Swiss Statistical Society SSS: Swiss Statistical Society
Annual Report 2023
Dear members, partners, and supporting academies,
On behalf of the members of the committee and all our members, I would like to express my thanks for your support and commitment throughout the past year. Your dedication has played an important role in advancing the mission and goals of our society.
The Swiss Statistical Society aims to promote the application and advancement of statistics in Switzerland. We represent the interests of professionals in various domains including practice, research, and education, fostering connections among individuals using statistics in administration, business, research, and education. Additionally, we are committed to promote statistical literacy among individuals of all ages, from young children to adults.
As of December 31, 2023, the Swiss Statistical Society consisted of a total of 16 student members, 416 individual members, and 16 collective members. Among them, 188 members were enrolled in the "Business and Industry" section, 224 in the "Education and Research" section, and 204 in the "Official Statistics" section (membership in multiple sections is possible).
In collaboration with the Federal Statistical Office and Corstat, we organized the "Swiss Statistics Meeting" in Basel, led by Marc Gindraux. The conference, held from August 30 to September 1, 2023, at the University of Basel, centered on the theme of data, emphasizing its critical role in statistics, research, and business. We were delighted to welcome 289 attendees to the conference.
In March 24, 2023, under the lead of Rodolphe Dewarrat, we hosted a networking event at Nestlé (Vevey) with the title “Generate value using data analytics at Nestlé”. Around 60 participants took part to the networking event.
In October, under the lead of Antonietta Mira, we organized the "Le Jeu des Nombres et du Hasard" Exhibition. The exhibition, held from October 1st to October 20th in Riddes (VS), was successful. Consisting of nine stations either constructed or contributed by the University of Lugano, the event was organized with instructional materials initially created by Antonietta Mira and translated by Rodolphe Dewarrat. With nine different stations tailored for all ages, the exhibition provided insights into statistics. Visitors participated in dice games, explored various board games, discovered the Galton board (an apparatus illustrating the distribution of balls dropped through a grid of pegs, displaying the normal distribution), and were presented with an age pyramid provided by the Federal Statistics Office. As a further example, visitors understood the unpredictability of a single throw of two dices, while also observing the stabilizing probabilities of sums after multiple throws. The exhibition attracted 26 visiting classes, amounting to over 500 children from Riddes and neighboring villages, all of whom provided positive feedback.
Under the lead of Rodolphe Dewarrat, we conducted a benchmarking project on navigation algorithms. Eight devices were selected, and 20 routes within Switzerland were analyzed from Geneva to Davos. Overall, no significant differences were observed in the initial route calculation or the estimated duration.
Throughout 2023, we published two bulletins (bulletins 104 and 105), edited by Rodolphe Dewarrat, accessible at https://osf.io/y7d3v/.
Our society holds membership in the Swiss Academy of Sciences, the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. We are immensely grateful to these academies for their financial support.
On an international level, the Swiss Statistical Society is a member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), European Courses in Advanced Statistics (ECAS), and the Federation of European National Statistical Societies (FENStatS).
The current committee consists of:
Corinna Martarelli (President)
Rachel Heyard (Vice-President)
Daniel Kilchmann (Cashier)
Marc Gindraux
Antonietta Mira
Giorgio Maric (President of the "Official Statistics" section)
Laurent Donzé (President of the "Education and Research" section)
Dominik Pfluger (President of the "Business and Industry" section)
Accounting for the society is managed by Franz Reist (Reist-Treuhand), auditing will be conducted by Corinne Hügli and Norbert Riesen.
We appreciate and value the contributions of all individuals involved in our various projects. Furthermore, we are grateful for the trust and support extended to the society’s committee.
Yours sincerely and on behalf of the society’s committee,
Corinna Martarelli
See above:
In collaboration with the Federal Statistical Office and Corstat, we organized the "Swiss Statistics Meeting" in Basel, led by Marc Gindraux. The conference, held from August 30 to September 1, 2023, at the University of Basel, centered on the theme of data, emphasizing its critical role in statistics, research, and business. We were delighted to welcome 289 attendees to the conference.
In March 24, 2023, under the lead of Rodolphe Dewarrat, we hosted a networking event at Nestlé (Vevey) with the title “Generate value using data analytics at Nestlé”. Around 60 participants took part to the networking event.
See above:
Throughout 2023, we published two bulletins (bulletins 104 and 105), edited by Rodolphe Dewarrat, accessible at https://osf.io/y7d3v/.