John M. Chambers Statistical Software Award
Statistical Computing Section
American Statistical Association
The Statistical Computing Section of the American Statistical
Association announces the second competition for the John M. Chambers
Statistical Software Award. In 1998 the Association for Computing
Machinery presented its Software System Award to John Chambers for the
design and development of S. Dr. Chambers generously donated his award
to the Statistical Computing Section to endow an annual prize for
statistical software written by an undergraduate or graduate student.
The prize carries with it a cash award of $1000, plus a substantial
allowance for travel to the annual Joint Statistical Meetings in
Atlanta, GA in August 2001 where the award will be presented.
To be eligible, an entrant must have designed and implemented a piece of
statistical software. The applicant must have begun the development
while a student, and must either currently be a student, or have
completed all requirements for the last degree earned by December 31,
1997. To apply for the award, entrants must provide the following
materials:
· A current CV.
· A letter from a faculty mentor at their academic institution. The
letter should confirm that the software is the work of the student,
certify the student status of the entrant when the software began to be
developed (and either the current student status and the date of
degree completion), and briefly discuss the importance of the software
to statistical practice.
· A brief, one to two page description of the software, summarizing
what it does, how it does it, and why it is an important contribution.
If the entrant has continued developing the software after finishing
their studies, the description should indicate what was developed when
the entrant was a student and what has been added since.
· Access to the software by the award committee for their use on inputs
of their choosing. Access to the software can consist of an
executable file, Web-based access, macro code, or other appropriate
form. Access should be accompanied by enough information to allow the
judges to effectively use and evaluate the software. This information
can be provided in a variety of ways, including but not limited to a
user manual (paper or electronic), a paper, a URL, online help to the
system, and source code. In particular, the entrant must be prepared
to provide complete source code for inspection by the committee if
requested.
The entries will be judged on a variety of dimensions, including the
importance and relevance for statistical practice of the tasks performed
by the software, ease of use, clarity of description, and elegance.
Preference will be given to those entries that are grounded in software
design rather than calculation. The decision of the award committee is
final.
All application materials must be received by 5:00pm PST, Wednesday,
February 28, 2001 at the address below. We prefer that electronic text
be submitted in Postscript or PDF. All materials must be in English.
The winner will be announced in the spring of 2001.
Information on the competition can also be accessed on the website of
the Statistical Computing Section, including the names and contributions
of previous winners. A current pointer to the section website is
available from the ASA website at www.amstat.org. Inquiries and
application materials should be emailed or mailed to:
Chambers Software Award
c/o Lionel Galway
The RAND Corporation
1700 Main St.
Santa Monica, CA 90407
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Lionel Galway
Senior Statistician
The RAND Corporation voice: 310-393-0411 X7957
1700 Main St. fax: 310-393-4818
Santa Monica, CA 90401 email: [log in to unmask]
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