The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has deemed October 20 World Statistics Day 2015 with the theme, “Better data, better lives.” Please join us for a special cake at 2 pm in 128 Kidder Hall as part of the worldwide celebration of statistics and to honor our guest, Dean Evasius, NSF Division Director of Graduation Education, who is visiting OSU.
Evasius served as program director for NSF’s Division of Mathematical Sciences for eight years, where he managed a diverse grant portfolio for the division, engaging in a broad range of cross-cutting activities and managing collaborations with organizations, such as the National Academy of Sciences and the National Security Agency.
The theme for World Statistics Day emphasizes the close relationship between data science and civic development, sustainability and policymaking to ensure a better quality of life for people across the globe. The goals of World Statistics Day and the UNGA highlight the maturation of data science to strategically integrate agendas to guide overall civic, economic, environmental and human health and development.
According to the American Statistical Association’s World of Statistics website:
“In September, at the United Nations General Assembly, heads of states and governments came together to launch a new and ambitious agenda for world development from 2016 to 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals set out 17 goals with 169 targets and more than 300 indicators to monitor progress. In the lead up to the launch of the goals, a report by a High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons set up by the UN Secretary General to advise on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, recognized that for too long development efforts have been hampered by a lack of the most basic data about the social and economic circumstances in which people live.”
OSU’s College of Science believes in the importance of better data for better research that supports our mission of having healthy people living on a healthy planet in a healthy economy. Our research in data science extracts useful and actionable information from big data by developing new statistical methods, mathematical models, visual analytics and computational algorithms. We value the importance of collecting good data efficiently, whether it is for better government, education, innovation, mitigating hazards, risk assessment or resource management.
In commemoration of World Statistics Day, ASA, Royal Statistical Society, International Statistical Institute and nearly 50 other global statistical organizations created a special issue of articles submitted by organizations from every corner of the globe. The articles tout the importance of statistics to government decision-making or highlight events held to celebrate World Statistics Day.
Read the contribution of Oregon State’s College of Science.
The College of Science is deeply committed to preparing the next generation of leaders in data science and powering human development through scientific and statistical literacy. We enthusiastically support the goals of ASA and the World of Statistics to promote the practice and profession of statistics, and we are proud to be a part of the World Statistics Day celebrations with its focus on better data for better lives.
