A warm welcome by the Chair of the Master of Statistics and Data Science program

Dear alumni,

You all graduated from our program, some in the 1990, some in the nillies and others more recently. Although you all have studied statistics, things change over time. New methods and technologies emerge, and we have to follow these trends. Some “trends” are rather buzzwords and others are persistent. In this rapidly evolving world, we must make decisions and adjust the program if we feel it is necessary for our graduates to be at the forefront of statistics and data science. Such curricular changes do not only pertain to knowledge and scientific skills, but also to other (soft) skills; e.g. presentation and communication skills, ethics, collaboration skills, … We also have to align the competence frame with the vision of Hasselt University. Recently, our university decided that all programs should incorporate aspects of sustainability, civic responsibility and system thinking, and so we will have to think about how to incorporate these into our program. And the time is now!

Every eight years we have to write a strategic plan for the next seven years. We are just starting this process, which should land before the end of the calendar year. Among our big challenges we find: 

• Internationalisation: how can we assure a continuous inflow of good (international) students?
• Study progress: how can we increase the number of students that graduate within a time frame of two years?
• Lifelong learning: can we offer courses, modules or a postgraduate course for professionals (on-campus and/or distance learning)? 
• How can we integrate sustainability, civic responsibility and system thinking into our program? 

We regularly organise meetings with stakeholders (mostly employers of our graduates) to test the program against the needs, and to listen to their suggestions. However, a very important group of stakeholders are our alumni! We may reach out to you in the near future, but if you have any ideas or suggestions, then please let us know! You may contact me directly by email (olivier.thas@uhasselt.be). 

In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy reading this newsletter. And remember that you are always very welcome to make suggestions!

Best wishes,

Olivier

A message from Prof. dr. Ziv Shkedy

Dear Friends and colleagues,

According to Wikipedia, Alumni are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. When it is related to the Alumni of the master of statistics in Diepenbeek, the definition has another important layer, a survival layer. We all survived the long hours of the homeworks, the sleepless nights of projects’ writing and the stressful periods of the exams. We survived and one day, during the graduation ceremony, we heard our name and we became an Alumni. 
For me, and I am sure that for many of us, the period as a master student was a life changing event. 

I graduated in 1998 and in my year, the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the master program took place. UHasselt, at that time, was called LUC. Things changed… This year, on May 26, we are celebrating 35 years of our master program in a one-day meeting and in October 2023 we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the ICP program in a three-day conference that we will organize in Diepenbeek. The conference will be a hybrid event so you will be able to attend online if you cannot come…. More details about these events will be available online soon.

We are living in a world in which the effort to develop sustainable education products is growing rapidly. Within the data science institute, our aim is to develop education materials in (bio)statistics and education programs that will be used and followed for many years. Few examples and an overview about  our activities related to sustainable statistical capacity building for Africa can be found here.

The COVID-19 outbreak during 2020-2022 has changed our life. In many aspects and areas of life we become more and more online users & customers. Education is not an exception and the need to develop digital education materials online become a constant request when we discuss possible collaboration ideas with our partners and colleagues from the South. The >eR-Biostat platform (https://erbiostat.wixsite.com/erbiostat) is an example of a  website that offers course materials in (bio)statistics for both students and teachers for free. It was developed for you, so if you need to teach in your university a course about, for example, R programming, GLM, LDA, Survival analysis etc., just click on the link and download whatever you need for your course. It's free !!! It is not password protected and you do not need to register to use the materials which are available on the website. In case you would like to follow our activities and updates, follow our community on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/eRBiostat/) and Twitter (@erbiostat).

The alumni community of the master of statistics and science institute was established for you. It is a great and easy way to stay connected and to be updated about activities, new projects and new funding opportunities. Above all, it is a fantastic way to collaborate and to create new collaboration networks among us. In many places in the world, the statistical  community is dominated by us, the alumni of the master of statistics in Diepenbeek, so joining the alumni community will allow you and us to plan new collaborations across countries and continents. You can follow news and updates on our social media pages (see last section of this newsletter). To join the mailing list, send an email to jade.membrebe@uhasselt.be or use the google form at the end of this newsletter. 

Looking forward to see you in the future,

Ziv Shkedy

Professor at Hasselt University and co-promotor of the ICP Master of Statistics

Alumni in the Spotlight: Tadesse Awoke

by Fenny Ong

Prof. Tadesse Awoke Ayele started his Master’s degree program in Applied Statistics at Hasselt University, Belgium, after receiving the VLIR-UOS scholarship in 2006. Before coming to Belgium, he was a teaching assistant at University of Gondar in his hometown Ethiopia. Prof. Tadesse came from a humble background; his parents were farmers who did not have a chance to go to school. “I was the second kid in my village who got access to education. At that time, I had to travel about 30 km every day to go to school," he said. After completing school, Prof. Tadesse studied Statistics at Addis Ababa University and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in 2004. He is now a Full Professor in Biostatistics at University of Gondar. He also serves as a Chief Director for Research and Technology Transfer at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar. He mentioned that teaching, research, and community services are his passion.

In an interview, Prof. Tadesse shared his experience on studying at Hasselt University. He listed the four most relevant and valuable experiences he obtained during his study: 1) the method of teaching, which combines the theory with a lot of practical case studies, 2) the assignment delivery, which combines individual work with many group works, 3) the capability and the attitude of the professors which he considered not only very competent in their field but also very friendly, and 4) the supporting facilities which provide a very good environment to study. He emphasized that he really liked the project assignments because they helped him to get practical experiences and knowledge. However, he also expressed that he worked his way through the masters. “We have to finish 120 credits in two years. That was the challenge I experienced.”

Despite all the challenges and hard times, Prof. Tadesse acknowledged that graduation day from Hasselt University was the happiest moment in his life. He will never forget the lessons he got during his stay in Belgium, as well as his relationship with his classmates and professors. He considered that those periods taught him to work hard and interact with many people. “The relationship among students was special. That is one of the excellent systems you can find only at Hasselt University.” Eventually, Prof. Tadesse expressed his aspiration that there will be a strong UHasselt alumni networking in the future. 

News, news, news!

by Jade Vincent Membrebe

Hasselt University is celebrating its 50th year anniversary in 2023. Not only that, we are also celebrating the 35th year of the Master of Statistics (and Data Science) programme, 30th anniversary of the ICP programme, 25th anniversary of the Centre for Statistics, and 15th anniversary of I-BioStat. As part of the celebrations, a Symposium will be organized on May 26, 2023. This symposium will highlight the Founders' prizes which will be awarded to individuals who have proven their significant impact in statistics. More information can be found in this link.

Another important celebration is that of our ICP programme, which will be held from October 11-13 (so save the date). Various activities are planned, but we are keeping it a secret for now. One thing we can tell you is that we will be inviting alumni from all over the globe for this celebration, and that there will be an online and physical component of this celebration. All the more reason for you to join us in our social media pages to keep updated!

Alumni challenge

It's time… to name our alumni organization! Do you have any suggestions on what could be the potential name of our alumni organization? Please do so in this link. We will draft a list of names from your suggestions, and you (the alumni) will have a say on which name we will use. The owner of the chosen name for our alumni organization will receive a special prize!

Join our social media pages

Don't forget to join our social media pages

Join us on our LinkedIn group and don't forget to like our Facebook page.

You can also access our social media pages with the following QR code:

We will be sharing some exciting news soon and we will have some exclusive content on our social media pages, so don't miss out on anything!

Contact us!

Don't forget to subscribe to our email list here! You can also scan the following QR code to access the subscription page.

Even if you have received this email, we will eventually move towards sending our alumni newsletters to those subscribed to our email list. Don't miss out on exciting news, activities, and opportunities regarding our alumni organization.

Do you want to suggest content for our alumni newsletter? Fill-in this google form or scan the following QR code!