The Canberra branch of the SSA is pleased to present our meeting schedule for 2018. Please click here for a poster of the schedule containing our statistically and practically awesome lineup of speakers for the year!

Next meeting: Branch Meeting - Knibbs Lecture

Please note the Knibbs lecture will be our final meeting for the year.

Date: Tuesday 11 December 2018

5.15pm Refreshments in Fred Gruen Economics Seminar Room, HW Arndt Building 25A, ANU (Map)

6.00pm Presentation in Fred Gruen Economics Seminar Room, with >= 0 official discussants.

7.30pm After the talk, there will be dinner at Blu Ginger, 5 Genge St, Canberra. Please note we will be planning to order the $40 banquet (https://www.bluginger.com.au/product-category/dinner/banquets/)

Please RSVP Francis Hui (SSA Canberra or reply to this email directly) by Sunday 9 December if you would like to attend the dinner. 

Speaker: Eric Stone, Research School of Biology and the Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics

Topic: Is the Discipline of Statistics Destined for Disruption?

Abstract:

There is no Statistics without data, but is too much data bad for Statistics? The ease with which data can be collected at scale is already disrupting scientific practice as hypothesis testing yields to hypothesis generation and prediction. In parallel, hypothesis generation and prediction are being fuelled by the commoditisation of machine learning approaches. With this combination of changing marketplace and new technologies, is Statistics destined for disruption? This talk is intended to provoke a robust discussion afterwards!

Biography: Eric combines statistical methods and mathematical theory to investigate how genetic variation has shaped biological diversity. He studied Mathematics at the University of Florida and Princeton University before training in Statistics and Genetics at Stanford University. He joined the Australian National University in mid-2016 after eleven years on the faculty at North Carolina State University. At ANU he is appointed across the Research School of Biology and the Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics. He serves as Director of the ANU-CSIRO Centre for Genomics, Metabolomics and Bioinformatics as well as the new ANU Biological Data Science Institute.