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Undergraduates are ‘The Future of Prediction’

When you wake up, do you always check the weather or how long your morning commute will be? Daily routines often rely on predictions: weather reports, exercise regimes, purchasing products, business, health care, stock markets, and sports.

“The Future of Prediction” is the focus for this year’s Mathematics Awareness Month (MAM), also known as #mathaware, which happens every April. The goal of #mathaware is to attract more undergraduate students to mathematics and statistics by emphasizing the prominence of these fields in society.

In an age where high-tech personal gadgets are accessed constantly, information forecasting is power. “Mathematics and statistics provide tools to make those predictions, but they need skilled operators,” says Wasserstein. Those power operators are students studying mathematics and statistics to advance prediction.

This MAM we are launching a campaign to highlight just how prediction effects everyday life for people around the globe. Follow us on Instagram (@maa_photo) to see the many ways humans depend on prediction. Undergraduate students and math enthusiasts can also find essays on the MAM website devoted to different fields that are being driven by accurate mathematical prediction.

It is not always obvious that mathematics is the basis of predicting the future, but our goal is to bring this awareness to life. Join the conversation on our Instagram account: @maa_photo.

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The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics

The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) is a collaborative effort of the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The JPBM promotes Mathematics Awareness Month (each April) to increase public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics. 

News Date: 
Friday, April 1, 2016
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