Iowa SAS® Users GroupThe 11th One-Day ConferenceMonday, May 21, 2018

Carver Conference and Learning Center

DuPont Pioneer

Conference Co-Chairs

Simon Geletta and John Xu

Conference Committee

Lizhi Feng Registrar,

DuPont Pioneer

Scott A. Miller Section Chair Wells Fargo

Elaine Notis Section Chair

DuPont Pioneer

Delayne Stokke Section Chair Wells Fargo

Xiaoping Wang Training Coordinator

Iowa Department of Education

Praveen Yerramsetty Registration Coordinator

1ST Consulting

Message from Conference Co-chairs

Dear fellow SAS Users –

The next Iowa SAS Users Group conference will be held on May 21st, 2018. Your fellow Iowa SAS users, colleagues and friends will come together to exchange ideas, job/contract opportunities, and for networking.

We have a featured key-note speaker, featured breakout sessions, and open time where you can share concepts, ideas and a great networking opportunity.

This year, Teradata has stepped forward as a major sponsor, and we thank them very much for their support! Our keynote speaker is Rick Lower, who is the Senior Director of Alliances at Teradata. Rick’s talk, titled “Analytics in the Cloud – Mandate or Option?” highlights one of the most widely debated topics of recent years. Come prepared to be informed about this hot topic.

Following the keynote, choose from 3 concurrent presentation sessions that cover a wide range of topics OR choose to attend one of the Hands-On Workshops. Presentation sessions are scheduled in 30 to 50-minute time slots throughout the day. The popular Hands-On Workshops, which are presented in room D, are longer sessions and provide an opportunity to learn by doing, with expert instructors to teach you and to answer your questions.

We’ll end the conference by holding a closing session where door-prizes (which include a large screen TV, and much, much more) are given away before we wrap up things. You don’t want to miss the closing session! Please bring along your business cards, not only for networking, but to facilitate our registration process.

There will be a bulletin board where contract opportunities, related events, and other announcements can be affixed. Hiring managers and consultants seeking contracts should bring their requirements on hardcopy for distribution as well as to post on the board.

Registration details and RSVP methods will be announced shortly!

Your Co-Chairs, John Xu and Simon Geletta

John Xu

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Simon Geletta

Conference Information

This one-day conference will provide an opportunity to enhance your SAS® skills and improve your understanding of the SAS® System. There will be 4 concurrent sessions throughout the day! We will have Invited Speakers including professional trainers and industry experts, as well as SAS Institute Speakers. Online Registration will start over one month before the conference.

Additionally, we will have 3 post-conference SAS classes taught by professional trainer Ben Cochran.

Network with Fellow SAS® Users

Learn from the SAS Pro’s

Four Concurrent Sessions

Over 20 Presentations!

Free Hands-on Workshops Included

Three SAS Classes by Professional Trainer

Scholarship for Students

Lower Registration Fees --New!!

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Date: Monday, May 21, 2018

Location: Carver Conference and Learning Center (See map and direction on left page) Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. 7200 NW 62nd Ave., Johnston, IA 50131

Online Registration http://www.RegOnline.com/iasug2018

Registration Fee: • $60 for Early Registration by Friday May 11, 2018

• $120 for Late Registration after May 11, 2018

• Group discount available: Receive 1 free registration for every 10 paid registration

SAS Class: 3 SAS classes. See page 12 for details.

Cancellation Policy: No refund but substitution is accepted with advance notice to dsm1day@yahoo.com.

Schedule: Arrive early for breakfast and networking at 7:15 a.m. Check-in will start at 7:45 a.m. Opening Session/Keynote will begin promptly at 8:40 a.m. 4 concurrent sessions will start at 9:30 a.m. Lunch at 12:20 p.m. The afternoon sessions will start at 1:30 p.m. The closing session will start at 4:30 p.m. and will conclude before 4:50 p.m. See Conference Schedule on next page for more details.

Breakfast/Lunch: Breakfast and Lunch are provided to all attendees without extra charge. Coffee will be served through the day.

Hotel: If you need to stay in a local hotel, you may call the following hotels for a reservation. Please mention that you are attending a meeting at Pioneer to get the special rate. It is up to hotel to decide if you qualify for the discount rate.

(1) Stoney Creek Inn, 5291 Stoney Creek Court,Johnston, IA (515) 334-9000 $79/night (FREE Wireless Internet, Airport Shuttle, Shuttle to Pioneer, Breakfast)

(2) Towneplace Suites, 8800 Northpark Drive, Johnston, IA (515) 727-4066 $85/night (FREE Wireless Internet, Breakfast)

(3) Additional hotels with corporate discount: Hilton Garden Inn Des Moines/Urbandale, Comfort Suites at Living History Farms, Drury Inn in West Des Moines, Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel,

Questions: For an answer, email your question to Simon Geletta: slg@kdsol.com, O: (515)271-1366, C: (515)343-9895

Conference Information

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5/21Session 1 – SAS Presents

(Room C: Close to entrance)Session 2 – Statistics/Graph (Room B: Next to Auditorium)

Session 3 – Programming (Room A: Auditorium)

Session 4 - HOW (Room D)

7:40 – 8:40 a.m.

Check In & Network -- Breakfast Sponsored by

8:40 – 9:20 a.m.

Opening Session & Keynote Speech: Analytics in the Cloud – Mandate or Option? Rick Lower, Sr Director of Alliances, Teradata

9:30 – 10:20 a.m.

Visual Analytics 8.2 on Viya

Shannon Moore, SAS (7)

Ensuring data integrity with PROC COMPARE and beyond

Scott A. Miller, WF (14)

33 Tricks with the REPORT Procedure

Ben Cochran, Bedford (10) Intermediate SAS® ODS Graphics

Chuck Kincaid Experis. (19)

10:30 – 11:20 a.m.

Graph a Million With the SGPLOT Procedure

Prashant Hebbar, SAS (8)

Categorical data analysis with SAS

Robin High, UNMC (15)

Categorical data analysis with SAS

Robin High, UNMC (15)

11:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.

Causal Analysis with Observational Data:

Methods and Applications I

Michael Lamm, SAS (5)

Introduction to making maps in SAS

Kaeli Samson, UNMC (16)

44 Tricks with the FORMAT Procedure

Ben Cochran, Bedford (11)

12:20 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Lunch & More Sponsored by

1:30 – 2:20 p.m.

Causal Analysis with Observational Data: Methods

and Applications II

Michael Lamm, SAS (5)

Upgrade your data manipulation capabilities by using PROC DS2

Simon Geletta Des Moines University (13)

How to get SAS to write your programs for you!

Delayne Stokke, WF(4)Writing a SAS

Program to Create and Process Data From Directories

Ben Cochran (12)2:30 – 3:20 p.m.

Top 10 SAS® Support Resources

Shannon Moore, SAS (6)

How to succeed in consulting without really Trying

Charles Kincaid (18)

The Power With In

Paul Segal, Tho Nguyen, TD (2)

3:20 – 3:40 p.m.

Afternoon Break

3:40 – 4:30 p.m.

Clinical Graphs Using SAS

Prashant Hebbar, SAS (9)

Working effectively with SAS Grid

Chong Wang & Daniel Yang GDIT (17)

4:20 – 4:50 p.m.

Closing Session/Door Prize (Samsung 4K TV, Laptop computer, and More)

Conference Schedule [number in ( ) is the index in abstract section] Be sure to see Section 4 (Hands-On-Workshops)

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SAS Class 5/23/18 (Iowa Dept. of Edu.) 5/24/18 (Iowa Dept. of Edu.)

8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.Intro to the SAS Macro Facility

Instructor: Ben Cochran

SQL II: An Advanced look at PROC SQL

Instructor: Ben Cochran

12 – 1 p.m. Lunch Break (On your own)

1 – 4:30 p.m.Advanced SAS Macro Processing

Instructor: Ben Cochran

Conference Schedule

Thanks to Our Sponsors

• Application Development

• Data Warehousing

• Data Mining

• Data Management

• Reporting

For more information, please contact John Xu

(515) 778-4093 • johnxu@1st-consulting.com

Service Area

Industry Experience

• Risk Management

• SAS Training Classes

• Statistical Analysis/Modeling

• Technical Support

• Financial Services

• Health Care

• Insurance

• Marketing

• Pharmaceutical

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Presentation Abstracts

(2) The Power With InPaul Segal and Tho Nguyen, Teradata

Moving analytic tasks closer to where the data reside can improve performance, economics and governance. Executing complex data preparation, model development and model deployment inside a database can dramatically reduce the bottlenecks over a network, data silos and data redundancy. Join us to see and learn how you can prepare data for analytics more effectively, develop and deploy models faster and turn your data into analytical-driven decisions. We will demonstrate innovative technologies and useful tips and best practices for SAS users.

(3) Back to Basics: 10 things every SAS Programmer should know (and understand!)Delayne Stokke, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

This presentation will go into detail on 10 things that I think every SAS programmer should know. (1) SAS Documentation – where it is and how to use it (2) SAS Data Types: Numeric (default) and Character. (3) Numerical Accuracy in SAS. There are some limitations to numeric precision in SAS. Understanding those limitations may help you avoid undetected errors. (4) SAS DATE, TIME and DATETIME values (5) SAS Formats can be used to change the way values are displayed, but Formats do not change the underlying value of a variable. (6) Missing Values: what they are and how to work with them. (7) SAS LIBREFs: Paths are permanent, LIBREFs are temporary. (8) The WORK Library (9) SAS Views: what they are; how to create them; when to use them (10) DATA Step Concepts

(4) How to get SAS to write your programs for you!Delayne Stokke, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

The SAS Macro Language is somewhat of a mystery to many SAS users.  Using examples, I’ll show you how to get started with the macro language, including recommendations for development, debugging and deployment.

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Keynote Speech

Analytics in the Cloud – Mandate or Option?

Rick Lower, Sr Director of Alliances, Teradata

ABSTRACT: As the move to the cloud matures from hype to reality, the benefits of the cloud are becoming more refined. Are all analytics destined for the cloud? Customers in different and within the same industries are starting to reveal distinctions in approach and utilization of their analytics processes. This discussion will review the different deployment scenarios for advanced analytics and discuss pros and cons of each.

Presentation Abstracts

(5) Causal Analysis with Observational Data: Methods and Applications I & IIMichael Lamm, SAS Institute

Applied statisticians and data scientists are increasingly working with data that come from observational studies rather than from randomized experiments. Making valid causal inferences from observational data is a growing problem for statistical practitioners in applications that range from health care to marketing to government policymaking. This talk introduces the propensity score and methods that address this problem, including matching, weighting, and doubly robust estimation methods. Part I of this talk reviews the issues that arise in causal inference from observational data and illustrates how you can use the PSMATCH procedure of SAS/STAT software to perform matching. Part II of this talk demonstrates how you can use the CAUSALTRT and PSMATCH procedures to analyze observational data by using inverse probability weighting and doubly robust estimation methods. This talk emphasizes techniques that promote sound practice and enable you to communicate effectively, such as the use of numerical and graphical assessments of covariate balance.

(6) Top 10 SAS® Support ResourcesShannon Moore, SAS Institute

This session shows you various support resources, including support.sas.com, the main SAS support site. You also learn about SAS blogs, SAS communities, and video and thought leader sites. Great information for SAS novices and experts alike.

(7) Visual Analytics 8.2 on ViyaShannon Moore, SAS Institute

With SAS Visual Analytics, you can drag and drop tables, graphs, gauges, analytics, and controls to create a well-designed report (or dashboard). You can add text, images, as well. A report can have one or more pages. Each page can have a different layout and contain different objects. Whether you work with text, tables, or linear regressions, all objects are added to a page in a report.

This session will highlight report writing in SAS Visual Analytics 8.2, the latest version utilizing SAS Viya technology. We will bring in data, build a report and dashboard, and view the results via the web-based viewer and the Mobile app.

(8) Graph a Million With the SGPLOT ProcedurePrashant Hebbar, SAS Institute

In today’s world of torrential data, plotting large amounts of data has its own challenges. The SGPLOT procedure in ODS Graphics offers a simple yet powerful tool for your graphing needs. In this paper we present some graphs that work better for large data sets. We create heat maps, box plots, and parallel coordinate plots that visualize large data. You can make your graphs resilient to your growing data with ODS Graphics!

(9) Clinical Graphs Using SASPrashant Hebbar, SAS Institute

Graphs are essential for many clinical and health care domains, including analysis of clinical trials safety data and analysis of the efficacy of the treatment, such as change in tumor size. Creating such graphs is a breeze with procedures from SAS® 9.4 ODS Graphics. This paper shows how to create many industry standard graphs such as Lipid Profile, Swimmer Plot, Survival Plot, Forest Plot with Subgroups, Waterfall Plot, and Patient Profile using Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM) data.

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(10) 33 Tricks with the REPORT ProcedureBen Cochran, The Bedford Group

This presentation initially serves as an introduction to the REPORT procedure. Next, through a series of ‘tricks’ several more examples are given that show how to add pizazz to each report showing neat features from the SAS Output Delivery System.

(11) 44 Tricks with the FORMAT Procedure Ben Cochran, The Bedford Group

There are some fairly powerful things one can do with the Format procedure, and this presentation serves as a gentle introduction to the FORMAT procedure. In SAS, a format is simply instructions on how to write or display a value. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of formats that ship with the SAS system. While they cover many of the user’s needs, they cannot possibly cover all of them. So, the SAS System includes a tool that allows users to create their own formats. That tool is the FORMAT procedure. While this presentation serves as an introduction to the FORMAT procedure, it is not necessarily for the new SAS user. It is for any level of SAS programmer who wants to learn a lot more about this procedure.

(12) Writing a SAS Program to Create and Process Data From Directories- Hands-on WorkshopBen Cochran, The Bedford Group

This HOW teaches attendees how to write a SAS program that will do many things. First, it will read the contents of a directory, then it will retrieve all the excel spreadsheets, and only the excel spreadsheets. Then it traces the steps necessary to create SAS datasets from them. Finally, this HOW shows a program that will create 3 separate directories - one to store SAS programs, one to store SAS logs, and finally, one to store the procedure output that was created earlier. Next, the program populates each directory with the appropriate file.

(13) Upgrade your data manipulation capabilities by using PROC DS2Simon Geletta, Des Moines University

SAS data step and the SQL procedures allow data manipulation capabilities that are unmatched by any other data processing platforms. However, the current reality of dealing with “big data” have created challenges for data wranglers who have mastered these tools. SAS has innovated an array of solutions to meet these challenges. The DS2 procedure is one of such new tools that enable to wrangle big data. One of the appeals of DS2 is that it is widely available to all SAS programmers. This presentation will expose the learner to the basics of implementing DS2 for data manipulation and analysis. It also touches on some of intermediate to advanced features

(14) Ensuring data integrity with PROC COMPARE and beyondScott A. Miller, Wells Fargo

Comparing the contents of two data sets is a very frequent task to ensure data integrity. It’s very reassuring to know a bug has been fixed properly, a new feature is working correctly, and that the latest change didn’t create new problems. SAS® provides PROC COMPARE for comparing two data sets, but this procedure has many underutilized options and features. In addition to PROC COMPARE, there are other methods for comparing the contents of two data sets. This presentation aims to provide you with some new tools for ensuring data integrity.

Presentation Abstracts

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(15) Count data analysis with SASRobin High, University of Nebraska Medical Center

SAS®/STAT and SAS/ETS software have several procedures for working with count data based on the Poisson or negative binomial distributions. In particular, the GENMOD and GLIMMIX procedures offer the most conventional approaches for estimating model coefficients and assessing goodness of fit and also for working with correlated data. In addition, the COUNTREG procedure includes the Conway-Maxwell Poisson distribution with a statement to model dispersion and the negative binomial distribution with two different variance functions. The FMM procedure includes a generalized Poisson distribution as a method to deal with over-dispersion in count data. However, programming statements entered into the NLMIXED procedure in SAS/STAT can also model count data with other distributions and in particular to estimate the dispersion parameter as a function of covariates, and as a result modify the variance function to improve the fit.

(16) Introduction to Making Maps in SASKaeli Samson, University of Nebraska Medical Center

When data has a spatial component, mapping can aid in the interpretation of spatial patterns and distributions, as opposed to displaying the same data in tabular format. This presentation will cover the basics of using PROC GMAP to create descriptive, choropleth maps, which are maps that indicate numeric values of spatial regions (such as the population or median income of counties or states) through color or some other visual attribute. While SAS provides some popular maps and spatial summary data, this presentation will use census data and shapefiles to demonstrate how external data can be used within SAS for mapping.

(17) Working effectively with SAS GridChong Wang and Daniel Yang, General Dynamics IT

SAS Grid computing is a powerful tool for improving work efficiency, and we will introduce the basics of SAS Grid and some commonly used examples. In the first part of this talk, basic concepts of SAS Grid and parallel computing are introduced. Subsequently, detailed steps of initiating a SAS Grid secession and submitting a task are described, including certain settings that need to be considered to ensure error-free SAS Grid operation. The second part of this presentation will walk through some detailed code examples outlining different scenarios of SAS Grid implementation. Methods of splitting data, such as by source, time, record identifier, or a combination thereof, into multiple tasks which are separately signed onto SAS Grid servers for parallel processing will be discussed. Run-time results will also be provided so that the efficiency benefit of implementing SAS Grid coding can be clearly demonstrated. This presentation is designed to help the audience appreciate and start utilizing SAS Grid to accelerate processing.

(18) How to Succeed in Consulting without Really TryingChuck Kincaid, Experis Business Analytics

Maybe you are an awesome programmer working on a company’s internal consulting team, but you have a hard time getting work done by the deadline. Maybe you are a strong SAS developer who does independent consulting, but clients get upset when changes they ask for cost them more money. Just because you’re good in the technical skills doesn’t mean that you can succeed as a consultant. This presentation will give you tips on how to do just that. With a combination of project management and consulting skills you can go much farther, whether it’s doing internal consulting, independent consulting or working for a consulting company. This presentation will be good for people who want to do better at managing the world outside of their code.

Presentation Abstracts

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(19) Intermediate SAS® ODS Graphics - Hands-on WorkshopChuck Kincaid, Experis Business Analytics

This presentation will build on the knowledge gained in the Intro to SAS® ODS Graphics. The capabilities in ODS Graphics grow with every release as both new paradigms and smaller tweaks are introduced. After talking with the ODS developers, a selection of the many wonderful capabilities was selected. This presentation will look at that selection of both types of capabilities and provide the reader with more tools for their belt. Visualization of data is an important part of telling the story seen in the data. And while the standards and defaults in ODS Graphics are very well done, sometimes the user has specific nuances for characters in the story or additional plot lines they want to incorporate. Almost any possibility, from drama to comedy to mystery, is available in ODS Graphics if you know how. We will explore tables, annotation and changing attributes, as well as the BLOCK plot. Any user of Base SAS on any platform will find great value from the SAS ODS Graphics procedures. Some experience with these procedures is assumed, but not required.

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Presentation Abstracts

The 2018 Mid-West SAS® Users Group (MWSUG) Conference will be held on September 30 through October 2 at the gorgeous JW Marriott Indianapolis located in the heart of downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.

This year's conference will be our 29th and we have a lot in store for you. Our conference committee is busy planning two full days of paper presentations from other SAS users, hands-on workshops, live demonstrations, and opportunities to network with other SAS users. We will also be offering a full menu of pre-conference training workshops. You'll also have access to our popular Code Clinic where SAS programming gurus can help you solve your sticky coding problems. In addition, staff from SAS will be there to provide their unique expertise and insight.

Come, enjoy the fun, food, see good friends and make new ones. Share what you know and gather new information. There is something for everyone.

The MWSUG conference is the premier SAS educational forum in the twelve-state region. MWSUG is a non-profit, all-volunteer user group and is officially recognized by SAS.

We are working hard to make this conference a great opportunity for you to learn more ways to make better use of SAS software and get more value from your SAS software investment. We look forward to seeing you in Indianapolis this October!

For more details please visit www.mwsug.org

Volunteer Signup Form

This conference is made possible by volunteers like you. If you would like to help, please complete the form below and email it to Simon Geletta at slg@kdsol.com with subject line: IASUG Volunteer. Thanks!

Name______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Phone______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Email_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please rank the volunteer work you would like to participate:

o Conference Promotor

Promote the conference in your company by forwarding announcement to co-workers and coordinating the group registration.

o Registration Coordinator

Need to come early at 7:15 am on Monday, May 21 to conference site to set up registration table and check attendees in.

o Session Coordinator

Direct attendees to the proper conference room. Handle out paper if available. Remind speaker about time left. Introduce speaker if asked by Section Chair. Minimum of half day in a session.

o Conference Support

Provide general support to attendees. For example, Assist Hands-On Workshop set up and close down, help at lunch time.

We will have a few free registrations for volunteers, please contact Simon Geletta at slg@kdsol.com

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Biographies

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Rick Lower

Rick Lower is a Senior Director of Alliances at Teradata. Rick has extensive experience developing and building relationships and managing analytics partnerships. With over 20 years of experience in product management, business development and marketing, Rick is excited about the future of data and analytics and enjoys sharing leading edge technologies at various conferences.

Paul Segal

Paul Segal is a senior Data Scientist with Teradata who has 30 years experience programming in SAS. He is a foundation member of the Teradata and SAS Centre of Excellence and has been working on the integration of SAS and Teradata for the last 10+ years.

Michael Lamm

Michael Lamm is a Senior Research Statistician Developer in the Advanced Regression Research Department at the SAS Institute. He currently supports the GEE and CAUSALTRT procedures in SAS/STAT. He received his Ph.D. in Statistics and Operations Research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department.

Shannon Moore

Shannon Moore Senior Systems Engineer, SAS Customer Success, has been with SAS since 1997 and is a charter member of the SAS’ Customer Success organization. His areas of emphasis include Enterprise Business Intelligence, Office Analytics, Visual Analytics, and ODS Statistical Graphics. He is the recipient of a SAS Americas Sales Innovation Award and is a SAS Certified Visual Business Analyst. He has experience in many industries including Health and Life Sciences, Financial Services and Government. Shannon graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Prashant Hebbar

Prashant Hebbar is a Principal Software Developer in Data Visualization at SAS. He began his career at SAS in 1997. His areas of expertise are the Graph Template Language (GTL), the ODS Graphics Designer and image formats.

Ben Cochran

Ben Cochran, After more than 11 years with SAS Institute Inc. in the Professional Services(as an Instructor) and Marketing Departments (as Marketing Manager for the SAS/EIS product), Ben Cochran left to start his own consulting and SAS Training business in the fall of 1996, The Bedford Group. As an affiliate member of SAS Institute Inc. Alliance Partner Program, Ben has been involved in many teaching and consulting projects over the last 10 years. Ben has authored and presented several papers at SUGI, SGF, and regional user groups on a variety of topics since 1988.

Biographies

Robin High

Robin High has been a biostatistician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE since 2008.  His prior experience includes statistical consulting with a civil engineering firm in Austin, Tx, researchers at Oregon State University, and for nearly 15 years assisted graduate students and faculty at The University of Oregon. He has over 25 years’ experience with the SAS System.

Kaeli Samson

Kaeli Samson is currently a Statistician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE. She is certified in both Base and Advanced SAS, and is currently working on a graduate certificate in Geographic Information Science from the University of Nebraska Omaha. She has a Master of Arts in Psychobiology from the University of Nebraska Omaha and a Master of Public Health from the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Chong Wang

Chong Wang is a senior statistician at General Dynamics Information Technology Services in West Des Moines. He is a SAS certified Advanced Programmer. His primary task at GDIT is to use SAS to extract and process Medicare claims data. Previous to his employment at GDIT he worked as a researcher at the University of Virginia, where he utilized SAS to analyze data generated by image analysis of microscope images to study cell migration.

Chuck Kincaid

Chuck Kincaid is Engagement Director in the Kalamazoo Center of Excellence, where a team of analytics professionals has been providing services to every industry since the early 90’s. Chuck regularly speaks at events like this one, including the International Workshop on “Advanced Analytics and Data Science” in Poland, as well as giving the keynote presentation at SESUG 2014. Awesome experiences for which he is humbly grateful. His professional interests are in analytics talent, data science, analytics infrastructure, education and visualization.

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Daniel Yang

Daniel Yang (Chia-Chun Yang) has master degrees in Information system from Iowa State University and Global Logistics from Arizona State University, with working knowledge of statistics, supply chain and business analysis. He has utilized SAS to optimize truck routes and implemented parallel computing for healthcare data analysis. Chia-Chun is also a certified SAS Advanced Programmer and Oracle SQL Expert.

Lizhi Feng

Lizhi Feng is a biostatistician at Pioneer Hi-Bred Intl. since 2001. He has been a SAS user from 1996 as a graduate student. He holds a Master of Science in Statistics and Ph.D. in Plant Genetics and Breeding from North Carolina State University, the birth place of the SAS.

Biographies

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Delayne Stokke

Delayne Stokke has been a SAS programmer and analyst since 1986. He has presented papers at local, regional and international users group meetings, and has been co-chair of the Midwest SAS Users Group annual meeting on two occasions (2003 and 2007). Delayne is a Certified Advanced Programmer for SAS9. He works for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in West Des Moines, IA, where he provides support and consultative services to SAS users.

Xiaoping Wang

Xiaoping Wang is an Administrative Consultant at the Iowa Department of Education. She has more than 20 years of SAS experience on data reporting and education research. Prior to work for the state, Xiaoping was a consultant in Medical Education, in the University of Iowa. Xiaoping has received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology Measurement and Statistics from the University of Iowa.

John Xu

John Xu is the Director of Consulting of 1ST Consulting LLC, a West Des Moines based consulting company specialized in SAS related services. He has over 25 years of SAS experience in Financial, Insurance, Marketing, Government, Education, and Pharmaceutical industries. John is Vice President of MidWest SAS Users Group. He is currently leading the activities of Iowa SAS Users Group and also supporting Nebraska SAS Users Group.

Scott Miller

Scott Miller uses SAS for analytics using large data at Wells Fargo. He has a BA in Computer Science from Simpson College and is SAS Advanced Certified. In his spare time, he is fascinated with solving puzzles using computer programs.

Elaine Notisis

Elaine Notisis a Senior Applications Developer at Pioneer Hi-Bred with 20 years of SAS experience. She uses SAS as a development tool for the various groups that she supports. As a member of the SAS Support Team, she helps to support approximately 300 global SAS users at Pioneer.

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SAS Training Classes

Date and Course title5/23/18 AM (Wednesday AM) Intro to the SAS Macro Facility

5/23/18 PM (Wednesday PM) Advanced SAS Macro Processing

5/24/18 AM (Thursday AM) SQL II: An Advanced look at PROC SQL

Direction and Parking• Get on I-235 when you enter Des Moines Get

off on the East 14th St. exit

• Take East 14th St. South two blocks

• The Grimes State Building is on the SW Corner of East 14th St. & Grand Ave. Parking is nearby.

Class supplyLecture note, notepad, pen, etc. are provided. You may bring your own computer with SAS although it is not required.

Registration fee• $198 per class

• $99 student rate

LocationRoom B50 (in Basement) Grimes State Building 400 E. 14th St. Iowa Dept of Education Des Moines, IA 50319

Cancellation PolicyNo refund will be provided but substitution is accepted with advance notice. Please email you cancellation notice to dsm1day@yahoo.com.

NoticeProfit from these SAS classes will be used for the One-day SAS conference. Thanks for your support!

Additional Local SAS ClassesContact John Xu (johnxu@1st-consulting.com, (515)-778-4093), if you are interested in other SAS training classes.

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(1) Introduction to the SAS Macro Facility Wednesday, 5/23/18 • 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. • Instructor: Ben Cochran, The Bedford Group

This course teaches the student the purpose of the Macro language. It thoroughly explains the foundation of the Macro Facility and how it affects SAS Processing. Topics include:

• SAS Macro variables

• Quoting in the Macro Facility

• Macro Functions

• Macro Programs and passing information to and from them

• Conditional processing

• Local and Global symbol tables

• Macro facility interfaces

• Table driven applications

(2) Advanced SAS Macro Processing Wednesday, 5/23/18 • 1 – 4:30 p.m. • Instructor: Ben Cochran, The Bedford Group

This course goes beyond the basics of the SAS Macro Facility. In this course, the attendees will be introduced (or reintroduced) to topics such as:

• Creating Macro Functions.

• Creating Macro Arrays (Using &&)

• Creating Prompts for Your Programs

• Reading and Processing the Contents of a Directory

(3) An Advanced look at PROC SQL Thursday, 5/24/18 • 8:30 a.m. –12 p.m. • Instructor: Ben Cochran, The Bedford Group

This course goes beyond the basics of PROC SQL by introducing the student to topics such as:

• Using Subqueries

• Creating Indexes and Views

• Using Options to Debug Queries

• Improving Query Performance

• Using the Macro Facility with Proc SQL

• Using Dictionary Tables

• Comparing Tables

• Accessing NON-SAS Data (DBMS)

Course Descriptions

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Scholarship Program

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Iowa SAS® Users Group will provide free registration to selected students to attend the conference and the SAS training classes. Full time college students and people in between jobs may apply.

Please complete the form below. You may want to attach a resume, especially if you are not a student. Please send your application, plus the completed conference and class registration form by e-mail to Simon Geletta at dsm1day@yahoo.com. If you have any question, please contact Simon Geletta as well.

Name: ___________________________________________ E-mail: _________________________________________________

College: __________________________________________ Major: __________________________________________________

I would like to attend SAS conference: (Yes / No) ____________

I would like to attend a SAS class: (Yes / No) ________________

Please answer the following questions. Your answers will be used in the selection process to determine the winners.

• How long have you been using SAS software? _________________________________________________________________

• Where did you first learn SAS? _____________________________________________________________________________

• Why do you think it is important to know SAS? ________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• What are your future plans for using SAS? ____________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Your current status: Junior _______ Senior _______ M.S. _______ Ph. D._______ Other_______

Please tell us anything that will help us award you the scholarship:

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The deadline for application is 5/6/18. You will be notified by e-mail by 5/13/18.

Iowa SAS® Users Group March 2018

Iowa SAS Users Group is a local users group organized to

• Facilitate communications with SAS Institute, Inc., and among users of SAS® in Iowa

• Instruct members how to better use SAS® programming tools

• Keep members informed about new SAS® versions and products

• Inform and educate the public about he value and benefit of SAS® software.

Iowa SAS® Users Group is a very active group. We hold quarterly meetings at the Iowa Department of Education on the second Thursday of February, May, August and November.

The quarterly meetings start at 4:00 p.m. and finishes at 5:30 p.m. Speakers include local SAS® users, SAS® headquarters and regional office staff, and invited speakers from other states. The topics including tutorials, tips, new product demos, case studies of SAS® software in various industries, and user developed applications etc. We cover both programming and statistical analysis.

We have had 10 1-day conferences with attendance range from 125 to 340 at Pioneer Hi-bred International’s conference center. The one-day conference is typically scheduled in May or June.

Iowa SAS® Users Group maintains a web site at: http://www.iowasasuser.org.

The meeting information is e-mailed to the members through Yahoo Group IowaSASUser. It is also posted on the web site. The web site has a local SAS® news section and a local SAS® jobs section. Job postings are free although in-kind donations are welcome.

There is no membership fee. To join the group, please join the Yahoo group IowaSASUser. You may also send name, company, U.S. mailing address, email address, and work phone to johnxu@1st-consulting.com. Or call John Xu directly at (515) 778-4093.

Current Board of Directors:

Address:

Grimes State Building, 2nd Floor 400 E. 14 St. Iowa Department of Education Des Moines, Iowa 50319

Direction:

Get on I-235 when you enter Des Moines Get off on the East 14th St. exit. Take East 14th St. South two blocks. The Grimes State Building is on the SW Corner of East 14th St. & Grand Ave.

President John Xu 1ST Consulting LLC

Vice President Delayne Stokke Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

Xiaoping Wang Iowa Department of Education

Member Scott A Miller Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

Simon Geletta Knowledge Delivery Services

Lizhi Feng, Dupont Pioneer

Elaine Notis, Dupont Pioneer

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