彩民宝典

彩民宝典鈥檚 LISA 2020 set out to foster 20 statistics labs in the developing world by 2020; the latest count is 28

Eric Vance didn鈥檛 have a job lined up when he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a triple major in mathematics, economics and statistics in 1997. But he did have a plan: To see the world.听

He bought a one-way airplane ticket to Europe and spent the next 23 months traveling through Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia and India. A year later, he spent seven and a half months in Central and South America, and after coming home to apply to graduate school, headed off to Africa for six months.

鈥淪o what that I was 25 and still hadn鈥檛 ever had a 鈥榬eal鈥� job,鈥� Vance in a 2012 article in the Magazine of the American Statistical Association. 鈥淲ho cared that it had been four years since I last solved an equation, did a proof, or programmed a computer? I didn鈥檛 care that if I went to graduate school I would be over 30 by the time I got my PhD. I had decided, right then, that I would never be too old for anything.鈥�

While in the western Sahara, he had met a biologist studying desert foxes who talked about his need for statistical expertise to help analyze his data.听

鈥淭here are literally PhD scientists wandering the Saharan Desert, looking for statisticians to collaborate with,鈥� Vance thought, and began to ponder how to meet such needs. 听

He came home and earned a master鈥檚 degree in statistics and decision sciences in 2005 and a PhD in statistical sciences in 2008 from Duke University, where his dissertation used statistical analysis to illuminate social networks among African elephants.听

He took his first job at Virginia Tech, where he revamped a previous statistical center to create the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis to train statisticians in interdisciplinary collaboration, facilitate high-impact research and improve statistical and data literacy in the larger community.

鈥淟ISA was my baby,鈥� says Vance, now an associate professor of applied mathematics at the 彩民宝典, where he moved LISA in 2016.

Remembering the Saharan fox-counter鈥檚 problem, he launched in 2012 with the goal of establishing 20 鈥渟tat labs鈥� in developing countries to help researchers, government, industries and NGOs 鈥渁pply statistical thinking to solve problems and make better decisions.鈥�

鈥淎frican scientists, engineers and businesses are going to solve African challenges,鈥� Vance says, citing the continent as just one example. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been held back by a lack of statistical and data science ability, and the new labs can help them do better work.鈥�

The lab has also enabled students to travel to places they would otherwise never have seen, while giving them invaluable experience in the field.听

鈥淚 had such a great time traveling that I really wanted to have students travel while doing statistics,鈥� he says. 鈥淟ISA students who have a solid grounding in theory and mathematics collaborate with engineers, scientists and policy makers who may not know how to analyze data.鈥�

Two students went to Mozambique for three months, for example, to better understand how a village used water and evaluate a program to install hand pumps. At the time, there were only two statistics PhDs and a handful of people with master鈥檚 degrees in Mozambique, and the country鈥檚 major university didn鈥檛 have a statistics program at all.听

Ultimately, the stat labs are intended to facilitate and encourage local statistics expertise.

鈥淚t鈥檚 always going to be better to have local statisticians rather than importing Americans,鈥� Vance says.

LISA students at 彩民宝典 also work directly with local 鈥渄omain experts鈥濃�攃lients that include businesses and non-statistics-trained researchers.听

鈥淢y students work on real projects, with real people,鈥� Vance says. 鈥淐ompanies want to hire people who are doing interesting things with data, and not just proving theorems using fake data sets.鈥�

For one project, the lab collaborated with a history professor to model the origins of enslaved people in Africa, a 鈥渕arriage of statistics and history,鈥� Vance says. 鈥淵ou might not ordinarily think that statistics and data science is useful in every field, but it really is.鈥�

On World Statistics Day, Oct. 20, Vance announced that LISA 2020 had reached its goal鈥攁nd then some. 听worldwide in Africa, Brazil and South Asia.

There are also nine 鈥渢ransitional鈥� labs and seven proposed stat labs. In just the last year and a half, Vance says, the labs have trained 652 graduate and undergraduate students,听worked on over 400 projects with local domain experts, and听have taught 128 short course workshops to more than 3,500 attendees.

And Vance is already looking past the program鈥檚 original time horizon, hoping to create a worldwide network, and not just in developing countries.

鈥淕erman researchers need this, too,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just Nigeria.鈥�