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.  

S&D Forum Maths 2017

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) of the United Nations with its 230 quantitative external pageindicators.

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 pageAIMS, 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 pagelecturers and external pagetutors.

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 Address
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 Sciences (external pageAIMS): Success stories, challenges, opportunities
Dr. Barry Green, Director of AIMS South Africa

10:10 AIMS Testimonials

Student opportunities: Past ETH AIMS tutor
Paweł Morzywołek, Graduate of the Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich

DownloadTeaching opportunities: Past ETH AIMS lecturer
Prof. Dr. em. Werner Stahel, Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich

10:30 Coffee Break

11:00 DownloadCapacity Development 4.0 for the new Data Ecosystem
Dr. Johannes Jütting, OECD, Manager of external pagePARIS21, France

11:40 DownloadAre emerging markets the new source for data science capacities? An experience report
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 pitfalls
Prof. Dr. Karsten Donnay, Computational Social Science at Universität 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 data
Prof. Dr. Ben Marwick, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington Seattle, USA

14:30 Coffee break

15:00 DownloadData Analysis for Poverty and Policy Evaluation
Dr. Kenneth Harttgen, Center for Development and Cooperation (Nadel), ETH Zurich

15:20 DownloadMathematics and Finance for Development
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 pagePARIS21, 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

 

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