Davina Durgana and Paul Zador

Davina Durgana and Paul Zador, both statisticians working in the anti-trafficking field, presented several potential techniques to improve how data are collected and analyzed during a presentation at AAAS in March. They walked through strategies that could provide investigators a better idea of the number of trafficking victims in a given geographical area.

Jessica Wyndham—interim director of the AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights, and Law Program—noted the world’s largest general scientific organization has a long history of applying science and technology to address human rights concerns.

“We are pleased to be able to co-host this event highlighting the value of rigorous statistical methods in determining human trafficking prevalence, and hope that this work will contribute to the design of effective programs to address human trafficking and support those affected,” Wyndham said.

The presentation was co-organized by AAAS, the Washington Statistical Society, and Statistics without Borders—a group that offers trained volunteers capable of using statistics and data science to help solve problems.

Brooke Fitzgerald

Hampshire College student Brooke Fitzgerald was recently awarded the Lorna M. Peterson Prize, which celebrates Peterson’s long commitment to collaboration as a means of advancing understanding and expanding opportunity.

Fitzgerald was awarded the $500 prize for the research projects at Smith and Hampshire and activities such as DataFest that foster collaboration in the data sciences among students and faculty members from across the Five Colleges.

Fitzgerald did great work in Introduction to Statistical Learning in the fall of 2015, particularly on her final project in which she applied a large range of supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods to analyze astrometric data on Hyades star cluster.

To read more about the program and additional student awardees, visit the Five College Statistics Program website.