Collecting and analysing data has become central to nearly every activity in business, governance, finance, education, health sciences and many more areas of decision-making.
Professor Asha Rao is Associate Dean (Mathematical Sciences) at RMIT University and representative to the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute
When Australian epidemiologists first heard about a new illness affecting people in Wuhan, China, they went immediately on high alert. How did they see what was coming even though there were no cases outside of China at the time? They used mathematics to analyse the available data and model the likely progress if this new epidemic were left unchecked. It allowed them to sound a timely alarm in Canberra.
