Night of Numbers and Science: Unisalento and the new frontiers of statistics

In recent days, the degree course in Data Science for the Humanities and Social Sciences, in collaboration with the Italian Statistical Society (SIS), Young SIS (Young Group of SIS) and ADECCO, has organized two events that place students of the University of Salento at the center of the national and international data science scene. data.

A roundtable was held entitled “Data Science: Statistics for the 22nd Century”. This event represents a unique opportunity to explore the current state of research and potential future developments in this field, promote the exchange of ideas and inspire new business directions. Brilliant experts participated, including Corrado Crocetta (Head of SIS), Rosanna Verde (Coordinator of the Data Science SIS Group), Gabriele Maggioni (Head of Data Science and Research at Adecco), Veronica Ballerini (Coordinator of Young SIS) and Regina Liu (Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University , New Jersey, USA). The roundtable was coordinated by Serena Arima (Director of the Master in Data Science for Social Care at Unisalento) with Nicola Torelli (former President of SIS) as discussant.

After the roundtable, speeches were given by Per Mechland (University of Chicago) and Lan Zhang (University of Illinois), who presented the latest methodological and computational developments in the field of big data. The evening ended with appetizers during which students, doctoral students and researchers presented posters of their research activities, providing a valuable opportunity for interaction and feedback.

During the night of June 16 and 17, 2024, the seventh edition of Stats Under the Stars (SUS) was held. This competition, sponsored by Adecco, saw the participation of 13 teams of young statisticians and data scientists from all over Italy. The goal was to develop a predictive model to select the best candidate for a given job, using a training set containing characteristics of candidates, jobs, and information about the selected candidates. The competition provided a motivating overnight challenge for all participants, helping to drive excellence and innovation in data science.