Antonietta Mira in the Federal Statistics Committee

Antonietta Mira, is professor of statistics at USI Faculty of Economics and director of the Data Science Lab of the Institute of Computational Science (ICS). She has been appointed member of the Federal Statistics Committee for the 2020-2023 term by the Federal Council during the plenary session of 27 November.  

for the 2020-2023 term by the Federal Council during the plenary session of 27 November.  

The Federal Statistics Committee is an advisory body for the Federal Council, the Federal Department and the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). The role of the Committee is to ensure that official statistics meet the requirement of a democratic society and offers expertise on important statistical issues.

Antonietta Mira's projects fall into this context, bringing concrete contribution to research and scientific dissemination. An example in which statistics are put at the service of society is found in a study that Mira launched a few years ago with Cardiocentro - in collaboration with Prof. Angelo Auricchio, and Fondazione Ticino Cuore - for the optimisation of the location of defibrillators in Ticino and for the creation of a map of cardiac risk in the region. "The project, which has also made use of data made available by FSO, is part of the wider project Lugano Smart City, a subject on which USI and the local authorities have opened up an interesting and broader debate", explains Mira.

One of the tasks of the Federal Statistics Committee is also to evaluate how statistical information is disseminated. In this context, Mira is responsible for a scientific dissemination programme on current and sensitive topics related to Big Data and Data Science and, more generally, in the field of mathematics, probability and statistics. In close collaboration with USI L'ideatorio and Società Matematica della Svizzera Italiana (SMASI), and thanks to the support of the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research (SNSF Agora), the interactive exhibition "Diamo i Numeri!" (Crazy about numbers!) was created. For a year the exhibition was showcased in Ticino, from Lugano to Ascona, to Bellinzona and welcomed over 8000 visitors, mainly students, teachers and families. In 2019 the exhibition toured Italy thanks to the support of the Swiss Embassy in Italy, and in February 2020 it will return to Bellinzona at Scuola Cantonale di Commercio. "As part of the exhibition I have created a lecture-performance of mathemagic, also staged at USI auditorium during the Festival of Science 'Live Research' for the 200 years of the Academy of Natural Sciences. I repeat such performance every year during TecDay sponsored by the Swiss Academies of Sciences, within the mandate of the Secretary of State for Education, Research and Innovation (SEFRI) regarding the promotion of the areas of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology. Also thanks to this activity, I have been able to acquire experiences that will be important for me in order to better serve the Federal Statistics Commission", says Mira.