Friends,
Please forward this invitation to your colleagues, and RSVP to
me ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) if you plan to attend.

The Statistics & Reliability Discussion Group cordially invites you to
attend an outstanding FREE presentation:

Speaker: Mr. Ed Russell

Topic: Selecting Winners: Robust Rating and Ranking in Busines

 Editorial Comment: If you are involved with project selection and
management you need to attend this talk. If you have to make 
rational choices among several options be they personal, financial,
or whatever, you need to attend this talk. Ed has made many
outstanding presentations to our group and this is no exception.

                                                                      John Flaig

Abstract:

Knowing where you stand among your competitors is obviously
critical in sports. It's generally obvious that to be a winner,
you don't need to be the best at everything and to be a loser,
you don't need to be the worst at everything. In many sports,
like running or speedskating, knowing where you stand is fairly
simple. You just track your time and that of your competitors.
Things get more complicated in some sports, like: gymnastics,
snowboarding, and (horrors) figure skating. You might think
you just have to track your scores and those of your opponents –
but different panels may come to different conclusions. Worse,
we often suspect the same panel may give much different
conclusions on different days, raising that ugliest of all questions:
"Does the score actually mean anything?"

Life seems to become even more complex in selecting projects
to fund in business. There aren't any panels Judges who at least
had some training in how to declare winners. You sometimes
suspect that half the people involved in the selections in business
don't fully understand the choices. You are often pretty sure
that a few people are there to make sure their project wins approval
and that they just might kill yours to ensure theirs wins funding.
Perhaps one of the company Execs is in the room too. Does that
automatically turn the selection process into a divination session
where the goal is to figure out what (s)he wants?

Is there any methodology which can provide help in the seemingly
hopeless task? Will it work with multiple metrics? Is it possible to
use untrained "Judges" and still make a decent choice? Is there a
way to tell at least what is an OK choice from a really bad one?
We will approach this topic starting with gaining an understanding
of some of the basic issues in determining winners and losers in
the context of selecting projects to fund. We will compare a few
systems commonly used in business meetings to select projects.
We will mention one system, the Borda system, which is reasonably
well known in academics but not often used in business. And we
will introduce another system which is not very well known either
in business or academics, I will call it the Foldvary system, which
has some unique properties. Finally, we will make recommendations
on which system to use, when.

If we have time, we will make some comments on how these systems
can be used to help understand what is driving business performance
in the consumer marketplace.

Biography:

Ed Russell manages Statistical Modeling at National Semiconductor
where he primarily supports the analysis and comparison of SPICE
Models, Design Rules, and electrical test data.

Prior to working for National, Ed served as a Black Belt Statistician
at Sun Microsystems developing and teaching statistical design
methodology for 65 and 45nm CMOS circuit design. In the semiconductor
industry, Ed has also served as: Reliability Director and Manager of
Statistical Information systems for Cypress Semiconductors; Senior
Manager for Business Process Programs, Quality Manager, and
Statistician for AMD; and Manager of Statistical Programs for Sematech.

Earlier in his career, Ed has worked in various roles as: a geophysicist,
a statistician, and as a systems analyst / programmer.

Ed received an MS in Mathematical Statistics from Purdue University
with a focus on Decision Theory and Test of Hypothesis. In addition,
he has a formal background in: Biostatistics at the University of
Washington, Multivariate Analysis at Ohio State University, and
Geophysics at the University of Houston. Ed holds 2 patents and
has several additional patent applications in process

Please RSVP This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it at least two days prior to the
meeting if possible.

MEETING DETAILS

6:00 to 6:30 pm Introductions and Networking
6:30 to 7:30 pm Presentation
7:30 to 8:00 pm Question and Answer Session

MEETING LOCATION

Applied Materials
Bowers Cafe (aka Campus Cafe)
3090 Bowers Ave.
Santa Clara, CA. 95054 (see directions below)

MEETING SCHEDULE

Our 2010 scheduled speakers and topics:
(all meetings are on the second Wednesday of each month)
* = Joint ASQ and IEEE meeting

Jan 13*- Dr. Laura Higgins – Interactive Reliability Analysis:
A New Take on the Classics
Feb 10* - Mr. Fred Schenkelberg – Equipment Availability based on Reliability Analysis
Mar 10 - Mr. Ed Russell - Project Ranking
Apr 14 - DOE Panel Discussion (Bring your questions)
May 12 - Dr. Karl Mathia - Performance Criteria and Measurements for
Substrate-Handling Robots, and Karl's New Book (copies will be available)
Jun 9 - Dr. John Flaig – A Multivariate Loss Function
Jul 14 - Reliability Panel Discussion (Bring your questions)
Aug 11 - Dr. Jack Tomsky - Multiple Comparisons of Binomials with Applications
to The Super Bowl Theory
Sep 8 - Dr. Reza Azarkhail - Bayesian Inference Techniques for Uncertainty Management
Oct 13 - SPC and Sampling Panel Discussion (Bring your questions)
Nov 10 - TBD
Nov 10 - Annual Speakers Dinner
Dec - No Meeting, Happy Holidays!

ARCHIVED PRESENTATIONS

To access any of our archived presentation files on the Statistics &
Reliability Yahoo Group Site, you need to be a Member of the Group
and you NEED to have a Yahoo ID.

If you DO NOT have a Yahoo ID, you will need to create a Yahoo ID first
and then go to:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Statistics-Reliability_Discussion_Group/

Then, on the Right side, click on the blue box "Join This Group!"

If you DO have a Yahoo ID and are a Member of the Statistics & Reliability
Discussion Group, then go to:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Statistics-Reliability_Discussion_Group/files

and click on file names you wish to download.

Silly problems that happen often at this Yahoo Group Site:

1. Files cannot be downloaded! The problems are usually with Yahoo.
So, you may need to try again later.
2. It is a good idea to reset your computer by restarting again, or
shutdown and wait a minute or two then restart again.
3. Finally, check to make sure your computer is set up to accept
at least 3MB files.

NEWS

1. If you attend a Statistics & Reliability Discussion Group
meeting, you will earn .2 recertification units for "professional
development" from the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

2. Our Future Presentations

We are always looking for interesting topics and great speakers for
our meetings. If you are interested in making a presentation to our
group or know of someone who would be a great speaker, please
email me ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with your suggestions.

Potential speakers should review our Yahoo Groups website file
"Presentation Pointers" to get some helpful suggestions for making
a great presentation.

So far our planned 2011 program schedule looks like this:

Jan* - Dr. Laura Higgins - New Reliability tools in JMP 9
Feb -
Mar - Mr. Ed Russell - Median Plains in Hyperspace
Apr - DOE Panel Discussion (Bring your questions)
May -
Jun -
Jul - Reliability Panel Discussion (Bring your questions)
Aug -
Sep -
Oct - SPC and Sampling Panel Discussion (Bring your questions)
Nov -
Nov - Speakers Dinner

Dec - No Meeting, Happy Holidays!

3. Training and Consulting Services from Applied Technology

Applied Technology provides training classes and
consulting services in the following areas:
Statistical Process Control, Design of Experiments,
Robust Process Design, Process Capability Analysis,
Measurement Systems Analysis, Statistics, Reliability,
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, Lean, Six Sigma,
Supplier Management, ISO, Sampling, Data Mining
Quality Function Deployment, 5S, and 8D Problem Solving.

For more information contact Rosetrina at:
Applied Technology
1237 Clark Way
San Jose, CA 95125
Tel: (408) 266-5174
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.e-AT-USA.com

4. JMP/SAS

JMP offers a free training class at 10:00 am Friday of each
week to those interested in learning more about JMP.
Please see the JMP website www.JMP.com and search
for webinars. You can also download a free 30 day trial
of JMP 8.0 from their website.

5. Upcoming Reliability Seminars at Quanta Labs

For more details contact Mr. Terry Liu
Quanta Laboratories
3199 De La Cruz Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Tel: (408) 988-0770
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Website: www.quantalabs.com

6. American Society for Quality

The Silicon Valley Section of the ASQ is looking for individuals
that would be interested in joining the Leadership Team.
The team sets direction and selects activities for our section.
Several positions are available where your skills can be used
to manage one of the largest and most active chapters of the
American Society for Quality. For more information please
contact the section chair Deborah Blackmon at
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7. Scholarships and Awards

The Silicon Valley section of the ASQ offers scholarship awards
in the amount of $1000 to students attending local colleges.
The section also sponsors a Quality paper competition with
prizes of $1000, $500, and $250. Please see the section website
for details (www.asq-silicon-valley.org).

8. IEEE

The IEEE SCV Reliability group has the following presentations scheduled
in 2010.

Location: HP - Oak Room, Bldg 48, 1911 Pruneridge Ave , Cupertino, CA
Time: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Map: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/rl/directs.htm

Jan 13 - Joint meeting with ASQ at Applied Materials
Feb -
Mar -
Apr -
May -
June/July/August - No meetings during the summer
Sep -
Oct -
Nov -

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

These presentations are brought to you through:

1. The generous support of our outstanding speakers.
2. The excellent facility accommodations provided by Applied Materials.
3. The sponsorship of the American Society for Quality (www.ASQ.org).
4. The outstanding program management, planning, and
communication provided by Rosetrina Flaig, MBA
of Applied Technology (www.e-AT-USA.com).

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DIRECTIONS TO THE STATISTICS & RELIABILITY GROUP MEETING

Applied Materials
Bowers Cafe (aka Campus Cafe)
3090 Bowers Ave.
Santa Clara, CA. 95054 (see map link below)

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?
ed=iMAnM.p_0TqlSE32.k9gtGHYPE.M.HgU&csz=Santa+Clara%
2C+CA&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=

** From 101 (Going South from Palo Alto):

* Take the Bowers Ave exit and turn right at the
light (i.e., go west -- away from Great America).

* Go about 1/2 mile, you will cross Scott Blvd.

* Turn right at the second driveway after passing
Scott Blvd. and park in the multistory car park in
the rear. There is a bike trail sign near the driveway
entrance. If you cross Central Expressway, you
have gone too far.

* The Bowers Campus Cafe is behind Applied Materials
building #2.

***************************************

** From 101 (Going North from San Jose):

* Take the Great America Parkway exit and turn left
at the light (i.e., go west -- away from Great America).

* Go about 1/2 mile, you will cross Scott Blvd.

* Turn right at the second driveway after passing
Scott Blvd. and park in the multi-story car park in
the rear. There is a bike trail sign near the driveway
entrance. If you cross Central Expressway, you
have gone too far.

* The Bowers Campus Cafe is behind Applied Materials
building #2.

----------------------------------------------------------

OPT-IN or OUT

If you wish to add someone or be removed from the
distribution list, just e-mail me and I will take
care of it.

John Flaig ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )