Conference: ICSA 2026 Applied Statistics Symposium

This award supports the participation of students, postdoctoral scholars, and early-career researchers in the International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) 2026 Applied Statistical Symposium, which will be held in Arlington, Virginia, from June 14 to June 17, 2026. Centered on the theme “Integrating Statistics and AI for Responsible Innovation and Trustworthy Decision-Making,” this symposium will bring together researchers and practitioners from statistics, biostatistics, applied mathematics, computer science, and data science. As artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies become more prevalent in critical sectors such as healthcare and finance, it is increasingly important to develop statistical methods that ensure these tools are reliable, fair, and transparent. The symposium provides a collaborative environment for experts from academia, industry, and government to address these complex challenges together. By fostering these professional connections and supporting junior participants, the project strengthens the statistical foundations of modern technology and prepares a highly skilled scientific workforce to navigate the evolving landscape of modern data science. The symposium will serve as a forum for advancing the integration of statistics, applied mathematics, data science, and AI, with a focus on developing rigorous, interpretable, and scalable methodologies that support responsible innovation and trustworthy data-driven systems. It will foster cross-disciplinary exchange, connecting theoretical advances in statistical inference, optimization, numerical analysis, and uncertainty quantification with practical challenges in AI reliability, interpretability, and decision science. By convening researchers, practitioners, and educators across academia, industry, and government, the symposium will highlight emerging developments that integrate statistical rigor and mathematical modeling with AI-driven methods, emphasizing methodological innovation, computational scalability, numerical stability, and reproducibility. The four-day program will feature three keynote lectures, short courses, and over 100 invited sessions, including many focused on AI foundations and applications. Furthermore, the symposium’s location in Arlington enables direct engagement with federal agencies, policy institutions, and regulatory bodies, alongside strong representation from pharmaceutical companies and technology firms, enhancing the dialogue on fairness, accountability, and numerical stability in high-stakes data-driven systems. The symposium website is accessible at https://symposium2026.icsa.org/. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2603665 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Lily Wang | Institution: George Mason University, FAIRFAX, VA | Award Amount: $20,000 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2603665 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2603665.html