Host: Research

UA’s Center for Business and Economic Research will be hosting the free, virtual conference Thursday, October 7 from noon to 4:00 p.m. Speakers from the U.S. Census Bureau will present on a variety of topics relevant to Alabama’s local governments and businesses alike.

The conference is a great opportunity to learn about the latest news from the Census Bureau and brush up on your data skills. The agenda is below, you can click here to register. Registration closes Tuesday, October 5. We hope you’ll join us!

ASDC Fall Conference Agenda
Thursday, October 7 | 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. | Free & Virtual

12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Data.Census.Gov
KaNin Reese will give an overview of how to access Census data and walkthrough some of the customizable mapping and table-building tools.

1:30 – 2:00 p.m. Pulse Survey
Learn about the two Census Pulse Surveys that were created to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses as well as American families.

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Break

2:15 – 3:00 p.m. Count Question Resolution
The purpose of the 2020 Census CQR is to provide a mechanism for governmental units to request a review of their official 2020 Census results and to help ensure that housing and population counts are correctly allocated to 2020 census tabulation blocks in the 50 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Learn more about the timeline and process for participating in this important Census program.

3:00 PM – 4:00 p.m. Economic Census
Andrew Hait will present on the various economic surveys and accompanying data captured by the Census Bureau. This is also a great presentation to ask any questions about Census data you might have since Andrew is a Census whiz!

This talk reviews some simple analyses that were developed in real-time to support local decision-making. We start with Bernoulli models for capping the size of gatherings and then consider applications of queueing models for assessing hospital ICU capacity. We then discuss using wastewater-based epidemiology to monitor local outbreaks. We also examine gateway and repeat viral testing to prevent coronavirus transmission on campus.  Throughout we will illustrate how these analyses were used to inform local decisions.

About the Speaker

Edward H. Kaplan is the William N. and Marie A. Beach Professor of Operations Research, Public Health, and Engineering at Yale University’s School of Management. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from McGill University in 1977 with First Class Honours, three Masters’ degrees from MIT (1979 in operations research, 1979 in city planning, and 1982 in mathematics), in addition to his MIT Ph.D. in 1984.  An expert in operations research, mathematical modeling, and statistics, Kaplan has (co-)authored more than 150 academic papers.  He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) and is an INFORMS Fellow. His research in HIV prevention and counterterrorism has been recognized with the Edelman Award, Lanchester Prize, Centers for Disease Control’s Charles C. Shepard Science Award, INFORMS President’s Award, the Philip McCord Morse Lectureship, three Koopman Prizes, and numerous other awards. Kaplan was the Lady Davis Visiting Professor of medicine and of statistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and also served as a visiting professor to the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the Survey Research Center at UC Berkeley, Columbia’s Graduate School of Business, MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.  In 2014, he was elected to the presidency of INFORMS.  He served as President-Elect in 2015, President in 2016, and Past-President in 2017.

For more information about Kaplan and his research, visit http://faculty.som.yale.edu/EdKaplan/.

Data-focused practitioners and strategic thinkers are invited to the Culverhouse Business Analytics Symposium, in-person on The University of Alabama campus.

Speakers from leading companies like IBM, Visa, Novartis, USAA, and Wyndham Destinations will discuss best practices in practical applications of data and how to establish a robust business analytics agenda. Furthermore, the Symposium offers the opportunity to connect – and build a network – with UA students and fellow colleagues.

Speakers include:

• Ilyas Iyoob, Chief Data Scientist and Artificial Intelligence Executive at IBM
• Janine Johnson, Vice President – Visa Predictive Models at Visa
• Jeremy Terbush, SVP, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Consumer Insights and Analytics at Wyndham Destinations
• Matt Hall, Modeling Analyst at USAA
• Aparna Mangari, Head Data Scientist and Analytics, D&I Ambassador at Novartis
• And more to come!