George Mason University
CSI/Statistics Colloquium Series
Seminar Announcement


Statistical Reference Datasets (StRD) for Assessing the Numerical Accuracy of Statistical Software

W.F. Guthrie

National Institute for Standards and Technology


ABSTRACT

With the widespread availability of statistical software, concerns about its numerical accuracy are now greater than ever. Inevitably, numerical accuracy problems will affect some of this software despite extensive testing. In response to concerns of both the statistical community and industrial users, the statistics and mathematics groups at NIST have developed a web site that provides reference data sets for checking the numerical accuracy of computationsfor a variety of statistical methods. This service is called Statistical Reference Datasets (StRD). The StRD web pages are intended to complement the testing of statistical software by providing data sets and corresponding certified values of commonly-computed statistics for comparison with output from a user's software. This talk will describe

  • sources of numerical inaccuracy in mathematical and statistical software,
  • selection of reference data sets for different types of statistical procedures,
  • computation of error-free statistical results for each data set, and
  • use of the StRD web site.

    The types of statistical procedures discussed will include univariate summary statistics, linear and nonlinear regression, and analysis of variance (ANOVA).


    Friday, May 7, 1999
    George W. Johnson Center, Assembly Room D
    Seminar at 10:45 a.m.
    Refreshments at 10:30 a.m.


    Information about the Statistics Colloquium Series, including directions, and current and past schedules, is available at www.science.gmu.edu/statseminars