September 2025

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The probability that all 365 birthdays are in a school
This graph helps schools estimate the likelihood that all 365 birthdays are represented in their student body, showing that a school with 2,287 students has a 50% chance and one with 2,700 students has an 80% chance, while smaller schools (n=900) have almost zero probability.

Dear Reader,

SAS Innovate 2026 is coming to Grapevine, Texas, April 27–30, and we’re building an agenda that reflects the boldest thinking in data and AI. Whether you're driving transformation, solving complex challenges, or inspiring change, this is your moment.

The Call for Content is officially open. We’re inviting visionary leaders, educators, and storytellers to submit session proposals that showcase real-world impact, technical brilliance, or creative approaches to innovation. If selected, you’ll join a lineup of global voices presenting to SAS customers, users, and partners from around the world.

Submissions close Friday, November 7 at 11:59 PM EDT, and early bird pricing launches in November 2025, so don’t wait to get involved!

Thiago De Souza
Editor, SAS Tech Report

Someone forwarded you this edition of Tech Report? Subscribe to receive your own copy each month! Back issues “live” on the SAS Support Community.

Tech tips with Chris

Here’s my not-so-well-kept secret: I’m not a statistician.

Yes, I wrote SAS For Dummies. Yes, I talk to SAS users all the time—many of whom are brilliant statisticians. And yes, I’ve spent years immersed in the world of analytics and data science. But my background is in computer science, not statistics. I still get a little thrill when I correctly interpret a p-value or understand the shape of a distribution.

Despite my lack of formal training, I’m fascinated by the power and fun of statistics. And I owe much of my learning (and enjoyment) to the accessible and engaging writings of Rick Wicklin, whose blog posts on The DO Loop make complex concepts feel like puzzles waiting to be solved.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from Rick:

🎂 The Birthday Problem – A classic probability paradox that never gets old.
🎟️ The Coupon Collector Problem – A surprisingly deep dive into collecting all the prizes.
🍬 Distribution of Colors in M&Ms – Sweet stats with real-world flavor.
🌀 Moire Patterns – Where math meets mesmerizing visuals.
📊 And many more that blend statistical insight with curiosity and clarity.

Rick’s posts remind me that statistics isn’t just about formulas—it’s about storytelling, discovery, and sometimes even candy.

While I may not be a statistician, I’m proud to be a lifelong learner in the SAS community. And I’ll keep reading, experimenting, and sharing—one dummy tip at a time.

Tips & tricks

SAS Tutorial | Pareto Charts using SAS – The Vital Few vs. the Trivial Many
Learn to visualize, prioritize, and analyze data using Pareto charts. In this SAS How To Tutorial, Cat Truxillo, Director of Analytics Education, explains the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule). She then demonstrates how to use the PARETO procedure in SAS to create a variety of Pareto charts.

Streaming Analytics with SAS Event Stream Processing | SAS Viya Quick Start Tutorial
This Quick Start tutorial introduces you to SAS Event Stream Processing, which enables real-time detection and response to data patterns. You learn how to navigate in ESP Studio, create and manage projects, and deploy them to a live server.

Simulated Annealing (SA) Metaheuristic in SAS Optimization
Explore how the Simulated Annealing (SA) metaheuristic enhances SAS Optimization by solving complex problems like the Traveling Salesman Problem. This blog post walks through the algorithm’s logic, benefits, and implementation, showcasing its power to escape local optima and efficiently navigate large solution spaces.

AI Agents and Agentic AI: What’s the Difference?
This article clarifies the distinction between AI agents—task-bound, reactive systems—and agentic AI, which operates autonomously with adaptive, goal-driven behavior. Through relatable examples, it explores how agentic AI transforms automation into intelligent partnership, raising important ethical and operational considerations.

Feeling left behind? These AI skills can put you back in the game
As generative AI reshapes the job market, this article outlines the essential skills—like prompt engineering, responsible AI, and decision intelligence—that professionals need to stay competitive. Employers now prioritize hands-on experience and real-world AI capabilities over traditional credentials, making practical proficiency the new career currency.

Stirling numbers in SAS
This article explores how Stirling numbers—used in combinatorics to count partitions—can be computed and visualized using SAS. It includes practical examples and code for applying these mathematical tools to problems like the coupon collector’s scenario.

A SAS macro technique for running a one-time task
Learn how to streamline your SAS programs by using macro logic to execute setup tasks only once per session. This technique prevents redundant operations and improves efficiency by leveraging a flag-based macro structure.

The CYCLEATTRS option in PROC SGPLOT
This article demystifies the behavior of the CYCLEATTRS option in SAS's PROC SGPLOT, explaining how it controls graphical attributes when overlaying plots. Through clear examples, it shows how plot type influences default styling and how users can override it for consistent or varied visual presentation.

Fixing Broken Hearts and Macros: A Character Variable Check
Discover how to mend your SAS macros and optimize data sets with two handy tools. This article introduces macros that inspect character column lengths and adjust them for cleaner, more efficient data processing.

Use case

Personalizing donor engagement to accelerate conservation efforts
World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US) is transforming donor engagement using SAS analytics and AI to personalize outreach, boost retention, and accelerate conservation funding. With tools like SAS Viya and Customer Intelligence 360, WWF tailors experiences to donor passions—from oceans to elephants—driving deeper connections and measurable impact.

For developers

Get to know SAS SpeedyStore
SAS Viya with SingleStore was a combined solution where SAS’s advanced analytics and AI capabilities seamlessly integrate with SingleStore’s high-performance, cloud-native database, allowing users to perform complex data analysis directly on real-time data stored within SingleStore, resulting in faster insights and improved decision-making without the need for extensive data movement.

SAS Bowl LV, Agentic AI
Agentic AI autonomously navigates the entire data and AI lifecycle. It accesses raw data, cleans and transforms it, identifies the best algorithms, builds and validates models, deploy them seamlessly into production, and monitor model performance over time—often at a scale and speed beyond human capabilities. All that’s left for humans is to interpret insights in real time, orchestrate AI systems, and make strategic decisions while AI Agents handle the rest.

Upcoming learning events

(Each is one hour and complimentary unless stated otherwise.)

Ask the Expert: Leveraging RWD for Faster Drug Development by Generating Dynamic Cohorts
Join SAS' Sherrine Eid and Mary Dolegowski at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, October 2 to see how SAS® Viya® enables drug developers to accelerate evidence generation and create integrated evidence packages with raw data. You will learn how to:

Efficiently and accurately define patient cohorts without the need to harmonize your data first.
Accelerate evidence generation through cross-collaboration among study team members.
Use raw data to create cohorts and generate evidence to support integrated evidence packages.

Ask the Expert: Security Changes Affecting SAS Systems
Join SAS' Darrell Barton and Tony Brown at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, October 7 to learn how to implement the new security configurations and installations for SAS software. You will learn about:

Major security changes by OS vendors and SAS’ change to its installation process.
TLS as the ongoing security encryption that will replace AES et al.
The changes and how to implement the new security configurations and installations.

Ask the Expert: Creating Powerpoints with SAS - 2
Join SAS' Judy Orr at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, October 16 to take your PowerPoints a step further with customization using SAS. You will learn:

SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) code.
SAS PROC TEMPLATE code.

Ask the Expert: Orchestrating Your Multi-Wave Campaigns Through Scheduled Journeys
Join SAS' Carol Carlton at 9:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, October 21 to learn how you can use scheduled journeys to optimize your marketing campaigns. You will learn more about:

Typical use cases that can best be achieved through scheduled journeys.
How to turn existing segments into target audiences.
Mapping out a typical multi-wave campaign as a SAS Customer Intelligence 360 scheduled journey.

Ask the Expert: Product Build Deep Dive: Payment Integrity for Procurement via Solution Factory
Join SAS' Kiran Purabia and Nicholas Ablitt at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, October 28 to see how fraud, waste, abuse and error can be curtailed through actionable insights with SAS Payment Integrity. You will learn:

A clear understanding of the Solution Factory framework.
An overview of the technical implementation using JSON configuration.
Live demos and insights from real case studies.

AI and Machine Learning Skills Fest
Sharpen your AI and machine learning skills at SAS’s free virtual Skills Fest, Nov. 12–14. Join expert-led tutorials on data analytics, ML pipelines, deep learning, and more—designed for all experience levels to help you thrive in today’s data-driven world.