Science and Development Forum
Mathematical sciences are an indispensable discipline for basic and applied sciences, which are preconditions for fostering development. Sound statistics play a crucial role in assessing the state of a nation and devising appropriate policy measures. ETH Zurich is well positioned to contribute research partnerships and capacity development in various fields of mathematical and data sciences.
Mathematical and Data Sciences for Development
Wednesday, 1 March 2017, ETH Zurich, LEE E 101, Leonhardstrasse 21
Co-organised by ETH Global and the Department of Mathematics (D-MATH)
Mathematical sciences are an indispensable discipline for basic and applied sciences, which are preconditions for fostering development. Sound statistics play a crucial role in assessing the state of a nation and devising appropriate policy measures.
Data sciences is increasingly important not only for technology development and the private sector, but also to support and complement statistics of the public sector in low and middle income countries as well as in international organisations. One of its applications is monitoring the external pageSustainable Development Goals (SDGs)call_made of the United Nations with its 230 quantitative external pageindicatorscall_made.
In many developing countries teaching and research in mathematics does not meet the standards for high-quality professional services. One of the initiatives to overcome this short-coming is external pageAIMScall_made, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. AIMS builds a large part of its course on voluntary lecturers from all around the world and is interested in recruiting ETH external pagelecturerscall_made and external pagetutorscall_made.
ETH Zurich is well positioned to contribute research partnerships and capacity development in various fields of mathematical and data sciences.
Mathematical and Data Sciences for Development
9:00 Welcome Coffee
9:20 DownloadWelcome Addressvertical_align_bottom
Prof. Dr. Detlef Günther, Vice President Research, ETH Zurich
9:25 Opening Address
Prof. Dr. Peter Bühlmann, Chair Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich
Session I: Capacity Development
9:30 DownloadThe African Institute for Mathematical Sciencesvertical_align_bottom (external pageAIMScall_made): Success stories, challenges, opportunities
Dr. Barry Green, Director of AIMS South Africa
10:10 AIMS Testimonials
Student opportunities: Past ETH AIMS tutor
Pawe? Morzywo?ek, Graduate of the Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich
DownloadTeaching opportunities: Past ETH AIMS lecturervertical_align_bottom
Prof. Dr. em. Werner Stahel, Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich
10:30 Coffee Break
11:00 DownloadCapacity Development 4.0 for the new Data Ecosystemvertical_align_bottom
Dr. Johannes Jütting, OECD, Manager of external pagePARIS21call_made, France
11:40 DownloadAre emerging markets the new source for data science capacities? An experience reportvertical_align_bottom
Peter Münzenmayer, Swiss Re, Switzerland
12:20 Lunch
Session II: Applications of Mathematical and Data Sciences for Development
13:30 DownloadBig data for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Promises and pitfallsvertical_align_bottom
Prof. Dr. Karsten Donnay, Computational Social Science at Universit?t Konstanz, Germany
14:00 DownloadUsing R in the development sector in Myanmar and Vietnam: Benefits, challenges, and impacts of open source tools for working with datavertical_align_bottom
Prof. Dr. Ben Marwick, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington Seattle, USA
14:30 Coffee break
15:00 DownloadData Analysis for Poverty and Policy Evaluationvertical_align_bottom
Dr. Kenneth Harttgen, Center for Development and Cooperation (Nadel), ETH Zurich
15:20 DownloadMathematics and Finance for Developmentvertical_align_bottom
Prof. Dr. Martin Larsson, Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich
15:40 Using machine learning for choosing crop varieties (Due to unpublished data the presentation is not available)
Johannes Kirschner, Learning & Adaptive Systems Group, Machine Learning Institute, ETH Zurich
16:00 Panel discussion on Challenges and Opportunities
Panelists:
- Barry Green, Director of AIMS South Africa
- Johannes Jütting, OECD, Manager of external pagePARIS21call_made, France
- Ben Marwick, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington Seattle, USA
- Paul Embrechts, Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich
Facilitator: Dr. Barbara Becker, ETH Zurich
16:45 Closing
Prof. Dr. Marloes Maathuis, Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich
17:00 Reception