Problems with the p-value

For December's Data Science DC, we're very happy to partner with our friends at the Washington Statistical Society (http://washstat.org/) to present Dr. Regina Nuzzo from Gallaudet University. She will discuss a fundamental, but flawed, tool of statistical inference and statistical communication, the p-value. Expect a very... significant... presentation.

You can sign up for this event either here or at WSS' Meetup page (https://www.meetup.com/WashStat/events/218881685/), but please don't register in both places.

Agenda:

• 6:30pm -- Networking, Empanadas, and Refreshments

• 7:00pm -- Introduction, Announcements, Give-aways

• 7:15pm -- Presentation and Discussion

• 8:30pm -- Data Drinks (Tonic, 2036 G St NW)

Abstract:

What's the fuss around the p-value? This standard measure been widely canonized -- from entry-level statistics texts all the way to regulatory agencies and the scientific publication system -- yet also often misunderstood, misapplied, and obsessively stalked. In this talk, Dr. Nuzzo will discuss misleading interpretations and puzzling paradoxes that can result from statements of statistical significance, present some of the latest thinking about teasing out certainty and evidence in data, and discuss the most interesting philosophical and practical trends to look for on the horizon.

Bio:

Dr. Regina Nuzzo (http://www.gallaudet.edu/faculty-staff/psychology/nuzzo_regina.html) is a freelance science journalist and professor at Gallaudet University. She received her Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford University, post-doctoral training in the Music Cognition Lab at McGill University, and graduate science journalism training at University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writings about data, probability, and statistics have been published in Nature, Science News, Biomedical Computation Review, and Scientific American. Her Nature feature article about the p-value (http://www.nature.com/news/scientific-method-statistical-errors-1.14700) recently won the American Statistical Association’s 2014 Excellence in Statistical Reporting Award. Follow her on Twitter @ReginaNuzzo (https://twitter.com/ReginaNuzzo).

Sponsors:

This event is sponsored by the GWU Department of Decision Sciences (http://business.gwu.edu/decisionsciences/), Pearson/InformIT (http://www.informit.com/), Statistics.com (http://bit.ly/12YljkP), LivingSocial (https://corporate.livingsocial.com/browsealljobs/?deep_link=/jobs/olpfYfwH), Novetta Solutions (http://novetta.com/), Elder Research (http://datamininglab.com/), and Five 9 Group (http://www.five9group.com/).