Yale Statistics and Data Science auctions an NFT

Yale Statistics and Data Science auctions an NFT
June 4, 2021

The Department of Statistics and Data Science (S&DS) at Yale has minted its first non-fungible token (NFT). An NFT is a record stored on a blockchain; it represents a unique digital asset. NFTs have gained popularity recently, culminating in the sale of Beeple’s “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS” for $69.3M.

Our first NFT honors the work of Francis John “Frank” Anscombe, who was the founding chair of the department. Frank Anscombe introduced Anscombe’s quartet in [1] to argue for the importance of using graphs and studying outliers. The four data sets have the same descriptive statistics (such as means, variances, and correlations), but when plotted, one sees the significant differences between them. Anscombe’s quartet is a classic example used in countless books to teach students about good practices in statistics. This NFT is a tribute to the history of our department, and it symbolizes our commitment to teaching and training researchers.

This unique first-of-a-kind NFT is an experiment in a new way to fund research at the department. The NFT was minted on May 28th, and it will be listed for auction on June 5th. The proceeds of this first auction (minus fees) will help support our incredible graduate students and postdocs.

Follow the auction for the first Yale S&DS NFT: https://foundation.app/YaleDataScience/anscombe-s-quartet-the-first-yale-s-ds-nft-41810

Ready to own the NFT and support the training of the next generation of researchers? You can find out more about bidding: https://help.foundation.app/en/articles/4742997-a-complete-guide-to-collecting-nfts-and-how-auctions-work  

[1] F.J. Anscombe (1973) Graphs in Statistical Analysis, The American Statistician, 27:1, 17-21