‘A mathematical biologist walks up to a farmer’
No joke, faculty at the UNC School of Data Science and Society talk about the real-world impact of their subject.
In conversations about his work, Alex McAvoy, assistant professor at the UNC School of Data Science and Society, sometimes shares a joke that an academic mentor once told him.
A mathematical biologist walks up to a farmer and says, “Hey, if I can guess how many sheep you own, can I take one home with me?”
The farmer says, “You’ll never get it right, so go ahead!”
The mathematical biologist runs calculations, makes his guess and it’s exactly right, so he picks up his prize and starts to walk away. The farmer says, “That was amazing! But if I can guess what your job is, will you give me my animal back?”
The mathematical biologist says, “That’s fair. What’s your guess?”
The farmer says, “You’re a mathematical biologist, and I can tell because you just picked up my dog.”
McAvoy uses the joke to illustrate a point about using data science tools. “I think there is insight into how modeling can be a double-edged sword,” he said. “It can be extremely useful, but it requires abstracting away the ‘right’ amount of information, which can feel like an art as much as a science.”
McAvoy, who has a secondary appointment in the mathematics department in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, was among the first faculty members recruited to SDSS in 2023, and his farmer joke aligns with the school’s emphasis on a “human-centric” approach to applications of data science that solve real-world problems.
SDSS has assembled a cohort of faculty in fields that include the humanities, social sciences and medicine in an effort to facilitate collaboration and help students across Carolina develop data science skills.
“It’s a misconception that data science only happens in certain domains,” said Santiago Olivella, associate professor of political science in the College of Arts and Sciences with a full joint appointment in SDSS. “The school has given me an opportunity to see data science applied to areas that I wasn’t fully aware of, like comparative literature. I think many researchers who use data science are asking similar questions and face similar analytical challenges, just in different contexts, so understanding that can really catalyze innovation.”
Harlin Lee, assistant professor at SDSS with affiliations in the computer science and mathematics departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, said that collaboration helps generate progress beyond a single academic field.
“You don’t want to do just math sitting in your office and have it never see the light of the day,” Lee said. “You want to be working with experts in other scientific or social science domains. You want to advance the theory and methods of data science while also advancing how it’s used outside your immediate field.”
Lee is teaching Intro to Data Science this fall. “Back in college, I actually changed my major and my whole career because of one introductory course, so I am very passionate about making this a good experience that is exciting and hands-on,” Lee said. “We don’t expect you to have any computational knowledge. Just come with an appetite, and hopefully we’ll teach you enough to want to learn even more.”
Read more about these School of Data Science and Society faculty members.
