Data Analysis, Data Literacy and Modeling for a Better World in the Year 2025
0Day 3 | 2:00 PM–2:30 PM
"Data Analysis, Data Literacy and Modeling for a Better World in the Year 2025"
Presented by:
Frank Wattenberg, (Emeritus), United States Military Academy, West Point NY USA
https://qubeshub.org/community/groups/simiode/expo/2025
Abstract: Mathematicians call it modeling and scientists call it the scientific method — building understanding by going back-and-forth between building mental models or theories and testing and comparing them in the real world. In SIMIODE we share a commitment to modeling as the center of our DE courses. We also share a passion for modeling across the curriculum. The interactive talk focuses on courses in Data Analysis and Data Literacy in the year 2025. Because much of our modeling in DE courses draws on data, modeling in DE and modeling in Data Analysis are synergistic. The focus of this talk is modeling but it is set in the year 2025. Recent technology including social media and artificial intelligence have fundamentally changed data analysis and modeling. As one example, the distinction between categorical or qualitative data and quantitative data is completely outdated. The growth of artificial intelligence is based on representations using very high dimensional vectors in place of simple check boxes like male vs female. Furthermore, AI can translate formerly qualitative data like audio and video recordings of traffic or focus groups into a form that can be processed quantitatively by computers. Data analysis can be used to increase our understanding or it can be misused even deliberately misused to cloud our understanding. This talk is a call to action to develop our students so they can use data well as data analysts and so that they can be critical consumers of data.