Foreword from the President Dear A²B²D members, dear students,

Here it is, the long expected final issue of the A²B²D newsletter! This is the time to be nostalgic. And yes, we have a lot of activities to look back to. Who can still remember the Introduction Day back in October? I do. I still remember walking into that room filled with new, anxious students with so many questions. Or who still remembers the infamous visit to the Jenever festival? I’m pretty certain that some board members still remember it. Or they don’t quite remember it, but I can guar-antee you that it was pretty memorable. And if you were not there this year, you should be next year! And so many other activities, I don’t have the space to discuss them all. So let’s jump ahead to the final activity, the outside-inside-outside barbecue. But even a few drops of rain could not keep us from having a great time! A big thank you therefore goes to all the board members that made it happen and to everybody that joined us at the barbecue. Of course, the big announcement at the barbecue was the name change of A²B²D. And believe me, the choice of a new name for your favourite organization was subject to a lot of debate. At first, it seemed like the new name would be Statistics Hasselt International Team. However, when we took a closer look, we had our doubts that the Annual SHIT Barbecue would be as big of a success as the previous years. One of my personal favourites was People of Hasselt Including Leuven In Particular Per-sonnel Etcetera, but the other board members did not see the beauty of this new acro-nym. Therefore, after long hours of deliberation, we came to the following compromise. The new name of our organization will be JOSS, which stands for Joint Organization of Statistics Scholars. Why this name you might ask? Wasn’t the old name good enough? Well, no! As you all know A²B²D stands for Alumni Applied, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Diepenbeek. However, Applied statistics will soon stop to exist and will be replaced by Epidemiology & Public Health. This would give something like AEPHB²D and that is not really easy or catchy. Furthermore, nothing guarantees that this was the last change or extension in the programme. And to top that, since we have a close collaboration with Leuven in I-Biostat, it would be wrong to keep Diepenbeek in the name. Therefore, we chose a very broad name that covers a lot of things, hence JOSS! Now, please go on and read about the fascinating activities of the last few months. Both the Adventure Day and the Barbecue were big successes. To all the first year students, see you next year! To all the second year students, also see you next year, but perhaps not as students! ;-) Philippe Haldermans Your President

Some Highlights: What tasks did our

students have to accomplish during Adventure Day?

Page 3 How did this year’s

Annual BBQ turn out?

Page 5

Inside this issue:

Did You Know? 2

Adventure Day 3-4

A2B2D BBQ 5-6

Activities 7

August 2009

Volume 2008, Issue 5

A2B2D Diepenbeek A2B2D Newsletter

Alumni Applied, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Diepenbeek

That Adventure Day took place last May 9? It was a truly adventurous and

exciting day for our students. Climbing cliffs and swinging on ropes were just

some of the gruelling tasks they had to do. Read on to find out more about

this challenging but fun-filled activity.

That this year’s BBQ, held last June 26, was a great success? With ample

booze, good food, lively music and great company, not even the uncoopera-

tive Belgian weather could dampen the spirits that evening. You can read and

see more about the event in this issue.

That two more CenStat colleagues, Tom Jacobs and Abel Tilahun Eshete,

have joined the roster of staff members who have successfully defended their

Ph.D. last May 20 and May 29, respectively? Congratulations to Tom and

Abel, both of whom have taken positions elsewhere.

That three other colleagues bade CenStat farewell in the recent months?

Caroline Beunckens, Ivy Jansen (A2B2D President, 1999-2002) and Dirk Val-

kenborg (A2B2D Board Member, 2004-2008) have all accepted work opportu-

nities at other institutions. We wish each of them success in their new posts.

Page 2 A2B2D Newsletter Volume 2008, Issue 5

Adventure Day Chris David Damba

The memories of the 9th day of May 2009 will take some time to fade in most minds. The Dinant Adenture Day was significantly different from other calendar days with respect to the experiences and smiles it left on our faces. It started so simple – with a cool atmosphere characterised by a clear blue sky and tepid temperature. By 8.20h, the bus had set off for Di-nant – a place where magic happened. Upon our arrival, we were received by the Dinant guides who were so kind and caring. Action started at 10.00h by grouping ourselves into smaller clusters. Each cluster started with a different game guided by a skilled Dinant staff after a

few instructions. The games at Dinant were plenty and diverse that I don’t even remember meeting any of the groups again until it was time for snacks. My group started with the cave game. The task was to enter the cave and trace your way to the exit. This sounded like a child’s play game but unfortunately, our imaginations were far from reality of the cave. Imagine, a long cave, deep beneath the earth’s surface, with a number of zigzag corners. At some spots, our eyes were fed with extreme darkness with nothing visible. In fact, I remember at one dark spot, my head and leg got trapped within crossed bars. Poor me! I almost got stuck, but luckily, there was this kind Lady X (name withheld upon re-quest) in my lead who gave me ‘something’ to help myself through.

The next adventure was tree-climbing and crossing to the other trees by means of ropes and temporary stick bridges. I could not believe what I saw when I stared up the trees. Can you imagine seeing people climbing trees and walking on stick-bridges like monkeys? Filled with fright, my knees trembled and I hesitated to climb. I looked around hoping to see Lady X for her help once more but in vain, leaving me with no choice but to climb and cross the bridge, which was the only path to our next destination. If someone watched me climbing, he would classify me as a monkey but that would be a big Type 1 Error. What motivated me more to climb was some guy nicknamed ‘Wami,’ whom I had watched at a close distance. This guy demonstrated a perfect climb that reminded me of a female gorilla that I once saw at the Tanzanian Mt. Kilimanjaro, climbing the tree to get fruits for its baby. Probably he’s better classified as a monkey than me.

What followed was rock climbing. Fortunately, I did not expect any trouble rock-climbing because I had carried my hiking shoes, ready to ‘rock,’ unlike one friend, Osvaldo, who had instead carried gumboots. He later realised that the rocking task was beyond his routine piglet farming in Mozambique as he screamed for support endlessly. When I reached some edge of the rock, I did-n’t want to listen to the guide. How could he expect me to lift myself on wire and swing to the next edge at that height above the ground? This was too much for my attention. I wished I had moved with my laptop to google search for the best SAS Code to apply in such a circumstance, but it was too late.

Page 3 A2B2D Newsletter Volume 2008, Issue 5

Adventure Day (con’t.) Chris David Damba

Anyway, left with no choice but to swing – but deep inside, I knew my entire life and the unborn babies in my body depended on the string I was holding. Also to note, the new swinging methodology demonstrated by Kathy and Kim at this same spot was a motivation. The methodology was miraculous but it worked for me. However, it would be easy to ap-ply if I had watched some Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan kung-fu movies be-fore the trip. By the way, I didn’t catch a glimpse of any UHasselt lady climbing the rock apart from the KHLim ladies. What happened? Any-way, I heard from reliable sources that you did not scream a lot. In the same game, I also noticed Wami climbing very fast like an Ape. I won-dered if he has hunted in Zimbabwe before he came to Hasselt.

By 15.20h, the magic was not yet over. We proceeded for kayaking on 8km of Lesse stream. With a substantial error, three quarters of the group were classified as amateurs in kayaking. For my case, I didn’t know about this sport apart from watching it in movies. This explains why it took me sev-eral hours to complete the 8km. Kayaking was a dream come true to me and indeed a good experience. On several occasions, my boat moved to a wrong direction even when I had a Lady Y (name withheld due to the sensitivity of the issue) with me in the boat whom I had randomly selected with minimal bias. In fact at one point in the middle of the stream, as this lady was so relaxed telling me stories which I liked, I got distracted. Consequently, the boat got distracted too and it threw us completely into the cold water from which we got wet. I felt like blaming her but I recalled she was an argumentative lady. Actually, one of her friends whispered to me prior to kayaking that “Lady Y is so wild and bites when she is angry.” So, I was afraid to irritate her because it could lead to trouble. Interestingly, I was told a majority of the team had count-less drowns. This explains why most of them were not eating or drinking anything while we finished kayak-ing. From my simple analysis, it seems their stomachs were already full with the stream water. Hope this did not have any implications on the volume of the water in Lesse stream because Uhasselt would be penal-ised for unauthorised consumption. I heard Carolina drowned but I don’t have enough evidence to draw conclusions. I also heard that Kim almost got tempted to jump out of the boat at one slanting point of the stream where the flow was so fast! I guess this is not true as well. Anyway, all was fun. To sum it all, the Adventure Day was the most exciting day for most of us. It was a “magical and dramatic day,” filled with unforgettable emotions, fun and smiles. Thank you ‘A2B2D Team’ for the good planning. The experience was more than the tongue can tell. All you need to know is that you should not miss the next chance.

Page 4 A2B2D Newsletter Volume 2008, Issue 5

A2B2D-CenStat Annual BBQ Adilu Salim

HOT BarBecue + food + drinks + ice-cream + music = Good time There exist some days in this world that are unforgettable. They remain in minds forever. Friday, the 26th of June has been etched in my mind forever. It was a memorable day for me as fellow students, staff members, our Profes-sors and I gathered together to mark the end of exams, while enjoying the wonderful and amaz-ing annual BBQ. It was a day to celebrate hard work and annual academic accomplishments for students from Applied Statistics, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. Congratulations to the dedicated people of A2B2D, for the easy invites, the nice food, drinks and music.

Despite the afternoon rain that day, the program started at 6 p.m. as scheduled, with more than 100 people, sitting in a group of 5-10 around a table in the cafeteria enjoying a variety of food – meat from pork, beef and chicken, roasted fish and many more. Vegetarians were also happy to test different kind of vegetables. It was typically a fantastic BBQ: people were eating while discuss-ing and sharing whatever comes to mind with friends and family members. The very friendly atmosphere, made everyone comfortable, and

professors and staff members with their families were seen chatting with colleagues and students. To me and my colleagues in Biostatistics, these mo-ments were very appropriate to remove the stress and confusion brought about during exams. We even shared the table with Professor Liesbeth Bruckers, who taught us the Non-Parametric Statis-tics course and who we met in the morning of the same day for the course exam.

Page 5 A2B2D Newsletter Volume 2008, Issue 5

Prof. Noel Veraverbeke giving a few remarks.

Earlier on, the weather would have been perfect for a BBQ … until the rain poured!

Guests queuing to sample the feast.

A2B2D-CenStat Annual BBQ (con’t.) Adilu Salim

Wow! When every one says “no more”- no more food - I can’t eat anymore. A nice ice cream car with different kind of ice cream flavors was waiting for the people at the garden. I found myself in a queue and got the piece of ice cream that I mostly like while enjoying the beautiful scenery outside. After stomach filling, the time came for music. Wow! Time to drink and dance. Everyone was enjoying, nobody was seen dancing but most people were shaking themselves following the slow music while practicing. O!! la la la!

Not to be forgotten or over-looked was the fruitful gathering, sharing of ideas and entertain-ment. Music was really good and, of course, it is also impor-tant at a BBQ to encourage min-gling, movement, and merriment amongst the crowd. Since this party was also about welcoming the start of summer, the songs were also chosen to reflect to this attitude.

Page 6 A2B2D Newsletter Volume 2008, Issue 5

Ice cream … always a bestseller!

Everyone was enjoying the party … including the little ones.

Dancing, was, of course, the perfect way to end the evening.

Universiteit Hasselt Agoralaan 1

Diepenbeek 3590

E-mail: abd@uhasselt.be

Web: http://www.censtat.uhasselt.be/

student/alumni/default.asp

A2B2D Alumni Applied, Biostatistics

and Bioinformatics Diepenbeek

Activities

Since the academic period has officially ended and

the summer begins, A2B2D takes a brief respite

from organizing activities for our students. We do

realize, however, that some of you may not be on

holiday and will be staying around during these

months. For those of you who want to relax a

little bit or take a break from working on your

summer project, we have compiled a list of (non-

A2B2D) activities in and around the Hasselt area.

They might not be our own activities, but they can

nevertheless be just as fun, especially if you go

with your fellow students.

Date (Time) Event Location Website

Tuesdays (19h) Hasselt Is Dancing Grote Markt Hasselt www.hasselt.be

Thursdays (20h) Aug. 06 Aug. 13 Aug. 20

Kaper Concerts (Parkies) Mama’s Jasje Sabien Tiels Yamundo

Kapermolenpark

(near the swimming pool)

www.parkies.net

Saturdays (14-18h) Art Fair Montmartre Behind City Hall,

Hasselt www.hasselt.be

Sundays (17-22h) Hasselt Music Terrace Leopoldplein Hasselt www.muziekterras.be

Aug. 07, 21 (19h) Latin Passion Festival Fruitmarkt Hasselt www.folklorefestivalhasselt.be

Aug. 15 Rimpelrock Festival Area, Kiewit www.rimpelrock.be

Aug. 20-22 Pukkelpop Festival Area, Kiewit www.pukkelpop.be

Aug. 14-16 Folklore Festival Partytent Diepstraat, center of Kuringen

www.hasselt.be