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![Lecture by Sam Beseta](https://news.fullerton.edu/app/uploads/2022/11/OutstandingProfessor_25-800x500.jpg)
Cal State Fullerton’s 2022 Professor of Excellence, Sam Behseta, delivered an important message about why data science matters: It’s very easy to do. “
In his Distinguished Professor Lecture on “Statistical Thinking and Exploring Big Data” on November 7, Mr. Behseta conveyed the critical need for statistical literacy in society due to the increasing amount of data.
Mathematics professor Behseta also emphasized the need to prepare and train students and others to understand, analyze and make sense of data.
“Data and numbers are everywhere,” says Behseta, a statistician who joined the CSUF in 2008 and director of the Center for Computational and Applied Mathematics. “We have work to do to educate people about data.”
In a Q&A session at the end of his talk, Behseta discussed the idea of starting a Bachelor’s degree program in Data Science at California State University, Fullerton. He then invited his cross-disciplinary colleagues to rally to support taking the first steps towards making that happen.
Why choose data science
Data science deals with the mechanisms involved in generating, collecting, summarizing, and analyzing data. This field of study draws on the strengths of multiple disciplines, including statistics, mathematics, computer science, business, and public health.
The popularity and growth of data science methods is due to the overwhelming increase in the three “V’s” of big data, Behseta said. These ‘V’s are volumes, referring to the enormous magnitude and size of the data. Velocity refers to the acceleration rate of data generation. This demonstrates the incredible diversity of data in nature and form.
Behseta, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, shared real-world examples of how data can be analyzed and can yield interesting findings, and the importance of rethinking how data is collected. He described how British statisticians in the late 19th century used the height of their parents to predict the height of their adult offspring.
“The first question to ask is, ‘What is the source of the data and how reliable is the data set?'”
Behseta points out: “The data was problematic. But when analyzing data, statistical thinking allows us to develop an important lens for looking at reports based on numbers.”
He also demonstrated the benefits of employing “statistical thinking” by analyzing complex data sets produced by the National Alzheimer’s Control Center and data generated by neurophysiological experiments.
Behseta shared how he became interested in theoretical statistics as a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University, receiving a PhD in Statistics in 2003. However, his advisor persuaded him to try applied research in neuroscience. Since then, his main research area has been neuroscience statistics.
“Studying the computational and numerical aspects of the brain has stuck with me,” says working with CSUF Collaborators in Biological Sciences and Public Health on a grant-funded big data research project related to neuroscience. Yes, said Behseta.
“I discovered how deep, complex, and very exciting computational neuroscience can be.”
![Sam Beseta Chance Magazine](http://news.fullerton.edu/app/uploads/2022/11/sam-behseta-chance-magazine-1024x485.jpg)
Statistics Career by CHANCE
Behseta shared a personal story from when she was a mathematics major at the National University of Iran. One day he happened to pick up a copy of his CHANCE magazine, a non-technical magazine focused on the practice of statistics.
“The diary caught my eye,” he said.
After reading it cover-to-cover, he fell in love with statistics.
After immigrating to the United States from Tehran about 30 years ago, he studied statistics at San Diego State University and earned a master’s degree in the field.
Afterwards, Beseta attended Carnegie Mellon University for a Ph.D. This institute is the institute of the editor of the magazine he befriended. From his 2011 to 2014 he was editor-in-chief of the magazine, and currently serves as advisory editor.
“It’s been an incredible journey. One day I’m flipping through a magazine, the next day I’m editing a magazine,” he said.
Behseta’s message: “Hard work and passion for what you do” and maybe even by chance, anything is possible. As a young Iranian, he later said he had two options: pass the national exam and attend college, or fight in the Iran-Iraq War.
“In fact, I can say that mathematics saved my life. Was it by chance? Millions died in that senseless war.”
change student lives
CSUF President Fram Virjee introduced Behseta and also talked about his encounter with CHANCE magazine.
“I think most of what happens around us is chance, if at all. There are ways that lead us to our vocation, and this chance brought him here, to our community.”
Virjee added that Behseta’s dedication to turning opportunities into change is powerful.
Virjee says, “Having a deep understanding of how students learn best, he turns each classroom opportunity, lecture, office hours, and classroom participation into an individual lesson for each student.” . “He believes in the important role that learning through participation can play in communicating ideas, especially in the fields of statistics and mathematics.”
![Sam Beseta and Valerie Poiner](http://news.fullerton.edu/app/uploads/2022/11/OutstandingProfessor_10-996x1024.jpg)
Behseta said the most rewarding part of a professorship is mentoring students and promoting their academic and personal success. His former student Data said he was a scientist, high school statistics teacher, and colleague at CSUF, and now an associate professor of mathematics and research collaborator. I was.
Poiner later commented on her outstanding mentor: Chance reached out to it. Talk about people who randomly show up in your life and literally change your entire trajectory. Sam, you were that person for me. Your life story is wonderful, and many coincidences and coincidences are part of it.
“There’s more to being great than chance,” she pointed out, referring to Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. “So you have to have greatness within yourself to take that chance.”
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