Columnist David Corliss shares his thoughts about Data for Good student projects in the year of COVID-19, including term papers, science fair entries, conference presentations and posters, and volunteer work for community organizations.
coronavirus
ASA Releases Statement on Government Data Experts
The American Statistical Association released a statement recently on the role of data experts in state and local governments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statistical Consulting Section Responds to COVID-19
Applied and practicing statisticians in the ASA Statistical Consulting Section are engaged and playing key roles in COVID-19 research. Here, we highlight members of the section who are responding to COVID-19.
JSM 2020: Opportunities for Interaction, Learning, Engagement
In a historic first, JSM 2020 will be held August 2–6 virtually (i.e., in an online format) due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the offerings for applied statisticians.
Virtual Reality
Although we will only be able to connect with each other virtually, ASA President Wendy Martinez is looking forward to our first virtual JSM and doing some unique and creative activities. Here, she talks about what she is most looking forward to.
ASA Members Stop the Presses with New Book About Disease Outbreaks
It’s not often statisticians get to shout, “Stop the presses,” but that’s what longtime ASA members Steve Rigdon and Ronald Fricker found themselves doing earlier this year. Just as their book, Monitoring the Health of Populations by Tracking Disease Outbreaks: Saving Humanity from the Next Plague—the latest in the ASA’s collaborative series with CRC Press—was going to the printer in early 2020, news was emerging about the novel coronavirus.
The Pandemic JSM
As Futurama’s Professor Hubert Farnsworth says in his catchphrase announcement of potential disaster, “Good news, everyone! The JSM is going virtual.” But JSM Program Chair David Banks thinks we can make it work.
A Glimpse into the CDC’s Innovation, Technology, and Analytics Task Force
Local and state governments, the White House, business owners, and the general public depend on the data, analysis, and guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make important decisions. However, not everyone knows how complicated it is to collect, clean, and analyze the data related to the pandemic and communicate it in a way that is easy to understand. Here, Stephanie Dietz—a statistician at the CDC who is part of the Innovation, Technology, and Analytics Task Force (currently focused on COVID-19)—explains a little of what she does.
Statisticians Create COVID-19 Dashboard to Predict Infection
A group of statistics professors and students from several universities created a dashboard to visualize, track, and predict real-time COVID-19 infections and deaths in the US.
May Issue of TAS Now Online; Print Copies Delayed
The May 2020 issue of The American Statistician (TAS) is now online, although print copies will be delayed because of the COVID-19 crisis.