Dr. Lynne Seymour's Lecture notes for a lecture given at Columbus State University, January 14^th, 1998. Dr. Seymour is a faculty member of the Statistics Department at the University of Georgia.

Necessity is the Mother of Statistics

(Statistics is the Art of Listening to Data)

Any time one uses data to make an inference, there is a statistical procedure involved! Most of the time, the sort Of statistics required to make the inference have little to do with the statistics one sees in introductory courses. A certain amount Of training is required in order to know what to do with data.

These are some Of the applications Of statistics - and please be aware that this is only a part of the picture!

Surveys

That margin Of error!

Marketing

Should this product/service be offered?

If it is offered, who will use it?

Advertising

How many people does an ad reach?

is it reaching the right people?

Is it effective?

Stocks

Is it random, or is it chaos?

The Dartboard Portfolio

Government

Unemployment, GNP, etc.

census!

Even a perfect count is a statistic, but it has no margin Of error.

census Sampling - disadvantages versus advantages, and who likes what!

Insurance

Meticulous statistics! Actuarial Science

The more likely they are to pay out, the more they will charge.

Pharmaceuticals

Does this drug work?

Does it work on enough people to justify making it?

What about the side effects?

Even cosmetics!

Placebo Effect is real!

Using statistics to identify new chemical compounds with drug potential.

Quality Control and Assurance

Is the manufacturing process out of control?

Are the goods being manufactured at an acceptable standard?

Should the standard be changed?

Defense

Detection

Discrimination

Where is it going?

Hit or miss?

Cryptology

Traditional

Fax/Internet

Climate

Percent chance of rain

Prediction

Are we warming?

Images

Simulation for virtual reality

How many objects?

Object identification

Pattern recognition - speech, handwriting, whatever!

Social Networks

Modified image models

Are social-service clients being helped?

Epidemiology

 

Our recent M.S.'S

Centers for Disease Control & subcontracting companies, Atlanta

Equifax, Atlanta

Abbott Labs, Chicago

CNA Insurance Company, Chicago

Bureau of the census, Washington, DC

Intel Corporation, Arizona

Pratt-Whitney, Florida & Connecticut

Glaxo-Wellcome, North Carolina

Graduate School

Purdue Engineering

Georgia Tech Engineering

University Of North Carolina Psychology

University of Georgia Geography

University of North Carolina Biostatistics

Many of our M.S. students are Ph.D. students in other departments, such as ecology, education, forestry, agricultural economics, or management science. An M.S. in statistics makes a great supporting degree for almost any field!

Our recent Ph.D.s

Schering-Plough, New Jersey

College of Charleston, South Carolina

Air Force Institute of Technology, Colorado

UGA School of Business