NEWS

Invitation to SSCC Computer Orientation

SSCC staff will offer two hands-on computer orientation sessions for new members arriving this Fall on Wednesday, August 29, 10:00AM - 11:30AM and on Thursday, September 6, 1:00PM - 2:00PM. Both sessions are in 3218 Sewell Social Sciences Building. We want to extend an invitation to any SSCC member who might also like to attend. Maybe you've been a member for a while but haven't used your account much, or maybe you arrived mid-year and didn't get a one-on-one orientation. Whatever the reason, you are welcome. Just visit our training page to register so we can have materials ready for you.

New Sociology graduate students have already been invited, but if you know of other new arrivals—post docs, faculty, staff, visitors—please make sure they know about this opportunity.

New Class and KB Articles on Multiple Imputation

We've added a new class this semester, Multiple Imputation in Stata. The material covered will also be available online in the SSCC's Statistical Computing Knowledge Base. Those sections which have been completed are available now, starting with Multiple Imputation in Stata: Introduction.

Multiple imputation is becoming a popular technique, but many people don't realize how much work is involved in doing it well, or how easily doing it poorly can give you biased results. This class is intended to be a practical guide so we won't spend much time on the theory behind multiple imputation, but we will discuss how to avoid common mistakes that lead to biased results as well as the nuts and bolts of using multiple imputation in Stata.

SSCC's Fall Training Schedule

In addition to Multiple Imputation, the SSCC's fall training schedule includes introductions to Stata, SPSS, Matlab, and NVivo. A second round of R classes will be scheduled later in the semester. Visit our training page for details and to register.

Reserving the Computer Classroom for Fall Semester Courses

Now is the time to reserve the 3218 classroom or mobile lab for your fall semester class, before your spot gets taken by someone else. Fill out the web form to make reservations. Visit our Instructional Support web page for more information about the 3218 classroom and the mobile lab. If you have any questions, contact Caitlin Tefft (ctefft@ssc.wisc.edu or 2-0862).

Even if you do not need to reserve the classroom or lab, you can arrange for your students to have access to SSCC's drop in labs (3218 and 4218 Social Science) for doing their homework. Caitlin can help you with this as well.

Doug Hemken (dehemken@wisc.edu), statistical computing specialist for SSCC, is available to help students with homework and class projects. You can also arrange for Doug to come to your class and provide instruction on statistical software. Doug's office is in the 4226 office suite and his phone number is 2-4327.

Avoid Windows 8 for Desktops and Laptops

SSCC staff have been experimenting with pre-release versions of Windows 8 and, while it will work very well for touch-based computers like tablets, we cannot recommend it for standard desktop and laptop computers. Unless and until major changes are made, we will continue to install Windows 7 on SSCC computers, and if you are buying a new computer we recommend you have Windows 7 installed on it.