useR! 2008

The R User Conference 2008
August 12-14, Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany

Organizer:	Fakultät Statistik, Technische Universität Dortmund
Co-Organizer:	Austrian Association for Statistical Computing
Sponsors:	R Foundation for Statistical Computing

About the Conference

useR! 2008, the R user conference, takes place at the Fakultät Statistik, Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany from 2008-08-12 to 2008-08-14. Pre-conference tutorials take place on August 11.
The conference is organized by the Fakultät Statistik, Technische Universität Dortmund and the Austrian Association for Statistical Computing (AASC). It is funded by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing.

Following the successful useR! 2004, useR! 2006, and useR! 2007 conferences, the conference is focused on

R as the `lingua franca' of data analysis and statistical computing,
providing a platform for R users to discuss and exchange ideas how R can be used to do statistical computations, data analysis, visualization and exciting applications in various fields,
giving an overview of the new features of the rapidly evolving R project.

As for the predecessor conference, the program consists of two parts:

invited lectures discussing new R developments and exciting applications of R,
user-contributed presentations reflecting the wide range of fields in which R is used to analyze data.

A major goal of the useR! conference is to bring users from various fields together and provide a platform for discussion and exchange of ideas: both in the formal framework of presentations as well as in the informal part of the conference in Dortmund's famous beer pubs and restaurants.

Prior to the conference, on 2008-08-11, there are tutorials offered at the conference site. Each tutorial has a length of 3 hours and takes place either in the morning or afternoon.

Organizing Team:: Uwe Ligges (conference), Achim Zeileis (program), Claus Weihs, Gerd Kopp (local organization), Friedrich Leisch, Torsten Hothorn
Program committee:: Micah Altman, Roger Bivand, Peter Dalgaard, Jan de Leeuw, Ramón Díaz-Uriarte, Spencer Graves, Leonhard Held, Torsten Hothorn, François Husson, Christian Kleiber, Friedrich Leisch, Andy Liaw, Martin Mächler, Kate Mullen, Ei-ji Nakama, Thomas Petzoldt, Martin Theus, Heather Turner
Speakers include:: Peter Bühlmann, John Fox, Andrew Gelman, Kurt Hornik,
Gary King, Duncan Murdoch, Jean Thioulouse, Graham J. Williams

Call for Papers

We invited all R users to submit abstracts (closed now) presenting innovations or exciting applications of R on topics such as:

Applied Statistics & Biostatistics
Bayesian Statistics
Bioinformatics
Chemometrics and Computational Physics
Data Mining
Econometrics & Finance
Environmetrics & Ecological Modeling
High Performance Computing
Machine Learning
Marketing & Business Analytics
Psychometrics
Robust Statistics
Sensometrics
Spatial Statistics
Statistics in the Social and Political Sciences
Teaching
Visualization & Graphics
and many more.

We recommended a length of about one page in pdf format. The program committee decided on the presentation format. There is no proceedings volume, but the abstracts are available in an online collection linked from the conference program and in a single pdf file.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 2008-03-31.

Timeline of the Conference

The scientific program of the conference starts Tuesday, August 12, 9am and end Thursday, August 14, in the afternoon.
The social program consists of a reception in the city hall on Tuesday, August 12, and a conference dinner on Wednesday, August 13.
Prior to the conference, on Monday, August 11, several half-day tutorials are held.

Funding

Travel support to attend useR! 2008 for US residents was available (deadline is passed). Requesters have been notified by Di Cook.
National Science Foundation support was available (deadline is passed) to support travel and accommodation for graduate students and junior faculty at U.S. post-secondary institutions. The allocation has been based on merit and need; women and minority candidates were encouraged to apply. NSF regulations require the use of US carriers when at all possible. Requesters have been notified by Luke Tierney.

Accommodation

We prebooked a number of rooms in several hotels near the conference site or in the city center with convenient public transportation to the conference site at special conference rates:
http://germany.nethotels.com/info/dortmund/events/user/.

Moreover, you have the choice to book rooms in these or other hotels for the price of the day (no prebooked rooms, some of them not that well located; remove all nethotels cookies before following this link): http://germany.nethotels.com/info/dortmund/start/default_en.htm.

Dortmund might be busy at the conference time, so we recommend to book as soon as possible.

About Dortmund

In the past, Dortmund was famous for coal, steel and the beer industry - quite typical for a city in the Ruhrgebiet. Today, Dortmund evolves to a city with high tech industry, exhibitions and service companies. Dortmund's football (i.e. soccer) club is world famous and attracts roughly 80000 people on a regular basis. More information about Dortmund can be found here or on Wikipedia.

How to get to the city and the conference site

How to get to Dortmund

Although Dortmund has its own small airport, it is probably the best idea to take a flight with final destination Düsseldorf airport and take a train from Düsseldorf airport to Dortmund.
For the following local transport trains, you need a Price Zone D (10.50 EUR) ticket. Don't forget to stamp it in one of the orange machines (before you board the train!).

RE1 or RE6 to "Dortmund Hauptbahnhof" (mainstation, within the city center; takes roughly 50 minutes).
S1 to "Dortmund Hauptbahnhof" (mainstation, within the city center; takes roughly 80 minutes).
One of its many stops is at the conference site: "Dortmund Universität".

Travel information for public transportation to and within the city can be obtained from here.

Alternatively, it is possible to take a flight to Frankfurt airport and take the (quite expensive) ICE high speed train to Dortmund (more information on ICE timetables and fares can be found here; takes roughly 2 hours).

How to get to the conference site

A site map of the university can be found here. The conference takes place in the highest building (Mathematics, no. 12 on the map) on the campus. Address: Vogelpothsweg 87, 44227 Dortmund.

By train:
From Dortmund Hauptbahnhof (main station) take the S1 train (platform 7), direction Düsseldorf, and you arrive at "Dortmund Universität" after 7 minutes. On the map, the (underground) train station for S1 is marked with a small green square between buildings no. 13 and 14.
You need a Price Zone A (2.20 EUR) ticket for local transport within Dortmund. Don't forget to stamp it in one of the orange machines (before you board the train!). You might want to take a ticket for 4 ways (7.70 EUR) in order to save money.
Travel information for public transportation to and within the city can be obtained from here.

By car:
A description (in German) for travelling by car is given here. For short: Try to go to motorway A40(=B1) and use the exit "Dortmund Dorstfeld", follow road signs to the "Campus Nord".

Date & Location

August 12-14, 2008 (iCalendar file)

Fakultät Statistik
Technische Universität Dortmund
Vogelpothsweg 87
44227 Dortmund
Germany

Important Dates

2008-03-31: early registration deadline
2008-03-31: submission deadline of abstracts
2008-05-18: notification of acceptance
2008-05-31(CEST): regular registration deadline
closed now:: online registration
2008-07-25: registration deadline
(later registration possible on site)
2008-08-11: tutorials
2008-08-12: conference start
2008-08-14: conference end

Please contact the organizing committee at useR-2008@R-project.org for further information.

Conference

Program

Dortmund