John Alexander - US grants

This project changes the educational experience for engineering students to help the graduate develop the ability to integrate their knowledge with that of other professionals in order to synthesize appropriate and innovative solutions to multidisciplinary problems which require an understanding of the social, cultural and economic questions involved. This is accomplished by three distinctive student experiences: 1) An experience during the freshman year to show engineering and technology development as integral activities of a modern society; 2) a continuing study of issues in contemporary society emphasizing the connected nature of human activities and knowledge; 3) a capstone design experience involving teams of students and faculty developing proposed solutions to real life problems and situations. The grantee provides funds for this project that are more than twice the NSF award.

Proposal: DMS 95-22317 PI: John Alexander Institution: National Academy of Sciences Title: Produce a World Wide Wed Program of the Conference on Statistical Challenges and Possible Approaches in the Analysis of Massive Data Sets ABSTRACT The workshop on Statistics and Massive Data Sets, hosted by the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics of the National Research Council, focuses on how to deal effectively with massive amounts of data that need statistical analyses. In numerous practical contexts, researchers are confronted with the inadequacy of standard statistical techniques to handle the explosion in the size of current data sets, where the number of observations can easily run into the giga- and even terabyte ranges. Statistical assumptions underlying many of the most popular methods, such as "homogeneity" of the data, may simply be wrong in these cases, thus rendering common statistical tools ineffective and even dangerous. A corresponding problem is the growth in the number of dimensions in many current problems. Again standard approaches, which were developed in a different era, even predating the computer in many cases, are not powerful enough for these challenges. The workshop on Statistics and Massive Datasets explores the challenges presented by massive data sets, and does so in the context of a variety of real world and currently pressing application areas, including the atmospheric, biological and geo sciences, business and marketing, ecology, and engineering and technology. With these areas as a backdrop, specific over-arching multi-disciplinary research issues on common needs, including relevant statistical principles, computational aspects, data analysis, and visualization of massive data sets are identified. The workshop involves highly animated discussions among scientists. These discussions are not easily captured in a traditional published proceedings format. In contrast, the activities are capture d and distributed via the preparation of a videotape of the workshop followed by a World Wide Web (WWW) dissemination. This new dissemination method brings the benefit of the actual discussions to a wide audience in a timely fashion.

The Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics (CATS) is concerned with issues involving and affecting the statistical sciences, statistics education, and uses of statistics. The Committee occupies a pivotal position in the statistical community, providing expertise in methodology and policy formulation. Members of CATS are appointed by the Chairman of the National Research Council. This project is for core funding for CATS. CATS activities supported exclusively by core funding are: one CATS meeting, CATS participation in the annual Board on Mathematical Sciences Department Chairs Colloquium, the initiation and administration of all CATS projects, and continuous oversight of all CATS-related activities. These include giving recommendations on research directions to federal agencies and reports on education in the statistical sciences, interaction of the statistical sciences with other areas, the health of the statistical sciences, and emerging research directions.

This Chemistry Division award supports the continuation of a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at the University of Cincinnati. John Alexander is the site's Program Director; Allan Pinhas is the Co-Program Director. Twelve faculty will serve as REU student mentors. During the award period (2001-2003), each summer ten students will participate in a ten-week program. Recruitment efforts will be targeted on students east of the Mississippi with particular focus on a dozen HBCUs that regularly produce chemistry majors. Another recruitment effort will be targeted on the city's nationally known college prep high school, Walnut Hills, which sends a significant number of talented African-American students to colleges in other cities and states. Women's colleges will also be a recruiting focal point. Student participants will select from projects in analytical, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry. Each student will work closely with a faculty mentor on a research problem. There will be weekly luncheons/seminars for all student participants and faculty mentors. The program will conclude with a student poster symposium. Each student will also be required to write a project report. In terms of assessment, a two-page feedback questionnaire will be completed at the end of the program, and there will be follow-up communications during the following academic year.

Clinical trials have become prohibitively expensive, slow to finish, and have not taken full advantage of evolving technology, resulting in major gaps in the availability of and knowledge about medical products. The Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), a public-private partnership co-founded and hosted by Duke University and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), develops and drives adoption of practices that will increase the quality and efficiency of clinical trials. For more than ten years, CTTI has informed and facilitated changes in clinical trial policies and practices. Duke will continue to support CTTI?s mission through the following specific aims: (1) Maintain an administrative and scientific infrastructure to implement all related activities under this collaborative effort. (2) Identify issues, develop plans, conduct research and activities, and produce recommendations and resources to improve clinical trials. (3) Encourage the adoption of recommendations through broad communication activities. (4) Identify and implement organizational activities to support system change. To accomplish these aims, CTTI will continue to work with its member organizations and a broader cross- section of clinical trial stakeholders to develop evidence-based recommendations and resources and support their adoption. CTTI?s recently refined areas of focus align with the FDA?s priorities and emphasize the importance of 1) clinical trial quality, 2) patients as equal partners, 3) investigator and site success, 4) appropriate use of mobile technologies, 5) novel clinical trial designs, and 6) trials that are safe and ethical. With a focus on these areas, CTTI will advance its vision for a high-quality clinical trial system that is patient- centered and efficient, enabling reliable and timely access to evidence-based therapeutic prevention and treatment options.