▶ Interview
Woncheol Jang, Department of Statistics professor
Statistics, a discipline that involves the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and utilizing the results in decision making, gleams more brightly through interaction. Professor Jang at the Department of Statistics was appointed as an advisory committee member of the R&D team of Lotte Giants, a professional baseball team, in the preceding year and is offering advice on overall baseball data analysis. His work exhibits the synergistic effects the interaction of statistical data and specific fields could exert. We met Professor Jang, who interacts and communicates with the world through statistics.
“A video of a dry cleaner explaining and demonstrating how to remove stains with hydrogen peroxide hits 200,000 views on YouTube. However, if a video offered a chemistry-based
description of the hydrogen peroxide principle, no one would watch it. This is due to the difference in ways of interacting and communicating. In addition to major courses, I
also started a new liberal arts course connecting dry and demanding statistics and everyday life, which has been drawing enthusiastic praise. There is an urgent need for a
change of pace in this era in which people complain about the boring nature of chemistry while watching a video of a dry cleaner. This case proves that academia should interact
and communicate with the world.”
Professor Jang’s career history is virtually unique. He spent his school days reading, watching baseball games, and daydreaming. In 2012, he led the foundation of the Society
for Korea Baseball Studies (SKB) along with Jaeseung Jeong, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), serving as its vice president and
president. Professor Jang introduced himself as “a person pursuing his childhood aspirations,” conducting interdisciplinary research via statistics with scholars from various
fields, such as astronomy, genetics, epidemiology, brain and cognitive science, and political science. Furthermore, he noted, “I have a keen interest in the interactions and
communication between scientists and the general public,” adding, “because I am pouring my efforts into enhancing digital literacy, which is key in the era of information
deluge, I would like to introduce myself as a Beyond Traditional Statistician or ‘BTS,’ implying that I am somewhat different from a typical statistician.”
After hearing his history, his membership on the advisory committee of a professional baseball team hardly startled us. According to Professor Jang, he is satisfied with his
career, as he sees it as an extension of his aspirations and preferences. The reason statistics fascinates him is deceptively simple. He had diverse aspirations, such as
becoming an astronomer and a baseball team employee, and we were happy to learn that studying statistics has enabled him to achieve all of these.
“John Tukey, a famous statistician who invented the Fourier transform (a type of integral transform) and first used the word software, said, ‘The best part about being a
statistician is that you can play in everyone’s backyard.’ I admired his remark, thinking that it must have been true. The appeal of statistics is that we can collaborate with
people from all fields if we are interested.”
Lotte Giants' appointment of Professor Jang as an advisory committee member of the R&D team allows us to see the power of statistics from another viewpoint. Professor Jang
accepted this offer without any hesitation because statistics have served a pivotal role in baseball analysis, as shown in a separate field called sabermetrics (analysis of
baseball records), and he loves baseball and his hometown of Busan.
“Baseball is a game of records. Traditionally, analytics has contributed considerably to this field. Statistics is applied in many different ways in sports. By converting
various unquantifiable records into numeric values, statisticians can utilize these values in recruiting or training players, as well as preventing player injuries and
improving training methods. This approach applies to other sports such as golf or soccer as well.”
The interactions between statistics and sports invite other encounters. This is because Professor Jang is producing other analytical results via interaction in his work with
Professor Jaebum Park at the Department of Physical Education who is also working as an advisory committee member.
“Professor Park is a biomechanics expert who is collecting various data regarding the physical functions of Lotte Giants players and examining customized player training
methods based on the data. The objective of this project is to induce various analyses of these body measurement data through collaboration with me.”
The application fields of statistical analysis are endless. As a good example, Professor Jang analyzed the political spectrums of Constitutional Court judges along with a law
school professor and a political science professor.
“In the United States, interest in analyzing the political spectrums of Supreme Court Justices has traditionally been intense. Abortion has recently become a burning issue,
having a huge impact on American society. Based on the records of the Supreme Court Justices' rulings on specific issues, the Justices’ political spectrums can be scored
depending on with whom each Justice shared their opinions and whom they supported or opposed. Interestingly, these spectrums may shift over time, and conservative and
progressive tendencies appear different from those of the nominating president's political party. The same is applicable to our country. I collected and arranged the tendencies
found in the judges' rulings, finding unexpected results. For example, a Constitutional Court judge, who was formerly a prosecutor, showed a nearly central tendency according
to the analysis rather than a mere conservative tendency as I predicted. This case was a good example of how statistics offers a viewpoint that is in contrast to a superficial
judgment.”
Moreover, Professor Jang once analyzed “methods for estimating the number of people in an assembly” along with a physics professor and showcased a solution to this problem of
social interest, adding his explanation about the enormously wide applications of statistics.
Despite the advantage of being a statistician (i.e., that one can play in the backyards of all disciplines), there are some challenges. Collaboration is intricate.
“The reason collaboration is challenging is that conversations with other experts are difficult. When a conversation takes place between experts from different fields, the
words they use sound like they are part of an alien language. This is because they are unfamiliar with each other’s fields. In this case, they need to continue their
conversation by guessing at keywords, and they must actively learn the other's language by asking questions. However, the problem here is that both students and professors are
reluctant to raise queries. For example, while participating in a joint research project on astronomy, I once found that an astronomer chiefly used the unit “σ8
(sigma eight).”
In statistics, σ (sigma) typically means a “standard deviation,” while σ8 in astronomy is a “coefficient of variation,” which implies the standard deviation divided
by the
mean. When I analyzed the data by modeling σ8 as the standard deviation based on my statistical knowledge, I changed the history of the universe (laughs).”
Professor Jang accentuated the importance of conversation, as well as data literacy, adding that Mr. Jong-won Baek’s ability to “lower the entry barrier to cooking by speaking
comfortably and measuring effortlessly" is the secret to his success. In statistics, interactions with other disciplines are paramount. Despite certain differences depending on
individual tendencies, all statisticians must prioritize interactions given the nature of the study of statistics.
“Students should broaden their experiences related to interactions through various group and face-to-face activities. Students from various majors are taking my new course,
"It’s Statistics, Stupid: Data Literacy in the Age of Big Data.” I am leading this course with topics such as everyday life situations, public opinion polls, and the lotto.
When I ask students to form groups of three or four members and discuss a specific topic, they produce more diverse ideas than when one student proceeds independently, and it
boosts class participation. In essence, interactions are important in a modern society where we all live together.”
Professor Jang emphasizes this once more.
“Let me repeat one crucial piece of advice for students.
Ask questions. Inquire about anything. Do not be afraid that it is a stupid question. You should ask questions in the
first one or two hours at the beginning of the semester; then you can ask questions throughout the semester. The direction of the course for that semester depends on whether
you pose any questions within the first one or two weeks.
Questions are the beginning of interaction and communication.”
Professor Jang announced that he is currently conducting joint research regarding how to efficiently discover the Higgs boson in particle physics. To him, statistical analysis
is an indispensable path to acquiring a more complete and better understanding of the world through interactions.
