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• Statistical Tools for the Pharmaceutical Industry - external event

  • When
    17 Jul 2019
  •  
    8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Park Hyatt Hotel, Melbourne, VIC

  About this workshop:
  Manufacturing pharmaceutical products for consumption requires many decisions to be made from the results of statistical analysis. Using Minitab 19, we will take you through three common challenges faced by pharmaceutical manufacturers, resulting in increased customer satisfaction, reducing operating costs, and increasing profits.

  • How does a quality improvement team monitor injection moulding process changes over time using control charts?
  • How is capability analysis used by quality engineers to measure drug dissolution time to show that a high proportion of tablets can meet a targeted specification?
  • How does a tablet manufacturer use a sampling plan for a final inspection before the product is shipped? 

  Delegates are required to bring a laptop with Windows OS. A copy of Minitab 19 will be provided before the workshop.

  About the facilitator:
  Ming Dong is one of only a handful of practitioners across the Asia-Pacific Region to be a certified trainer for Minitab’s flagship product, Minitab Statistical Software. The training certification process is the culmination of years of statistical training with real-life application of data analysis in the industry.

  Ming’s formal qualifications include an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering Management, a Masters of Computer Science from the University of New South Wales, and a Masters of Applied Statistics from Macquarie University. Ming has a unique and profound understanding of the application of statistics in the business world, with broad business development experience developed through his work in senior technical roles for large organisations such as Toshiba, OzEmail and National Computing Systems Singapore. As a university research officer at Macquarie University, he had several papers published in the field of Bioinformatics.

  Cost
  $149, incl. GST (includes light refreshments)

  For more information, and to register, please click here. 

  
  

  Minitab is a proud sponsor of YSC2019.

  
  

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• Minitab Insights Event Australia - external event

  • When
    18 Jul 2019
  •  
    8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
  • Location
    Park Hyatt Hotel, Melbourne, VIC

  Free with limited seating! Register here.

  About this conference
  Hear from industry experts about the real-life data challenges being faced by organisations in a rapidly changing landscape. Minitab experts will also be on hand to talk about the new features of Minitab 19 and Companion 5.3, and explore how Minitab’s products can be used to make improvements to your product or process.

  Topics include:

  • What’s New in Minitab 19
  • Proven Practices to Improve Data Quality & Prepare for ML/RPA
  • Medibank’s Journey to CI Using Minitab
  • Why Minitab & Salford Predictive Modeler (SPM) Offer Superior & Lightning Fast Analytics
  • Using Minitab & ML Tools to Increase Maintenance Reliability
  • Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning – The Implication to the LSS Practitioner

  View the full agenda and register here. 

  
  

  Minitab is a proud sponsor of YSC2019.

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• Vic Branch - Tutorial on sequential Monte Carlo methods in statistics

  • When
    18 Jul 2019
  •  
    6:00 PM
  • Location
    Science S4, Monash University, 16 Rainforest Walk, Clayton VIC 3168

  Thanks to ACEMS for their support in for Anthony's visit.

  Speaker: Dr Anthony Lee, University of Bristol

  I will introduce Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methodology from a Statistics perspective. This particle-based algorithm was initially proposed to approximate predictive and filtering distributions for general state-space hidden Markov models, and in this context it is also known as a Particle Filter. SMC is now used to approximate a variety of intractable integrals arising in Statistics, e.g. intractable likelihoods in latent variable models and expectations with respect to high-dimensional, complex posteriors. I will cover the basic algorithm and its properties, as well as some innovations that have improved its performance and extended its impact. No previous knowledge of SMC is required.

  Biography:

  I am a Computational Statistician in the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol, and Director of the Data Science at Scale Programme at the Alan Turing Institute, with Intel as Strategic Partner. My research is primarily in the area of stochastic algorithms for approximating intractable quantities that arise in data analysis. Examples of such algorithms are Markov chain and Sequential Monte Carlo. I work on both theory and methodology: research in this area is interdisciplinary, bringing together advances in applied probability, algorithms, and statistics. I am often interested in algorithms that scale well in parallel and distributed computing environments, and in computational and statistical trade-offs when conducting inference.

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• The Research School on Statistics and Data Science 2019 (RSSDS2019) - external event

  • Start
    24 Jul 2019
  • End
    26 Jul 2019
  • Location
    La Trobe University, Melbourne

  Data has become the new oil of the 21st century. The collection, examination and modelling of today's data has become a valuable and much sought after skillset for businesses and large enterprises seeking the next generation of data science professionals.
  Currently one of the top paid technology jobs, data science is at the heart of many of the top Fortune 500 companies including Google, Facebook, Netflix and Tesla. The potential for impact in the new data driven world is limitless.
  The Research School on Statistics and Data Science 2019 (RSSDS2019) provides a series of workshops and papers delivered by experienced academic and industry members on the cutting edge statistics and data science applications and theory.
  Aside from being considered among the most desirable jobs of the 21st century, the real world value of data science and skilled data scientists cannot be understated. The most successful data science professionals are those who can hone the power of statistics, programming, domain knowledge and data visualisation.
  For more information, please click here.

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• SA Branch Meeting - Dr Murthy N Mittinty

  • When
    24 Jul 2019
  •  
    5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (UTC+09:30)
  • Location
    Engineering & Math EM212, North Terrace, The University of Adelaide

  Branch Meeting - Wednesday, 24th July 2019

  The South Australian Branch of the Statistical Society would like to invite you to the July meeting of the 2019 program.

  Venue: Engineering and Math Science Building, Room EM212, North Terrace, The University of Adelaide. A campus map is available at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/campuses/northtce/. 

  ***Please note that most entrance doors to Adelaide University buildings close at 6pm so make sure you arrive in time for the talk.

  Time:

  5:30pm - Refreshments in the Lecture Theatre

  6:05pm - General Meeting Talk

  7:30pm - A dinner will be held after the meeting at Jasmine Restaurant, 31 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide SA 5000. Please RSVP for dinner to aarti.gulyani@sahmri.com by 22nd July as we are usually unable to change the booking numbers at the last minute.

  Speaker 1: Dr Murthy N Mittinty

  Topic: Quantitative Bias Analysis

  Abstract

  Data used in epidemiology usually are either from experiments (randomized controlled trials) or observational/surveillance data. These data are used to estimate a parameter of interest. It must be kept in mind that this is a predicted value of the true parameter that exists out there in the real world, which can be either unknown or at time, known. If the predicted parameter is the same as the true parameter of interest, then we say that the estimate is unbiased. However, this is never a possibility without making assumptions about both the data collected and the modelling approach used. It is because the data will have both systematic and random errors. Apart from this, we also do not know the data generating mechanism. The systematic error includes aspects such as selection bias, measurement error, confounding bias and unmeasured confounding. In a perfect randomized control trial, we can attempt to remove the biases such as measured and unmeasured confounding. Unfortunately, this is not the case with observational data, hence it is important to describe how these errors are handled so that one can place more confidence in the estimate. Three important questions to ask before conducting quantitative bias analysis are: (1) when we should conduct this; (2) how we select which bias to address; and (3) how we select a method to model bias. The other question about conducting the bias analysis is how we interpret and present these results. The aim of this presentation is to answer these questions, as well as provide an example and illustrate the software that can be used for conducting quantitative bias analysis.

  Biography

  Murthy N Mittinty is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at The University of Adelaide. Murthy is interested in both methodological development and applications of statistical methods. His current interests include, causal inference, mediation analysis, and handling of dynamic treatment regimes. Apart from statistics Murthy has keen interest in history of Mathematics and Statistics and Philosophy. Besides academic interest, Murthy is interested in Photography and Cooking.

  Feel free to forward this meeting notice to colleagues, all welcome.

  
  

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• 2019 International Conference and Workshops on Survey Research Methodology - external event

  • Start
    7 Aug 2019
  • End
    9 Aug 2019
  • Location
    Taipei, Taiwan

  The Center for Survey Research(CSR) of Academia Sinica in Taiwan will hold an international conference on survey research methodology on 8 August and the morning of 9 August 2019. In addition, CSR will offer a four-hour workshop on Total Survey Error as a framework for high quality survey design on the afternoon of August 7. A second four-hour workshop on weighting for various types of survey data, such as panels, dual frames etc., takes place on the afternoon of August 9.
  

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• WA Branch Meeting - Joint IBS and SSA - Suman Rakshit

  • When
    13 Aug 2019
  •  
    5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (UTC+08:00)
  • Location
    Perth

  Announcing a special joint meeting of The Statistical Society of Australia, W.A. Branch and 
  The Australasian Region of the International Biometric Society

  6:00 p.m. on Tuesday 13^th August 2019
  ROSS LECTURE THEATRE
  PHYSICS BUILDING
  UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

  
  Statistical inference for on-farm experiments

  with focus on large strip trials

  Dr Suman Rakshit

  SAGI-West, School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University

  ABSTRACT:

  On-farm experimentation on large strips are becoming increasingly popular in Australia. Two questions of interest are (i) what is the overall best treatment and (ii) does the treatment effect change in different parts of the field? The first question can be answered assuming spatial invariance of the treatment effect, however, the efficiency of the inference is greatly increased by considering the correlation in the yield data recorded by the sensor inside the combine harvester. We describe a two-stage Monte Carlo method for answering the first question. This method is shown to perform better than the existing asymptotic method which is shown to be anti-conservative in simulations. The second question is answered adapting methods available for local modelling of the spatial relationships. The theory of local likelihood is used to make formal statistical inference.

  ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

  Dr. Suman Rakshit is currently working at SAGI-West, Curtin University, as a Biometrician, where the core focus of his research is to develop experimental design for agricultural field trials and analysis of the trial data using advanced statistical techniques such as linear mixed model, factor analytic model and spatial variogram modelling. The other area of his research focus is genome wide association study for the analysis of quantitative traits of germplasms based on the maps of genetic markers.

  Suman has also worked as a Data Scientist for the Horizon Power and Prima Consulting before joining SAGI-West. He spent 4 years as a post-doctoral researcher under Prof. Adrian Baddeley and Dr. Gopalan Nair, researching on the topics of spatial statistics. He has published several articles in the field of spatial statistics and developed an R-package for analysing point patterns on a linear network. He received his PhD in statistics from Monash University and master’s degree in statistics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
  

  Members and guests are invited to mingle over wine and cheese from 5:30 p.m. onwards in the Ross Lecture Theatre, University of Western Australia. Following the meeting you are invited to dine with the speaker at Steves, 30 The Avenue, Nedlands. Visitors are welcome.

  PLEASE RSVP for the post-meeting dinner to Mario D’Antuono via email mario.dafwa@gmail.com or via mobile phone (0480 123 071) by 12 noon Monday August 12. The evening will include complimentary first drink, and coffees/cake for dessert on behalf of the two societies.

  
  

  The Ross Lecture Theatre is located on the ground floor of the Physics building at UWA. The lecture theatre is directly opposite the main doors.

  Parking is free on the UWA campus after 5pm.

  Google Maps

  Open Street Map

  For further information please contact the Statistical Society of Australia WA Branch Secretary, Rick Tankard, Murdoch University. He can be reached by email at rick.tankard@murdoch.edu.au or by phone at (08) 9360 2820.

  
  

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• ISI 2019 – 62nd ISI World Statistics Congress - external event

  • Start
    18 Aug 2019
  • End
    23 Aug 2019
  • Location
    Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

  The 62nd ISI WSC 2019 will bring together about 2,500 delegates, comprises statistical researchers, academia, industry practitioners, analysts and policymakers, from all over the world to share insights on development in statistical science and to advance application of statistics for discovery, innovation and decision making. About 1,300 papers in various statistical disciplines and applications will be presented and discussed over a period of five days. In addition to the Scientific Programme, satellite seminars, meetings and short courses will be organised as the pre- and post-congress events.
  

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• Oceania Stata Conference - external event

  • Start
    19 Aug 2019
  • End
    20 Aug 2019
  • Location
    Sydney

  

  The Oceania Stata Conference is the premier Stata conference in the Oceania region and will provide Stata users from across Oceania and the world the opportunity to exchange ideas, experiences, and information on new applications of the software. This is the opportunity to meet leading Stata users and learn how they create reproducible research with Stata. The 2019 Oceania Stata Conference will be held at the Park Royal Parramatta 20 August 2019 with optional workshops (panel data and social statistics) on 19 August 2019.

  The registration is now open to all levels of Stata users. For more information please click here.

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• Applied Statistics and Policy Analysis Conference, 2019 - external event

  • Start
    5 Sep 2019
  • End
    6 Sep 2019
  • Location
    Wagga Wagga, NSW

  Applied statistics and data science play a vital role in the analysis and evaluation of policies in various fields including social sciences, economics, health sciences, population studies etc. On the other hand, with society apparently expecting more and more from all three levels of government; it becomes increasingly important that both private and public policy should be based on reliable and up-to-date data that covers the important issues. This conference aims to promote research collaborations and exchange ideas between data scientists, applied statisticians and data modellers who will detail the latest innovations in research to gather and disseminate information from small to big data settings, and from policy analysts who will describe how they use existing information from increasing big data environments and indicate areas in which there need to be methodological and technological developments. Another aim is to establish connections between researchers at tertiary institutions and working in industry in Australia and overseas. This conference is organised by the Data Science Research Unit (DSRU) within the School of Computing and Mathematics at Charles Sturt University (CSU).

  This conference is sponsored by the Australian Government’s Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities and the School of Computing and Mathematics and the Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences at CSU.

  For more information please click here. 

  
  

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• WA Branch Meeting - Matt Schneider

  • When
    10 Sep 2019
  •  
    5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (UTC+08:00)
  • Location
    Perth

  Details to be advised.

  For further information please contact the Branch Secretary, Rick Tankard, Murdoch University.  He can be reached by email at rick.tankard@murdoch.edu.au or by phone at (08) 9360 2820.

  
  

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• Communicating with R Markdown-CPD102

  • When
    30 Sep 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
  • Location
    Canberra

  Register

  SSA is pleased to offer two pre-conference workshops leading up to our Young Statisticians Conference, YSC2019.

  This particular workshop will be presented by our international keynote speaker, Alison Hill.

  About the workshop
  A workshop for R Markdown users who want to get more out of R Markdown (and friends). In this workshop, we will demystify how R Markdown works under the hood. You will learn practical tools and workflows to increase your efficiency and productivity using R Markdown (including RStudio IDE features and templates), while learning how to use some extension packages along the way. We assume that you have knit an R Markdown document before, but you don’t need to be an advanced R Markdown user to take this workshop. 

  About the presenter 
  Alison Hill is a Data Scientist & Professional Educator at RStudio, developing free and open source tools to make it easier and more fun to do data science with the statistical programming language. Alison studied psychology and quantitative methods, receiving her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2008. For eight years, she was a professor and scientist at Oregon Health & Science University, where her research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute, and Autism Speaks. She has written numerous scientific journal articles and book chapters on autism and neurodevelopmental disorders. She has developed and delivered workshops, graduate-level courses, and curricula based on teaching R, the tidyverse, and literate programming.

  Fees:

  Early Bird (closing on 16 August 2019)

  SSA student member $140

  Non-member student: $180

  SSA member: $280

  Non member: $350

  ABS staff (up to 15): $140

  From 17 August:

  SSA student member $190

  Non-member student: $230

  SSA member: $330

  Non member: $400

  ABS staff (up to 15): $190

  Other useful information:
  Workshop participants will need to bring a laptop loaded with with a current version of R (>3.6.0) and RStudio (>1.2.1335). The required packages are  rmarkdown, tidyverse and flexdashboard . They are also required to register for a free RStudio Cloud account, available here.

  Travel Expenses
  Occasionally workshops have to be cancelled due to a lack of subscription. Early registration ensures that this will not happen. Please contact the SSA Office before making any travel arrangements to confirm that the workshop will go ahead, because the Society will not be held responsible for any travel or accommodation expenses incurred due to a workshop cancellation.

  Cancellation Policy
  Cancellations received prior to Monday, 23 September 2019 will be refunded, minus a $20 administration fee. From then onwards no part of the registration fee will be refunded. However, registrations are transferable within the same organisation. Please advise any changes to eo@statsoc.org.au.

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• Maximising the use of Australian Bureau of Statistics Data Products and Analysis Tools - CPD103

  • When
    30 Sep 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
  • Location
    Canberra

  Register

  

  
  SSA and the Australian Bureau of Statistics are pleased to present the following pre-conference workshop in the lead-up to this year's Young Statisticians Conference, YSC2019:

  Maximising the use of Australian Bureau of Statistics Data Products and Analysis Tools
  in Canberra (Manuka Oval, Griffith) on 30 September 2019.

  About the workshop
  This one-day workshop will have two components. First, it will provide an overview of the wide variety of data sources from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that are available for analysts. These sources include our 5-yearly Census, survey data, administrative data, and in particular, linked data. A demonstration of the ABS Table Builder and Data Lab products - platforms for analysts to remotely undertake bespoke analyses using ABS data - will be given. Several case studies will provide examples of the many innovative ways analysts are making use of ABS data for their projects. Second, it will focus on how Table Builder can produce data-cubes for a standard analysis in R. This will then extend to creating large data- cubes suitable for mixed models using the ‘LME4’ package in R. This second component of the workshop will conclude with discussion of Poisson-gamma models, which have additional advantages in this type of data framework. 
  

  About the presenters
  Louise Gates has over 20 years' experience as a statistical methodologist at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and is currently the Director of the Health National Statistics Centre at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Centre leads the production of national official health statistics and data products. When Louise is not at the ABS or raising her three teenage children, you'll most likely find her off the beaten track running, white water kayaking, or bushwalking.
  James Brown has over 20 years of experience as an applied statistician including collaborations with Government Statistics in the UK and Australia. Since September 2013, he is Professor of Official Statistics at UTS and just completed a term as Associate Head of School (Research) for School of Mathematical & Physical Sciences.

  Fees:

  Early Bird (closing on 16 August 2019)

  SSA student member $140

  Non-member student: $180

  SSA member: $280

  Non member: $350

  ABS staff (up to 15 in total): $140

  From 17 August:

  SSA student member $190

  Non-member student: $230

  SSA member: $330

  Non member: $400

  ABS staff (up to 15 in total): $190

  Other useful information:
  Workshop participants will need to bring a laptop loaded with R and RStudio. The required packages are readxl, dplyr, tidyr, stringr, and lme4. They are also required to register for a free ABS TableBuilder Basic account here.

  Participants would benefit from knowledge of models of count/binary data (eg poisson and logistic regression). Some useful background reading is available here. 

  Travel Expenses
  Occasionally workshops have to be cancelled due to a lack of subscription. Early registration ensures that this will not happen. Please contact the SSA Office before making any travel arrangements to confirm that the workshop will go ahead, because the Society will not be held responsible for any travel or accommodation expenses incurred due to a workshop cancellation.

  Cancellation Policy
  Cancellations received prior to Monday, 23 September 2019 will be refunded, minus a $20 administration fee. From then onwards no part of the registration fee will be refunded. However, registrations are transferable within the same organisation. Please advise any changes to eo@statsoc.org.au.

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• SSA Canberra/YSC Event: Pre-Conference Trivia Night!

  • When
    30 Sep 2019
  •  
    5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
  • Location
    Media Centre, Manuka Oval, Canberra
  • Spaces left
    58
  • Registered
    2 registrants

  Register

  
  

  Did you know:

  • In his first year at Harrow, Winston Churchill was bottom of the whole school?
  • Finland has the highest density of metal bands in the world?
  • A number of Bradley Efron's friends and colleagues originally floated other names for the bootstrap, including the Swiss Army Knife, Meat Axe, Swan-Dive, Jack-Rabbit, and the Shotgun?

  More importantly, in celebration of YSC2019 being in Canberra, did you know that SSA Canberra and YSC are holding a special joint pre-conference trivia night on the evening of 30 September i.e., after the workshops? 

  Test your knowledge in a couple of hours (+/- some unknown standard deviation) of trivia spanning all walks of general knowledge, including some mathematics and statistics puzzles of course! The trivia night will be held at Manuka Oval i.e., the venue of the workshops and conference.  

  The cost for the trivia night is

  • free for delegates of YSC2019;
  • $10 for all SSA members;
  • $30 for all non-members.

  This above includes dinner (TBC as to what this will be). Please note this is an alcohol-free event; in accordance with the venue policy, food and beverage cannot be brought in from the outside.

  Please note registration is essential (for catering purposes), and closes Wednesday 25 September.

  Time to get your game on! (well done if you know the reference)

  If you have any additional questions [bar what the answers to the trivia questions will be!], please contact ssacanberra@gmail.com

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• SSA-Event: Young Statisticians Conference 2019

  • Start
    1 Oct 2019
  •  
    8:30 AM
  • End
    2 Oct 2019
  •  
    5:00 PM
  • Location
    Canberra
  • Spaces left
    71

  Register

  The Young Statisticians Conference 2019 will be held on 1-2 October 2019 in the nation’s capital, Canberra. We are delighted that we were able to secure Manuka Oval for SSA’s signature event for students and graduates. YSC2019 will bring together the best students and early-career professionals in statistics and data analysis from all around Australia.  You do not want to miss this conference!

  To keep up to date with YSC2019 please go to the official conference website.

  When you register for the conference you need to be logged in as a member of SSA to take advantage of the member discount.  Please note that a one-year student membership with SSA is available to full-time students for only $20! Click here to register as a member of SSA and to see where your membership can take you!

  The YSC2019 dinner is not included in the conference registration fee. To register for the dinner click here.

  Cancellation Policy
  Cancellations received prior to Tuesday, 24 September 2019 will be refunded, minus a $20 administration fee.
  From then on no part of the registration fee will be refunded. However, registrations are transferable within the same organisation. Please advise any changes to eo@statsoc.org.au. 

  YSC2019-Visualising the future

  
  

  
  

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• SSA-Event: YSC2019 Dinner - Kingston Hotel

  • When
    1 Oct 2019
  •  
    6:30 PM - 9:30 PM
  • Location
    73 Canberra Ave, Griffith 2603
  • Registered
    16 registrants

  Register

  After a busy conference day at YSC2019 let's enjoy an evening of relaxing, connecting and wholesome pub-style cuisine at the Kingston Hotel while we celebrate women in statistics. You don't have to be female to do that!

  The Kingston Hotel, fondly referred to as "The Kingo" is one of Canberra's original watering holes and has become one of Canberra's most popular pubs. Please join us to discuss issues concerning women in statistics in Australia, to network with fellow statisticians and supporters and to simply have a great night out with friends!
  The cost for the dinner is $20 for delegates of YSC2019 and $40 for everyone else. Registrations for this dinner close strictly on 24 September 2019.

  We would like to thank ACEMS for generously sponsoring this dinner.

  Cancellation Policy
  Cancellations received prior to Tuesday, 24 September 2019 will be refunded, minus a $10 administration fee. From then on no part of the registration fee will be refunded. However, registrations are transferable within the same organisation. Please advise any changes to eo@statsoc.org.au.

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• WA Branch Meeting - TBA

  • When
    8 Oct 2019
  •  
    5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (UTC+08:00)
  • Location
    Perth

  Details to be advised.

  For further information please contact the Branch Secretary, Rick Tankard, Murdoch University.  He can be reached by email at rick.tankard@murdoch.edu.au or by phone at (08) 9360 2820.

  
  

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• CPD105 - Propensity score methods for estimating causal effects in non-experimental studies: The why, what, and how

  • When
    21 Oct 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    Sydney
  • Spaces left
    35

  Register

  
  

                   
  

  SSA and ACEMS are proud to present the following 1-day workshop with Liz Stuart to be held on 21 October 2019 in Sydney:

  Propensity score methods for estimating causal effects in non-experimental studies: The why, what, and how

  About this workshop

  Propensity scores are an increasingly common tool for estimating the effects of interventions in observational (“non-experimental”) settings and for answering complex questions in randomized controlled trials. They can be of great use in epidemiologic research, for example helping assess broad population effects of exposures, programs, or policies. This workshop will discuss the importance of the careful design of observational studies, and the role of propensity scores in that design, with the main goal of providing practical guidance on the use of propensity scores to estimate causal effects. The workshop will cover the primary ways of using propensity scores to adjust for confounders when estimating the effect of a particular “cause” or “intervention”, including weighting, subclassification, and matching. Topics covered will include how to specify and estimate the propensity score model, selecting covariates to include in the model, diagnostics, and common challenges and solutions. Software for implementing analyses using propensity scores will also be discussed. The workshop will also highlight recent advances in the propensity score literature, including prognostic scores, covariate balancing propensity scores, methods for non-binary treatments, and approaches to be used when there are large numbers of covariates available (as in claims data).

  About the presenter
  
  Elizabeth A. Stuart, Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with joint appointments in the Department of Biostatistics and the Department of Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Education at JHSPH. She received her Ph.D. in statistics in 2004 from Harvard University and is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Dr. Stuart has extensive experience in methods for estimating causal effects and dealing with the complications of missing data in experimental and non-experimental studies, particularly as applied to mental health, public policy, and education. She has published influential papers on propensity score methods and generalizing treatment effect estimates to target populations and has taught courses and short courses on causal inference and propensity scores to a wide range of audiences. Her primary areas of application include mental health, substance use, and policy evaluation, including co-directing the JHSPH Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy Research. Dr. Stuart has received research funding for her work from the National Institutes of Health, the US Institute of Education Sciences, and the National Science Foundation and has served on advisory panels for the National Academy of Sciences, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and the US Department of Education. Dr. Stuart was recently recognized with the mid-career award from the Health Policy Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association, the Gertrude Cox Award for applied statistics, and the Myrto Lefkopoulou award from the Harvard University Department of Biostatistics.

  Target Audience
  
  This workshop is suitable for a varied audience, ranging from people with no experience with propensity scores to those with some experience who want to learn more, especially about various data complexities. General knowledge of regression and logistic regression is useful.

  Course venue
  UTS City campus, Ultimo NSW

  Course Fees
  Early Bird (payment before 1  October 2019)

  SSA/ACEMS Members	$150
  Non-Members*	$495
  SSA/ACEMS Student Members	$100
  Non-Member Students*	$170

  
  Payment after 30 September 2019

  SSA/ ACEMS Members	$200
  Non-Members*	$545
  SSA/ACEMS Student Members	$150
  Non Member Students*	$220

  *Student membership is available for full-time students for $20 annually.
  *Full membership is available for $245 annually. For more information please click here.

  Registrations close on 14 October 2019.

  Travel Expenses

  Occasionally workshops have to be cancelled due to a lack of subscription. Early registration ensures that this will not happen. Please contact the SSA Office before making any travel arrangements to confirm that the workshop will go ahead, because the Society will not be held responsible for any travel or accommodation expenses incurred due to a workshop cancellation.

  Cancellation Policy

  Cancellations received prior to Monday, 14 October 2019 will be refunded, minus a $20 administration fee. From then onwards no part of the registration fee will be refunded. However, registrations are transferable within the same organisation. Please advise any changes toeo@statsoc.org.au. 

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• Network meta-analysis and population adjustment for decision-making - CPD97

  • Start
    4 Nov 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM
  • End
    5 Nov 2019
  •  
    5:15 PM
  • Location
    Macquarie University Sydney City Campus
  • Registered
    8 registrants

  Register

  
  

  The Australian Pharmaceutical Biostatistics Group (APBG) and the Statistical Society of Australia warmly invite you to a workshop on "Network meta-analysis and population adjustment for decision-making", presented by David Phillippo.

  About the workshop:
  Network meta-analysis (NMA) is a method for combining evidence from several studies on multiple treatments of interest to provide a consistent set of relative effect estimates and is widely used for healthcare decision-making and guideline development. More recently, population adjustment methods have been proposed that use individual patient data from one or more studies to relax the assumptions of NMA and adjust for differences in effect modifying variables between populations, or even to incorporate disconnected networks and single-arm studies. The methods are becoming increasingly common in technology appraisal submissions to reimbursement agencies and raise new questions and challenges for analysts and decision-makers.

  About the presenter:
  David Phillippo is a Senior Research Associate in Statistics at the University of Bristol, UK. His research focuses on methodology for evidence synthesis, Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis (NMA), population adjustment methods for indirect comparisons, and accounting for bias in clinical guidelines. He is the lead author of a recent Technical Support Document published by the NICE Decision Support Unit on population-adjusted indirect comparisons, and has developed new methods extending the NMA framework to incorporate population adjustment combining individual patient data and published summary data.

  Target audience:
  Day 1 of this course is aimed at statisticians, health economists, decision-makers, and systematic reviewers who are already familiar with pairwise meta-analysis, and who want to extend their knowledge to NMA and population adjustment methods. Participants will develop an understanding of these methods and the required assumptions and learn to assess and critique these types of analyses.

  Day 2 is aimed at those with technical experience of meta-analysis who want to apply the knowledge learned on Day 1 to hands-on practical examples. Participants will gain experience implementing NMA and population-adjusted analyses in an R package based on the Bayesian modelling language Stan.

  Prerequisites: Day 1:
  - Participants should be familiar with meta-analysis and linear and logistic regression

  Day 2:
  - Participants should have attended Day 1 of the course
  - Participants should have a working knowledge of R (installing packages, running a simple regression model)

  Learning Objectives Day 1 - Develop an understanding of network meta-analysis and population adjustment methods and the required assumptions and learn to assess and critique these types of analyses.
  Day 2 - Gain experience implementing NMA and population-adjusted analyses in an R package based on the Bayesian modelling language Stan.

  Fees
  

  No of Days	1 Day	2 Day
  SSA/APBG members	$350	$700
  Non-members	$400	$800
  SSA/APBG full-time student members*	$200	$400
  Non-member full-time students*	$230	$460
  Early Bird SSA/APBG members	$300	$600
  Early Bird non-members	$300	$600
  Early Bird SSA/APBG full-time student members*	$150	$300
  Early Bird non-member full-time students*	$180	$360

  *SSA student membership is available for $20 (12 months) - click here to sign up

  Deadlines
  Early Bird registration closes on 30 June 2019. Regular registrations close on 15 October 2019.

  Travel Expenses
  Occasionally workshops have to be cancelled due to a lack of subscription. Early registration ensures that this will not happen. Please contact the SSA Office before making any travel arrangements to confirm that the workshop will go ahead, because the Society will not be held responsible for any travel or accommodation expenses incurred due to a workshop cancellation.

  Cancellation Policy
  Cancellations received prior to Friday, 25 October 2019 will be refunded, minus a $20 administration fee. From then onwards no part of the registration fee will be refunded. However, registrations are transferable within the same organisation. Please advise any changes to eo@statsoc.org.au.

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• UQ Institute for Social Science Research: Program Evaluation Course

  • When
    8 Nov 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    UQ's Institute for Social Science Research, Cycad Building, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly

  Develop skills to conduct & commission Program Evaluations. This one-day introduction to Program Evaluation introduces key evaluation concepts & techniques. It provides participants with the foundational skills to plan or commission an evaluation.

  When: 8 November 2019, 9am – 5pm

  For more information please click here. 

  
  

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• WA Branch Meeting - TBA

  • When
    12 Nov 2019
  •  
    5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (UTC+08:00)
  • Location
    Perth

  Details to be advised.

  For further information please contact the Branch Secretary, Rick Tankard, Murdoch University.  He can be reached by email at rick.tankard@murdoch.edu.au or by phone at (08) 9360 2820.

  
  

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• UQ Institute for Social Science Research: Essential Social Analysis Skills Course - external event

  • Start
    13 Nov 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM
  • End
    15 Nov 2019
  •  
    5:00 PM
  • Location
    UQ's Institute for Social Science Research, Cycad Building, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopill

  UQ Institute for Social Science Research: Essential Social Analysis Skills Course

  Develop essential quantitative analysis & interpretation skills. This course is designed to provide participants with the essential skills to analyse & interpret quantitative (numeric) social data. Participants will develop an understanding of the appropriate statistical techniques to use for different types of research questions & different types of data & importantly how to make inferences & interpret results.

  Click here for more information.

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• UQ Institute for Social Science Research: Gathering Qualitative Data Course - external event

  • Start
    19 Nov 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM
  • End
    20 Nov 2019
  •  
    5:00 PM
  • Location
    UQ's Institute for Social Science Research, Cycad Building, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly

  Generate new knowledge through qualitative discovery.

  This course will enable participants to understand the results from administrative or survey data by investigating these findings in more depth through qualitative methods. It will cover skills to gather data from stakeholders through interviews, focus groups or visual methods in order to make evidence-informed decisions and ensure that surveys provide valid and reliable data.​

  For more information please click here.

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• Bayes on the Beach 2019

  • Start
    25 Nov 2019
  •  
    8:30 AM
  • End
    27 Nov 2019
  •  
    5:00 PM
  • Location
    Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

  Register

  Bayesian Research and Applications Group (BRAG) warmly invite you to a meeting of people involved or interested in Bayesian Research and Applications.

  Bayes on the Beach 2019 is the 13th International Workshop for the Australasian chapter of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) and the biennial meeting of the Bayesian Statistics section of the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA).

  Bayes on the Beach will be held at the Mantra Legends Hotel at Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast during November 25th -27th 2019. The conference provides a forum for discussion on developments and applications of Bayesian statistics, and includes keynote presentations, tutorials, practical problem-based workshops, invited oral presentations, and poster presentations.

  For details and regular updates please visit the full conference website.

  

  
  

  
  

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• UQ Institute for Social Science Research: Social Cost-Benefit Analysis Course - external event

  • Start
    26 Nov 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM
  • End
    28 Nov 2019
  •  
    5:00 PM
  • Location
    UQ's Institute for Social Science Research, Cycad Building, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly

  Develop skills to understand & conduct CBAs for social projects. This course is designed for professionals who need to engage with CBAs to aid the design & evaluation of public programs & policies, & need hands-on skills to conduct CBAs. This course equips participants with an understanding & working knowledge of the skills required to apply Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to the appraisal & evaluation of projects with mainly social costs & benefits. The course will cover the potential uses & limitations of cost-benefit analysis (CBA), introduce Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis, examine the principles & methods underlying CBA & non-market valuation, & provide hands-on exercises to practice the basic skills required to perform CBAs.

  When: 26 – 28 November 2019, 9am – 5pm

  Location: UQ's Institute for Social Science Research, Cycad Building, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly

  For more information please click here. 

  
  

  
  

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• 17th Australasian Data Mining Conference (AusDM’19) - external event

  • Start
    2 Dec 2019
  • End
    5 Dec 2019
  • Location
    Adelaide

  The Australasian Data Mining Conference has established itself as the premier Australasian meeting for both practitioners and researchers in data mining. It is devoted to the art and science of intelligent analysis of (usually big) data sets for meaningful (and previously unknown) insights. This conference will enable the sharing and learning of research and progress in the local context and new breakthroughs in data mining algorithms and their applications across all industries. For more information please click here.

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• UQ Institute for Social Science Research: Longitudinal Data Analysis Course

  • Start
    9 Dec 2019
  •  
    9:00 AM
  • End
    13 Dec 2019
  •  
    5:00 PM
  • Location
    UQ's Institute for Social Science Research, Cycad Building, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly

  Deepen your specialist knowledge of longitudinal approaches. This five-day intensive course has been specifically designed to deepen the specialist knowledge of your research teams and enhance the quality and meaning of the data you use when making crucial business decisions.

  The course delves deeply into topics that are pivotal for organisations that use longitudinal data for research and decision-making. Using an engaging combination of presentations, exercise-based and group activities the course covers the latest in statistical methods, as well as how and where to apply them. The practical hands-on sessions use real-world longitudinal data, from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) longitudinal survey, and Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children (LSAC).

  When: 9 - 13 December 2019, 9am – 5pm

  Location: UQ's Institute for Social Science Research, Cycad Building, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly

  For more information please click here. 

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• WA Branch Meeting - TBA

  • When
    10 Dec 2019
  •  
    5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (UTC+08:00)
  • Location
    Perth

  Details to be advised.

  For further information please contact the Branch Secretary, Rick Tankard, Murdoch University.  He can be reached by email at rick.tankard@murdoch.edu.au or by phone at (08) 9360 2820.

  
  

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• 7th International Statistical Ecology Conference- external event

  • Start
    22 Jun 2020
  • End
    26 Jun 2020
  • Location
    Sydney

  This is the first time ISEC will be held in the Southern Hemisphere! Sydney is home to the Sydney Opera House, Bondi Beach, the Tim Tam, half-decent weather even in winter, and it will be whale season...

  Confirmed plenary speakers:

  - Christl Donnelly (Imperial College, London)
  - David Borchers (St Andrews)
  - Di Cook (Monash)
  - Kiona Ogle (Northern Arizona)
  - Mark Bravington (CSIRO)

  Invited sessions on:

  - Reproducible Science
  - Methods for high throughput community data
  For more details go to http://www.isec2020.org/

  There will be a Skills Showcase the day before the conference, with introductory tutorials running in parallel on a diverse range of topics, including Spatial Capture-recapture, Learning Python, Disease modelling and more. As usual, there will be short courses in the days before the conference.

  
  

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• 30th International Biometric Conference (IBC)

  • Start
    5 Jul 2020
  • End
    10 Jul 2020
  • Location
    Seoul, Korea

  The International Program Committee (IPC) of the International Biometric Society’s (IBS) 30thInternational Biometric Conference (IBC2020) calls for Invited Session proposals. IBC2020 will be held 5-10 July 2020 at the COEX (Convention & Exhibition Center), Seoul, Korea.
  

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• SSA-Event: ANZSC2020- Modelling Data for a Brighter Future

  • Start
    6 Jul 2020
  •  
    8:00 AM
  • End
    10 Jul 2020
  •  
    6:00 PM
  • Location
    Gold Coast Convention Centre, 2684 -2690 Gold Coast Highway, Broadbeach, QLD

  Welcome to the ANZSC 2020 Conference

  The organising committee warmly invites you to the 2020 Australian and New Zealand Statistical Conference, which will take place on the Gold Coast from the 6th to the 10th of July 2020.

  This conference brings together four leading statistical communities in the region – the Statistical Society of Australia, the New Zealand Statistical Association, the International Institute of Business Analysis (Special Interest Group for Business Analytics), and the Australian Conference on Teaching Statistics.

  The aim of this conference is to bring together a broad range of researchers and practitioners across a variety of statistical disciplines to facilitate the exchange of theory, methods and applications.

  With these four societies working together there will be strong program components of interest to a wide diversity of academic, government, and industry colleagues. This includes the full spectrum of delegates from those advancing theoretical methodology to those working on industry applications (in traditional and non-traditional statistical areas). Of particular interest is how Big Data continues to impact all of us.

  Information on Keynote Speakers and the Conference program will be available shortly so watch this space for updates.

  The conference will be held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre (GCCEC) situated in the heart of the Gold Coast. From GCCEC, Surfers Paradise (the social hub of the Gold Coast) is 5km to the North, the Star Casino and Pacific Fair are immediately to the South (the largest regional shopping and dining destination in Queensland), the beach (Broadbeach) is just ten minutes walk, and the Broadbeach restaurant complex is immediately to the East (short 5 minutes walk). Social tours can easily be made to the rainforest (such as Tambourine National Park and World Heritage-listed Lamington National Park), to places of Aboriginal Indigenous significance, to Stradbroke Island, and to Australia’s greatest theme parks.

  ANZSC2020 promises to be a truly amazing experience on both a professional and a social level.

  Please check out the official conference website and register your interest here.

  We look forward to seeing you on the Gold Coast in 2020!

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• ICM 2022 - external conference

  • Start
    6 Jul 2022
  • End
    14 Jul 2022
  • Location
    St Petersburg, Russia

  The ICM 2022 will take place 6–14 July 2022 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
  
  The 19th General Assembly of the IMU will be held in St. Petersburg, on 3–4 July 2022. 
  The official website of the Congress is https://icm2022.org
  

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• XXXI International Biometric Conference (IBC 2022) - external event

  • Start
    10 Jul 2022
  • End
    15 Jul 2022
  • Location
    Riga, Latvia

  to be held at the Radisson Blu Latvija Conference & Spa Hotel

  
  

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