als, (and Roxy Peck as Associate Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics), three indi­ viduals on the FERP program, and a number of lecturers. The department has employed many outstanding lecturers over the years, but for lack of space, I only mentioned two of them above—Heather Smith and Rebecca Ottesen. Most of the lecturers in the Statistics Department teach only service courses in statistics. That is, they teach statistics courses required by majors other than statistics. However, Heather Smith and Rebecca Ottesen regularly teach a number of upper division courses to our majors, and have had large impact on the statistics program. ’ J OYC E C U R RY - D A LY S C H O L A R S H I P Statistics Department Scholarship By Jim Daly The Joyce Curry-Daly Scholarship is named in recognition of Joyce Curry-Daly, a gradu­ ate of the Cal Poly Mathematics Department and a lecturer in statistics at Cal Poly from 1970 until her death in September of 1997. During her time at Cal Poly, she was very active as the supervisor of department tutors, and worked for many years with the SMART program, a School of Science and Mathematics program intended to encourage underprivileged students to develop a strong interest in mathematics and the sciences in junior high with the goal that they will have the interest and knowledge to pursue these subjects at the college level. The scholarship fund, started shortly after her death with the idea of supporting her strong commitment to education, is an endowment with approximately 3% to 4% of it being used each year to support the academic pursuits of worthy statistics majors. At the present time 2-3 majors are selected each year to receive a proportion of the allocated amount. As new contributions increase the size of the scholarship fund, we hope to increase the number of students who receive financial support from this fund. ’ Fall 2009 Page 7 REPORT ON COLLEGE BASED FEES By Heather Smith College-Based Fee (CBF) funds continue to enhance statistics majors’ educational experi­ ences at Cal Poly. During the 2008/2009 academic year and in the summer of 2009 some of the items funded with these fees were: STAT LAB Improvements Seven new computers were purchased and installed for use by our statistics majors. A desk copy of each of the textbooks used in the upper division statistics classes were pur­ chased and made available in the Stat Lab. Student Support During the fall of 2008 nine students attended the Western users of SAS (WUSS) conference in southern California. Some of their registration and travel expenses were paid for by CBF. Seventeen students prepared for and took the SAS certification exam. CBF paid for their exam fees. Students’ memberships in ASA were funded. Summer Research Projects This summer six students and I worked on two research projects, both of which helped meet the research needs of the greater Cal Poly community. CBF partially funded this work. Course Offerings In Fall 2008 STAT 150 was team taught by Professors Doi and Rossman. In Spring 2009 STAT 465 was team taught by Professors Lund and Smith. Funding for team teaching was provided by CBF. Additional items partially funded by CBF The Statistics Department Speakers’ Series continued this year. Six speakers came to give talks to our depart­ ment. In the summer of 2008 seven faculty members participated in the Joint Statistical Meetings in Denver, Colorado. Also two faculty members attended the Statistics Computing Workshop in Berkeley, California. ’ S t a t i s t i c a l M ? s i n gs Page 8 Current Stat Faculty Directory Matthew Carlton: 756-7076 mcarlton@calpoly.edu Beth Chance: 756-2961 bchance@calpoly.edu Jim Daly: 756-6129 jdaly@calpoly.edu Len Deaton: 756-7127 ldeaton@calpoly.edu Olga Dekhtyar 756-6354 odekhtya@calpoly.edu Jay Devore: jdevore@calpoly.edu Jimmy Doi: 756-2901 jdoi@calpoly.edu Samuel Frame: 756-5802 sframe@calpoly.edu Gary Hughes: 756-2450 gbhughes@calpoly.edu Lina Ignatova: 756-5739 lignatov@calpoly.edu Ulric Lund: 756-6122 ulund@calpoly.edu Karen McGaughey: 756-6578 kmcgaugh@calpoly.edu Rebecca Ottesen: 756-2450 rottesen@calpoly.edu FOCUS ON FACULTY Matt Carlton I was fortunate enough to take a sabbatical for winter and spring quarters of 2009. That time was (mostly) spent developing a business statistics textbook with Prof. Devore. We’re still slogging away at the book — finding interesting and relevant business examples is always a challenge — with the hope of providing a first draft to the publisher by early spring 2010. The other major professional project on my plate is Statistically Speaking, a 32-segment video series being developed to re­ place the (in)famous Against All Odds. I’m in charge of statistical content development alongside Patti Collings (BYU) and former Cal Poly instructor Mary Mortlock. When finished, the videos will be available for high school and college teachers to use in the class­ room; they may also be broadcast on PBS. The project started more than 3 years ago, but we’re set to complete all videos by the end of the calendar year. Outside the world of academics, I managed to sneak in a trip to Copper Canyon, Mexico back in April. Our trip started in a small mountain town at the northeast end of the canyon, wound down the canyon on a passenger train (the tracks are in very good condi­ tion, considering they were built in 1961), and ended in the resort town of El Fuerte. If you ever get a chance to tour the Copper Can­ yon, I recommend it. Roxy Peck: 756-2971 rpeck@calpoly.edu Les Pennelly 756-5686 lpennell@calpoly.edu Steven Rein: 756-2941 srein@calpoly.edu Allan Rossman: 756-2861 arossman@calpoly.edu Soma Roy: 756-5250 soroy@calpoly.edu Andrew Schaffner: 756-1545 aschaffn@calpoly.edu Nina Schleicher: 756-5686 schleicherN@charter.net Jeffrey Sklar: 756-6353 jsklar@calpoly.edu Bob Smidt: 756-2001 rsmidt@calpoly.edu Heather Smith: 756-6128 hsmith@calpoly.edu Kent Smith: 756-7572 ksmith@calpoly.edu John Walker: 756-7128 jwalker@calpoly.edu Jimmy Doi This past year was my 6th year of employment at Cal Poly. It seems like only yesterday that I first came to the department to give my on-site interview. It’s amazing how quickly the time has gone by. 2008-09 was a hectic one ... the academic year felt like an epic boxing match! Here are the quarter­ by-quarter, or round-by-round, highlights … (ding!): [Fall] – I joined Dr. Rossman in my first team-teaching experience in Stat 150, which was a blast. I’ve only been accustomed to teach­ ing classes on my own and, although this mode of instruction offers great freedom, it can also make the instructor prone to getting into ruts. I know for myself, for many statistics topics, I have grown used to teaching them a particular way and it was very refreshing to work with Dr. Rossman and to see how another instructor teaches. I think it was as much a learning experience for me as it was for the stu­ dents. I am slated to teach Stat 150 again this upcoming fall and I look forward to applying what I’ve learned last year and making ad­ justments along the way. (Continued page 9) Fall 2009 Focus on Faculty (Cont.) Page 9 Jimmy Doi—Cont. [Winter] – The other new teaching experience I enjoyed was our categorical data analysis class, Stat 418. My dissertation is related to this area and it was a great experience getting back into this familiar material. I am scheduled to teach the course once again this upcoming winter and I am planning to make many adjustments, especially in the form of using new data sets I’ve encountered, to make the class a better experience. [Spring] – I taught no new classes this term, but I did teach for the first time a combined sec­ tion of Stat 312 (70 students). One of my biggest concerns was that the double class size might inhibit interaction with the students, but overall things went surprisingly well. It was a success­ ful experiment and I’d be willing to try it again. As a final note, at the end of the spring quarter, I was greeted with the news from the Provost and President that I had been awarded tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor (yippee!) … what a way to end the year! With respect to professional activities, I continue to work as statistical consultant on various research projects. One is with Dr. Louise Berner from the Food Science and Nutrition Depart­ ment. I agreed to join Dr. Berner in a multi-year study of protein intakes in adults and to look at associations of protein intakes with anthropometric and physical functioning measures. The data source is the most-recently available National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Dr. Berner wrote a grant to support this research and set aside a line item to hire a statistician. I have been serving in that role. One of the most gratifying aspects of this project is that we’ve been able to involve our own statistics students to work as SAS programmers on the analysis. In the first year, Gabe Becker laid the ground work in establishing some compli­ cated SAS macros required to import and manipulate the NHANES data set. After Gabe gradu­ ated, Max Wise took over in the second year and continued to make adjustments to the code as our analysis scope broadened. Max graduated this past June, but continued to work on this pro­ ject and his term ended this summer. For our third and final year of the project, statistics sen­ ior Brian Verbaken will complete the duties as programmer and I’m sure he will be up to any tasks we’ll be needing. Lina Ignatova It has been two years since I moved to San Luis Obispo from Columbia, South Carolina after finishing my PhD in statistics at USC. I joined Cal Poly with great enthusiasm and joy. Soon after moving to SLO, I passed through some difficulties adapting to the numerous changes in my life. Now, I may say, my time at Cal Poly has been rewarding in many ways, and I am proud to be a part of our team. I was really fortunate to arrive at a time when substantial changes of our curriculum were just taking place. As you know one of our primary departmental objectives is to offer introductory courses in statistics to students from many different majors. So, during my first year I had the chance to teach three intro level courses for almost all ma­ jors. This experience was enjoyable for me and I hope the material introduced was benefi­ cial for many of my students. In addition, I had the opportunity to sit in the classes of some of my colleagues which was a great experience for me and an example of how to interact with students, keep their interest, and guide them through the learning process. (Continued page 10) Page 10 S t a t i s t i c a l M? s i n g s Focus on Faculty (Cont.) Lina Ignatova-Cont. “Since June 2009, I am the new editor of this department newsletter, so alumnae please send us a brief description of any interesting and exciting ac­ tivities/stories for inclusion in our newsletter.” -Lina Ignatova During my second year I taught the probability class STAT 425. This was my first opportunity to interact with almost all of our strong senior students. I am looking forward to repeating this class during Fall of 2009. With respect to other professional activities, I began collaborating with Professor Jay Singh from the Business department. For several months we have been working on a problem in packaging determining an optimal thickness for cushioning in a package that will keep the material enclosed safe during transportation - which will hopefully soon result in a publication. The second project I am currently working on is with my collabo­ rators from USC-Columbia. We are writing a paper on exact sequential and multistage inference. Finally, since June 2009, I am the new editor of this department newsletter, so alumnae please send us a brief description of any inter­ esting and exciting activities/stories for inclusion in our newsletter. ’ Ulric Lund Interested in being a Statistics Colloquium guest speaker? Contact Ulric Lund at (805) 756-6122 or ulund@calpoly.edu The highlight of the 2008/2009 academic year for me was teaching STAT 465 for the first time. Professors John Walker and Heather Smith devel­ oped the course several years ago, and have teamtaught it from its inception until this past year. It is our capstone course, in which statistical consulting projects motivate the students to select from the many statistical methods they have learned about during their tenure as statistics majors. The class also focuses on com­ munication aspects of statistical consulting. To give students opportu­ nities to develop their communication skills as statisticians, the class uses one-on-one consulting sessions with mock clients and small group consulting sessions, and students draft professional memos to report their statistical findings to the client. John was kind enough to step aside last year, and so I had the opportunity to team-teach the course with Heather. It was a very different kind of course for me to be teaching. This course was taught much more conversationally than I am used to. Rather than following my own structured lectures, class time was often driven by students' questions and curiosities. It was a great experience for me to try an alternative approach to teaching, and I look forward to teaming up with Heather again next spring to teach STAT 465 for the second time. (Continued on Page 11) Fall 2009 Page 11 Focus on Faculty (Cont.) Ulric Lund—Cont. For 2009/2010 I look forward to a quarter of sabbatical in the fall. I will be able to get some momentum going on a statistical research paper in my near and dear niche of circular statistics, and I will work on co-authoring a paper with a mosquito researcher in Florida. ’ Karen McGaughey Having just completed my 4th year at Cal Poly and my first since my leave of absence with indus­ try, I couldn’t be happier with my decision to return. Being back in the classroom full-time has been chal­ lenging and rewarding. Having seen how statistics is used in industry, and the lack of understanding by many of the scientists who employ statistical meth­ ods on a daily basis has motivated me to reconsider how I teach, what’s important, and the level of effort I expect from my students. I enjoyed teaching the intro courses STAT 251 and STAT 217 this year, and had a great time putting the Stat majors through their pa