April 11, 2012

Nate Silver, Reinventing Political Polling

Nate Silver is a math genius and celebrated baseball statistician whose uncannily accurate presidential election forecasts have shaken up the world of political polling. Silver has been called a “spreadsheet psychic” and “number-crunching prodigy” by New York Magazine. Nate comes out of the world of baseball statistics, but during the 2008 presidential election primaries, he turned his sights and his amazing predictive abilities and forecasting models to the game of politics and current events – with incredible results.

Nate’s award winning political website is FiveThirtyEight.com. The name comes from the total number of votes in the electoral college. On the website, he crunches data, statistical studies, polls, election results, demographics, and voting patterns to publish a running forecast of a wide variety of current events, including the UK elections, the US midterm elections, health care passage, immigration issues, and more. Accuracy of his predictions has brought him acclaim throughout the world. He has been honored as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People, 2009, Time and one of the 100 Agents of Change by Rolling Stone.

Sullenger Dialogue with Nate Silver

Sponsored by the UM-Flint Department of Political Science

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
10:00 a.m.
Harding Mott University Center Michigan Rooms