Written by Connor Zahler: The Academy Awards, more popularly known as the Oscars, celebrate the year in movies and give recognition to the most outstanding films (and aspects of films) of the year. While they have faced a lot of very fair criticism, most notably regarding a lack of diversity, many stars and regular viewers…
Category: Beyond QMSS
QMovie Reviews: Moneyball
Written by Connor Zahler: Introduction Writing for the QMSS student blog has granted me a lot of opportunities. One drawback, though, is that it has made me so analytically savvy that it can be hard to turn off QMSS-vision. Case in point: my friends and I were having a good old-fashioned movie night the other…
A Quantitative Look at Urban Public Transportation
Written by Cecilia Morales-Barraza: Public transportation, commuting times, and the walkability of cities are heavily interconnected factors which form the key aspects of urban transportation. By creating more walkable cities and investing in quality transportation, we can form an environment that is not only sustainable, but equitable for all Americans. Public Transportation From buses to…
Putting Methods to the (March) Madness: A Quantitative Look at NCAA Tournament History
Written by Cecilia Morales-Barraza: As the days of excitement for football games and abundant school spirit fade into distant memory, the most anticipated time in college basketball begins. With every game in this yearly NCAA D1 basketball tournament, new data becomes available for analysis. Women on the Rise Women’s teams have been competing in the…
A Quantitative Look at Love
Written by Connor Zahler: Love. To most, it seems like the ultimate qualitative experience. It can make people act irrationally and is almost impossible to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it. That hasn’t stopped social scientists from trying, however. Today, we’ll look at some theories of love, the possible backing behind it, and what…
2022: The Year in Data
Written by Connor Zahler: It’s the start of a new year, which means that it’s list season. Everywhere you look, people are compiling the best and worst people, things, and ideas of 2022 to gear up for 2023. You’ve probably already seen all of your friends’ Spotify Wrappeds and made the appropriate judgments about them.…
A Quantitative Look at the Michigan Wolverines’ Regular Season
Written by Connor Zahler: If you’re like me, you’re still riding high from the joy of absolutely annihilating Ohio State within their own stadium (which is, notably, not the largest in the Western Hemisphere). Alas, periods of celebration can only go on for so long, and work must resume eventually. Statistics never sleeps, so the…
A Quantitative Look at Christmas
Written by Connor Zahler: Assistant Editor’s Note: QMSS acknowledges that Christmas is only one holiday out of many and that many readers do not celebrate. This article is not meant to imply that readers should celebrate Christmas; it is meant to be a fun look at the way quantitative methods inform the holiday. Christmas. Some…
A Quantitative Look into Dr. Santa Ono
Written by Connor Zahler: After a months-long search for a new president, the Regents of the University of Michigan announced that they had selected Dr. Santa Ono for the position. We’d like to extend a warm welcome to our newest president, and there’s only one way we know how to: quantitatively. 15: Dr. Ono will…
What Google Trends Reveal About QMSS
Written by Connor Zahler: Google Trends is an interesting, yet mostly untapped, source of data and information. The premise is simple: Google releases data about how frequently data is searched, where it is searched, and when it is being searched. Through this, it’s possible to gain a sort of “snapshot” of the cultural imagination at…