Statistical Society of Australia News

SSA Statement on the Use of Generative AI in Statistics and Data Science

Venu Perera — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 03:29:24 GMT

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly and presents new opportunities for investigators across many disciplines at all stages of data analysis.

While these tools offer significant potential benefits, like any technology they must be used responsibly. The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) outlines below important principles to guide the appropriate use of generative AI tools in statistical work.

These guidelines should always be considered in the context of institutional policies governing specific research activities and professional practice.

Read the full statement below:

SSA statement on the use of generative AI

SSA acknowledges the Statistical Consulting Network for the development of this statement.

Professor Des Nicholls Awarded the 2025 Pitman Medal

Venu Perera — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 05:45:01 GMT

The SSA is proud to announce that Professor Des Nicholls has been awarded the 2025 Pitman Medal, recognising his exceptional contributions to statistics over more than six decades.

A pioneering figure in time series analysis, Professor Nicholls’ foundational work in autoregressive moving average (ARMA ) and vector ARMA modelling has influenced research and practice in Australia and internationally. He has also provided remarkable service to the profession through roles including National President of the SSA and key contributions to the development of the Society’s professional accreditation program.

We congratulate Professor Nicholls on this prestigious honour.

Read the full press release below:

PRESS RELEASE - Pitman Medal 2025.pdf

ISI Statement World Statistics Day 2025

Venu Perera — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:05:24 GMT

No Statistics, No Deal

Statistics are more than numbers; statistics are society’s mirror. Without reliable statistics, democracy falters, markets waver, and citizens lose the means to hold power to account. Reliable figures on growth, jobs, inflation, health, environment and education allow people to judge for themselves, based on impartial evidence rather than political spin. When statistics

vanish, speculation fills the gap — and trust disappears.

Statistics underpin international scientific cooperation in fields ranging from vaccine innovation to climate research and sustainable development by providing accessible and shared sources of evidence. When their integrity is undermined, mistrust can spread across borders. An attack on statistics and science in one country can quickly become a political export, replicated

elsewhere by actors with similar objectives.

In an era of rapid technological change and global challenges, integrity throughout the knowledge chain — from raw data to decisions — is paramount. Professional ethics, accurate data collection, rigorous analysis and transparent communication build the trust needed for decisions based on reality rather than assumption. A strong data culture ensures that statistics

drive progress, equity and accountable governance.

World Statistics Day serves as a global reminder of the vital role that statistics play in fostering informed, equitable, and sustainable societies. On this day, the global community is called upon to:

uphold the independence of statistical agencies, free from political interference;
promote transparency and accessibility of statistical processes and results for all
invest in statistical literacy to empower citizens, policy makers and researchers to interpret
support international cooperation in statistical standards to enhance the comparability and reliability of global data.

The day also serves to recognise the essential contribution of statistics to human welfare and to reaffirm our commitment to evidence-based decision-making.

The International Statistical Institute (ISI) represents the global statistical community. It is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and independence. This statement emphasises the ISI's commitment to promoting evidence-based policymaking and safeguarding statistical agencies, and to fostering a global data culture for the public good. Alongside our members, partners and the wider statistical community, we promote transparency, professionalism and accessibility in statistics, ensuring they remain a foundation of trust and progress for everyone.

The International Statistical Institute (ISI)

20 October 2025

The Statistical Society of Australia expresses deep concern over the dismissal of US Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Dr Erika McEntarfer.

Venu Perera — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 23:35:39 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) expresses its dismay regarding the dismissal of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Dr Erika McEntarfer, in the United States of America.

The motivation behind this action does not require analysis, since it has been made clear: the US government was unhappy with data published by the BLS. Removing a responsible government official for this reason suggests a breach of the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, which stress that government statistical work has to be “respected at all political levels and by all stakeholders in national statistical systems”.

Official statistics agencies must be protected from political pressure and threat, to avoid the possibility of manipulation of their work to promote the interests of particular politicians or parties. Financial markets, policy-making and social analysis all depend on the integrity and objectivity of the data collected by such agencies, and the potential for “shooting the messenger” is a clear hazard to the production of steady, reliable quantitative information.

The International Statistical Institute has expressed its deep concern about this incident. The SSA echoes their statement. In Australia, we are fortunate to have conventions and regulations that protect government officials from the risk of dismissal for publishing data unpalatable to the government. All nations that have signed up to the Fundamental Principles, regardless of their political settings, should adhere to their commitment.

Ian Gordon
On behalf of the SSA Advocacy Working Group
6 August 2025

June meeting of the SA branch of SSA: What goes into a global temperature number?

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 23:25:56 GMT

What goes into a global temperature number? Blair Trewin, Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology, is the high-impact events lead for the annual World Meteorological Organization State of the Climate Reports. He talked about the data and methods which went into the assessment of observed global temperature changes in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report.

When temperatures are collected over long periods, such as over several decades or even longer than 100 years, there are many issues that can make comparing temperatures over this time span challenging. The first is changes in instrumentation, from manual measurements to automated weather stations. This was illustrated by the historical weather station at the Adelaide site. Blair stepped us through examples of these challenges in a very interesting and amusing way. For example, the old-fashioned way of measuring temperatures at sea by hauling buckets onto the ship deck led to a local cooling effect when water spilled. Nowadays sea temperatures are measured using buoys or via a ship’s engine cooling water.

Even what appear to be subtle changes may cause shifts. For example, changes in irrigating the vegetation around one weather station caused temperatures to rise by over a degree! This was detected through a sudden, rather than gradual, shift in maximum temperatures recorded at the site. Urbanisation can also cause similar changes, usually with a more gradual shift.

Methods to deal with these challenges include parallel data collection where a planned site move occurs, such as happened in Adelaide recently. In other situations where the move is not so well planned, pairing of sites is followed by homogenization of the data. In another story, Blair described how the voluminous records left by public servants came in handy when travel claim expenses by a subcontractor were used to deduce the date when a site moved. Blair noted that on the global scale, these systematic biases tend to average out, but can make forecasting at the local level more complicated. Other issues include modelling for geographically sparse data. A homogenized Australian temperature dataset was developed (Australian Climate Observations Reference Network - Surface Air Temperature Dataset or ACORN-SAT) and this, along with similar overseas datasets, were used in the IPCC sixth report.

Finally, Blair showed as the temperature time trends from the report and noted that the upward trend in temperature is no longer linear. He briefly mentioned that different methods are now used to assess changes in temperature.

Over 20 people attended the talk online, and afterwards there were comments that the talk fascinating and that people hadn’t realised how data issues and biases can affect comparison of measurements from what appears to be the same location.

By Lan Kelly
President, SA Branch

Behind the scenes: Reflecting on 16 years with SSA

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 22 May 2024 03:10:44 GMT

SSA's Executive Officer, Marie-Louise Rankin, has been the central hub around which the SSA has rotated for the best part of 16 years. Her faithful service, cheerful demeanour and strong commitment to the SSA are familiar to anyone who has worked with her, on the Executive Committee, Central Council or in other ways.

I decided to interview her, so we can all find out more about her life, and also to harvest views she has about the Society she has so faithfully served.

Ian Gordon
SSA President

1. I assume not many young people leave school with the intention of working for an association. What career path brought you to SSA?

In my last year of high school, I had no clear idea of what I wanted to do career-wise, so I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps and entered the German diplomatic service. I obtained a Bachelor of Public Administration (International Relations) and subsequently enjoyed postings to the German embassies in Paris (France), Yaounde (Cameroon), Riga (Latvia) and finally Canberra. During my Canberra posting I met and married my husband who was with the Australian Defence Force, making further postings impossible.

I resigned from the German Foreign Ministry and, for the first time in my life, put down roots. The next few years were dedicated to homelife duties and raising our two children. By the time they were in preschool/school respectively, a good friend of mine, who worked for the Independent Scholars Association of Australia (ISAA), was about to go on parental leave, and asked me to fill in for her, just for a few months. In the end she decided not to return to the job. As I had enjoyed my stint in association work, I decided to continue in the position, which was a relatively small role. When I was advised that SSA was looking for an Executive Officer in late 2007, I saw that as an opportunity to step-up, applied for the job, and the rest is history

2.    When people ask you about your work, do you sometimes get asked “What’s it like working with a bunch of nerds?” (or a similar question)? If so, how do you answer?

I can’t say that anyone has ever asked me that! When I tell people where I work, I find that they are generally impressed, and assume that I’m a statistician as well. Sometimes I bask in the admiration for a moment before coming clean, explaining that I’m the office manager with no statistical expertise.

3.    Tell us about your history with the SSA. I believe you’ve had a long period of service, with a brief interlude at some point where you did something else … is that right?

I started to work for SSA in 2008, when the office was still located in Braddon. Every workday started with a trip to the local post office to get the mail from the PO Box. It would be brimming with mainly membership payments and bills. In 2010 the SSA office moved to ABS House in Belconnen. There, I actually got to see some of our members in person and to enjoy the café serving excellent coffee right on the premises!

After three years with SSA, I thought I was ready for full-time employment and applied for a job with the Australian Crime Commission (ACC). However, the work wasn’t as glamorous there as I had hoped. After a demanding job with SSA I found the work with the ACC not as varied or challenging as I was used to. When I heard that my successor at SSA was also not happy with her new job, and SSA was keen to hire me back, I resigned from the Crime Commission and returned to my previous position at SSA. I had lasted four weeks at the ACC.

4.    You’ve worked from home now, for some time; what has that been like, for you?

When I worked from the SSA office on the ground floor of ABS House, I rarely had visitors to the office, so it was a bit like working from home already, but without the benefits. In 2015 I made the transition to work remotely (from the Sunshine Coast), and it has been fabulous. I love not having to commute every day, not having to worry about finding a car park or about what I’m going to wear. My husband feeds me cups of tea (during some of our Zoom calls you may have seen his arm pass through, as he hands me yet another cup) and when I need to rant (yes, I do that sometimes!) he lends a willing ear and gives me his perspective, which is usually more measured than mine.

5.    What are the big changes that have affected your role, over the period of your employment with the SSA?

Where do I start? I recently overhauled the SSA Office Manual, last updated in 2011, and I basically I had to start from scratch. In 2008, when I started to work for SSA, or SSAI as it was called at the time, we mailed out membership renewal notices by post! We had about six hundred members then and the renewal date was the same for everyone: 31 December. Imagine folding six hundred renewal letters and sticking six hundred postage stamps on the envelopes! Most members paid by cheque then. Thankfully, I have not had to bank a cheque in a long time. These days, renewal notices and reminders are emailed automatically, and 95% of our 1,100+ members renew their membership without any input from me directly through our website.

In 2008, the SSA website was static. Updates required knowledge of how to write code, so they were outsourced and had to be paid for. Since then, I have overseen the implementation of two new websites for SSA, allowing me to do the updates myself. In 2008 I would not have dreamed that I’d be capable of doing that one day!

When I started working for SSA, our monthly Executive Committee meetings were held by teleconference. I had to learn very quickly to distinguish the voices to ensure that I was attributing decisions and comments to the correct committee member when writing the minutes. Long before Zoom was a thing we changed to videoconferencing, and it wasn’t cheap at that time. However, apart from being able to see the committee members during meetings, it allowed me to launch our first ever webinar series in 2013.

In 2008 the SSA newsletter was published in hardcopy, four times a year. Over time it changed to hardcopy plus digital copy and from there to digital only. The newsletter then morphed from quarterly to monthly and from there to weekly. It developed from a publication looking back to past events to a bulletin listing upcoming events. Somewhere along the line we lost our newsletter editors, and the role was absorbed by the Executive Officer.

Another major change was the employment of our Event Coordinator, Jodi Phillips in 2020. Suddenly I had a colleague, available most days of the week, to share the workload with, and to bounce ideas off. We had wonderful office administrators in the past: Liz Jermyn when I first started, later Peng Xu, Sonia Cowdroy and finally Irene Kiely. They provided wonderful support, and I always looked forward to the day of the week when I would have a colleague in the office, but a single day wasn’t often enough.

6.    What’s been the most enjoyable aspect of the SSA job?

I really enjoy the flexibility that working for SSA offers, and being able to work on my own, in my own time, only answering to myself, most days. That’s a luxury you generally only get if you are self-employed.

I love compiling the weekly newsletter, and forever foraging the internet for interesting topics. I enjoy writing and I’m particularly proud of the fact that I’m doing this in English, which is a second language for me.

And then there are the people, of course: I work with some great individuals and have made special connections with many of our members.

7. You must have some advice, specific or general, for the SSA, as you approach retirement. Now’s your chance to let us know!

Over the past few years, I have listened to the many discussions on the emerging field of data science and to me, as a non-statistician, it often sounds like statisticians and data scientists are being pitted against each other. I feel that the Society should embrace data science, making data scientists feel welcome in this community. In fact, I would recommend that SSA change its name to “The Australian Society for Statisticians and Data Scientists (ASSDS)”. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Or let’s go one step further: Why not make it the “Australasian Society for Statisticians and Data Scientists”? Why limit yourselves to Australia?

More income is needed to be able to implement all the initiatives outlined in the SSA strategic plan. The revenue is right there: broaden the membership base to include data scientists. Otherwise, another association will. Or the data scientists may start their own association.

Many years ago, Scott Sisson suggested holding “Joint Southern Statistical Meetings”, as our answer to the “Joint Statistical Meetings” in the Northern hemisphere. We sent out requests for expressions of interest to statistical associations in the region and got a terrific response. Plans were underway for such an event to be held in Darwin, when the pandemic put an end to this ambitious attempt. I hope that down the track someone else will pick things up again where we left off.

And finally: SSA’s accreditation program is a valuable asset to the organisation. I think that SSA should try to market it more within the region, beyond Australia, and target the universities especially.

8. You must have thought about how you hope to spend your time in retirement, even if it is sipping cocktails by the pool. Do you have some general plans that you can share?

Actually, sipping cocktails by the pool sounds great! On top of my list is doing more exercise – getting out for a walk most days and continuing my passion for pilates and line dancing. Then there’s travel. My mum, who lives in Germany, is 93 years old, and I want to be able to spend as much quality time with her as I can over the next few years. I’m also looking forward to getting busy in the kitchen as I love cooking.

Position available - General Manager with the Statistical Society of Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 20 May 2024 06:01:01 GMT

About the job

Are you a people leader and able to build strong relationships?

Do you have an understanding and appreciation of data, data science and statistics?

Are you up for the challenge of leading a membership-based organisation through positive growth?

Your opportunity

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) has a vision to amplify the power, use and practice of statistics and data science across Australia. It was founded in 1962 as a national organisation. The SSA offers an accreditation program, events and conferences and discussion forums to members. It also supports “The Random Sample” podcast and publishes an international magazine (in collaboration with statistical associations in the UK and USA) and an academic journal (in collaboration with the New Zealand Statistical Association).

We are looking for a General Manager to provide leadership to a small, specialised team and to support the Executive Committee in achieving positive growth. This role will have a transition period wherein operational requirements will be seen to before driving the growth agenda.

Your primary focus will be to:

Identify and drive membership growth through quality products and services.
Establish diverse revenue streams based on what is valued by members and the community.
Create partnerships, sponsorship opportunities and undertake advocacy to position SSA for growth.
Manage governance requirements and ensure suitable financial management and compliance is in place.
Lead and shape a team of 3 staff and volunteers to deliver all functions including marketing and communications, event management and IT and Privacy.

To be considered for the opportunity you will bring

Experience as a Senior Manager or equivalent.
Marketing, commercial, governance and risk management experience.
Strategic and critical thinking, change management, communication and people leadership experience.
Experience working with Executive Committees / Boards. (desirable)
Experience working within a professional membership association. (desirable)
Familiarity working with statisticians, mathematicians or data scientists. (desirable)
Tertiary qualifications in a relevant field.
Australian Work Rights.

A bit more about us

We offer great flexibility and the opportunity to permanently work from home for the right Australia-based candidate. As the team grows you will be able to recruit and build a team around your leadership style.

SSA is governed by an Executive Committee with whom you will work closely and there are a number of other committees you will partner with and support. Our committee members are diverse and driven. This is a great opportunity to elevate the services and products SSA provides to ensure the statistics profession is valued and understood. To thrive in this position, you will have the skills and mindset to strengthen our organisation, the team and bring a proactive and collaborative approach.

To apply send through your resume and cover letter to Renee Barnes of "The People Paradox".

Best paper in Teaching Statistics 2023

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 23:28:43 GMT

The article entitled “Bare bones, or a rich feast? Taking care with context in a data rich world”

by Sue Finch and Ian Gordon has been awarded the C. Oswald George prize for 2023 for best article in Teaching Statistics.

For many decades, those teaching statistics have had great thirst for data for teaching, student learning experiences and assessment both formative and summative. Desirable features of such datasets have typically been potential interest for students, types of variables and data for exploration and analysis, any interesting results and potential for diagnostics, that is, for critiquing analysis assumptions. In past eras, finding a sufficient range and number of such datasets was always a challenge. As commented in this paper, datasets which “demonstrated important pedagogical principles and supported applied practice of statistical methods” were regarded as “gold”. Textbooks and other publications were some sources of data. Statistical computing packages such as Minitab, SPSS and R provide an extensive library of datasets. Such datasets tended to be clean and already organised by variables and subject in worksheets and spreadsheets, reinforcing the emphasis on the available variables and their types.

As the emphasis on authentic student experience of the whole statistical investigation process increased, many programs included students collecting, observing or sourcing their own data, with instructors then able to use such data in current and subsequent teaching, with the permission and acknowledgement of the students who collected the data. The what, how, when, where, who and why of such datasets were, or should have been, an inherent part of the student reporting. With the increasing proliferation of data available and the growing emphasis on data science and students considering available data, there is now much attention on the provenance and contextual issues of data, as well as on the original data in all its complexity and messiness.

This paper reports on an overview of the “contextual information provided in 41 data sets suitable for introductory tertiary statistics teaching, available in the R datasets package, and investigates the source information for four data sets” which on the surface appear relatively simple, with a continuous response and just one or two categorical explanatory variables. The work involved in fully investigating the provenance of data demonstrates the importance of full disclosure of context and origin of all datasets. The investigation shows how what the authors call “sanitisation” leads to impoverished data and potentially misleading or incorrect context for analysis and/or interpretation, diminishing “integral parts of the statistical investigation process”. In contrast, full contextual information and data provenance provide a ”rich feast” for teaching and learning of authentic statistical thinking, investigating, analysing and interpreting.

The investigation, presentation and discussion in this article are themselves rich with points that build bridges between the variety of desirable criteria of datasets for teaching. Perhaps there are also current messages of the ever-present dangers of “sanitisation” of contexts, issues and data, and what Stark [1] calls “quantifauxcation”.

Congratulations to the authors for a thoughtful and challenging investigation and discussion.

HISTORY OF THE PRIZE

Dr. C. Oswald George was an eminent government statistician in the UK; one of the founders of the UK’s Institute of Statisticians who served as Chairman and President. He donated a sum of money for the ‘best paper, especially submitted by younger authors, in the field of applied statistics’. The prize was subsequently attached to the Institute's own professional exams. After the formation of Teaching Statistics in 1979, the Institute made the prize money available for the best article in Teaching Statistics, and this prize has continued to be made available following the merger of the Institute with the Royal Statistical Society. Dr. C. Oswald George died on 6 January 1974, but we are pleased to be able to honour his legacy each year through the award of this prize to the ‘best’ article in Teaching Statistics.

Helen MacGillivray, Editor

SSA Canberra “rego grant” prize winners Santiago Marin, Xian Li, and Zhi Yang Tho discuss their experiences attending and presenting at ASC & OZCOTS 2023

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 21:59:28 GMT

SSA Canberra congratulates three winners of its 2023 “rego grant” prize, Santiago Marin, Xian Li, and Zhi Yang Tho, all of whom share their recent experiences of attending the 2023 ASC & OZCOTS conference at Wollongong.

Santiago Marin

“I am immensely grateful for the enormous support provided by the Canberra branch of the Statistical Society of Australia, which helped me to attend the 2023 Australian Statistical Conference through a “Rego Grant”. I spent five remarkable days in sunny Wollongong, where I was able to meet and socialize with new people, catch up with old friends, and have constructive discussions with fellow Statisticians and Data Enthusiasts, especially with other Ph.D. students working on truly amazing projects!

This year, the theme for the conference was ‘Statisticians in Society’. Through a wide variety of Keynotes, oral presentations, and informal chats in the halls of the University, I realized the vast impact that Statistics has on our societies. From theoretical and methodological advances to effective data communication—and everything in between—Statistics plays a key role in how we make decisions, which ultimately will affect all of us.

Additionally, I was able to present my research on Scalable Bayesian Posterior Sampling in the form of a rapid oral presentation and a poster. As a Ph.D. student and an early career statistician, sharing my work with a broader academic audience and hearing their comments and suggestions is crucial to produce high-quality and significant research. Thus, I would also like to express my most sincere gratitude to everyone who stopped by my poster, asked challenging questions, or provided meaningful feedback.

Before wrapping up, I would also like to recognize the hard work of the Organizing Committee. They truly pulled off an amazing event! All in all, I am looking forward to the 2025 ASC conference in Perth!”

(The credits of the photo go to Dr. Swen Kuh)

*Santiago Marin is a first-year PhD student in Statistics at the Australian National University.

Xian Li

“First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the generous support provided through the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) Canberra registration grant. This grant played an important role in facilitating my active participation and engagement in the Australian Statistical Conference, Wollongong 2023.

The four-day conference was exceptionally well-structured, featuring a diverse range of sessions covering topics such as ecology, network/graph theory, spatial statistics, and Bayesian computations, etc. There are keynote sessions and contributed sessions.

The keynote sessions, particularly those delivered by Professor Xiao-Li Meng, Professor Andrew Mangion, and Professor Julie Simpson, provided fascinating insights into the integration of statistics with other fields, significantly enriching my understanding of statistical methodologies and their applications.

In the contributed sessions, I presented my work on “subbagging variable selection” in a parallel session on “Big Data”; This marked my first formal presentation to an audience of more than 30 individuals. I received many friendly and constructive feedback on my work from both academic and industry researchers. Additionally, I was impressed by the other three presenters from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) who covered topics such as anomaly detection, survey design and estimating equations, and network analysis on consumer data for estimation of household expenditure. Their presentations provided informative and inspiring aspects of the application of statistical methods in real-world big data problems. After the parallel session, I had the opportunity to chat with the other presenters during lunchtime, gaining more insights into their works and understanding the daily tasks and working environments of the ABS in different divisions and teams. They also provided their advantageous advice on my career development.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, and I am confident that such precious experiences will significantly contribute to my future academic endeavors and professional career. I will continue to be passionate about statistics with gratitude to SSA Canberra. The continued support from SSA Canberra has been helpful in having a positive impact on Canberra-based students and researchers alike. I extend my heartfelt thanks once again for the invaluable opportunity afforded to me through this grant. I believe this journey will be very memorable in my future study and career.

*Xian Li is currently completing his PhD in Statistics at the Australian National University, while also undertaking an internship at the Australian Public Service.

Zhi Yang Tho

“The ASC & OZCOTS 2023 conference was held on the beautiful campus of the University of Wollongong, and it has been an amazing experience to be part of the conference. The conference consisted of talks from a wide range of topics in Statistics e.g. spatial statistics, causal inference etc., which allowed me to stay up to date with the ongoing work of other researchers. For instance, I learnt about a new idea of visual inference that involves conducting statistical inferences with the help of statistical graphics. I also enjoyed the keynote speeches, particularly the Joint ASC/OZCOTS Keynote by Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter FRS OBE, who presented an insightful talk on the importance of presenting balanced information to improve the trustworthiness of statistical communication. I was impressed by the work presented in the Horizon Lecture by Associate Professor Andrew Zammit Mangion, who discussed the idea of amortised inference by applying neural networks to large spatial datasets.

By presenting my work in the session ‘Spatial Statistics and the Environment’, I was able to obtain useful comments from other researchers in similar field to improve the project. It was also my first time to co-chair a session in an academic conference. Specifically, I co-chaired the session 'Training the Next Generation of Statisticians', where the great discussions in the field of statistical education reminded me of the importance of developing students’ statistical thinking as an educator. Throughout the conference, I met many new people from a wide variety of backgrounds, and it is amazing how the conference was able to bring together everyone who shares the same passion for Statistics. Various social events were also held during the conference. The ECSS Network ASC Social was one of my favourite events as I had the chance to not only talk to early-career peers about the challenges that we face as a researcher but also discuss with more senior statisticians on their advice to overcome these difficulties.

Finally, I would like to thank the organisers of the ASC & OZCOTS 2023 conference for their immense effort in putting up such a great event, and the Canberra Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia for sponsoring my registration of the conference.”

*Zhi Yang Tho is a completing PhD in Statistics at the Australian National University and will commence a postdoctoral fellowship in Statistics at the ANU at the start of 2024.

Media Release - Presentation of the 2023 Service Awards

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 03:36:38 GMT

A Society Service Award is awarded to a member in recognition of sustained and significant service to the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA). Four members of the Society were awarded this prestigious award in 2023:

Brenton Clarke

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) is proud to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of Brenton Clarke, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Mathematics, Statistics, Chemistry and Physics, College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Murdoch University by awarding him the Society’s Service Award.

Since commencing his academic career at Murdoch University in 1984, Brenton has been a cornerstone of the statistical landscape in WA. Over the past 35+ years, he has dedicated himself to the advancement of the field, both academically and within the SSA.

Brenton's involvement with the local branch committee of the SSA has been nothing short of remarkable. His tenure includes taking on the roles of Vice President in 2004, 2005, and 2021, and President in 2006, 2007, 2019, and 2020. Beyond these official capacities, Brenton has been a steadfast member of the Branch Council, contributing to its growth and success.

A key achievement in Brenton's illustrious career was the establishment of the Frank Hansford-Miller Fund. As the chair of the Frank Hansford-Miller Fellowship committee since its inception in 2012, Brenton has played a pivotal role in fostering connections between British and Western Australian statisticians.

His leadership skills stood out as the Chair of the program committee for the 2010 Australian Statistical Conference in Fremantle. Under his guidance, the conference catered to a diverse range of statisticians, making it one of the most successful events organised by the Society.

Brenton's influence extends beyond formal roles. His consistent attendance at monthly branch meetings for nearly four decades, his engaging talks, and his participation in discussions have been invaluable. Notably, his encouragement of students at Murdoch University to engage with the statistical community, including urging them to join the SSA, attend events and apply for awards and scholarships, particularly the WA branch honours scholarship, has been legendary.

A passionate supporter of the SSA and its mission, Brenton's contributions have been fundamental to the growth and success of the statistics community in Western Australia.

The SSA extends its heartfelt thanks to Brenton for his enduring commitment and congratulates him on this well-deserved recognition.

Stephen Horn

Stephen served the SSA as Treasurer from 2001 until 2022. He guided the Society through difficult times, including the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. His stewardship of the Society’s finances left the Society with a healthy buffer of funds. During his tenure, Stephen provided Society Presidents with calm and measured advice on the use of Society finances. Thanks to his efforts over the past two decades, the Society is now in a position where it has a surplus to be deployed for the benefit of SSA members.

As a statistician and member of the SSA, Stephen has always been a strong proponent of the Society’s Sections. From 2011 to 2016 he was Chair or Co-chair of the Survey and Management Section, and from 2017 to the present he has been Chair of the Official Statistics Section. In this capacity, he organised several events with the Canberra Branch, and contributed to bringing the SSA and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) closer together.

The Society is delighted to be able to recognise Stephen with this award.

Karen Lamb

A/Prof Lamb has served the SSA since 2018, when she took up the position of Co-Chair of the Society’s Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Section, modernising that Section of the Society, forming a strong, active committee. During this time, she also served on the Local Organising Committee of the Society’s Australian Statistical Conference in 2018, held jointly with the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics, in Melbourne.

In 2020, Karen established the Society’s Mentoring Program. The initial program was a pilot run through the Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Section. Following its popularity, in 2021, Karen launched the full Mentoring Program for SSA which is still running with great success.

In 2022, Karen was appointed co-Chair of the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) for the 2023 Australian Statistical Conference.

Karen was awarded the inaugural SSA/CSIRO Betty Allan Travel Award to visit Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge, UK. This award is in recognition of her dedication to supporting the development of communication skills in statisticians.

A/Prof Lamb also represents the Society on the Significance Magazine Editorial Board. In this role she has not only ensured that that the Society’s interests are well-represented, but she also looks after a fair representation of women in the authorship of the magazine, pledging to seek out greater diversity in their authors.

The SSA warmly thanks Karen for her consistent dedication and celebrates this much-deserved recognition with her.

Damjan Vukcevic

The SSA awards A/Prof Vukcevic with the Society’s Service Award in recognition of his implementation of innovative changes and initiatives designed to enhance the engagement, diversity, and strategic direction of the Society.

Damjan played a key role in modernising the SSA brand, chairing the committee that commissioned the design of the Society's logo and visual identity with which we are familiar today. He also contributed substantially to the subsequent overhaul of the website, including the adoption of a new, integrated membership database and event management system.

During his tenure as Vic Branch President, Damjan ’s initiatives contributed to membership growth within the branch of about 25%. Event attendance nearly doubled.

Damjan has been instrumental in organising branch presentations and seminars, often collaborating with like-minded partner organisations. He has been a champion for diversity, ensuring a gender-balanced selection of speakers and including frequent contributions from non-statisticians.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Damjan introduced new events such as trivia, comedy shows and escape rooms, to provideways for members to interact in the absence of in-person events. Even before the pandemic, he was pivotal in hosting the SSA’s first hybrid online and in-person event, the 2019 Belz Lecture, which significantly increased engagement, especially among non-metropolitan members.

Damjan's tenure on the Council has been marked by his ability to guide new members with grace and a keen eye for administrative processes. His leadership facilitated a shift from traditional formats to more inclusive and engaging approaches.

Following his tenure as President, Damjan now continues to serve the Society as SSA Treasurer. He is also a representative on the Editorial Board of Significance magazine.

The SSA expresses its sincere gratitude to Damjan for his dedication and offers congratulations on this well-earned award.

Images provided by Jodi Phillips

Professor John Carlin awarded 2023 Pitman Medal

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 02:57:42 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) awards the Pitman Medal in recognition of outstanding achievement in, and contribution to, the discipline of Statistics.

Professor John Carlin has a PhD in statistics from Harvard University and over 35 years of experience as a research biostatistician, collaborating widely across many areas of clinical and public health research while also pursuing independent methodological research on missing data problems and causal inference, among many others.

For much of his career he was the Director of the Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics Unit at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne. He has published prolifically, with several hundred publications, many with high numbers of citations; included in these is the famous “Bayesian book” well-known by generations of statistics students.

His leadership was crucial in the creation and maintenance of two very influential entities of high impact in biostatistics in Australia and the world: the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia and the Victorian Centre for Biostatistics (ViCBiostat).

All this and more make up a very considerable and highly valuable contribution to the statistical community in Australia and it is with great pleasure that the SSA awards the Pitman Medal to John Carlin.

2023 Data Science Review Released

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 07:33:24 GMT

This week a review initiated by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) and the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) was released. Focusing on the role of mathematics and statistics in data science education in Australian universities, the review highlights several key points:

Rapid growth of data science: Data science is among the fastest-growing occupations in Australia, with a high demand for skilled data scientists in academia, research, and industry.

Importance of mathematics in education: Senior secondary school mathematics is crucial for preparing students for data science courses, essential for building the future data science workforce.

Need for industry-university collaboration: There is a need for better connections between the industry and universities to support data science growth. This includes internships, work-integrated learning, research training, career education, and building a professional community.

AMSI Director, Professor Tim Marchant, emphasised the significance of this review, noting the official recognition of data science as an occupation in Australia. It is ranked among the top in-demand and high-paying jobs, with a global market projected to grow significantly in the next five years. The review underscores the vital role of mathematical sciences in developing data science skills.

Chaired by Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen, Director of the QUT Centre for Data Science, the Review suggests that university data science courses should be recognised as a separate field of education. “It’s time we treated data science like a grown up. It needs to go out on its own. It needs to move out of the house, especially when you consider it lives in many different houses, or in its case, schools depending on which university you’re talking about,” she said. The report also advocates for the inclusion of a significant level of statistical content in data science degrees. Professor Mengersen stresses the importance of statistics in data science education, likening it to a critical skill set for data scientists.

Read the Review here.

Read AMSI's Media Release here.

STA CEO MISHA SCHUBERT TO TAKE UP A NEW ROLE

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 08:00:59 GMT

After four stellar years as Science & Technology Australia’s CEO, Misha Schubert has announced her resignation in the new year to take up another major CEO opportunity.

STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson said it was with deep sadness that the Board of STA had accepted her resignation.

“In her four years as CEO, Misha has taken STA to new heights as an influential policy advocacy voice that is highly respected across the breadth of the Parliament and policymaking,” he said.

“She has doubled STA’s membership and revenue, diversified its income streams and strengthened its financial security, developed crucial Indigenous partnerships with deep trust and reciprocity, and built and nurtured an inspiring staff team of talented, hard-working stars.”

“We are deeply grateful to her for all she has done to take STA to its next scale of success – and are excited for her personally as she takes this next step in her career.”

Ms Schubert said it was with a heavy heart that she had shared the news with the staff and Board of STA today – and it was a wrench to leave this role that she has loved deeply.

“It has been a constant inspiration to serve in this pivotal leadership role for Australia’s science and technology sectors, and to have the privilege of speaking with and for the nation’s science and technology leaders, experts and entrepreneurs every day.”

“Australia’s remarkable scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians are crucial to our country’s future, its prosperity and social cohesion – and it has been such a privilege to serve them and our nation in this role.”

“I am so grateful to our staff, members, Board and the STEM community for what we have built together – and the shared legacy we have forged over these four years – and am so looking forward to seeing the next chapter of success for STA as a continuing champion of the organisation.”

“I especially want to thank the two Presidents I have served – Professor Mark Hutchinson and Professor Jeremy Brownlie – and our Boards for their transformative leadership, and every one of our remarkable staff team which I have led with our terrific Deputy CEO Dr Sandra Gardam.”

A formal recruitment process to appoint the next CEO will begin in the coming weeks.

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 115,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science Meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.
Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

Insights and inspirations: Unveiling statistical journeys at the SSA NSW Branch's event for students and early career statisticians

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 05:10:19 GMT

At the very end of September, the NSW Branch hosted 6 industry speakers and just over 40 students at the Courtyard Café at the University of Sydney. Once everyone arrived and food and drinks were flowing, the atmosphere was alive with conversation. This was until everyone started to hear from the guest speakers, and all attendees were listening with great interest. This event was partially sponsored by the Susquehanna International Group.

The event was opened by Yunwei Zhang and Jeffery Kwan, who were both instrumental to the organisation and realisation of this year's event.

Dr Kerry Roberts spoke about her journey into the banking world, one that she expressed as unexpected but enjoyable. Many questions were sent her way and the responses broke down some preconceptions and demonstrated the different interesting problems that are faced and also solved. Her talk also provided some nice insights into the transition towards more managerial positions. Olga Yevtushenko shared her journey so far with infectious excitement. We have no doubts that many attendees felt this as well. Her journey to SEEK through banking involved a wide range of data science projects and her recent success in Databricks LLM Cup gave insight into other exciting opportunities that are available.

Dr Chen Chen gave insight into what statistics looks like in NESA (NSW Education Standard Authority) and how statistical methods in their workflows help monitor and drive student achievement. He shared his journey into this role, promoting the quality of the work environment and attempted to convince many of the ECR at the event to sign up for a statistical role that was available at the time. Jordan Hedi shared some great perspectives on his involvement with the NSW public sector at HealthStats NSW. His role as Senior Biostatistician helps to shape the interactive, web-based applications that provided by HealthStats NSW.

Dr Marcel Keller shared his world travel experiences that eventually led to him working for CSIRO’s Data61. His journey into the more computational aspects of statistics and the insights into the differences between what is considered a “programmer” and a “scientist” helped to develop peoples understanding. His work with MP-SPDZ provided a glimpse into the practical connections between developing, deploying, and sharing software to further development in a range of different areas.

Dr William Tong captivated our audience by recounting his remarkable journey through a multifaceted career. Beginning with a stint as a postdoctoral researcher in health analytics within the academic sphere, he then ventured into the corporate world, making significant contributions at prestigious organisations such as the REA Group, Amazon Web Services, and his current role at Canva as a data science manager. Dr Tong’s diverse trajectory serves as a compelling testament to the boundless possibilities and versatility that a statistical degree offers.

After all the panellists had spoken, the event continued with networking between all SSA members, panellists and SIG representatives present. Catering was provided for the event, with everyone staying to chat until we were politely asked to leave as the venue was closing. Overall, It appeared that everyone there attended because they were interested in what a “journey into the workforce through statistics” looks like and left with many new ideas and understandings.

by Connor Smith and Jeffrey Kwan

SSA & CSIRO/Data 61 Betty Allan Travel Award Report - Dr Lizzie Korevaar

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 02:38:43 GMT

This year I was the lucky recipient of the SSA & CSIRO/Data 61 Betty Allan Travel Award. I am a very grateful recipient of this award, as it supported me to attend the 30^th Anniversary Cochrane Colloquium in London, where I had the opportunity to showcase my research in-person to an international audience.

Pictured left to right: Matthew Page, Lizzie Korevaar, Simon Turner, Joanne McKenzie

My area of research is in the statistical methods for evidence synthesis, primarily focusing on the meta-analysis of results from interrupted time series designs. For a researcher in evidence synthesis, the Cochrane Colloquium is the primary international forum for the dissemination of research on methods for evidence synthesis. I was able to present my work to a broad and global audience including systematic reviewers, editors, methodologists (e.g., statisticians, information specialists), stakeholders, users of reviews, policy makers, software designers. Held over a jam-packed 4 days, the Colloquium provided space for 413 presenters, over 1000 attendees to participate in a range of activities, including up to 12 parallel sessions consisting of meetings, plenaries, oral sessions, workshops, networking and social events. Needless to say, it was a very busy conference!

My contribution to the conference program included an oral presentation (a lightning quick overview of an empirical study I conducted during my PhD to compare statistical methods used to meta-analyse results from interrupted time series studies) and two workshops, one of which I lead (Introduction to analysis and meta-analysis of interrupted time series studies) and the other I co-facilitated (Advanced meta-analysis 1: Random-effects methods to be implemented in RevMan). Having completed my PhD during the pandemic, the oral presentation was my first in-person presentation in front of such a large international audience – a thrilling experience. Also, to my delight, both workshops were well attended (in fact, the room for the ITS workshop was full!) and we received excellent feedback both during and after the conference, with plenty of requests for material and interest in our future work.

So, what were the highlights?

This was the first time I’d developed and delivered material for a workshop. While it was a lot of work to prepare everything, it was very rewarding to have a full room of people engaged with our work and interested in hearing our expertise. It was great to feel that our research will have an impact.
This was also the first time I’d had the opportunity to meet many of my international collaborators, some of whom I’ve worked with for several years.
A conscious and continual focus of the colloquium was on the inclusion of end users in research, right from the early to late stages of the projects. I was particularly impressed with the work of Anastasia Koch who spoke during the plenary titled Building trust through co-creation: re-imagining evidence, about her development of a public engagement non-profit organisation that focuses on involving those living in TB-prevalent districts of Cape Town with education, advocacy and science communication about the disease. Again, it was really exciting to see the impact of research. For those interested, the plenaries can be found online, discussing i) Global health, equity and trust, ii) Ensuring integrity in biomedical research, and iii) Building trust through co-creation: re-imagining evidence (Koch’s talk is introduced at 31:45).
Of course, a major highlight of the conference was hearing from other statistical methodologists. In particular, the awardee of the Thomas C. Chalmers award for best presentation addressing methodological issues related to systematic reviews given by an early career investigator, Peter Godolphin (from UCL in the United Kingdom), gave a brilliant talk about handling aggregation bias in subgroup analyses of a meta-analysis, and accurately estimating interactions between treatment and covariate subgroups.

Lizzie Korevaar introducing the Workshop: Introduction to analysis and meta-analysis of interrupted time series studies with continuous outcomes

What next?

Our packed-out workshop demonstrated to us that there is a need and an appetite for guidance on analysing and meta-analysing ITS studies. This has reinvigorated my enthusiasm for my projects and I’ve enjoyed getting back into the research after the busy-ness of conference.
The workshops also injected new ideas into our plans for future research. Talking to attendees of our workshops, we were able to hear about the situations encountered in practice or areas that they find most difficult. I’ve also enjoyed discussing these areas since our return from the conference, and prioritising which pieces of the puzzle to study next.
It was also a great chance to discuss the projects already underway with current collaborators but also, importantly, to hear about and discuss possible future projects with potential new collaborators! I look forward to getting started on these!

Finally (and most profoundly), one of the major highlights of the conference was coming away with a fresh sense of hope. I often find I feel overwhelmed by the sensation that the pile of problems is constantly growing (statistical, political, health related etc), and this was enhanced during the last few (particularly difficult and isolated) years. However, I found that it was incredibly heart-warming to meet so many passionate researchers and hear of their hard work and triumphs.

Dr Lizzie Korevaar

Research fellow in the Methods for Evidence Synthesis Unit,

School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Pictured left to right: Nat Strobel, Tari Turner, Miranda Cumpston, Simon Turner, Steve McDonald, Lizzie Korevaar, Jeremy Grimshaw, Sue Brennan, Joanne McKenzie

New from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 05:49:22 GMT

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE MUST BE AN AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE PRIORITY

Given their fundamental importance to Australia’s unique knowledge systems and national identity, Indigenous knowledges must be a standalone priority in Australia’s next National Science and Research Priorities – as well as interwoven throughout the rest of the new priorities.

In its submission on the Draft National Science and Research Priorities – drafted in partnership with senior Indigenous leaders in science and research – Science & Technology Australia calls for a standalone priority “to elevate and invest in First Nations perspectives on science, technology and innovation”.

These priorities crystallise what is important to the nation and will guide Australia’s research agenda for the coming decade – and what research gets funded – which is why it is such a crucial opportunity.

“Indigenous knowledge is important in its own right to Australia – it's the bedrock on which our country’s knowledge systems are built,” said Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert.

"It is what makes Australia – and our science and research endeavours – unique in the world. Indigenous knowledge should not be seen just as an enabler of other objectives in Australian science and research.”

In addition to interweaving Indigenous knowledge through all the other priorities, a standalone priority to elevate and invest in Indigenous knowledge would strongly signal to the research community and the nation that this is core work for Australia – and central to our national science, technology and research ambitions.

“It would also be a powerful signal to Australia’s research funding agencies to invest in Indigenous people and perspectives in research, science, technology and innovation.”

“This crucial signal can help to unleash a transformative moment for Australian STEM – and start a deeper investment in supporting more Indigenous people and priorities into our national science and research effort. It would be a powerful legacy for all the generations of Australians to come.”

Together with our Indigenous members and stakeholders, we were deeply disappointed the draft priorities do not yet reflect the exciting ambition articulated by Industry & Science Minister Ed Husic for the refreshed priorities to include ‘elevating and investing in First Nations perspectives in science, technology and innovation. That must be rectified in the final priorities.

STA thanks the Department and Chief Scientist for their engagement to understand the importance of including both a standalone and interwoven approach on Indigenous knowledges in the proposed final priorities.

Senior Indigenous stakeholders who contributed to the submission include National Indigenous STEM Professionals Network Chair Associate Professor Bradley Moggridge, Professor Chris Matthews, Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance, CSIRO Board Director Professor Alex Brown, Chair of Universities Australia’s Deputy Vice Chancellors Indigenous network Professor Michelle Trudgett, Professor Ian Anderson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Tasmania, Associate Professor Sadie Heckenberg - Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium, Associate Professor Corey Tutt OAM, founder and CEO of Deadly Science, Toni Hay, founder of Indigenous Climate Change, and Dr Katrina Wruck, Mabuigilgal/Goemulgal First Nations Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne.

Read the full STA submission to the Draft National Science and Research Priorities here.

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 115,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science Meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.
Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 03:19:00 GMT

A TAX INCENTIVE TO ACCELERATE DIVERSITY IN AUSTRALIA’S WORKFORCE

A new tax incentive to drive diversity in Australia’s largest companies could powerfully shift the dial on equality in the country’s workforce – including its pivotal STEM sector.

In its submission to the Government’s Pathway to Diversity in STEM Draft Recommendations, Science & Technology Australia has urged bold thinking to tackle a lack of diversity in Australia’s workplaces.

The peak body proposes one powerful way to do this would be to broaden the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s remit to collect data from large employers on broader workforce diversity, then offer a tax incentive to those organisations that meet staff diversity thresholds.

“Giving Australia’s big employers a financial incentive to drive stronger staff diversity would be a powerful motivator to turbocharge equality in the country’s workforce,” said Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert.

“Strong progress is typically made when you focus minds and metrics in the C-suite. Incentivising the nation’s senior business leaders to drive diversity in their workforces can accelerate the pace of change.”

The Pathways to Diversity in STEM Review was set up to recommend how to deepen diversity in Australia’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics sector.

“The recommendations the expert panel make to Government in their final report could have a crucial impact across Australia’s entire workforce,” said Ms Schubert.

“The Prime Minister has called for a future “powered by science”. To achieve it, we’re going to need to call on diverse expertise and talent from across society. A strong focus on incentivising diversity in workplaces will mean our big employers are casting their net wider in the country’s talent pool.”

Read the full STA submission to the Pathways to Diversity in STEM Review draft here.

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 115,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science Meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.
Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 04:32:40 GMT

Australia’s new Draft National Science and Research Priorities are out for review. Released by Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic, the draft draws on national consultations by Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Cathy Foley AO - including Science & Technology Australia’s submissions.

Strategies shape science funding and policy. So it’s crucial they reflect the big challenges and capabilities we need Australian science to solve. If key elements are missing or underplayed in this draft key policy lever, please let us know swiftly so STA can propose amendments, as well as making your own direct submission. Feedback is due by 29 September.

STA advocates a resounding ‘Yes’ vote in the October 14 referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Please share our social media posts, wear a ‘Yes’ t-shirt, share why you back a ‘Yes’ vote, and read our blog on how you can support an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. It includes easy, practical ways to show your support and help the country deliver a unifying moment in history and answer the calls of generations of Indigenous leaders.

Inspiration alert! What a powerful influx of diverse stellar science and research leaders joining STA’s sector-leading governance structures. STA’s influential STEM Sector Policy Committee welcomes four new members: Superstar of STEM and Associate Professor Dr Kalinda Griffiths; Superstar of STEM and statistician Dr Melissa Humphries; Professor of Astrophysics Richard de Grijs, Associate Professor and Superstar of STEM Dr Parwinder Kaur. Three skilled diversity and inclusion champions will join or rejoin STA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee - Dr Katrina Wruck, a proud Mabuigilaig and Goemulgal woman and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Melbourne, and Dr Morley Muse co-founder and director of iSTEM Co. We’re also pleased to welcome for a second term Superstar of STEM and scientist and diversity and inclusion strategist Dr Erin McGillick.

A huge thanks to outgoing committee members Dr Susanna Cramb, Dr Tara Roberson, Professor Adrian Barnett, Dr Andrew Black, Dr Maggie Evans-Galea and Dr Bek Christensen. We’re deeply grateful for the time, expertise and skill they have invested in the STEM sector, Science & Technology Australia and our members.

As the key connector of people and ideas in Australia's STEM sector, STA runs a suite of great programs. This week, STA’s STEM Ambassadors had high-quality training in media engagement. This program pairs sector experts with Federal MPs and Senators to share expertise in STEM - and its hugely appreciated by Parliamentarians right across the political spectrum.

And our current Superstars of STEM seem to be everywhere at the moment - doing high-profile media interviews, public speaking, doing schools visits, winning awards and securing promotions - all accelerated by this world-leading STA program. The Superstars of STEM program is a remarkable Australian success story. It is transforming the idea of what scientists and people in STEM careers look like, and powerfully shifting the dial on diversity in media representation. It’s also fast-tracking careers. We were thrilled this week to see Superstar of STEM Dr Jiawen Li named as one of MIT’s prestigious list of 35 top global innovators under 35. What a Superstar!

Finally, we want to hear from you about how STA can best support your work! Please take our quick member survey. This will shape the sector’s next advocacy priorities.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

Science & Technology Australia welcomes response to the review of the ARC act

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 01:02:28 GMT

Comment from Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert on the Australian Government’s acceptance or acceptance in principle of all ten recommendations of a major review of the Australian Research Council Act.

“These changes will strengthen Australia’s research system - on which our country’s health, wealth and safety rely - and put in place guardrails to prevent political interference in awarding research grants.”

“Curbing the temptation for Ministers to meddle in complex research is a powerful positive reform.”

“These thoughtful changes will also safeguard discovery research funding, start a transformative shift to a two-stage application process, and foster deeper partnerships with Indigenous researchers and communities.”

“A two-stage application process will be a win for productivity, wellbeing and morale in Australia’s brilliant research workforce. It can free up researchers who spend hundreds of hours writing full funding applications – when only around one in five of those applications gets funded.”

“These legislative and regulatory changes will strengthen the ARC’s operations and independence - a powerful legacy to help secure our country’s future prosperity.”

We thank Education Minister Jason Clare and the Australian Government for adopting the comprehensive thoughtful blueprint for ARC modernisation developed by Professor Margaret Sheil AO, Professor Susan Dodds and Professor Mark Hutchinson.

Read the full Review of the Australian Research Council Act report.

Read the full Australian Government response here.

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 115,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science Meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.
To arrange interviews: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 03:07:01 GMT

We hope you’ve had a terrific National Science Week! Science & Technology Australia hosted the official launch last week with our partners at Questacon. We generated strong media coverage of new data from the 3M State of Science Index which shows 9 in 10 Australians want to see more people and businesses stand up for and defend science. The survey also found the Australian public has very high levels of trust in and respect for science and scientists.

Around the world, we see science being attacked and undermined, and closer to home we see businesses being told to ‘stay in their lane’ when they speak out on social issues. But this social research - conducted by Ipsos for 3M - shows clearly that the Australian public values science and expects the nation’s business community to be active and vocal supporters of science.

A huge thanks to STA members for the strong turnout of inspiring grassroots science leaders and Parliamentary champions of science. We thank Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Shadow Science Minister Paul Fletcher, Greens science spokesperson Senator David Shoebridge, Questacon Director Jo White, STA’s Governance Chair Jas Chambers, Australian Space Agency Head Enrico Palermo, STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance Chair Professor Chris Matthews and Ngunnawal Elder Uncle Warren Daley. #ScienceWeek #ThanksScience!

This week, the newly-released Draft Recommendations of the Pathway to Diversity in STEM review are a powerful call to “stay the course” and double-down on proven diversity-driving initiatives with new long-term investments to forge systemic and cultural change. The draft recommendations include calls to create a new Diversity in STEM Council, strengthen STEM teaching in schools, tackle job insecurity in STEM research careers and secure proven women and diversity in STEM initiatives with “significant and sustained funding” over longer time frames to help drive long-term systemic and cultural change.

It’s crucial the country builds on the strong evidence-based success of initiatives that are already working powerfully to deepen diversity in STEM, like STA’s Superstars of STEM. Superstars of STEM sits at the very heart of diversity in Australia’s STEM ecosystem as a central resource and talent source that powers a wide array of other diversity in STEM programs and initiatives. If proven successes like the Superstars of STEM program had Government funding scaled up and secured for a whole decade, it would dramatically turbo-charge all of the other efforts and proposals to drive systemic and cultural change in STEM workplaces.

In its coverage, InnovationAus reported that “the STA-run Superstars of STEM program was recommended in the report as a way for media to help influence diverse representation beyond women to non-binary people and people from other diverse cohorts”. It is a powerful program that embeds diversity strongly in every aspect of its work.

We congratulate the DISTEM review panel – Sally-Ann Williams, Mikaela Jade, and Dr Parwinder Kaur – on their work so far, and look forward to continuing to work productively with the government and the sector to drive the next waves of change. Have your say on the draft recommendations here.

The Universities Accord review is also progressing - final submissions are due by 1 September. The next two weeks will be a crucial window for STA members to ask the panel to recommend a bold uplift in Australia’s research investments. We encourage all of you to make a submission and write to the panel in your own powerful words to make clear how important it is that the final report recommends a bold scale-up on research funding. This is the moment for all of us to make the case for research, highlight the powerful research breakthroughs Australia could make with deeper research investment - and offer evidence on the strong economic returns from a bold boost to research funding. Two news stories in major media outlets this week also help to make this case. The Australian reported that the Academic Ranking of World Universities shows Australia’s top universities have started to slide downwards in a fierce era of escalating global competition as other countries scale up their investments in publicly-funded research. Rankings are renowned as a lag indicator - and this slide is cause for significant concern. The AFR reported the new research commercialisation fund - Australia’s Economic Accelerator - has been overwhelmed by the volume of applications in its opening round. This shows Australia is brimming with research innovators and research ready for commercialisation - but there simply isn’t enough money in the research system to unleash that innovation.

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic has announced the Board for the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund. The Chair will be Martijn Wilder AM - who has previously chaired the Board of Australian Renewable Energy Agency and was Founding Director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation - two proven models for using investor capital to accelerate technological innovation. We congratulate the incoming Board and look forward to working with them.

Finally, how good was Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley on ABC’s Q&A program this week? Her calm, compelling clarity on what the science tells us about the scale of Australia’s transition task on climate change was compelling. If you missed it, it’s worth taking a look.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 06:29:21 GMT

AUSTRALIANS URGE BUSINESS TO BACK SCIENCE

Nine in ten Australians want more people and businesses to stand up for and defend science - and think scientists are crucial to solving Australia’s biggest future challenges, the latest 3M State of Science Index finds.

Released to launch National Science Week 2023, the new data from the major study detects very strong levels of public support for science in Australia.

This year, 93% of Australians say positive outcomes can be achieved if more people stand up and defend science and 92% of Australians want to see business take action to defend science.

The Minister for Industry & Science Ed Husic MP will officially launch National Science Week 2023 at an event today delivered by Science & Technology Australia for Questacon and the Australian Government.

The theme for this year’s National Science Week schools program is Innovation: powering future industries.

The 3M State of Science Index measures public attitudes to science in 17 countries. More than 1000 Australians were surveyed for the large-scale global poll conducted by Ipsos.

Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert said the new data showed Australians overwhelmingly grasp how important science is to our lives, our safety, our economy and our ability to tackle complex threats.

“The very strong message out of this survey data is that Australians really want people to stand up for and defend science, and that includes wanting to see business stand up for science,” she said.

The survey highlighted how strongly Australians grasp the importance of science innovation to help tackle the impact of climate change - and that STEM professionals are key to solving the problems of tomorrow.

“In the last few years, from the Black Summer bushfires to the northern New South Wales floods, we’ve seen stark reminders of the threat that climate change poses to our nation and the world,” Ms Schubert said.

“This survey shows Australians back science and scientists to come up with climate solutions - including clever new ways to reduce waste, solar panels, eco-friendly building materials and more affordable electric vehicles.”

Eleni Sideridis, Managing Director of 3M Australia and New Zealand, said the survey showed the deep respect Australians have and their trust in science to tackle global and national challenges.

“3M’s State of Science research demonstrates that Australians understand and appreciate the connection between scientific innovation and the role it plays in improving their lives.

Encouragingly, about 9 in 10 (89%) believe science has a critical role to play in improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable populations, with a similar number (90%) believing companies should do more to make it easier on consumers to be more
sustainable.”

“With Australians (94%) recognising the need for more skilled trade workers and a broad recognition that there will be negative outcomes if we cannot find a solution to the skills shortage, it is a vital time for all of us to encourage more school leavers into a science-based career.

“It’s positive to see that Australians recognise the importance to grow the participation rate of STEM education, with 4 in 5 (82%) agreeing that more needs to be done to encourage and keep students from underrepresented groups engaged in STEM education. This in line with 3M’s global goal to create 5 million STEM and skilled trades learning experiences by 2025,” Eleni said.

National Science Week will run nationwide from 12 to 20 August 2023, for more information about events, please visit https://www.scienceweek.net.au/. More information about 3M State of Science Index and the findings from across the globe can be found here.

Key Australian survey findings of the 2023 3M State of Science Index include:

93% of Australians believe positive outcomes can be achieved if people stand up for and defend science. 92% want business to take action to defend science.
92% of Australians say STEM professionals can help us solve the problems of tomorrow.
88% of Australians clearly see the connection between science and its role in improving their life.
Australians believe innovation can address the future impact of climate change. Top technologies Australians believe can address future climate change impacts include innovative uses of resources to reduce waste (52%), followed by affordable solar panels (48%), planet-friendly alternatives to traditional construction supplies (44%), affordable electric vehicles and transportation (43%), natural disaster-resilient building materials (39%) and air pollution filtration technology (39%).
82% of Australians believe the world is better prepared for the next global health pandemic because of science.
94% believe the workforce needs more skilled trade workers, and urgently… as 94% see consequences if Australia can’t solve this shortage.
90% believe companies should do more to make it easier for consumers to be more sustainable.
81% think underrepresented groups are a source of untapped potential in the STEM workforce.

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 115,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science Meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.

About 3M and the State of Science Index
3M (NYSE: MMM) believes science helps create a brighter world for everyone. By unlocking the power of people, ideas and science to reimagine what's possible, our global team uniquely addresses the opportunities and challenges of our customers, communities and planet. Learn how we're working to improve lives and make what's next at 3M.com/news or on Twitter at @3M or @3MNews.

The 3M State of Science Index survey explores global attitudes toward science, taking the pulse on how people think and feel about the field and its impact on the world around us. This is our sixth year and seventh survey for SOSI. 2023 SOSI is a 17-country survey fielded September-December 2022 among 1,000 general population consumers in each country.

To arrange interviews:
Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828 and Charlotte Hartley-Wilson, ElevenPR: 0424 855 835

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 02:14:08 GMT

Lights, camera, action! Next week, we’ll raise the curtain on National Science Week – an annual event to focus hearts and minds on the vast contribution that science makes to society. Once again, Science & Technology Australia will deliver the official national launch in partnership with Questacon. It will feature champions of science from the sector and politics led by Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic. Join us on Wednesday 9 August 8–9am AEST at the Theatrette in Parliament House. Please register ASAP!

At the launch, we’ll unveil the 2023 data from the 3M State of Science Index. This global annual survey by Ipsos tracks public sentiment on trust in science and scientists, and consistently shows the overwhelmingly strong support people have for both. We look forward to sharing the data!

We’d love it if you would amplify our social media content on STA's channels to highlight National Science Week. And please tag us when you share your own activities on socials – and use the hashtag #ScienceWeek so we can herogram you! We want to flood social media with a public celebration of Australian science.

This week, Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley AO issued an important paper on Trust in Science. The paper sets out the clear distinction between ‘research quality’ and ‘research integrity’. As Dr Foley observes these terms are often used interchangeably when they are different things. As she notes, the result of that confusion is that debate about the quality of a piece of research can be seen as a reflection on scientific integrity. We applaud her drawing attention to this essential distinction and would encourage everyone to read this important resource.

Also this week, the Science & Technology Australia team met with some of Deakin University’s inspiring institutes who are STA member organisations. Deakin is one of Australia’s powerhouse science and technology universities and we’re thrilled to have them as members. The range of life and society-enhancing research that the institutes are working on is inspiring. STA is privileged to represent all of our member organisations and we are always grateful for the contribution you make to the world.

Earlier this year, STA member SparkLabs Cultiv8 put out a call out to the STA community for the next big idea in the agri–food tech sector. Congratulations to the ten startups funded through the CleanTech Accelerator! Keep an eye out for our next callout to the STA community later this year for the 2024 round – if you have a clever cleantech innovation worthy of a $100,000 investment, this could be you!

Last week, the NHMRC said goodbye to outgoing CEO Professor Anne Kelso AO. Professor Kelso has led the NHMRC since 2015. She is a wise and thoughtful leader who has forged an extraordinary legacy of achievement in this role as a public policy reformer. We thank Anne for her service – and we welcome new NHMRC CEO Professor Steve Wesselingh. We look forward to hearing from Professor Kelso at next week’s Science Policy Fellows Alumni dinner.

Finally, I echo the beautiful words of STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson in memoriam about former Science & Technology Australia President Professor Jim Piper. Australia’s science community turned out in force on Wednesday at his memorial service in Sydney to remember this extraordinary scientist, leader, mentor, entrepreneur and friend. Throughout his remarkable life, Jim nurtured the skills and helped to launch the careers of so many other great Australian scientists. And he invested vast time and energy in the STA community, delighting in your successes. We'll miss him.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

From Frosty Learning to Lasting Collaborations: My Canadian Journey as a Biostatistician

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 23:47:54 GMT

At the end of 2019 SSA awarded its inaugural Betty Allan Travel Award to two worthy recipients. Then COVID-19 struck and there were no more thoughts of travel for must of us for a long time.

This year, winner Sharm Thuraisingam was finally able to set off on her incredible trip to Canada. This is her report:

"After three long years (thanks Covid-19), I was finally able to use my 2020 SSA/CSIRO Betty Allan Travel Award to spend time at the Centre for Health Informatics, University of Calgary in Canada. In February this year, my family and I headed off to Calgary, arriving to a chilly -30C! I spent 4 months at the Centre for Health Informatics (CHI) learning from statisticians and data analysts about health data, data linkage practices and prediction modelling using linked electronic medical record data in Alberta. During my time at CHI, I connected with various researchers utilising health data for prediction modelling, including family doctors, nephrologists, cardiologists, epidemiologists, paediatric surgeons, biostatisticians and data analysts. My visit has resulted in 4 ongoing international collaboration projects between the University of Melbourne and University of Calgary, and the development of a 5-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) collaboration project grant aimed at harnessing the power of hospital electronic medical record data for clinical prediction model development.

In May I travelled with the CHI team to Montreal to attend the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR) Conference where I learnt about the collection and amalgamation of health data across Canada, the effect of the pandemic on the Canadian health workforce and strategies for improving access to healthcare for vulnerable populations. I thoroughly enjoyed the networking opportunity and have returned home with a list of researchers to collaborate with.

Of course it wasn’t all work and no play! My family and I made the most of our weekends in Canada, hiking and skiing in Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and British Columbia. We were also lucky enough to visit Quebec City where we enjoyed indulging in French cuisine and some warmer weather. Highlights of my trip include making lifelong friends at CHI, establishing ongoing collaboration projects with the University of Calgary which will (hopefully) see me return in the near future, the picturesque scenery in Alberta (especially the Icefields Parkway), northern lights, well insulated housing, extremely friendly people, delicious poutine and ketchup chips!

Thank you to the Statistical Society of Australia and CSIRO for such a wonderful learning and development opportunity that has enhanced my career as a biostatistician, enabled me to secure ongoing international research/analysis work and provided lifelong memories that my family and I will treasure forever! It really has been a once in a lifetime experience, living and working in another part of the world!"

If you are interested in applying for the Betty Allan Travel Award, keep an eye out for the next call for applications in the SSA weekly newsletter, or click here.

News from Science & Technology Australia - UNIVERSITIES ACCORD AN EPIC FAIL ON RESEARCH

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 04:47:39 GMT

The Universities Accord interim report has disastrously missed an historic moment to recommend a ramp up of Australia’s research investment, consigning Australia to be out-muscled by our economic rivals in the global race to seize new jobs, industries and national income.

The interim report “squanders a once-in-a-generation chance” to recommend the Australian Government immediately start a visionary scale-up of Australia’s R&D strength to drive stronger job creation and diversify our economy as one of its five immediate priority actions.

The nation’s peak body for science and technology urged the Accord Panel to move swiftly to make bolder recommendations on research investment in its final report to avert a “calamitous own goal that will lose current talent and erode future Australian jobs, income and living standards”.

It had already missed the opportunity to do so in the current Budget cycle, with the Panel’s final report due in December. New spending proposals for the May Budget typically close in September/October.

The latest official data, published at the end of May, shows Australia’s Government investment in R&D has plunged to its lowest level as a share of our economy since 1978.

Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert said the peak body would urgently convene research sector stakeholders for emergency talks to ensure the panel understood the gravity of the cost to Australia of missing the mark on research investment.

"The Accord must seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the panel to recommend the Government confirm both a bold target and a timetable to start to scale up Australia’s R&D investment - and to start that scale-up from this year’s Budget cycle."

"The Accord’s interim report has spectacularly missed the mark on research investment - that’s an epic fail. It squibs a once in a generation chance to set our nation on the path to prosperity by stepping up our investment in being first to bold breakthroughs. The final report must fix this fatal flaw."

“The final report should enshrine an ambitious target for Australia’s R&D investment - mirroring the 3% of GDP target the Australian Labor Party promised the Australian people before the last election - and recommend a plan and timetable to achieve it.”

"Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for Australia’s economy to be "powered by science". He’s right to do so. Only with stronger investment in research can science tackle the challenges the future will throw at us - from climate change to the next global pandemic. This interim report fails to chart a path to the PM’s vision."

"The report poses more questions than it attempts to answer. And waiting six months for the final report means any funding measures recommended will miss the cut-off for inclusion in the next Federal Budget."

“As a longstanding champion of equity and diversity, we support the proposals to expand access for equity groups and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 115,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science Meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.

To arrange interviews: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 02:54:42 GMT

This week the STA team has been in Sydney for the annual Women in AI Awards for Asia Pacific. The awards are a global initiative that recognise women using AI in innovative ways. It was exciting to hear some of the inspirational stories behind the incredible award winners, and learn more about the pioneering work they are doing.

We were absolutely thrilled to see Superstars of STEM alumna Dr Cathy Robinson of CSIRO win the Communicating AI Award for her incredible work that enables Indigenous women rangers to use AI to monitor and manage their Country. Congratulations also to current Superstar of STEM Dr Sara Webb of Swinburne University of Technology who was a finalist in the awards, and to all the incredible award winners.

On Wednesday STA welcomed the announcement that Professor Doug Hilton will be the new Chief Executive Officer of CSIRO. Professor Hilton is an outstanding Australian science leader with an incredible track record of scientific research into blood cell production and how cells communicate with each other. He has a deep and longstanding commitment to boosting diversity in science and mentoring and supporting the next generation of great Australian scientists. STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson said Professor Hilton is a “superb appointment for CSIRO who will bring deep expertise to the role”.

The opening of the second round of the National Industry PhD Program is just around the corner. This prestigious program is building stronger links between industry, universities, and researchers. You can find out more about the program here.

Huge congratulations to STA member organisation Cicada Innovations which was this week announced as the operator for the new Jumar Bioincubator at the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct. The incubator is backed by $65 million in industry and government investment, and will give biotech ventures at the facility access to labs, support, and the hospitals and universities within the biomedical precinct. Expressions of interest for the Jumar Bioincubator are open now ahead of the facility opening in September.

Finally, please join us for the launch of National Science Week, hosted by Science & Technology Australia and Questacon. The event will feature a series of short, high-energy talks from inspiring STEM leaders sharing their excitement about the frontiers of Australian science. You will have a chance to meet and chat with Parliamentarians, STEM policy experts, and scientists, and get to celebrate the beginning of the biggest week for science of the year! The event takes place at Parliament House, 8–9am, on Wednesday 9 August. Registrations are essential.

All the best,

Sandra Gardam
Deputy CEO, Science & Technology Australia

The Royal Statistical Society appoints new Chief Executive

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 23:14:27 GMT

The Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the leading membership body advocating for the importance of statistics and data, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Sarah Cumbers as its new chief executive.

Taking up the role in September 2023, Sarah will lead on the RSS’s varied programme of activities, including its accreditation schemes, publications, conference and events, and policy work while enhancing its role as the membership body for all those interested in the good use of data.

Sarah is currently the evidence and insights director at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a global charity dedicated to engineering a safer world. During her time at the organisation, Sarah led on its flagship programme, the World Risk Poll, a unique global survey on public perceptions and experience of risk and safety, as well as its What Works for safety programme.

As an advocate of evidence-based policy and practice, Sarah is also the chair of the Evidence Quarter, a community interest company that brings together evidence-minded organisations to increase collaboration and tackle joint challenges. Previously she spent much of her career at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), working across a number of roles including evaluation of medicines, management of information services, and development of guideline methodology.

The RSS was previously led by Stian Westlake, now executive chair of the Economic and Social Research Council. Sarah takes the role over from Nicola Emmerson, the Society’s director of membership and professional affairs, who has led the organisation on an interim basis since May.

Commenting on the appointment, Dr Andrew Garrett, president of the RSS, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Sarah to the RSS as our new chief executive. She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in evidence-based policymaking as well as substantial experience of leadership in non-profit organisations.

“I know Sarah will take the RSS from strength to strength in its role advocating for our members, the discipline and the importance of data and evidence for the public good.”

Dr Sarah Cumbers commented: “The potential value of statistics and data, and the dangers of misuse, have never been more evident than they are in our world today. The RSS has a crucial role to play in ensuring that statistics are well used and understood – and I am looking forward to joining the Society at such an exciting time for our members.”

News from Science and Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 03:08:28 GMT

Dear Marie-Louise,

This week, enacting legislation for the new $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund secured passage through the Australian Parliament. The fund will be a powerful new investment in our country’s future. It will spur and scale Australia’s economic development and diversification - and be powered by home-grown science. Science & Technology Australia warmly welcomed this historic moment.

This new fund will help to deepen Australia’s scientific and technological innovation – which is key to strengthening our national prosperity, creating jobs and securing new income streams. And it significantly boosts Australia’s pool of investment capital for next-generation materials development, value-adding and advanced manufacturing – the foundations of a strong, modern economy. In turn, this helps to turbo-charge sovereign capability and economic complexity.

A constellation of stars from the worlds of science, technology and policy converged on Canberra for Science Meets Parliament 2023: On the Hill. More than 400 scientists packed into Parliament House for a day of inspiration and engagement with decision-makers.

It was a record-breaking success. More than 40 per cent of the Parliament took part - with 87 meetings across eight hours and a strong turnout of Parliamentarians at the gala dinner. And this was achieved amid one of the busiest legislative fortnights in living memory. Such strong support is a testament to the respect for science among Parliamentarians - and the esteem for Science Meets Parliament. And it is made possible by the stellar support of the foundation partners - the Department of Industry, Science and Resources and the Office of the Chief Scientist.

What a powerful program. A diverse array of Australian science leadership greats - led by Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley AO and Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt AC - shared insights, working up to a superb National Press Club address by Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic.

Powerful speeches about the power of science also centred the gala dinner - with inspiring words from Minister Husic, Parliamentary Friends of Science co-chairs Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews, and Shadow Science Minister Paul Fletcher. Paul Girrawah House warmly welcomed us to Country, and gala dinner partner ANSTO CEO Shaun Jenkinson reminded us of the power of sovereign science expertise, following a welcome reception hosted by AbbVie. Photo highlights are here. A huge thanks to everyone who made it such a success.

Got a clean tech concept to boost sustainability in agriculture and food production and processing? Then enter our SparkLabs Cultiv8-STA competition to win up to $100,000 of investment and a place in a prestigious 6-month accelerator program. Entrants must be a Science & Technology Australia member. The winner will get mentoring, networking and business development support to help bring the next generation of clean agri-food technologies to market. SparkLabs Cultiv8 will run an information webinar on Wednesday 5 April at 2pm AEDT. Register here.

Don’t miss the chance to share your ideas on what should be in Australia’s next set of official national science and research priorities. This is a chance for Science & Technology Australia’s membership to offer insights on the complex challenges that Australia can tackle by taking a more coordinated and concerted science and technology focus, and the opportunities Australia should seize. The consultation deadline has been extended to next Thursday - 6 April. You can make a submission here.

Finally, Science & Technology Australia is drafting a submission to the Universities Accord review. To feed any short, sharp, tight content into this process, please email STA’s Policy Director Sarah Tynan by COB Monday to feed ideas into our submission, which is due before Easter. More detail on the Accord is here.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

Royal Society Publishing has recently published special issue of Philosophical Transactions A "Bayesian inference: challenges, perspectives, and prospects"

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 01:41:48 GMT

Royal Society Publishing has recently published special issue of Philosophical Transactions A entitled "Bayesian inference: challenges, perspectives, and prospects", compiled and edited by Christian P Robert, Judith Rousseau and Michael I Jordan. The articles can be accessed directly here.

You can purchase the print issue at the reduced price of £40 per issue by contacting sales@royalsociety.org.

Royal Society Publishing is also looking for new theme issues. If you are interested in submitting, please visit their website or contact the Editorial Office.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AUSTRALIA BACKS VOICE TO PARLIAMENT

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 04:21:58 GMT

The nation’s peak body representing 115,000 Australian scientists and technologists strongly supports an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and will advocate for a resounding yes vote in the upcoming referendum.

With support from across our grassroots membership network including STA’s three Indigenous member organisations, Science & Technology Australia has declared its formal backing for the historic movement for a constitutionally-recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

STA has more than 135 member organisations representing more than 115,000 professionals working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics across Australia.

“History has its eyes on us,” said Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert.

“The call for Indigenous constitutional recognition and a Voice to Parliament has been made by generation after generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and campaigners across the past century, including in the generous invitation to the Australian people in the Uluru Statement From The Heart.”

“Now all Australians will have a chance to answer that historic call when we get to vote in the referendum later this year.”

“Science & Technology Australia will advocate for a resounding yes vote in a profound moment of national unity – and will support our members to engage the nation’s science community in this historic opportunity.”

The Voice referendum won’t affect Indigenous sovereignty – a fact confirmed by constitutional law experts – and Treaty negotiations will continue across the country. Indigenous leaders have campaigned for decades and decades for a constitutionally-enshrined Voice.

In its Reconciliation Action Plan, Science & Technology Australia honours the long tradition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges in science, technology and engineering – the oldest continuing cultures anywhere on the planet.

Science & Technology Australia President Professor Mark Hutchinson said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are Australia’s first scientists, technologists and engineers.

“Our vision is for a reconciled and united Australia. A nation which faces the truth of our past with honesty and courage. A nation which works to rectify injustice and bring healing to those who live with pain and trauma, and a nation that stands together against racism and discrimination,” he said.

“We want all Australians to see the inspiring first cultures of this land as a great source of shared national pride – and a Voice will bring us another step closer to that goal.”

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 115,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science Meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

Last call for nominations - 2023 Horizon Lectures

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 04:12:40 GMT

This is a friendly reminder that nominations for the inaugural Horizon Lectures, to be given at the Australian Statistical Conference (ASC2023) in Wollongong, 10^th- 15^th December 2023, will close tomorrow.

The Horizon Lectures aim to recognise emerging leaders in Australia’s statistics community and their contributions to advancing statistical practice across academia, government, and/or industry. Lectures will be awarded to mid-career statisticians working in any discipline who have made an impact within their field(s) of expertise and have demonstrated leadership in building capacity in statistical expertise within Australia.

Up to three (3) Horizon Lectures will be awarded for presentation at ASC2023. All Lectures will be presented together as a plenary session to all conference delegates. Lectures can be on any area of statistics in line with the awardee’s expertise. Each awardee will receive up to $2,500 to cover conference and travel costs.

Nominations involve a written statement (up to 1,000 words) summarising how the nominee meets the award selection criteria. Nominees must be a member of the SSA and be employed as a statistician in Australia. Nominations must be supported by another member of the SSA.

Full details on eligibility, award selection criteria and submission are available in the nomination form, available on the conference website. Nominations must be submitted by 5 pm AEST, 28^th February 2023. Late nominations will not be accepted.

Questions about the Horizon lectures can be sent to ASC 2023 Scientific Programming Committee at asc.ozcots2023@gmail.com.

Kind regards

The ASC23 Scientific Program Committee

Have your say!

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 02:36:33 GMT

Are you a statistician or data scientist? If so, we want to hear from you. We need your assistance in helping us shape the future of our organisation.

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) is committed to being the leading voice in statistics in Australia. To help us prioritise our activities, we need to understand the needs and interests of our members and the wider data science community. To that end, we have created a survey that will inform our strategic planning process. Would you please take a few moments to fill it out by 5pm AEDT on Monday 13 March.

The survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete and will help us to gain valuable insights into what our current and future members need and expect from the SSA. Your responses will be confidential, and the results will be used to guide the development of our strategy for the next 3-5 years.

To access the survey, simply click on the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y9V66JF

To make this a successful process, we need to hear from as many people as possible.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important initiative. We look forward to receiving your feedback and working with you to shape the future of our organisation.

Expression of Interest in Survey and Data Science Courses in 2023–24

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 02:34:14 GMT

1 Jun 2023 (AEST) – 31 Oct 2024 (AEDT), online-weekly one hour classes-this is 6 courses offered over the next year

Due to the high demand for the Sampling Course in 2022 and strong interest in other courses from the International Program in Survey and Data Science (IPSDS) Masters program the Social Research Centre and Statistical Society of Australia have partnered again to expand IPSDS course offerings in Australia.

If you are interested in the Item Nonresponse, Sampling, Big Data/Machine Learning for Surveys and/or Weighting courses please register your interest so that we can determine whether there is sufficient demand.

To show your interest click here.

ASC 2023: Call for Abstract Reviewers

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 02:33:21 GMT

The ASC 2023 Scientific Programming Committee (SPC) is currently seeking expressions of interest from SSA members interested in undertaking the peer review of abstracts for the conference. All areas of statistical expertise are welcome. The Australian Statistical Conference, partnered with the Australian Conference on Teaching Statistics (OZCOTS), will take place in Wollongong from 10^th-15^th December 2023.

Each reviewer will be responsible for blind reviewing up to 20 abstracts of up to 300 words aligned with their area of expertise and each abstract will have 2 reviewers. Review criteria and information on how to review the abstracts will be provided once the call for reviewers closes. Reviewers must be available to review abstracts between April and May 2023.

Selection of reviewers will be based on SSA membership and area of expertise, with the number of reviewers based on the number of abstract submissions. If you are able to review abstracts, please complete the online registration form. Abstract reviewer registrations will close on 31^st March 2023

SSA Society Awards

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 02:32:17 GMT

The Society awards a gold medal, the Pitman Medal, at most once annually, in recognition of outstanding achievement in, and contribution to, the discipline of Statistics. Honorary Life Membership honours outstanding contribution to the profession and the Society, while a Society Service Award may be awarded to a Society member in recognition of sustained and significant service to the Society.

An Awards Committee, chaired by the President of the Society, makes recommendations to the Society’s Central Council as to appropriate Award recipients. Pitman Medals and Honorary Life Memberships are usually announced at the Society’s Conference.

Members of the Society are encouraged to propose suitable recipients of the Pitman Medal, Honorary Life Membership or a Society Service Award. Suggestions, with brief supporting information, should be emailed to the undersigned.

Doug Shaw, Secretary

Election of SSA Executive Members

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 02:31:16 GMT

Members are advised that the Executive position of Vice President will become vacant at the Society’s Central Council Annual General Meeting in 2023. The SSA Rules provide for a Nominating Committee, consisting of the current Executive and the Branch Presidents, to solicit nominations and submit a list of nominees to Central Council. Should an election be required, Central Council will then arrange a ballot of all financial members of the Society.

Details about the role of SSA Vice President can be viewed here.

Members of SSA are invited to submit nominations for the position of Vice President. Nominations must be in writing and signed by the nominator(s), and must be accompanied by a written and signed statement from the nominee accepting the nomination. Nominations should be submitted to the SSA President or to a Branch President before 31st March, 2023.

Doug Shaw, Secretary

Write here, write now! Our 2023 writing competition is open for entries

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 03:54:13 GMT

Are you an early-career statistician or data scientist with a talent for telling data-driven stories in an entertaining and thought-provoking way? If so, we invite you to enter the 2023 Statistical Excellence Award for Early Career Writing.

Jointly organised by Significance and the Young Statisticians Section of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the competition forms part of the RSS Statistical Excellence Awards programme.

“Early career” means students or anyone within the first 10 years of their statistical career – so whether studying, recently graduated or already working, this competition is open to you.

No topic is out of bounds. Surprise us! Last year's winning article, by Lee Kennedy-Shaffer, explained how statistics can help us evaluate rule changes in baseball. The previous year, Conner Jackson wrote about his investigation into whether a colleagues’ pet tortoise really could predict the weather. Over the years, we’ve also honoured articles about the role of statistics in organ transplant medicine, World War Two bombing raids, the reduction of food waste, millennials’ political views, and much more. The article could be based on your own work, or that of others. But to stand the best chance of winning, your article really needs to demonstrate the power that statistics has to challenge myths, shape decisions and explain the world around us.

Significance is published for a broad audience of readers, with varying levels of statistical expertise. This means technical terms and mathematics should be kept to a minimum and explained clearly where used. The tone should be engaging and easy to read – think magazine rather than academic journal.

Entries are judged by a panel made up of the Significance editorial team and editorial board members.

Winners and runners-up are announced at the RSS Statistical Excellence Awards in the summer, and invited to present their articles at the 2023 RSS Conference in Harrogate (4-7 September 2023). The winning article will be published in Significance.

Rules of entry

Entrants must be either (1) students currently studying for a first degree, master's or PhD in statistics, data science or related subjects, or (2) graduates whose last qualification in statistics, data science or related subjects (whether first degree, master's or PhD) was not more than five years ago.
Articles must be between 1,500 and 2,500 words in length.
Articles can include tables and figures – though, for space reasons, there should be no more than five tables/figures in total.
Writing style must be accessible and engaging.
Technical terms and mathematics must be used sparingly, and suitably explained where used.
End references should be limited to 10.
Footnotes must not be used.
Only submissions in English will be considered.
Manuscripts must be original and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. You may submit articles based on work in theses or in papers that have been submitted to, or accepted by, academic journals, provided that the competition submission is sufficiently different in style and structure.
Winners, finalists and entrants from previous years of the competition are not excluded from participating in this year’s competition.
All entries must be accompanied by an entry form – download yours from significancemagazine.com/writingcomp.
Email submissions as a text/Word file, or as a PDF, to significance@rss.org.uk.
Articles will be reviewed by a judging panel featuring representatives of both the RSS Young Statisticians Section and Significance.
Up to three finalists will win a full registration to the 2023 Royal Statistical Society International Conference in Harrogate, UK. Please note that travel and accommodation costs will not be covered.
The winning article will be published in Significance magazine.
Runner-up articles may be published on the Significance website or in Significance magazine at the editor’s discretion.
·Closing date is 31 May 2023.

Further details, as well as winning articles from previous years, are online at significancemagazine.com/writingcomp.

SSA & CSIRO/Data 61 Betty Allan Travel Report

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 00:07:35 GMT

In late 2019 the SSA and CSIRO/Data 61 awarded the inaugural Betty Allan Travel award to two recipients. Little did we know at the time that travel, something most of us had taken for granted since we were born, would become next to impossible over the coming years.

In 2022 award recipient Karen Lamb was finally able to make it happen. Here is her report:

Well, as I was soon to learn, 2020 was not a great year to receive a travel award! I had grand plans to use my SSA and CSIRO/Data 61 Betty Allan travel award in September 2020 to attend the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) conference in Bournemouth, following this with a visit to Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter at the Winton Centre for the Public Understanding of Risk in Cambridge and then onto London to meet the RSS team to discuss the Statistical Ambassador Program which trains early career statisticians in statistical communication. My vision was to bring back statistical communication knowledge from these visits to the Statistical Society of Australia. Sadly, by April 2020 it had become very clear that this plan was highly unlikely! More than two years later, I was finally able to take up my award to visit the UK in November 2022 and I certainly learned a lot.

Winton Centre for the Public Understanding of Risk

At the Winton Centre, I was able to learn about David’s transition into work as a statistical communicator. David was already an established leader in Biostatistics internationally and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) when he took up a position as Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in 2007. This was a philanthropic funded position and was initially a solo role (the Winton Centre was not established for a number of years). In this role, David set about to increase his profile doing outreach activities (e.g., science fares, news articles, talks and media appearances). It took time to build up his reputation in communication. However, he found that once he was known as someone who could communicate risk and uncertainty well, more invitations flowed his way. Some key learnings from David:

1) Communication and media training is invaluable and essential. David personally benefitted from a day and a half of funded training through his work which put him through his paces but helped develop his confidence.

2) Peer support is key. Although he often works alone when engaging with the media, David benefitted from having others around him undertaking similar roles to bounce ideas off.

3) Beware of the draw of flashy headlines. Statisticians are often asked to offer solutions to one-off puzzles about the probability of some rare event occurring. These could help when building your media profile but are rarely rewarding.

4) Statistical communication is vital (but can be stressful!). COVID-19 has helped raise the profile of the work of biostatisticians, enabling David to communicate what we actually do. Although stressful, this was highly rewarding.

Royal Statistical Society Statistical Ambassador Program

The Statistical Ambassador Program, devised by John Pullinger, was launched in 2014 in recognition of the need for confident statistical communicators and has had three cohorts to date. The RSS received funding to support the program, offering ambassadors two days of media training. Telephone mentoring from a committee of statistical/science communicators (e.g., David Spiegelhalter) was also provided. To date, 32 early-career statistical ambassadors (2014: 12, 2016: 10, 2018: 10) have been trained in the program. Ambassadors were selected through a process in which applicants outlined their statistical interests and experiences. It is anticipated that statistical ambassadors remain in this role for a prolonged period. Ambassadors have appeared in different media outlets: BBC News television and print (National Lottery, UK coronavirus figures, reporting of numbers in the media), ITV news (students and COVID, COVID vaccination), among others. Media requests tend to be directed to the RSS Head of Media and External Relations to identify the most appropriate ambassador to assist. Some key learnings:

1) The program is based on training AND peer support which are essential to success.

2) Funding is key but difficult to obtain. The RSS is seeking funding for more programs.

3) It is important to recruit people willing to engage with the media in the longer term. Not all ambassadors have remained engaged in the program.

4) It is important to ensure support from employers. This can be difficult outside academia.

What next?

I left the UK with a rejuvenated passion for statistical communication wondering what we can do within the SSA to support media engagement. Would a statistical ambassador program be suitable for the SSA? If so, who could we get to support the ambassadors in Australia? Encouragingly, my contacts within the RSS are keen to build greater connections with the SSA to work on communication initiatives. Personally, I would like to see more communications training and support for statisticians beyond media training. Effective communication is so critical to our work! I look forward to continuing these discussions with both the RSS and SSA in future.

In addition, I am delighted that David Spiegelhalter will be one of the keynotes for the 2023 Australian Statistical Conference in December. We will also be able to learn from his statistical communication experience through a pre-conference workshop. More details will be available soon!

A/Prof Karen Lamb
Co-Head Biostatistics Methods and Implementation Support for Clinical and Health Research Hub (MISCH)
Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

Pictured (left to right): Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter and Karen Lamb, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, November 2022

Pictured: Karen Lamb enjoying the rainy Cambridge weather, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, November 2022

Pictured (left to right): Brian Tarran (Head of Data Science Platform, RSS), Mags Wiley (Head of Media and External Relations, RSS), Karen Lamb, Robert Mastrodomenico (Statistical Ambassador, RSS) London, November 2022

Connecting students with Statistics, Systems thinking, Sustainability & STEM (SSSS)

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 22:08:14 GMT

In 2022, the National Schools Poster Competition (NSPC) received 4 times the number of 2021 submissions, with 20 new schools submitting!

Topics are too numerous and diverse to list them all, but examples include: nutrition, health, psychology, sustainability, space, diversity and inclusion, biology, science, finance, aspects of political and social interest, sports, physics, chemistry, product preferences, physiology and solar energy.

Please view this year’s winners and honourable mentions, along with feedback. There’s even a capture-recapture based project, with lollies in the wild!

Summary information about the NSPC is provided at the end of this article.

Australia’s NSPC is entering its 10^th year in 2023…and there’s significant news!

Emeritus Professor Tim Roberts AM and I, Professor Peter Howley, will be delivering a national initiative to Primary and Secondary Schools in 2023 entitled “Preparing for Industry 5.0 and beyond in light of COVID19 - facilitating the cradle-to-career life cycle” having received a Commonwealth Grant from theAustralian Government’s Department of Education’s Emerging Priorities Program for our project proposal.

The initiative will have significant engagement across the Australian education system with school administrators, educators, teachers and students nationally, as we conduct an integrated delivery of free:

· interactive online teacher Professional Learning workshops

· interactive online student workshops – including practical implementation and career opportunities

· two national student competitions – an online mini-solar vehicle competition and the NSPC

which develop Statistics, Systems thinking, Sustainability and STEM (SSSS) and associated cross-functional skills that:

ü are core to emerging workforce environments and needs

ü support national curriculum learning areas and outcomes

ü support general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities

ü positively impacts the attitudes, aspirations & abilities of educators & the future workforce

We will seek to make a step-change in attitudes, aspirations and abilities of educators and the future workforce surrounding these core SSSS and cross-functional skills.

This national initiative builds upon our successful 2017 regional and rural NSW-focussed initiative (partial results in this 2020 SERJ publication – downloadable PDF available).

Industry 5.0 places research and innovation at the service of the transition to a sustainable, human-centric and resilient industry. Research & innovation and the associated cross-functional skills required are fundamental to, and supported by SSSS skills … the points of focus of this project.

We expect to engage over 400 schools nationally in our 2023 initiative!

Please inform your family, friends, colleagues and school contacts about this opportunity, including the NSPC, and invite them to contact me via peterhowley0@gmail.com or SSSS@postercomp.info to express interest in potentially participating or for more information as we develop our online platform.

NSPC Summary

The NSPC provides an opportunity for students from Years 3 to 12 (ages 8 to 18) to work in teams of 2 to 5 and develop, implement and creatively report upon, in poster format, an investigation on any topic of interest to them. Students conduct small-scale versions of real-world investigations in teams, developing core statistical, STEM and cross-functional skills. They create an informative e-poster presentation communicating their investigation clearly, concisely and creatively.

The competition is judged in five divisions: one for each of the Year 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12 School Grades. Many additional resources are provided at the www.ssapostercomp.info website, including:

1 to 4-minute videos about the competition
Several approximate 4-minute videos from experts speaking on careers in statistics
Free software and simple worksheets
A dozen or so approximate 4-minute animated videos on introductory statistics topics
Tips, e-textbook, a file on how the NSPC links to and supports the National Curriculum
Annual lists of the winners and honourable mentions and their posters, along with feedback for each that is publicly available (since 2021) – to assist everyone in their future investigations.

Submissions are due annually by 10 November and we usually receive over 200 team entries.

Prizes (for both the winning team and the school of the winning team, for each Division) and honoraria for the many judges (professional statisticians) and IT and administrative support are possible thanks to support from the Australian Bureau of Statistics via the Statistical Society of Australia.

The importance of engaging students early in any endeavour, particularly statistics in this Data Age, cannot be overstated. Youth establish interests and career trajectories from an early age and connecting them with opportunities that are enjoyable, engaging, authentic and support the needed emerging workforce skills is critical.

School teachers have rarely if ever experienced statistics in practice and are unfamiliar with the diverse nature and wide reach of statistical thinking, techniques and applications. Teachers’ knowledge about the practicing statistician is at best limited, their focus has been on the many other topics and aspects of teaching. The teaching of statistics in school focusses on the theory or mechanics, rather than its practical applications, with statistics topics taught often in a manner not clearly part of a coherent whole nor authentically contextualised. The relevance of the discipline of statistics to areas of interest is lost, or at best unclear, for students; yet relevance is such a powerful motivator! Enter the NSPC!

Professor Peter Howley is the Chair of SSA's Statistical Education Section

Career Profile

Hunter Surgical Clinical Research Unit - Statistical Research Lead

Program Director - StepChange, MCB Business Partners

Hunter Medical Research Institute Affiliate

Medical College Centre, Macquarie University - Statistical Research Lead

International Statistical Institute - Elected Member

Chair - Statistical Education, Statistical Society of Australia

Vice President - Hunter Innovation and Science HUB

2018-19 Inaugural Science and Technology Australia STEM Ambassador

2019-20 Inaugural UON STEMM Ambassador

2018 Statistical Society of Australia Service Award

2017 International Statistical Institute’s Best Cooperative Project Award

2015 National OLT Citation – Contribution to Student Learning

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 00:41:06 GMT

And that’s almost a wrap for 2022!

It’s been a year of remarkable change for the science and technology sector - and strong growth and influence for Science & Technology Australia.

This week, we launched the new National Industry PhD Program. Over the next decade, this groundbreaking initiative will equip 1300 PhD scholars with next-level industry skills and experience, and make it far easier for businesses to reach into the country’s immense research sector talent pool. The program will be delivered for the Department of Education by a consortium led by Campus Plus (one of our members), Science & Technology Australia, and Cruxes Innovation (also an STA member). Applications for the program will open early next year. Sign up now to the mailing list for updates (and please help spread the word!)

As CEO of Science & Technology Australia, I’m deeply honoured to be among the group of leaders and experts invited this week to serve on the new Ministerial Reference Group to be chaired by Education Minister Jason Clare MP as part of the Universities Accord process. This reference group will be a sounding board and source of advice to the team working on the accord. The Accord Panel is being led by Professor Mary O’Kane AO - and the span of topics it has been asked to consider thoughtfully are broad. I’m so looking forward to contributing.

What a big finish to an exciting year of achievements for our community.

The year started with the announcement of a $2.2 billion research commercialisation fund by the Government. Ahead of the election, Science & Technology Australia confirmed written support for these measures from both major parties of Government, ensuring these investments continued whatever the outcome of the election. STA has made the case tirelessly for a research translation and commercialisation fund. This is one of many major wins for our members in 2022.

Also in February, Science & Technology Australia’s game-changing Superstars of STEM program secured renewed Australian Government funding to continue for a further four years. This acclaimed program has now helped more than 150 brilliant women scientists to turbo-charge their profiles and careers by becoming skilled media commentators. It is a shining example of a hugely successful initiative to advance diversity in STEM, which can inform the Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review's work.

In October, we recruited another outstanding cohort of 60 women and non-binary scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians as Superstars of STEM. We announced these inspiring new Superstars in November, and can’t wait to start them in their program in 2023. We are deeply grateful for Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic’s continuing strong support for this program, and for the backing of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

In March, Science & Technology Australia delivered a high-impact Science Meets Parliament - featuring global science communications star Professor Brian Cox, two Nobel Laureates and a host of other star talent. The event included our trademark high-quality professional development for scientists, meetings with Parliamentarians, and fabulous Australia-wide gala dinners in June.

STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson delivered a landmark speech at the National Press Club in March. He made a compelling argument for Australia to train its first generation of bench-to-boardroom scientists as the next step in the drive to commercialise more great Australian research. This is a powerful plan that STA will continue to advocate in 2023.

In June, Minister Husic’s brilliant speech at the SMP gala dinner outlined the Government’s commitment to a “future powered by science”.

In August, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Minister Husic jointly launched National Science Week with a strong turnout of MPs and Senators from all across the Parliament, including Shadow Science Minister Paul Fletcher and former Science Minister Melissa Price. Science & Technology Australia was honoured to work with Questacon - the home of National Science Week - to deliver the official launch and opening media for a week to engage more Australians in science and technology. We continued our partnership with 3M to release the 2022 findings from the 3M State of Science Index. This year’s study revealed the incredibly high levels of trust Australians have in science to combat misinformation, and the public’s strong desire to hear more from scientists in the media.

In November, Science & Technology Australia delivered a powerful event for the Parliamentary Friends of Science on clean, green energy technologies– with a strong turnout of MPs and Senators – with support from our friends at the AAS and ATSE.

Science & Technology Australia’s membership grew strongly in 2022. We are building powerful momentum in our role as the key connector of people and ideas in Australia’s STEM sector.

STA now represents 120 member organisations - up from 77 in 2020 - and 105,000 scientists and technologists nationwide. This is no accident. Over the last few years, STA has been more visible in public policy discussions, generated more media coverage, and shaped more legislation and policy decisions affecting our members. Putting together our Policy Wins page was a strong reminder that together, STA and its members are a powerful voice for the sector.

We are deeply fortunate to be led by outstanding experts from our sector. Our powerhouse President Professor Mark Hutchinson and stellar STA Board Secretary Jas Chambers have overseen a year where STA has revitalised its constitution and governance, setting itself up for the next stage of the organisation’s growth.

Mark’s outstanding leadership in the sector was recognised in his appointment to the ARC Advisory Committee to the CEO in April, and to the ARC Review Committee’s eminent panel in August. When he steps aside next year after our next AGM, he will pass the torch to Professor Sharath Sriram, our amazing Policy Chair. Mark and Sharath - alongside our dynamic Vice-President Dr Anita Goh - are standard bearers for the present and future of science, and the immense role it can play in creating the economy of tomorrow. We thank them, and all of our brilliant STA Board members for their generous contributions to STA and the sector.

STA is delivering powerful change for its members and the sector. This is a testament to the drive, creativity, and hard work of everyone involved with STA, with special thanks to our superb staff - Dr Sandra Gardam, Lucy Guest, Dr Sarah Tynan, Martyn Pearce, Evelyn Fetterplace, Emma Hibbert, Emily Downie and Shannon Wong - and our finance whiz Penny Thomson.

And huge thanks to our brilliant members who keep our finger on the pulse of the issues Australian scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians face, and help us shape clever policy ideas to solve complex challenges. We look forward to working with and for you in 2023. In the meantime, we hope you all get a well-deserved and rejuvenating break.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

Call for nomination: Horizon Lectures, Australian Statistical Conference, 10-15th December 2023 (ASC 2023)

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 02:16:56 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) and ASC 2023 Scientific Programme Committee are delighted to open nominations for the inaugural Horizon Lectures, to be given at ASC2023 in Wollongong, 10^th- 15^th December 2023.

Full details on eligibility, award selection criteria and submission are available in the nomination form, available in Word here, as a pdf here. Nominations must be submitted by 5 pm AEST, 28^th February 2023. Late nominations will not be accepted.

Questions about the Horizon lectures can be sent to ASC 2023 Scientific Programming Committee at asc.ozcots2023@gmail.com.

23rd Annual JB Douglas Postgraduate Awards Day

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 03:47:26 GMT

The 23rd Annual JB Douglas Postgraduate Awards Day was held on Monday, 5 December 2022 at the UTS Aerial Function Centre and was a great success. In the afternoon, 6 PhD students presented their theses, showcasing the depth, breadth and excellence of research performed by postgraduate research students in statistics within the NSW state. The joint winners of this year’s award are Emily Neo from the University of Sydney Business School and Chris Lisle from the University of Wollongong.

Emily presented a work on partial correlation screening, which is important in dimension reduction techniques for high-dimensional data achieving uncertainty quantification in situations where it is usually difficult to have it. She presented a technique that is defined in the field of statistics but can compare with machine learning approaches. Her presentation was clear, complete and she showed a great ability in answering the many questions she received.

Chris was able to introduce the problem in a clear way, we like he told the audience the story of the project and its context. The project he presented had a clear statistical interpretation, that means his diagnostics can be easily implemented in the field. He acknowledged his work as part of a team with different expertise and this is at the heart of applied statistics.

Each winner received a prize of $500.

After the students’ presentations, Professor Marijka Batterham from the University of Wollongong delivered the NSW Annual Lecture, titled “Encouraging Statistical and Data Literacy in Nutrition and Dietetics.” Marijka started her talk by giving an overview of how dietitians are usually trained. While most dietitians are highly specialised in some areas (such as clinical, food service, public health, sport, etc.), all are required to do introductory statistics to meet competency standards. Indeed, statistical literacy plays a vital role for dietitians to evaluate the evidence, make clinical decisions, and participate in nutrition research.

In the next part of the presentation, Marijka presented numerous examples demonstrating challenges of research on human nutrition, including missing data, compliance, and agreements between measurements, as well as some possible statistical solutions to tackle these issues. These challenges open up opportunities for many novel applications of statistical methods, ranging from classical statistics to modern machine learning, to address questions regarding nutrition and dietary.

Nevertheless, in her ongoing research, Marijka demonstrated there was generally a statistics anxiety among undergraduate health science students, many of whom found statistics useful but the content “incredibly hard” or “overwhelming.” Furthermore, lack of statistical support, including access to statistical software, can be a major barrier for a dietitian’s literacy. While free software for comprehensive data manipulation, visualisation and analysis, such as R and Python, are available, they require steep learning curves and may not be suitable to clinicians, who do not use statistics regularly and only often need some basic descriptive statistics and insights to ask the right questions to team members with a background in biostatistics. A current solution to this need is free point and click graphical user interfaces to R; nevertheless, their functionalities can still be limited or their interfaces are not so user-friendly to beginners. Marijka pointed out that computational skills still need to be improved in clinical disciplines, especially as we embrace reproducibility and more advanced computational methods.

The event concluded with the dinner and fun trivia. On behalf of the NSW Branch Council, the branch’s president Clara Grazian thanked everyone for attending and supporting the JB Douglas Awards Day as well as all the events of the branch this year.

We look forward to seeing you at our events in 2023!

Linh Nghiem

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 07:33:41 GMT

Science & Technology Australia President Professor Mark Hutchinson and I were delighted to attend Industry & Science Minister Ed Husic’s landmark National Press Club address this week. On the eve of introducing legislation to create the new $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, the Minister laid out his vision for an Australia that makes things - by applying cutting-edge science and technology in next-generation advanced manufacturing. Consultation is open on the fund’s seven priority areas for investment. He declared Australia must invest threefold: in our human capital; in backing Australian ideas; and in our future technological capabilities. And on longstanding ambitions to boost R&D investment in this country, he vowed: “I am picking up that torch”.

The Parliamentary Friends of Science - from right across the breadth of Parliament - were out in force this week. Science & Technology Australia organised a powerful event on clean, green energy technologies for our co-chairs, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews. In a hectic final sitting week, 16 MPs and Senators - including Housing Minister Julie Collins, Minister Husic and Shadow Science Minister Paul Fletcher - heard from leading clean energy experts Professor Lachlan Blackhall of The Australian National University; Director of storEnergy and Deakin University Professor Maria Forsyth; ARC Future Fellow, Superstar of STEM and hydrogen expert Dr Jessica Allen; and Original Power Executive Director and Yorta Yorta descendant Karrina Nolan. We thank our friends at the Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering and the Australian Academy of Science for their valued support. A huge hat tip to STA Events Director Lucy Guest and the STA staff team on a stellar event.

Education Minister Jason Clare yesterday introduced legislation to create the powerful new research translation and commercialisation fund for which STA campaigned for many years. The bill enables funding and governance for Australia’s Economic Accelerator fund. This is an exciting development that creates a new stream of investment into promising innovations at proof-of-concept or proof-of-scale stage, with a ‘fast-fail’ risk appetite. His second reading speech lays out more detail.

In exciting news for the science and technology sector, Professor Sharath Sriram is now President-elect of Science & Technology Australia. Elected at our AGM last week, Sharath is a research rockstar and connector of commercialisation. His ability to understand industry partners’ needs, and connect them with researchers who can find solutions to their problems, is second to none. We are thrilled that he will lead the organisation when Professor Mark Hutchinson’s term finishes in November 2023.

At the AGM, we recapped the year in our annual report and published our annual progress report on our First Nations partnerships and Reconciliation Action Plan.

This week, consultation opened on the Universities Accord’s Terms of Reference. STA will make a submission - responses are due by 19 December - outlining our ideas for the sorts of data and analysis the panel should commission to help inform its thinking. The policy terrain for this review is wide-ranging, and this process will have a vast impact on the sector’s future. We will keep our members informed every step of the way.

The Australian Research Council has streamlined the National Interest Test processes on research grants following consultations with the sector. It is now simpler with clearer instructions. The NIT statements will now be signed off by the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research at each university - and the NIT would go to the expert peer review panels as part of their assessments from the outset. It would not be amended by the ARC. The announcement is here.

Fabulous to see former STA President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie beside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week for the latest meeting of the National Science and Technology Council. The Council is an all-star squad of Australia’s outstanding science and technology leaders including Jeremy, Professor Genevieve Bell AO, Professor Debra Henly, Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt AC, Professor Fiona Wood, AM, and Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger AC, with Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley as Executive Officer to provide advice for government policy and priorities.

It was great to celebrate the 2022 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science back in person in Canberra with a bumper crowd. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the gathering: “Investing in science is investing in our future”.

A huge congratulations to the inspiring scientists recognised with these prestigious honours: Professor Trevor McDougall AC from UNSW (the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science); Adjunct Professor Alison Todd and Dr Elisa Mokany from SpeeDx (Prize for Innovation); Dr Nick Cutmore, Dr James Tickner and Dirk Treasure from Chrysos Corporation and CSIRO (Prize for Innovation); Professor Si Ming Man of ANU (Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year); Dr Adele Morrison of ANU (Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year); and Associate Professor Brett Hallam of UNSW and Dr Pip Karoly of the University of Melbourne and Seer Medical (Prize for New Innovators).

Yesterday, we graduated the constellation of 2021 Superstars of STEM amid a sea of celebrations on social media of these inspiring women in STEM. It was a joy to see them sharing countless examples of how this acclaimed program has been a game-changer to boost their media profiles, confidence, career-acceleration, and peer support network to spur their success. You may be in the Superstars of STEM program for two years, but to us, you're Superstars for life!

Finally, congratulations to the first 50 scholarship recipients announced last week in the Elevate: Boosting women in STEM program - funded by the Australian Government and delivered by ATSE. Science & Technology Australia is a supporting partner on this program. We are absolutely delighted for the amazing scientists and technologists that received their great news of a scholarship last week.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

REPORTS AND POLICY

Some important legislation passed through the Parliament this week:
- The Respect @work legislation
- the National Anti-Corruption Commission legislation
Other significant bills introduced to the Parliament include:
- Education Minister Jason Clare introduced the legislation to create Australia’s Economic Accelerator to the House of Representatives.
- Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic introduced the National Reconstruction Fund legislation to the House of Representatives.
- Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth introduced the Paid Parental Leave Amendment legislation to the House of Representatives.
- Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen delivered the first Annual Climate Change Statement to the House of Representatives.
- The Prime Minister delivered the 2022 Closing the Gap annual report to the House of Representatives.
Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith has been reappointed for a third term as Women in STEM Ambassador.
The Minister for Industry and Science announced the panel for the Diversity in STEM review.
The Government announced the panel for the Universities Accord process.
The ARC announced changes to the National Interest Test.
CSIRO and the BOM released the 2022 State of the Climate report.
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources released the final Industry Growth Centres evaluation report.
CSIRO released a report on how AI is being used in science.
The AMA released a report Antimicrobial resistance: the silent pandemic.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Universities Accord consultation process has begun. The Panel is due to deliver a final report by December 2023, and an interim report by June 2023. The Department of Education has called for feedback on the priorities outlined in the Terms of Reference. Submissions to this first stage of consultation are due by 19 December.
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources is consulting on the National Reconstruction Fund program design. Submissions close 3 February 2023.
The Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment is conducting an inquiry into the issue of increasing disruption in Australian classrooms. Submissions due by 31 March 2023.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is consulting on amendments to the Export Control Rules 2021. Submissions by 20 January 2023.

Further information: STA Director of Policy and Engagement Sarah Tynan.

GRANTS, FUNDING, AND OPPORTUNITIES

The Taronga Conservation Society are launching HATCH: Taronga Accelerator Program 2023 and are looking for the next round of founders and eco-startups or a brilliant idea to support wildlife or the environment. The HATCH program provides $25,000 value in support for each team, and the chance to receive $50,000 funding.
Grants are available for the Threatened and migratory species fisheries bycatch mitigation program for projects that will support sustainable fisheries. Applications close 23 January 2023.
Applications are open for National Science Week grants. Applications close 15 December.
AgriFutures Horizon Scholarship applications are open, closing 13 January 2023.

MEMBER NEWS

We are delighted to welcome Sparklabs Cultiv8 and Cultiv8 Funds Management into our STA community. Sparklabs Cultiv8 is a powerful food tech accelerator developing agribusiness worldwide to secure our food future. Cultiv8 Funds Management is modernising our Australian food tech sector through a tailored, sustainable investment fund that enhances our food supply chains.

We are thrilled to welcome Monash Data Futures Institute (MDFI) as STA’s newest members. Monash’s DFI brings world class AI and data scientists together to solve some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

STA delivers strong benefits to members, including discounted professional services via our Member Benefits Program. More details here.

Want the latest news from Science & Technology Australia? Our media release distribution list is open to all. To subscribe, click here.

Want to keep up to date with the latest in science and technology policy and advocacy? Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter - the Science and Technology Update.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:59:23 GMT

COMMERCIALISATION CONNECTOR AND RESEARCH ROCKSTAR TO LEAD STA

A visionary “connector of commercialisation” and research rockstar Professor Sharath Sriram is Science & Technology Australia’s new President-elect.

Professor Sriram of RMIT has a remarkable track record of connecting industry and researchers - he has created more than $6 million in commercial partnerships for his university over the past five years.

Leading-edge work from his teams includes smart bedding products for aged-care support, a wearable for continuous molecular monitoring, and miniature biosensors for monitoring respiratory illnesses.

Professor Sriram, who currently serves as STA’s Policy Chair, has driven this success by working closely with industry partners, learning deeply about commercialisation processes, and by becoming a key point of contact for businesses looking to reach into the university system for solutions to challenges.

His team now consists of 47 staff, including scientists and engineers, and they work closely with teams from the business and design schools at the university.

Professor Sriram will succeed current STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson at the STA Annual General Meeting in November 2023, after serving as President-elect for the next 12 months.

Other impressive science and technology leaders elected to STA’s Executive at today’s AGM include:
- Jas Chambers (Founder of Ocean Decade Australia) who was re-elected as Secretary.
- Dr Kathy Nicholson (Operations Manager at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning) who will become STA’s new Policy Chair after serving as Deputy Policy Chair; and
- Superstar of STEM Dr Jiao Jiao Li (Early Career Researcher at UTS) who succeeds Dr Chloe Taylor as Early Career Representative.

STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson congratulated Professor Sriram and the newly-elected Executive and Board Directors - applauding the stellar talent STA attracts to its governance team.

“The science and technology sector is blessed with extraordinary talented leaders who contribute energy, insights and expertise to the nation’s peak body for science and technology,” he said.

“Sharath will be an outstanding President for Science & Technology Australia and champion for our thriving membership community. He brings vast expertise in policy, commercialisation and innovation.”

“Amid an urgent imperative to turn more great Australian science and engineering into new jobs, he is the perfect person to lead this inspiring organisation - a role model connector of commercialisation.”

Science & Technology Australia’s President-elect Professor Sharath Sriram said he was honoured to have been entrusted by the 105,000-strong STA members to lead the organisation.

“I am excited and deeply honoured to lead Science & Technology Australia and represent the interests of the science and technology community to policymakers, industry and the Australian public,” he said.

“I want to help more Australian researchers deepen connections with industry and bridge the ‘valley of death’ in commercialisation, and be a powerful advocate to deepen Australia’s investments in discovery science.”

“I look forward to working with Mark over the next year as President-elect. He is an exceptional leader of STA who has delivered vast advocacy success for our sector and rapid growth for the organisation.”

Also elected/re-elected to the STA Board at this election were:
- Agricultural & Food Sciences: Mr Michael Walker (re-elected for a second term)
- Biological Sciences: Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa (re-elected for a second term)
- Chemical Sciences: Ms Francesca Gissi (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry)
- Geographical & Geological Sciences: Ms Sarah Kachovich (International Ocean Discovery Program)
- Mathematical Sciences: Professor Chris Matthews
- Physical Sciences: Professor Jodie Brady (re-elected for a second term)
- Plant & Ecological Sciences: Ms Bek Christensen (Ecological Society of Australia)
- Technological Sciences: Dr Vipul Agarwal (re-elected for a second term)
- General Sciences: Ms Heather Catchpole (re-elected for a second term)

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 105,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science Meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.

Media contact:
Martyn Pearce - 0432 606 828

SSA Mentoring Program

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 00:20:30 GMT

Are you an early or mid-career statistician looking for support to grow and develop your career? Or, are you a more experienced statistician looking to share your skills and experience with a new generation of statisticians? If either of these sound like you then this program may be for you!

The Statistical Society of Australia is now seeking applications from mentees and mentors, for the next program intake in 2023. We are looking for up to 20 mentor-mentee pairs to take part in the 6-month mentoring program.

Our aim

This program will connect early and mid-career statisticians to experienced mentors to provide them with career guidance and to share their experiences to help them achieve their professional goals.

Mentees

We are looking to recruit early to mid-career statisticians to take part in the mentoring program. To be eligible to participate, you must be either a student or within the first ten years of a career in statistics, a member of the SSA, and be willing to commit to participating in the program over a 6-month period.

Mentors

We are looking to recruit mentors who have at least five years’ experience working as a statistician. Note that mentors will be paired with mentees with less experience working in statistics (i.e., those with less than five years’ experience will not be paired with mentees with more than five years). To be eligible to participate, you must be a member of the SSA and be willing to commit to participating in the program over a 6-month period. Prior mentorship experience would be beneficial but is not a requirement for participation.

Program details

The SSA Mentoring Committee, a sub-committee of the Continuous Professional Development committee, will match mentors to mentees and contact the mentee to seek approval to introduce them to the proposed mentor. Each mentor will only be assigned one mentee. Mentees are responsible for arranging the initial meeting and establishing ongoing meetings with their mentor. Ideally, mentors and mentees should aim to meet at least monthly for one hour during the program, with a minimum of four meetings over six months. There is no requirement that mentors and mentees live in the same city; meetings do not have to be face-to-face and may be held via phone or Zoom as necessary. A member of the Mentoring Committee will be in touch throughout the program to learn how things are progressing and to help resolve any issues that arise. There is no expectation that the relationship will continue beyond the 6-month program. However, we would be delighted if mentor-mentee pairs continue to keep in touch!

In addition to the paired mentoring, mentees and mentors will be given the opportunity to participate in a peer mentoring group to share experiences and build greater connections within the SSA community.

Further details about the program will be provided before the program commences.

Interested?

To register your interest in participating in the mentoring program, please complete the following form by Sunday 11th December. Successful applicants will be notified by the 20th January (Mentees) and 30th January (Mentors), with training scheduled for the end of February. The program will run for 6 months from March to August 2023.

If you have any questions about the mentoring program, please email the SSA Mentoring Committee.

An exciting year for the Dennis Trewin Prize!

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 23:52:47 GMT

SSA Canberra is delighted to announce that Mr Zhi Yang Tho from the ANU is the winner of the 2022 Dennis Trewin Prize! Zhi Yang received $1,000 for his presentation on Joint Mean and Correlation Regression Modelling for Multivariate Data.

The Dennis Trewin Prize, named after the former Australian Statistician, is an award for early career research in statistics or data science conducted within the ACT or regional NSW. This year, the Prize was modified from a video submission format to live presentations, resulting in a more engaging and exciting event. We had three brilliant presentations on the day, and the selection panel had much difficulty deciding the placement of speakers.

We would like to thank the participants for sharing their research, Dennis and the selection panel for their deliberations on the day, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for sponsoring the Prize.

By Nelson Chua, on behalf of the SSA Canberra council

NSW Branch Meeting: Optimal Design of Comparative Experiments and the ODW R Package

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 23:48:48 GMT

SSA NSW Branch – October Meeting

On the evening of 26th October, Professor Brian Cullis from the University of Wollongong presented a talk titled “Optimal Design of Comparative Experiments and the ODW R Package”.

Brian’s talk was divided into two main parts. In the first part, he gave an overview of optimal designs for multiphase experiments, particularly model-based designs using the linear mixed model with correlated treatment effects. The optimality of the designs are based on some criteria, such as D-, G-, and A-optimality. Since these designs typically involve many components, finding an optimal design is usually done through an intensive search process of the design space. As such, having computer software that can generate optimal designs given a set of requirements is desirable, which is a primary aim of the ODW R package that Brian and his collaborators are pursuing.

In the second part, he introduced core functions of the ODW R package and demonstrated flexible uses of the package to search for optimal designs of various types.

Finally, Brian gave several examples of when the package was used to obtain designs for an experiment regarding genotypes of desi chickpea. The seminar concluded with questions from the audience about both the technical details and applications of the ODW package.

Linh Nghiem
NSW Branch Newsletter Correspondent

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 02:38:55 GMT

At a time of intense pressure on public finances, last week’s federal Budget included some modest but important new investments in science and technology. Science & Technology Australia welcomed the Government’s recognition that science is one of the smartest strategic investments we can make in the country’s economic future. Science Minister Ed Husic posted this helpful explainer of Budget initiatives in his key portfolios.

As always, Science & Technology Australia held a Post-Budget Briefing to share extra detail with our members on the Budget outlook for STEM, the research sector (including universities and Australia’s major research granting agencies) and industry sectors. STA’s Policy Director Dr Sarah Tynan - with quality input from across the STA staff team, our Policy Chair Sharath Sriram and President Mark Hutchinson - shared our analysis of key measures and consultation opportunities. Our members can access our policy brief in the members-only section of the STA website.

On Friday, we also convened the powerful grassroots STEM leadership network of Science & Technology Australia at our annual Leadership Dialogue. This event ensures valuable insights from the membership on issues affecting the science and technology sector inform our advocacy in the year ahead. This gives STA a uniquely powerful ability to speak on behalf of the nation’s scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.

The 2022 Leadership Dialogue started to gather crucial insights to feed into the Government’s plan to revitalise Australia’s Science Priorities.

The review’s terms of reference propose expressly elevating and investing in First Nations science. At our Leadership Dialogue, Science & Technology Australia’s 111-strong member organisation network and the thousands of scientists they represent unanimously backed this proposal. It was a powerful endorsement from Australia’s science community for Australia to elevate the vast STEM knowledge and deep expertise of First Nations people, communities and organisations in Australia’s national science and research priorities.

Next week will see an historic first in-person gathering for the National Indigenous STEM Professionals Network (NISTEMP) on Gadigal Country in Sydney. NISTEMP draws together champions and leaders in First Nations STEM to mentor the next generations into STEM studies and careers, and deepen the exchange of First Nations STEM knowledges. STA has been honoured to support the formation of the network since 2020, and STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson and I are delighted to attend the inaugural event at UTS.

We are delighted this fortnight to welcome four new STA member organisations: Australian Science Communicators, Beaker Street, The Centre of Resource Excellence Learning Foundation, and the Australian National Phenome Centre. Australian Science Communicators is the peak body for science communicators and science journalists in Australia. Beaker Street is a brilliant Tasmania-based not-for-profit making science accessible to all and connecting the public with science and scientists. The Centre of Resource Excellence Learning Foundation works to broaden the opportunities for students to succeed in STEM careers that are aligned with the needs of industries and economies of the future by turbo-charging how we teach STEM in schools. And the Australian National Phenome Centre is a bioscience powerhouse that is solving some of the world’s most challenging problems in food, health and the environment.

We are thrilled to welcome them all as members, and add their voice and expertise to our advocacy for the sector.

Want to work with your local Parliamentarian, represent the science community and get your expertise to decision-makers? Apply now for STA’s prestigious STEM Ambassadors program. We have 25 MPs and Senators from around the country eager to forge a relationship with a STEM professional. But be quick, applications for this sought-after program close on Monday.

Finally, congratulations to our amazing STA Superstar of STEM Dr Zoe Doubleday, who won an ATSE Award for her groundbreaking work to develop new tracing technologies to prevent seafood fraud, and Dr Marissa Betts, whose beautiful film Rola: Stone took out the Geoscience Professionals Award at the Earth Futures Festival. You can watch that stunning short film here. Congratulations also to Professor Saeid Nahavandi from our member organisation The Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation at Deakin University. Professor Nahavandi won the ATSE Clunies Ross Entrepreneur of the Year Award for his incredible work on intelligent systems and simulation technologies, including haptics.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

SSA SA Branch September 2022 meeting: Bad Statistics in Medical Research

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 04:51:05 GMT

For the SA Branch September 2022 meeting, Prof Adrian Barnett (QUT) gave a presentation over zoom from Queensland; his talk a damning exposition on Bad Statistics in Medical Research.

We began with an example of a Covid 19 study published in The Lancet, where 75% of subjects were excluded because they were still hospitalised or not confirmed as infected. Despite this major statistical flaw, the paper has been cited over 25,000 times. During the pandemic there has been pressure to publish research about Covid-19 quickly, however, it is plain to see the danger in scientists lowering the standard of their research, when the requirement for trust in science has never been so high.

Adrian presented a number of examples of the misunderstandings of stats common in medical research, some baffling and even humorous. These included the assumption that continuous raw data must be normally distributed in order for statistical analysis to be valid; excluding outliers (when they can be the most interesting part of the data!); and an over-reliance on p-values to provide all the information about the analysis. The interpretation of p-values can also be faulty, but faulty interpretations are often accepted with the attitude of: “It's okay, since everyone else treats them this way too”.

Next, we considered the distribution of z-values extracted from confidence intervals in a medical journal and noted that this had the shape of a normal distribution with a chunk missing in the middle - indicating that studies with a negative result (non-significant results) are often excluded from publication. Adrian went as far as to call this research misconduct.

Adrian's suggestions for fixing the problem include:

Abandoning p-values and statistical significance in reporting;
Stop funding projects to make prediction models - unless a statistician is a principle investigator.

We also considered the introduction of a statistical audit, where a random selection of 100 papers per year are selected for audit by a statistician, to check the research and also whether they can reproduce the results.

A statistical robot might also be put to use: an algorithm that can flag potential statistical problems in a paper and possibly detect fraudulent results.

The presentation also included a number of lamentable figures from real publications, such as pie charts that distort the data, and a 3D bar chart that resembled pieces of fudge.

The presentation ended with a lively discussion, with many weighing in on the problem of bad stats and how we might fix it. In response to the question, if we don't rely on p-values, then what do we use? Adrian conceded that sometimes results are complicated, but ultimately science is hard - and we should celebrate that.

By Annie Conway

The 2022 Tjanpi Award for Best Student Paper in Environmental Statistics

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 22:05:40 GMT

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2022 Tjanpi Award, the annual student prize for best student paper in environmental statistics, sponsored by the SSA Environmental Statistics Section. To be eligible a student must be:

An author of a paper that has been accepted in the previous 12 months, having made a substantial contribution to the work
A student as of June 30 2022
A current member of the SSA and the Environmental Statistics Section

The winner will receive $500 and will be asked to present in an invited session on environmental statistics at the next annual stats conference (in Wollongong, 2023).

Please submit your nominations to eo@statsoc.org.au, with Tjanpi Award submission in the header, by 5 PM AEDT, Thursday 8 December 2022, including:

- Full name, institution

- Paper, as one pdf file.

- Letter of support from supervisor or other academic at the institution, confirming student status of applicant and describing the student's role in the paper.

Image: Central Australian landscape dominated by Tjanpi, photo by Sara Winter

Tjanpi is the Pitjantjatjara word for Triodia, a spiny tussock-forming grass that dominates the vegetation across more than 20% of Australia’s land mass. It is a long-lived plant that makes deep roots and can withstand the hardiest of conditions. It can grow over decades into characteristic ring formations three metres in diameter. As a source of food and shelter, Tjanpi is fundamental to life in some of Australia’s most extreme conditions, being central to highly diverse ecosystems dominated by termites and ants, as well as reptiles, birds and small mammals. It has also been traditionally used by Indigenous people for a range of purposes, including building shelters, making an adhesive resin, basket weaving, fishing and using its seeds as a food source.

Tjanpi is an analogy for the Environmental Statistics student award – because the development and application of appropriate statistical techniques is fundamental to good environmental research, and our hope is that the recipient of this award will grow over the coming decades to become central to a diverse range of interesting research endeavours!

The SSA Mentoring Committee is looking for members!

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 21:54:41 GMT

Would you like to become a committee member for the SSA Mentoring Program?

The SSA mentoring committee has begun planning the third year of its successful mentoring program. The program provides an opportunity for emerging statisticians to develop personal and professional skills, as well as providing connections between statisticians from across the nation.

This wonderful initiative is developed and managed by the SSA Mentoring Committee (pictured below). We are a team of statisticians eager to increase the support available to our community for success in the workplace. The committee is dedicated to delivering a program that meets the needs of its diverse range of mentees. To do this, the committee is seeking expertise, experience and perspectives to ensure diverse representation of the statistics community. Do you have the fresh new voice we’re looking for? Please get in touch!

To express your interest in joining the SSA Mentoring Committee, or for more information, please email us via ssa.mentoring@gmail.com with a couple of paragraphs about yourself and why you are keen to get involved.

SSA NSW BRANCH: EARLY CAREER AND STUDENT STATISTICIANS CAREER EVENT

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 04:17:08 GMT

In September, the NSW Branch hosted four industry speakers and approximately 50 students at the Courtyard Cafe at the University of Sydney. Despite some drizzles on the day, the event was well-attended and had a vibrant atmosphere. This event was partially sponsored by the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA).

The event began with an acknowledgement of the country by our Young Statistician Representative, Yidi Yan. The President of SUPRA, Yuning Zhang, and the Vice President of NSW Branch Dr Thomas Fung, introduced the audience to their respective organisations and encouraged the students to stay in touch with some upcoming events which will offer great benefits to the students. I had the pleasure of introducing each of our four great panellists.

The first panellist was Rachel Ragell from Lion. Rachel presented two case studies in her talk, one on greenhouse gas emission reduction and the other on beer demand forecast in the post-COVID recovery. These case studies allowed the audience to get a glimpse into how statistics can be applied to widely different industry projects. Rachel ended her talk with some valuable career interview tips for the students.

The second panellist was Dr Stanislaus (Stani) Stadlmann from QBE Insurance. Stani presented his career journey which began in Gottingen, Germany but ultimately brought him to Australia. Through his own experience, Stani shared with us how he planned his career in statistics and data science and reminded us of the importance of finding our own passions and empathy for others.

The third panellist was Dr Nancy Briggs from UNSW Stats Central consulting unit. Even though UNSW is an academic institution, Nancy had previously worked in various industries and loved talking to people about their statistical challenges. Statisticians often have the luxury of working on many different projects and Nancy is certainly one of them! She has done work on projects in psychology, image object detection and cancer therapies. These projects highlight the importance of statistics as a powerful tool in scientific discoveries.

Our last panellist was Dr Earo Wang from Canva. She connected with the audience immediately because the company is well-known in the student community as the go-to tool for visual design. Earo introduced her role at Canva as a data analyst working on website utilisation forecaster. Such a role seemed perfect for Earo as her doctoral training was in the area of time series forecasting.

After each of our panellists have introduced themselves, the event proceeded with a networking session so the eager students can have the opportunity to chat with our panellists. The session is well-supported by a catering of pizzas and beers and as far as I can tell, everyone at the event had a great time and got important career-related questions answered.

Kevin Wang
Councillor of the SSA NSW Branch

Science Meets Parliament 2023 - Apply Now!

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 07:09:33 GMT

Science and Technology Australia (STA) will hold “Science meets Parliament” (SmP) again next year. This event provides the opportunity for scientists and technologists to interact with the Government's key decision makers. SmP 2023 comes at a time when science, technology, engineering and mathematics are high on the political agenda. SmP 2023 will build on the strong tradition of fostering relationships and understanding between scientists and technologists, MPs and Senators.

As a member of STA, the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) is invited to be represented at SmP. This is a unique development opportunity which SSA would like to give to one of its "Early Career or Student Statisticians”. Our definition of an "Early Career or Student Statistician” (ECSS) is a person enrolled for a degree who is studying either full-time or part-time without age limit, OR a person who graduated with a Bachelor's degree within the past five years, OR a person awarded a postgraduate degree within the past year. The Society will pay the registration fee and reasonable travel expenses for our representative at SmP.

Next year's event consists of two parts: SmP will start with the opportunity for high quality professional development, delivered on a virtual platform across three days from 7-9 March 2023 during business hours. Sessions will also be recorded and available for two weeks after the event.

Part II will take place in person either on 15 March or 22 March 2023, depending on next year’s Parliamentary Sitting Calendar. The day on the “Hill” will feature:

Meetings between SMP Delegates and Members of Parliament (meetings for STEM professionals only)
Additional training and personal development sessions
Attendance at Question Time
National Press Club Address
National Gala Dinner in the Great Hall at Parliament House

In 2022, SmP organised 64 meetings with scientists and Parliamentarians. It was attended by 528 delegates and featured 68 speakers. Attendees of previous SmPs described the event as “an awesome primer”, “a very useful opportunity to engage with important political stakeholders” and “an excellent experience to develop skills and network at the highest levels”.

If you are a Society member who meets the ECSS criteria and would like to attend SmP, please email your informal application with your CV to the Executive Officer (eo@statsoc.org.au) before Thursday, 3 November 2022. Your application email should include a little bit about yourself, why you would like to attend SmP, how attendance could potentially enhance your career, and what you as a representative of SSA can contribute to SmP.

The successful applicant is expected to provide a report about their SmP experience by Thursday, 6 April 2023. This report will be published in the SSA newsletter and on the SSA website.

More information about SmP is available here.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 05:29:22 GMT

Australia’s National Science and Technology Council met last week for the first time with Science Minister Ed Husic in the chair. The Council brings together outstanding scientific leaders and experts - including former Science & Technology Australia President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie - to give scientific advice on government priorities.

The Minister’s keynote to the AIIA Tech & Sustainability Conference later that day emphasised the importance of technology to help Australia to reach its net zero emissions goal. It also telegraphed vast opportunities for our country by tapping into Australia’s world-class scientists and technologists.

A new National Quantum Advisory Committee will draw together eminent science and business leaders to guide Australia’s development of these transformative technologies. Chaired by Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley, its 15 members include Defence Chief Scientist Professor Tanya Monro and STA’s Treasurer and FAR committee chair Mark Stickells in his role as Executive Director of the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre.

Sleeptite CEO Cameron Van Den Dungen, STA Policy Chair Professor Sharath Sriram and STA member Women in STEMM co-chair Professor Madhu Bhaskaran also hosted a Ministerial visit to showcase how their world-first flexible lightweight sensors were created - an Australian innovation to help revolutionise patient safety and well-being in aged care. Shadow Science Minister Paul Fletcher has also been out and about visiting leading science teams and facilities across the country and highlighting their inspiring work.

This week, Australia’s annual STEM Equity Monitor was published. It confirms crucial progress is being made by the array of programs and initiatives to boost the participation of women in STEM. But there is still a long way to go - especially in enabling women into senior leadership in STEM. Just 23 percent of senior managers and only 8 percent of CEOs in STEM-qualified industries are women. Here's our media release.

STA STEM Ambassador Meg Panozzo was profiled in an Australian Financial Review story on this topic. Meg is an engineer working as an Infrastructure Advisory Consultant at RPS and she’s spent her career driving significant cultural change for women in engineering.

Meanwhile, the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) is powerfully transforming our country’s manufacturing future. We are delighted to welcome them this week as our newest STA member. ANFF plays a crucial role in the Australian research community. It delivers world class expertise and access to micro and nanofabrication equipment to the country’s science sector. We are thrilled to add their voice to the 105 member organisations we represent. Together we are a powerful voice for the sector.

It was terrific to see Professor Lesley Hughes, Sam Mostyn and Dr Virginia Marshall appointed to the board of the Climate Change Authority last week. They are three hugely experienced and highly influential experts. Wiradjuri-Nyemba woman Dr Marshall - a legal scholar with deep expertise in water - will bring a powerful First Nations perspective to the board’s work.

Education Minister Jason Clare has opened applications for the 2022-23 round of the STEM mentoring program for Year 9 and 10 girls, Curious Minds. This inspiring program is run by STA member Australian Science Innovations. Applications are open until 30 September.

What a moving obituary for trailblazing Australian global speech scientist Professor Anne Cutler from STA members at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University. She championed the cause of women in academia, advocating for quotas to address gender imbalance and inspiring new generations of female researchers.

Finally, STA has launched a newsletter on LinkedIn, sharing science and technology policy and advocacy news with an even wider community of opinion shapers. It will be published every second Monday following our Member Update. Please subscribe and share if you know others who would find this resource valuable.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 08:20:41 GMT

As the world mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth II, STA honours her vast commitment to public service, and her lifelong passion for the transformative power of science and technology. Last year, the Queen joined school students in a video chat to mark British Science Week, sharing insights on meeting the first astronaut to head into space, Yuri Gugarin.

How superb that Science & Technology Australia President Professor Mark Hutchinson is one of three eminent leaders appointed by Education Minister Jason Clare to review the Australian Research Council’s role and functions.

His appointment ensures an active researcher – and one with an impressive record across his career in both discovery and translational research – is among those shaping the future of the granting agency at a pivotal moment in its history.

The Minister also issued a new Statement of Expectations to the ARC - which says the National Interest Test should be clearer, simpler and more easily understood for researchers.

The Jobs and Skills Summit last week brought together many national decision-makers. The key outcomes are here. They included launching a review to drive stronger gains on diversity in the sector and its workforce.

STA welcomed the review. We are pleased it will look at structural and cultural barriers to the participation of women and other under-represented groups – and help identify the most effective programs at driving diversity gains in the sector so they can be scaled up to propel faster progress.

Yesterday the major business group CEDA released its report ‘Harnessing science x technology to drive Australian innovation and growth’. Many of STA’s ideas and proposals on how to support science commercialisation are reflected in the report – and several STA members participated in the roundtables that shaped it.

And in his speech to the CEDA conference, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Government would support the work of the science community by:
”

Signalling a respect for science, evidence and research.
Valuing foundational work - as well as commercial applications.
Creating a sense of certainty and support for long-term projects, so researchers and scientists can do their work without looking over their shoulder, or spending their time re-applying for funding.”

In an historic moment for the country, yesterday the Government’s Climate Change Bill has now passed the Senate. STA’s submission and policy suggestions were quoted in the committee’s report. The amended bill will now return to the House of Representatives.

Also over the past fortnight, STA ran a series of networking events with our inspiring Superstars of STEM. The gatherings followed their final in-person media training, where Superstars were put through their paces in newsrooms to hone their broadcast interview skills. A huge thank you to the many journalists who contributed their time, expertise and skill.

We will soon send a ‘save the date’ for next year’s Science meets Parliament. The STA team is putting together a stellar program of speakers to make it our best yet. In the meantime, sponsorship opportunities are open if your organisation wants to associate itself with this world-leading event.

Finally, a huge congratulations to the Co-Chair of STA’s EDI Committee Professor Sumeet Walia for his Emerging Leader Eureka award, and to our Superstar of STEM Dr Kirsten Ellis for her STEM Inclusion Eureka Award. It’s great to see this richly-deserved recognition.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 06:16:00 GMT

STA WELCOMES REVIEW TO DRIVE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SECTOR DIVERSITY

TUESDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2022

Australia’s leading voice for scientists and technologists welcomes the Australian Government’s announcement of a review to drive stronger gains on diversity in the sector and its workforce.

Science & Technology Australia is a champion for equity, diversity and inclusion in the science, technology, engineering and maths sector.

Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert welcomed Science Minister Ed Husic’s announcement of a review which “would help Australia to reach further into the full breadth of our diverse talent pool in this country”.

The review will look at structural and cultural barriers to the participation of women and other under-represented groups to recommend change – and help identify the most effective programs at driving diversity gains in the sector so they can be scaled up to propel faster progress.

“To truly prosper, Australia’s economy urgently needs to attract and retain more women, First Nations people, regional Australians, culturally and linguistically diverse people, people with a disability and Australians from low socio-economic backgrounds into science and technology careers,” Ms Schubert said.

“To make major strides to address chronic gender inequity in sectors where that under-representation is most acute, you need consistent strong leadership, long-term investments at scale, strong buy-in, and a powerful resolve to drive cultural change.”

“STA has a strong commitment to publish detailed evaluations on our programs to share insights on what is working – and help speed broader equity gains in the science and technology sector for women and the breadth of Australia’s diverse communities.”

“We’re pleased the review will also look at cultural and structural barriers that limit participation and retention of women and other under-represented groups in STEM professions.”

“To create the “future powered by science” envisaged by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, we need to be able to draw on Australia’s full talent pool. Clear action to eliminate barriers to participation for women and under-represented groups are key to that goal.”

STA runs the acclaimed Superstars of STEM program – backed by Australian Government – which builds the profile and confidence of diverse women role models to appear regularly as prominent science and technology experts in the media and speak in schools, inspiring our next generations of diverse young Australians into STEM.

The program has started to stratospherically elevate the profiles of stellar women in science. In the year to June 2021 alone, our Superstars of STEM did 4000 media appearances, reached an audience of 83 million people, and inspired 21,000 students in school visits.

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 90,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

HOW AUSTRALIA CAN GENERATE A $52 BILLION WINDFALL FROM SCIENCE

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 07:35:42 GMT

Australia faces a ‘Sliding Doors’ moment when we can choose to supercharge our science and technology strengths and generate a $52 billion windfall for our economy - or consign ourselves to a future with our fate in the hands of others.

Heading into the Jobs and Skills Summit, new analysis by Science & Technology Australia shows how even a modest investment to train Australia’s first generation of bench-to-boardroom scientists could powerfully supercharge our national economic growth.

Science & Technology Australia wants to recruit and train Australia’s first generation of bench-to-boardroom scientists with the skills, networks and commercial knowledge to bridge the ‘valley of death’ in science commercialisation.

Science & Technology Australia President Professor Mark Hutchinson is one of Australia’s first generation of scientist-entrepreneurs. Under his leadership, the ARC Centre of Excellence in Nanoscale BioPhotonics has created 16 startups with a combined market capitalisation and market value of nearly $520 million.

“Imagine the potential of an Australian economy powered by up to 2000 more entrepreneurial bench-to-boardroom scientists,” said Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert.

“If just five per cent - a very conservative figure - of a new generation of bench-to-boardroom scientists achieve the level of success we’ve seen from some of our nation’s brightest commercialisation stars, it would generate a $52 billion return for the Australian economy.”

“That conservative level of success would not just create a wealth of new jobs for Australians, it would kickstart whole new industries and create an economy powered by science.”

Science & Technology Australia warns the nation’s economic competitors are rapidly scaling up their investments in science, technology, research and development.

If Australia keeps pace, the country can seize huge opportunities for the economy including new jobs, national income, intellectual property and sovereign capability.

“Right now, the world is in a fierce science and technology race to rapidly advance societies and economies,” Ms Schubert said.

“The stakes are high. If Australia doesn’t keep pace, we face the grave risk that the country will end up as a consumer, not a creator - eroding our sovereign capability and deepening our reliance on other countries.”

“But with bold strategic investments now, Australia can keep ourselves in play.”

“A few decisive steps now will get us on the train to a destination of an economy and society powered by science. Miss that opportunity, and we will be left stranded on the platform.”

This month the US passed the CHIPS and Science Act 2022 - a $52 billion boost for science and semiconductor research and development dubbed a “once-in-a-generation investment in America itself” by President Joe Biden.

The bold investment plan includes a $10 billion outlay in regional science and technology hubs and manufacturing, and vast new investment in STEM workforce development and STEM education from pre-school to university - with a focus on diverse communities.

“Australia should be every bit as ambitious for our science and technology ambitions.”

At the launch of National Science Week this month, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said “the most important piece of micro-economic reform which faces the nation today is infusing our economy with science and technology”.

Science & Technology Australia participated in the science and commercialisation roundtable this month leading into the Jobs and Skills summit.

The bench-to-boardroom plan is one of five policy fixes proposed by Science & Technology Australia to advance the urgent imperative of creating the “future powered by science” outlined by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his Science Vision Statement.

Setting a bold new ambition for Australia to become a global STEM superpower;
Training Australia’s first generation of ‘bench-to-boardroom’ scientists;
Fixing chronic job insecurity in science to end the brain drain;
Confirming the Budget funding for research commercialisation investments; and
An urgent boost for breakthroughs in Australia’s discovery research grant budgets.

About Science & Technology Australia
Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 90,000 scientists and technologists. We’re the leading policy voice on science and technology. Our flagship programs include Science meets Parliament, Superstars of STEM, and STA STEM Ambassadors.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

New insurance partner for SSA members

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 07:42:50 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia is excited to announce a new partnership with KBI to provide tailored and discounted insurance to our members.

SSA members will get special access to tailored insurance products from KBI, who focus on providing an easy, streamlined, and customised process for quoting, purchasing and renewing your insurance policies.

Benefits to members:

Discounted premiums
Market leading insurance products with tailored coverages for statisticians.
Expert advice and same day response time from a local broker who is designated to SSA members, as well as a streamlined process every step of the way.
Easy to understand what is and isn’t covered
Free contract reviews to ensure your insurance policies comply with your contracts
In-house claims team and access to lawyers to help manage any disputes and claims
Education and training opportunities on insurance and risk for the statistical industry
Free “Risk Guide” for members to help you manage your key risks

KBI is a locally owned independent insurance broker with offices across Australia. As SSA’s insurance partner, KBI will help us build and continually improve a key benefit of our association to add value for our members.

To get a quote or learn more about this offering, please click here. You need to be logged into your SSA membership account to be able to see the page.

Marie-Louise Rankin
SSA Executive Officer

SSA Early Career Membership Introduced

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 23:06:55 GMT

SSA recently introduced a new membership category: the Early Career Membership. This discounted level of membership is available to members transitioning or having transitioned from full-time university studies to employment within the last three years. The fee is half the cost of full membership, with all the benefits of full membership. If you are not yet a member, sign up here!

To upgrade a current student membership to that of Early Career Membership, a member just needs to tick the appropriate box when they renew their membership next time, or send me a quick email and I’ll do it for them.

Members holding Transitional Membership were converted to Early Career members earlier this week. SSA members who recently upgraded from transitional membership to full membership may be entitled to one or two more years of Early Career membership. If this is you, please contact me.

Marie-Louise Rankin
Executive Officer

2022 President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics Announced

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 05:06:41 GMT

During his tenure as SSA President, Prof Adrian Barnett established the President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics. The intention of the award is to recognise an individual or team who has made an outstanding contribution to leadership in statistics, and each President may award one of these during their tenure.

Over the last two years, COVID-19 has meant that statisticians all around Australia, and internationally, have stepped up to provide public commentary on statistical issues, and provide advice to governments. These contributions are worthy and appreciated.

However, the group of individuals who I wish to recognise with my President’s award made contributions over the last two years that were less public. Over the last two years, when so many of us felt isolated, were confined to our homes, and were separated from our families and friends, this group of individuals worked extremely hard to maintain a sense of community among statisticians. So, in recognition of their leadership of the statistical community around Australia over the last two years, I wish to nominate all Branch Councils of the SSA from March 2020 to March 2022 for my President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics.

When the pandemic was declared in March 2020 and in-person gatherings banned, the SSA Branch Councils worked hard to continue serving their members. By pivoting to online events, a sense of community within our profession was not only maintained, but strengthened: members now had access not only to their local Branch’s events, but to SSA events happening all across Australia. I myself benefited greatly from this: tuning into inspiring and interesting presentations from across Australia helped me to get through the long, locked-down Melbourne winters. With restrictions now a thing of the past, I am pleased to see that Branches are continuing to offer virtual attendance options for some events, making SSA events accessible to a greater proportion of our members than ever before.

So: in recognition of their leadership of the statistical community across Australia during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am awarding the SSA Branch Councils from March 2020 to March 2022 my President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics, with the names of all awardees listed below. Each of these people can claim receipt of the “SSA President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics, awarded to the 2020-2022 Branch Councils”.

Jessica Kasza, August 2022

New South Wales	Victoria
Thomas Fung	Emi Tanaka
Clara Grazian	Damjan Vukcevic
Runze Alex Xu	Ben Harrap
Boris Beranger	Elizabeth Korevaar
Matt Wand	Cameron Patrick
Benoit Liquet-Weiland	Rheanna Mainzer
Houying Zhu	Lidija Turkovic
Firouzeh Noghrehchi	Daniel Fryer
Gordana Popovic	Lauren Kennedy
Luca Maestrini	Hien Nguyen
Joanna Wang	Patrick Robotham
Nicole de la Mata	Kevin Wang
Yidi Yan	Kohleth Chia
Jake Olivier	South Australia
Munir Hiabu	Murthy Mittinty
Ardalan Mirzaei	Barbara Toson
Mark Donoghoe	Aarti Gulyani
Matias Quiroz	Paul Sutcliffe
Western Australia	Wendy Li
Alun Pope	Shahid Ullah
Brenton Clarke	Helena Oakey
Shih Ching Fu	Lan Kelly
Torben Kimhofer	Kylie Lange
Deneegan Subramanian	Canberra
Fadzai Chikwava	Francis Hui
John Henstridge	Warren Muller
Rick Tankard	Nick Husek
Alethea Rea	Pauline O'Shaughnessy
Rowena Burch	Tom Lawrence
Berwin Turlach	Nelson Chua
Queensland	Xuan Liang
Dimitrios Vagenas	Anton Westveld
Adrian Barnett	Linh Nghiem
Lee Jones	Michael Martin
Xing Lee	Gwenda Thompson
Megan Steele	Belinda Baker
Rachel King	Peter Caley
Natalie Scott	Brenda Vo
Farzana Jahan
Miranda Mortlock
Peter Baker

SA Branch of the Statistical Society July 2022 meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 02:02:36 GMT

Elizabeth Armstrong and Kris Rogers, ANZHFR and UNSW School of Public Health

E Armstrong: ANZ Hip Fracture Registry: data visualisations for different audiences
K Rogers: Strategies for dealing with missing data in clinical trials

The July 2022 meeting featured two presentations delivered via Zoom by Elizabeth Armstrong (former Manager of the Australia and New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry) and Dr Kris Rogers (Senior Biostatistician at The George Institute for Global Health).

Elizabeth presented visualizations from the ANZHFR 2021 Annual Report and Kris’ presentation discussed advantages and disadvantages of various methods to obtain parameter estimates in the presence of missing data and methodologies for causal inference from non-trial data.

ANZHFR is a registry that collects data on the care of older people in Australia and New Zealand, admitted to hospital with a fracture of the proximal femur.

In 2021, 86 hospitals who contributed to the patient level report (64 in Australia and 22 in New Zealand) and the 117 hospitals who contributed to the facility level results.

Elizabeth presented a number of visualizationsfor key KPIs in the surgical care of patients who received hip replacement. The outlier report for the 16 quality indicators in the clinical care standard is an effective graphic display for the measured in standard deviations from the average performance of all hospitals. Performance outliers are flagged when the care metric lies 2 to 3 standard deviations from the overall hospital average performance.

For the determination of KPI attainment across various aspects of care, hospitals must have contributed at least 10 patient records during the relevant calendar year to be included in the patient level report.

Following on Elizabeth’s presentation, Kris discussed a range of methodologies for dealing with missing data, drawing comparisons between simpler approaches (Last Observation Carried Forward, mean imputation, multiple imputation) and other more advanced methods that use full information maximum likelihood, weighted GEEs (General Estimating Equations), Bayesian methods and causal inference methods.

Missing data in randomised studies is often an underappreciated issue. The goal of a randomised experiment is to draw a causal inference on the effect of a treatment on an outcome. In the context of randomised controlled trials (RCT), random assignment of treatment ensures that the average effect difference between the two groups can only be attributable to treatment. However, in the presence of missing data, the assumption of ignorability (e.g., the method of the data collection does not depend on the missing data), is very rarely met. Technically, the presence of missingness negates the benefits of randomisation, leaving the researcher with an observational dataset.

An interesting final point Kris raised, and which is often overlooked, is that data in observational studies needs to contain common support for the exposure in order to correctly apply causal inference methods for observational data. This can be done using propensity score models and visualising the areas of overlap of the propensity score in the exposure groups.

By Gabriella Lincoln

WA Branch of the SSA - A talk with Dr Kefei Chen

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 01:11:47 GMT

WA Branch of the SSA

The August 2022 meeting of the WA Branch of the SSA was celebrated jointly with members of the International Biometric Society (IBS) led by Mario D’Antuono a former president of the Australasian Region of the IBS. This time the location of the talk was Curtin University. The speaker for the evening was Dr Kefei Chen from Statistics for the Australian Grains Industry (SAGI) West, Curtin University. Kefei spoke on “Semiparametric and nonparametric models for crop longitudinal study”. The outline of the talk began with fitting of sigmoidal curves using full parametric models a la Logistic, Log-Logistic, Gompertz & Weibull functions; semiparametric models using Generalized Additive Model (GAM) & Shape Constrained Additive Model (SCAM); Nonparametric models using Bayesian Additive Gaussian Process Model (AGPM). This was followed by symmetric or skewed Bell-shaped/ biphasic curves fitted via full parametric models using Gaussian and Log-Gaussian functions; semiparametric models using GAM & SCAM, and nonparametric models using AGPM. The final discussion covered spatio-temporal modelling for yield prediction in the WA Grainbelt using semiparametric GAM models.

After relating formulae for parametric models he discussed motivation for full parametric regression and noted the use of R packages drc (Ritz et al., 2015) & medrc (Gerhard & Ritz, 2018). Semi-parametric regression builds on parametric regression by allowing for more flexible relationship between the predictor variables and the response variables. After a brief introduction, GAM models were fitted using the package mgcv (Wood, 2017), and SCAM models were fitted with R package scam (Pya, 2021). Finally, Bayesian Additive Gaussian Process Modelling (AGPM) was here related and fitted using R package lgpr (Timonen et al., 2021).

This was followed by exploratory data analysis with various plots and summary tables of fitted models illustrating comparisons. The preliminary results suggested that both semiparametric and nonparametric methods can be of great value in many applications in fields including biological and agricultural sciences and can have the advantage of flexibility with less assumptions. This is particularly so for longitudinal studies with temporal uncertainty, and unknown complex relationships

A Spatial-temporal model using GAM was then discussed where yield prediction is a key to many discussions for crop production. Wheat yield prediction in Western Australia is usually done by one of two methods, French and Schultz (F&S) (French & Schultz, 1984) and crop simulation modelling (APSIM) (McCown et al., 1996). APSIM is difficult to calibrate because of the number of parameters. The F&S approach is suggested to be too simple as it does not account for waterlogging.

Kefei and colleagues aimed to produce a simple and parsimonious but reasonably accurate model combining advantages of the F&S approach and the more complex crop simulation model, that can be used by farmers to predict wheat yield on a paddock level. Again, more plots were shown illustrating the advantages of the methodology.

The talk drew some interesting discussion, which was appreciated by all, and talks continued afterwards at a local tavern. All in all, it was a successful meeting.

Brenton R Clarke

Some references:

*Pya, N. (2021). scam: Shape Constrained Additive Models. R package version 1.2-12. URL: https://CRAN.Rproject.org/package=scam.

*Wood, S. N. (2017). Generalized additive models: an introduction with R. CRC press.

*Timonen, J., H. Mannerstrom, A. Vehtari, et al. (2021). “lgpr: an interpretable non-parametric method for inferring covariate effects from longitudinal data”. In: Bioinformatics 37.13, pp. 1860–1867.

*Ritz, C., F. Baty, J. C. Streibig, et al. (2015). “Dose-response analysis using R”. In: PloS one 10.12, p. e0146021.

*Gerhard, D. and C. Ritz (2018). medrc: Mixed effect dose-response curves. R package version 1.1-0.

*French, R. J. and J. E. Schultz (1984). “Water use efficiency of wheat in a Mediterranean-type environment. I. The relation between yield, water use and climate”. In: Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 35.6, pp. 743–764.

*McCown, R. L., G. L. Hammer, J. N. G. Hargreaves, et al. (1996). “APSIM: a novel software system for model development, model testing and simulation in agricultural systems research”. In: Agricultural systems 50.3,pp. 255–271.

News from Science & Technology Australia - STA Media Release

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 03:18:51 GMT

PASS THE CLIMATE LEGISLATION & ‘NAME AND FAME’ TRANSITION LEADERS

Australia’s climate change legislation should be passed with an added commitment to ‘name and fame’ sectors leading the charge to reduce emissions, the peak body for Australia’s 90,000 scientists and technologists has urged.

In its submission to the Senate Inquiry on the Climate Change Bill, Science & Technology Australia strongly supports the passage of the legislation.

The peak body proposes the legislation be accompanied by a funding boost for climate science research to guide Australia’s emissions transition, climate adaptation and resilience building measures.

It also wants the annual climate change statement to Parliament to include updates on emissions reduction progress by each industry sector – and an update on key climate science developments since the last statement.

“Australia’s science and technology sector strongly urges Parliament to pass this climate legislation,” said Science & Technology CEO Misha Schubert.

“We welcome the commitment that the 43 per cent target by 2030 is a ‘floor’, not a ‘ceiling’, for emissions reductions – and we strongly support ambitions to bolster this target in coming years.”

“Climate change is an urgent threat. Australia must act concertedly in these crucial next few years to make our transition as smooth and successful as possible,” she said.

“A deeper investment in Australia’s outstanding climate scientists will ensure we continue to have the expertise we need to safeguard our economy, safety and prosperity.”

Under the proposed legislation, the Minister will deliver an annual climate change statement to Parliament on progress towards the target.

This statement should include an update sector-by-sector to identify those making significant progress – and speed the success of transition, Ms Schubert said.

“‘Naming and faming’ sectors making swift strides towards the target will highlight examples of industry leaders and spur momentum in Australia’s transition.”

“It will also send an important message that we are all working together to achieve a common goal, and making genuine progress.”

“The annual climate statement to Parliament should include an update on significant developments in climate science over the previous year, so Parliamentarians and the public can be assured policy decisions are informed by the latest science.”

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 00:21:34 GMT

Australians overwhelmingly trust in science and scientists - and we strongly fear negative consequences for our society if people don’t value science enough, new research finds.

But a rising tide of public wariness about social media misinformation risks fuelling scepticism in science, the new data released to launch National Science Week reveals.

A major new study published today finds Australians see science as indispensable, say it was our salvation in the pandemic and is the key to tackling existential threats such as climate change.

Industry & Science Minister Ed Husic MP will today officially launch National Science Week at an event delivered by Science & Technology Australia for the Australian Government. The launch theme is Celebrating First Nations Sciences.

The 3M State of Science Index measures public attitudes to science in 17 countries. More than 1000 Australians were surveyed for the global poll in early 2022.

Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert said: “Australians strongly value and trust science, and we see clearly how important science is to our safety and prosperity.”

"Science has saved us time and again during the COVID-19 pandemic – and Australians appreciate science’s key role to help us tackle major threats including climate change, which is causing more frequent terrifying extreme weather like floods, cyclones, megafires, droughts, and heatwaves.”

The survey reveals Australians have very strong levels of trust in science – higher than in many other nations – with nine in ten of us saying we trust science and scientists.

Four in five Australians say they want to hear more from scientists about their work.

The survey highlighted Australians’ fears about what might happen if people don’t value science, with three in five believing it would lead to more public health crises and more than half believing it would lead to greater division in society.

The survey also shines a light on public fears around science misinformation and a growing scepticism about scientific information shared in the media and on social media platforms.

Three in four Australians believe there is now widespread misinformation (on all topics - not specifically on science) in mainstream news, and nine in ten Australians think there is widespread misinformation on all topics on social media.

Against that backdrop, the public level of scepticism around science has risen slightly from 25 per cent in 2021 to 32 per cent in 2022.

“We live in an era of general wariness and distrust of information – especially on social media – which is feeding into a rising tide of concern about social media misinformation that risks fuelling public scepticism in science unless we all act to safeguard it,” Ms Schubert said.

“It’s more important than ever that we all help Australians to find credible, accurate and verified sources of scientific facts from reputable science experts, which highlights the hugely important role of trusted science organisations to share science with the public.”

Eleni Sideridis, Managing Director of 3M Australia and New Zealand, said science is viewed as essential to shaping, strengthening and improving Australia.

“The last few years have shown Australians the true value of science. We have seen a global pandemic unfold, the impacts of climate change and increasing weather events firsthand. The people of Australia know that science holds the solutions to many of these issues,” she said.

“The results of the 3M State of Science Index demonstrates how we as a nation recognise misinformation. It shows the importance of science communities, such as those within Science and Technology Australia and 3M being present in the public eye to ensure transparency and clearly communicated solutions to Australia’s biggest problems. Only then will we have a prosperous future for our country.”

National Science Week runs from 13 to 21 August 2022. To find an event in your local area: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 02:05:51 GMT

Next Thursday, Science & Technology Australia hosts the official launch of National Science Week 2022. The event will bring together federal MPs and Senators with science sector stakeholders in the first sitting fortnight of the new Parliament. So timely!

STA has also begun the nationwide search for Australia’s next 60 Superstars of STEM. This inspiring program advances gender equity in STEM by equipping diverse STEM experts with skills and confidence to step into the media spotlight as media stars. Know someone who would be perfect for this life-changing opportunity? Please encourage them to apply by 14 August. To assist you in promoting this superb opportunity to your networks, we have a suite of social media materials for you to use.

Many thanks to STA members who gave invaluable feedback on the proposed governance reforms. There has been strong support for them, and we hope to update you again soon.

Congratulations to the many impressive science and research leaders appointed to STA’s STEM Sector Policy Committee and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee this week. We look forward to working with you!

We also congratulate every scientist named as a finalist for this year’s prestigious Eureka awards. A special shout out to STA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee Co-Chair Professor Sumeet Walia, 2019-21 Superstar of STEM Dr Kirsten Ellis, and Queers in Science, our community partner for Science meets Parliament 2022.

This week I chaired a National Press Club address by CSIRO CEO Dr Larry Marshall on the big challenges and opportunities for Australia, and how science can help us navigate them. Missed the speech? You can catch it here.

Legislation to write a 43 per cent emissions reduction target into law was introduced to the Parliament this week. It is now in active discussion across the Parliament. STA continues to monitor this closely, along with plans for a new Environment Protection Agency reaffirmed when the 2021 State of the Environment report was released last week.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

SA Branch June 2022 meeting: The UK coronavirus dashboard: how we provide a daily, high demand service

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 23:47:43 GMT

The June 2022 meeting of the SA Branch was given virtually by Clare Griffiths, head of the UK COVID-19 dashboard at the UK Health Security Agency. Clare described the evolution of the dashboard during the course of the pandemic. The dashboard needed to be more than just analysis and statistics, it had to be accessible to the public, be able to convey complex information simply to a wide audience and be able to handle high volumes of traffic. The project was based on an infectious diseases surveillance system which is still used to manage data before entering the pipeline for the dashboard.

There have been three versions of the dashboard as the need for public information has changed over time. Initially, in the (northern hemisphere) summer of 2020, the dashboard took over from daily press briefings and provided daily counts of cases and deaths. Later versions included regional data and as the vaccination program rolled out, included metrics on vaccination rates.

The code is open source and the data is held in public repositories. This openness helps transparency and improves trust in the project. Challenges include monitoring data quality, data linkage to death data, managing reinfections and deduplications.

There have been five user surveys to evaluate public response to the dashboard. Metrics are regularly reviewed to keep them relevant. There was early interest in test and trace metrics, now there is almost none. Future metrics will include monitoring of variants and infection surveys. This was a fascinating talk on the development of a highly visible dashboard that was developed rapidly to provide public information. The design principles of accessibility, openness and conveying complex information simply is an exemplar for public health projects.

By Lan Kelly

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 03:35:15 GMT

This week, the world got to see the stunning first images from the James Webb Telescope. It was a glimpse back in time across billions of years - and a vivid demonstration of the power of science. Here’s a sense of this historic moment from Superstar of STEM Dr Sabine Bellstedt.

Next week, STA begins some star-searching of our own. We will launch the next nationwide quest to find the next group of scicomms superstars to join our game-changing Superstars of STEM program. This inspiring program advances gender equity in science, technology, engineering and maths by creating high-profile diverse role models keen to step into the public spotlight as high-profile national media stars. Open to women and non-binary people in STEM, the program smashes society’s gender assumptions about STEM careers and lifts the public visibility of women in STEM by creating more equal gender representation of STEM experts in the media.

We will launch our nationwide search next Wednesday - 20 July. We would love your help to spread the word about this exciting professional development opportunity. We will send you draft social media posts and tiles early next week so you can promote this superb opportunity to your networks.

Another event on the horizon is the official launch of National Science Week 2022. It will be held in Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday 4 August at 8am. Invitations to this exciting event have gone out - we look forward to seeing you there.

Have you had your say on STA’s governance and constitutional reform project? Feedback closes 21 July - so please take this opportunity to provide input as we finalise reforms to bring to a Special General Meeting.

Finally, we are recruiting for a new Communications Officer - a brand new position at STA. If you have someone in your networks with a flair for communications and social media who is keen to join a supportive team working on exciting content, please encourage them to apply.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

REPORTS AND POLICY

Education Minister Jason Clare has announced $17.7 million in ARC funding to create four new Industrial Transformation Research Program Research Hubs.
He also announced $29.3 million to train Australia’s next generation of research professionals at six new Industrial Transformation Training Centres.
The Government announced funding to expand the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education.
The Government announced an independent review of the ARC and its enabling legislation - which the ARC welcomed.
ARENA has invited 12 projects for large scale batteries to submit full applications.
CSIRO has launched the virtual Hydrogen Knowledge Centre.
ATSE published an article on how rising sea levels represent a threat to our coastal societies.
John Coyne at ASPI wrote a piece on how rare earths in Australia must be about more than mining.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUBMISSIONS

The NHMRC seeks submissions on its National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. Responses by 1 August.
The NHMRC is consulting on options to reach gender equity in the Investigator Grant scheme.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water seeks feedback on how to improve Australia’s diesel exhaust fluid supply. Respond by 22 July.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is reviewing changes to the concept and measurement of skill under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). Responses are due 26 July.

Further information: STA Director of Policy and Engagement Sarah Tynan.

GRANTS, FUNDING, AND OPPORTUNITIES

Applications for The Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program are now open. The program develops entrepreneurial skills in clinicians who have the ambition to change healthcare for the better.
Each year, the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia celebrates two exceptional mid-career stem cell researchers with the Metcalf Prizes for Stem Cell Research. Apply by 5 August.
The Australian Geoscience Council is offering scholarships to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander undergraduate students who have completed the first year of a geoscience degree. Apply by 30 September.
If there is a year 11 student in your life, let them know applications for the 2023 National Youth Science Forum year 12 program are now open. NYSF introduces students to all types of STEM career pathways. Apply by 14 August.
The Theo Murphy Initiative (Australia) funds interdisciplinary activities that provide career development opportunities for early- and mid-career researchers. Submit a proposal today for activities to be delivered between September 2022 and August 2023.

Canberra branch “2022 rego grants” for all members

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 02:35:16 GMT

SSA Canberra is inviting all its members to apply for financial support in the form of a “rego grant” to attend statistical conferences, workshops, visits to collaborators, and other related events in 2022, whether they be in-person or held virtually, and whether they be national or international events.

Successful applicants of the rego grant will be eligible for up to $400 AUD of total funding, with the funding coming in the form of reimbursements.

To be eligible for the grant, you must be a member of SSA Canberra Branch (regardless of membership type) at the time of submitting your registration grant application. Membership is only $20 for full time students, so it is definitely worth joining just to apply for the grant!

Application Details:

Please prepare the following documents and a submit a single PDF form containing:

A brief resume/CV of up to 2 pages;
A short document (<=200 words) describing the statistical event you want the rego grant to cover, and why attending it will be beneficial for you and your statistical/data science career;
A description of the costs and amounts you would like to be reimbursed;
A statement declaring any other financial support you are receiving.

Please send your application to ssacanberra@gmail.com

The Canberra branch has set aside a “pot of gold” for this, and applications will be assessed on a first-come-first-serve basis until the pot runs out or until the end of 2022, whichever comes first.

Outcome and show me the money!

Successful applicants will be notified by email as the applications are assessed. If you are successful, you will need to send us relevant registration receipts/invoices, and SSA Canberra will reimburse you up to the $400 amount.

Anything else I should know?

Successful applicants should acknowledge the financial support of SSA Canberra during any presentation/poster they make at the event, if applicable. They will also be required to contribute a short piece to the Stats Matters newsletter discussing their experience of the event.
If you have any questions, feel free to send us an email at ssacanberra@gmail.com.

We look forward to your application!

Regards,

SSA Canberra

Join the ASC2023 Committee!

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 05:44:23 GMT

Did you enjoy last year’s Australian and New Zealand Statistical Conference? Why not get involved with our next ASC, held in Wollongong in December 2023? The team for ASC2023 are looking for two more committee members to help assist with planning our first face-to-face conference in four years!

The two volunteer positions to be filled are that of Marketing Officer and that of Sponsorship Officer. If you love graphics and a bit of social media, the Marketing Officer position may be calling your name. As for the role of Sponsorship Officer, we already have a list with sponsorship leads for you, so you will not be starting from scratch.

With both positions you can count on the capable support of SSA’s Event Coordinator, of course.

Interested? Please email the SSA Office by 11 July 2022.

If you have played with idea of volunteering, but you are worried about getting roped in for the next five years, these two positions are perfect for you, as they will not go on beyond 2023.

Attention Vic Branch members! Workshop/conference funding support available!

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 04:01:22 GMT

SSA Vic are proud to announce that we will once again be offering financial support to our members for the attendance of statistical workshops, conferences, and short courses; both national and international, in 2022.

Each member is eligible for up to $200 of total funding to cover the registration and travel expenses associated with the aforementioned activities.

Are you eligible?

To be eligible for access to funding, the applicant must satisfy the following criteria:

1. The applicant must be a member of SSA Vic at the time of application. (Membership is only $20 for students!)

2. Provide invoices/evidence of registration and expenses that the funding will be used to cover.

Members who were funded in previous years are also eligible for funding in this 2022 round.

How to apply?

Please use this form to apply.

You will be asked to provide a brief description of the statistical event and the anticipated benefits to you, your statistical career or the statistical community.

Applications typically take 2 weeks to process.

For more information:

Members seeking more information may email us for more information, by including the subject line “SSA Vic Funding Applications 2022”.

Please note that the successful applicants that are presenting at the conference will need to acknowledge support from SSA Vic in their talk or poster.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 02:13:13 GMT

Dear Marie-Louise,

Recognition is powerful. It was terrific to see the Queen’s Birthday Honours list dominated by scientists, including many with deep ties to Science & Technology Australia. Their service to the nation is crucial - and vastly appreciated.

The 2022 honourees included the inspirational founder of Deadly Science, Corey Tutt OAM, Kerry Doyle PSM OAM, the Executive Director of the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance, and the outstanding clinical pharmacologist Professor Sarah Hilmer AM of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists.

Deadly Science, the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance, and the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists are all STA members. We are proud of our associations with them, and delighted to see their leadership recognised publicly.

Huge congratulations to Professor Tanya Monro - Chief Defence Scientist and head of Defence Science and Technology, and to the leading scientists Emeritus Professor Anne Green and Dr Patricia Selkirk, awarded the nation’s highest honour of Companion (AC) in the General Division.

Science & Technology Australia will host the official launch of National Science Week 2022. The week’s theme is Celebrating First Nations Sciences, highlighting Indigenous STEM knowledges. The heads of STA member organisations will be invited to attend this in-person event in Canberra with Parliamentarians. We await the revised Parliamentary sitting timetable - but please hold the date of 11 August from 8am to 9am in your diaries pending that confirmation.

Keen to help shape the work of Science & Technology Australia as the sector’s peak body? We are inviting applications to join our STA Policy Committee and STA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. To be eligible, you must be a member or staff at an STA member organisation.

We strongly encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disability, people from diverse faith, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and LGBTQIA+ STEM professionals. Applications close Sunday 3 July. This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the future direction of the STEM sector.

And to turbocharge your communications skills, register now for our upcoming Creating a (Cracking) Podcast course on 23 June. STA’s pod mastermind Martyn Pearce will teach you all you need to know about how to turn your ideas into a compelling podcast. Places are filling fast, so register now and don’t miss out!

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 00:40:34 GMT

Wow! What a powerful finale to Science meets Parliament 2022.

Amid a galaxy of stars from the worlds of science and politics, last night Australia’s newly-minted Science and Industry Minister Ed Husic signalled his deep appreciation for the work of science. He thanked the nation’s scientists for all that they do – and outlined a desire to learn from, partner with, and back in Australia’s formidable STEM sector to advance Australia’s interests.

It was a powerful speech. He laid out an intention to tackle big challenges for our nation with support and engagement from the STEM sector. On the name change of the portfolio from innovation to science – he was declarative. “We’re bringing science to the forefront. We’re listening to the science, we’re respecting the science, and we’re acting on the science,” he said. And he set out ambitions to invest further in key frontier technologies – AI, quantum and more, and a bold pitch to work to end the brain drain in STEM of our brilliant home-grown talent.

There was a powerful note of bipartisanship too, as he signalled a desire to work with State and Territory Ministerial counterparts from both sides of the aisle to seize opportunities for the nation. “It doesn’t matter what side of politics you are on – if we’re working together in the national interest, that’s all that matters.”

The sector also took this important opportunity to thank former Science and Technology Minister Melissa Price for her deep engagement with all of us in her time in the portfolio.

With 720 guests in eight capital cities, an array of heads of science organisations and agencies were joined by senior Parliamentarians. They included Australia’s new Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, South Australian Deputy Premier Susan Close, Queensland Science Minister Meaghan Scanlon, NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Science Robyn Preston, Tasmanian Science and Innovation Minister Madeleine Ogilvy, and NT Treasurer and Education Minister Eva Lawler, and many federal MPs, Senators and Senators-elect.

And the night was burnished with more stars. There were powerful words from Quandamooka mathematician, ATSIMA Chair and STA Board Director Chris Matthews, our superstar MC Nate Byrne, and STA President Mark Hutchinson. As CEO of Science & Technology Australia, I expressed our deep gratitude to the Minister and the Parliament for its engagement with the sector through the powerful vehicle that is Science meets Parliament.

I am always so proud of the terrific work Science & Technology Australia does to forge ever-deeper connections between the worlds of science and technology and policy-making. Those connections can help decision-makers and legislators to draw on deep scientific expertise to make the best possible decisions on how to tackle the big challenges.

A huge thank you to the amazing staff, Board and volunteers at STA who have staged this ambitious eight city triumph.

Ably led by STA Events Director Lucy Guest and Deputy CEO Sandra Gardam, this superb team who landed the event included Emma Hibbert, Kelvin Peh, Evelyn Fetterplace, Emily Downie, Sarah Tynan, Martyn Pearce, Shannon Wong, Penny Thomson, Andrew Harford, Sharath Sriram, Anita Goh, Chris Matthews, Lila Landowski, Heather Catchpole, Jas Chambers, Mark Hutchinson, Kathy Nicholson, Karina Nunez, Tatiana Soares da Costa, Chloe Taylor, Anna Bolton, Sarah Pearce, Kirsti Abbott, Charmaine Valenzuela, Louise Atkins, Francine Machin and Genevieve Evans. Legends, one and all.

Thank you to all of you who attended last night, and supported Science meets Parliament 2022.

That’s it for this special edition of Member Update – we’ll be back next fortnight with the regular full bulletin.

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

News from Science & Technology Australia - ELECTION 2022 PLEDGES ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 18 May 2022 01:32:16 GMT

Australia’s political parties and independent candidates at the 2022 election have pledged their support for science and technology investments in the next term.

Ahead of the 2022 Federal Election, Science & Technology Australia invited political parties and independent candidates to respond to the 10 election priorities of the science and technology sector.

The sector’s priorities identify major science and technology policy settings and investments needed for Australia to seize crucial opportunities for the country.

The Liberal National Coalition response highlighted an investment of “$93 billion in the science, research and innovation sectors…to support hundreds of thousands of highly-skilled Australian jobs to keep Australia strong and secure our economic future.”

“In these times of global uncertainty, the Morrison Government believes science and technology play an increasingly important role in making Australia more resilient, more competitive and more able to deliver jobs for Australians,” it said.

In its response, Labor said it “believed Australia can be a global STEM superpower” and vowed to work with industry and the research sector to lift Australia’s R&D investment “getting it closer to 3% of GDP achieved in other countries”.

The ALP also made clear its support to legislate the Australian Economic Accelerator as part of the University Research Commercialisation Action Plan.

“An Albanese Labor Government will prioritise science and technology with our comprehensive plan to create jobs, boost vital skills by investing in education and training, bring industry expertise back onshore and supercharge national productivity,” it said.

The Australian Greens advocate investing $17.8 billion in the science, research and innovation sector over a decade, alongside a commitment to put the country on a pathway to investing 4 per cent of GDP in science, research and innovation by 2030.

“Investing in science creates jobs, makes our economy stronger, and allows Australia to overcome the challenges we face as a nation,” the party said.

Key independents who responded included:

Zoe Daniel, whose team said she “is a strong supporter of STEM” and would be a strong advocate for stronger funding of the tertiary sector and science.
David Pocock, who said he would “advocate for more longer-term certainty in research investment … on par with other OECD countries” and “oppose undue ministerial interference in allocation of research grants and funding”.
Dr Monique Ryan, whose team said she was “strongly supportive of the aims of Science & Technology Australia to make Australia a STEM superpower” and boost both public and private investment in research commercialisation.
Allegra Spender, whose team said she “strongly supports” an aspiration to make Australia a global STEM superpower as a key part of her economic agenda - and wanted to seek deeper investments in R&D.
Zali Steggall, whose team highlighted her policy platform pledging to “support research and development” including boosting Australian Research Council funding - and bolstering STEM workforce skills training.
Kylea Tink, whose team said she wanted to see Australia in the top ten OECD nations for investment in R&D - including via research grants - and supports a review of funding to ensure “a vibrant scientific workforce at all levels”.
Andrew Wilkie MP, whose office declared his “strong agreement with each of the ten priorities.”

The full responses of the parties and candidates can be found here.

Science & Technology Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more than 90,000 scientists and technologists nationwide.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 06 May 2022 02:50:43 GMT

In two weeks, Australians will head to the polls and to choose their representatives in the next Federal Parliament.

On behalf of our members, STA has invited political parties and independent candidates across the country to respond to the STEM sector’s election priorities, developed at STA’s Presidents and CEOs Forum last year. We look forward to sharing those responses with you very soon.

Staying with governance, STA has been further developing the next phase of work in our constitutional review and reform project as part of our long-term strategic plan.

Our goal is to create a new governance structure that is nimble, integrated, and inclusive to ensure STA’s leaders can realise our mission while leveraging our multi-disciplinary strengths. Our working group seeks your input via this survey.

Have you secured your ticket to the Science meets Parliament 2022 gala dinners on 2 June? They will be held concurrently in seven of Australia’s capital cities and feature a who’s-who of the STEM sector, Parliamentary, and public service worlds. Don’t miss your chance to attend the STEM community’s night of nights, and an outstanding networking opportunity.

Want to turn your team into expert communicators? We have a special end-of-financial-year discount available on STA’s acclaimed Super STEM Communicator training. Get in touch now to secure a 5 per cent discount on top of your STA members’ 10 per cent discount for courses delivered by 30 June - including our hugely popular ‘Marie Kondo your writing’ workshop.

Finally, we have an exciting employment opportunity at STA as our next Executive Officer. The position plays a key role in the governance and administration of the organisation. It would suit an organisational whiz with previous experience in a similar job. We thank Kelvin Peh for his service to STA and wish him all the best with his next career move into the Australian public service. Please share information about this role to anyone in your network who would be fabulous - and encourage them to apply.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 06:09:16 GMT

Ahead of the 21 May election, campaign commitments are now coming thick and fast.

This week, the first two Trailblazer Universities were announced. A consortium of universities and industry partners led by Curtin University will get $50 million to develop a research commercialisation hub for critical minerals and resources technology, and a University of Adelaide and University of New South Wales partnership was awarded $50 million to boost defence sector innovation. The others will also likely be announced in the campaign.

Investing in Australia’s research commercialisation skills and capability will return a huge intergenerational dividend for the country, and it’s something STA has long advocated on behalf of our members. But it’s just one of the election pledges we are urging all political parties to make to support the country’s vital science and technology community. To amplify the sector’s messaging, please share our election pledges social media tiles. For inspiration, check out this great thread by STA member the Royal Society of Victoria.

STA welcomed the announcement of Judi Zielke as the new CEO of the Australian Research Council. Judi was appointed Acting CEO for the research granting agency in February, and has shown a clear desire to engage with the research sector on key issues in her time at the helm. We look forward to working with her and her team as she leads the agency into its next era.

It was an honour this week to host an event featuring two living legends of Australia’s science community - Nobel laureates Professor Brian Schmidt and Professor Peter Doherty. The event was part of the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of The Australian National University. As befits a university which has always engaged in public debate, the discussion was wide-ranging, deeply research-informed, and put science front-and-centre in front of a huge crowd.

We are delighted to welcome a new member organisation to the STA family - Campus Plus. Under the outstanding leadership of Founder and CEO Nick McNaughton and Chief Operating Officer Zoe Fieldhouse, Campus Plus helps universities with their industry engagement through researcher commercialisation training and mentoring, entrepreneurship training, and strategic partnership creation. We are so pleased to have them as a member of the ever-growing STA community.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 02:00:00 GMT

The formal start of the election campaign is now imminent.

STA will spend the coming weeks highlighting the science and technology sector’s election priorities. These were developed from a sector leadership dialogue at the STA Presidents and CEOs Forum in October. Your team can download social media tiles promoting the priorities here for use on your channels. Please tag us so we can amplify!

At the outset of the campaign, STA will formally seek responses from parties and candidates on their policy commitments on the sector’s election priorities. We'll also monitor policy pledges made during the campaign and share that with our members.

It was terrific to see so many of you at STA’s members-only post-Budget briefing last Thursday. We’ve had great feedback about the value of the detailed analysis of Budget announcements and consultation opportunities. With gratitude to STA Director of Policy and Engagement Dr Sarah Tynan, the brief is available in the member-only section of the STA website.

This week we’ve been so excited for Gamilaraay man and founder of STA member organisation Deadly Science, Corey Tutt, who roared onto the world stage as the first ever First Nations organisation to have its branding on a Formula 1 car. It’s a significant endorsement of the incredible work Deadly Science do to support First Nations kids to get a STEM education, and gives the organisation global exposure. Read more here.

We are delighted that STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson has been appointed to the expanded Australian Research Council Advisory Committee. Mark will make a powerful contribution to the work of the Committee and brings deep insight from the research sector.

It was great to attend the Women in AI Awards last week in Melbourne. The top award was won by radiologist and breast cancer clinician Professor Helen Frazer, who is using AI for breast cancer detection. It was terrific to see so many brilliant and diverse women innovators recognised for their groundbreaking work.

The National Research Infrastructure Roadmap was released yesterday – and current projected funding of $900 million for existing NCRIS capabilities was reaffirmed. The Government says it is “considering further investment identified in the roadmap such as in digital research infrastructure, synthetic biology, research translation infrastructure, environmental and climate research infrastructure, and collections”.

Finally, this morning I spoke with a sizeable business audience for an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry event: ‘How becoming more sustainable can make Australia more prosperous’. It was an honour to connect the worlds of business, science and technology - and highlight our community’s desire to work with industry to help them make the transition required by the mounting risks, scale and pace of climate change.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

The Statistical Society of Australia’s National Schools Poster Competition (NSPC) returns for its 9th year!

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 04:09:39 GMT

“Data is the sword, those who wield it the Samurai” – developing the future STEM workforce.

Statistics + X: what’s your X?

The NSPC is a fun, project-based learning activity which encourages Stages 2 to 6 school students to develop, implement and creatively report upon an investigation on any topic of interest to them (the 'X')... for prizes!

Students conduct small-scale versions of real-world investigations in teams, developing core STEM and cross-functional skills. They create an informative e-poster presentation communicating their investigation clearly, concisely and creatively and submit within one of the five divisions (Stages 2 – 6).

A Community Division (for families, friends, colleagues) also exists – why should kids get all the fun!

TIPS and NOTES:

The www.ssapostercomp.info website provides past winning and honourable mention submissions with feedback, and many free supporting resources (e.g., animated videos on intro statistics including visual techniques and analyses, short videos of Australian experts re statistics in practice, software for analyses, a file highlighting how the NSPC maps to and supports the national curriculum, etc).

In addition to the five Division winners and honourable mentions (Stages 2 to 6) prizes are also awarded to:
The School submitting the most entries!
A randomly selected winner in National Science Week (August) based on

submissions made by 10 August (so consider entering early)!

Whilst the focus is engaging students and developing their interests and abilities, this year’s Stage 5 and Stage 6 winners may also be forwarded to an international leg of the competition (which Australia has won in the past).

Interested in further discovering how accessible statistics can be, or possibly improving your investigations or knowledge of statistics? The e-textbook ‘Business Statistics in Australia: Methods and Applications’ is now available for $30 from https://payhip.com/b/pF1D, along with a sample chapter to preview.
Submissions are due by 10 November

Please inform friends, family, schools and anyone who’ll listen about the NSPC! Happy investigating!

We welcome early online registrations and (even rough) estimated submission numbers to assist with administration, and so you receive updates – www.ssapostercomp.info.

WA Branch March Meeting with Elvezio Ronchetti

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 03:08:29 GMT

Summary of Talk by Elvezio Ronchetti, Research Center for Statistics and GSEM, University of Geneva, Switzerland, presented at the 2022 March Meeting of the WA Branch of the SSA. This summary is written by Brenton R Clarke.

In introducing Elvezio I noted that he had published several important books on Robust Statistics and has visited La Trobe University, the Australian National University and Sydney University in the past. This time we hosted him virtually in Perth, Western Australia,

Elvezio outlined his talk with an introduction giving some motivation and then detailing three examples to illustrate the advantages of robust methods. He then outlined the infinitesimal approach based on what is known as the influence function and then related that to M-estimators known for their usefulness since they often include maximum likelihood estimators as a special case. Elvezio alluded to optimal robust estimators and then concluded with reference to new papers on penalization methods and machine learning

In his introduction he gave a summarizing slide to say that Robust Statistics

deals with deviations from ideal models and their dangers for corresponding inference procedures.
the primary goal is the development of procedures which are still reliable and reasonably efficient under small deviations from the model, i.e. when the underlying distribution lies in a neighbourhood of the assumed model.

Robust statistics is an extension of parametric statistics, taking into account that parametric models are at best only approximations to reality.

Elvezio asserted that Robust Statistics was about stability theory for statistics just as in other fields such as differential equations stability theory is exemplified by Lyapunov Theory, and similarly stability of mechanical structures is studied in engineering. In numerical analysis the computation of

is considered stable on the left hand side but not so on the right (I was surprised by this as usually we get students in first year classes to use the formula on the right to reduce the risk of miscalculation due to punching in a wrong number, but obviously the computer is more efficient when there are many large numbers in terms of reducing rounding errors and also not going out of bounds if you use the formula on the left.)

The basic premise in studying stability is that models are only approximations to reality, which is a basic tenet of science. Elvezio noted John Tukey’s discussion showing the dramatic loss of efficiency of optimal location procedures in the presence of small deviations and also in his first example illustrated the classical ‘dispute’ of Eddington and Fisher as to whether one should use the mean absolute deviation or the standard deviation based on efficiency in very small contaminated neighbourhoods of the normal model. (Personally, these studies were taught to me by Noel Cressie at Flinders University during my honours year when Noel was fresh out of doing a PhD at Princeton. I am forever grateful)

Example 2 considered the robustness of the Wilcoxon test in comparison to the two-sample t-test illustrated on 2 samples taken from normal distributions and allowing on sample point to vary. This illustrated that while the t-test is known to have robustness of validity it does not possess robustness of efficiency. It is noted the Wilcoxon test has robustness of validity, but as a nonparametric test loses power in small deviations from the assumed model.

Example 3 considered ARCH effects in financial time series given in Mancini, Ronchetti, Trojani (2005, JASA). The argument was that the ARCH parameter showed no significance when doing a classical Wald test implying acceptance of the homoscedasticity hypothesis whereas the robust test shows a highly significant . It is argued that because the estimation of the volatility by classical techniques is inflated, the potential ARCH structure is hidden by the presence of a few outlying observations.

Elvezio went on to discuss the functional approach to estimation where one, for example, writes their statistic as a function of the empirical distribution and more generally on the set of distributions so that one can set up the infinitesimal approach to estimation based on the influence function. In summary he explained that what was wanted were procedures that had bounded influence functions for which the reward was robustness. This is related to the theory of differentiability of statistical functionals for which my paper in Clarke (2000 PINSA) got a mention.

Elvezio pointed to M-estimators introduced in a famous 1964 paper by Huber in the Ann. Math. Statist., for which the empirical distribution is given by and the estimator can be written which is a solution of

From these subject to Fisher consistency the influence function at the model F is

It is seen that bounding leads to a bounded influence function. Elvezio pointed to eleven bookson robustness, to see how the field has progressed. I was pleased to see the most recent book listed was Clarke (2018) Robustness Theory and Application, John Wiley & Sons.

In concluding his talk Elvezio canvassed penalization methods. He covered penalty methods for dealing with what is called sparsity and noted that estimating a regression parameter yields an M-estimator. In particular, the Huber estimator corresponds to the lasso penalty. Several references on the penalization literature were given with a statement that a popular approach to the Machine Learning literature is to enforce robustness in available algorithms.

Elvezio suggests we look for estimators with bounded influence functions. His approach would be to “huberize” the score function. Robustness is an issue in the big data world and there is an equivalence between robustness and penalization.

Brenton Clarke

Obituary: Bill McLennan, 1942 - 2022

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 06:03:23 GMT

Bill McLennan, a former Australian Statistician who had also headed the UK Government Statistical Service, died in Canberra on 19 March 2022 at the age of 80.

Bill was born in 1942 in Grafton, New South Wales. As a child, Bill moved with his family to Wollongong. Bill’s family would have done it tough during these formative years, but it clearly had a big influence on his approach to life and work. He was quick to understand issues that were really important, clear on his goals and tenacious in achieving them. Despite the impression of being a hard head he was very empathetic to his staff when they had personal issues.

He joined the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (which become the ABS in 1975) in 1960 as a statistics cadet. Bill gained a degree in Statistics and Economics from the ANU and started working at the Bureau full time in 1964. He spent all his career there, apart from his time in UK.

Initially he worked as a mathematical statistician on sampling and methodology, rising to become head of branch in 1973 at a remarkably young age. Bill helped to expand the capability of the ABS to conduct a greatly enhanced population survey program. This had a long-standing influence on the availability of social statistics in Australia. Early in his career Bill’s strong leadership qualities were recognised and subsequent postings nurtured that potential and broadened his experience.

Bill oversaw the establishment of the corporate planning system, leading to production of ABS's first Corporate Plan in 1987. Despite considerable resistance by the IT professionals at the time, he led the use of microcomputers and internet technologies, because he could see opportunities to reduce costs and improve flexibility in administrative and statistical activities.

In 1986, Bill was appointed Deputy Australian Statistician and the de facto leader of the ABS. The ABS earned a very strong reputation for how it was managed, its effective use of technology and for the quality of its outputs.

In 1987 ABS was given the choice of taking sizeable budget cuts or raising the equivalent in revenue from sales of products and services. Bill choose the latter, seizing the opportunity to focus on the needs of customers of ABS products. With a more professional approach to product design, marketing and service delivery, the changes resulted in a very substantial improvement in the ABS’s customer focus.

In 1992, Bill was appointed Director of the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and head of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) of the United Kingdom, the first person from outside the UK to hold this post. The UK statistical system had been through a challenging period. Bill’s arrival signalled a much stronger role for the office. He recognised the fundamental role of official statistics for democracy and that the work of the GSS needed to be better understood.

He produced the Official Statistics Code of Practice, first published in April 1995, which set good practice and principles for statisticians producing official statistics with the aim of promoting high standards and maintaining public confidence in official statistics. He led work leading to the establishment of the Office of National Statistics. Bill’s time in UK was relatively short, at 3 years, but he certainly left UK statistics in a different and much improved state than when he started.

In 1995 Bill returned to Australia to become Australian Statistician. Bill’s many achievements and strong leadership style are typified by the shift to disseminating statistics through the internet and the website. He also pushed ABS to take a constructive interest in the statistical activities of other government agencies and the use of administrative data for official statistics.

In the 1980s, Bill first developed a stronger interest in international statistical activities. He personally led a reawakening of the relationship with Statistics New Zealand and later took leadership roles across the Asian Pacific region more widely. Bill was elected Chairman of the UN Statistical Commission from 1994 to 1995. It was during this time that the Commission endorsed the first version of the Fundamental Principles for Official Statistics.

Bill retired as Australian Statistician in 2000. He was awarded a CBE and an AM for significant contributions to UK and Australian statistics respectively.

Bill always had plenty of interest outside work. He was an avid reader and a very capable sportsman, representing the ACT at both rugby and squash. In more recent years his focus was on golf. He loved Australia and travelled widely, especially the rural areas. He bought a motor home which he used frequently, usually accompanied by the golf sticks and always some good quality red wine.

Dennis Trewin

STA Media Release: 2022 FEDERAL BUDGET: SCIENCE COMMERCIALISATION FUNDS WELCOME, DISCOVERY DOLLARS NEEDED NEXT

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 01:22:06 GMT

Science & Technology Australia welcomes new investments in research commercialisation in the 2022 Budget, while urging deeper investment in discovery science to secure our research pipeline for coming decades and Australia’s long-term safety and prosperity.

The extension of the new Patent Box tax break for Australian companies to manufacture clean energy technologies onshore - powerfully advocated by STA - is great news.

A $2 million investment to extend Science & Technology Australia’s Superstars of STEM program for another four years will help to deepen diverse women role models in STEM.

Science & Technology Australia President Professor Mark Hutchinson said new investments in science and technology would help turn more great Australian research into jobs.

“Stronger science and technology commercialisation is crucial for our country - and these investments, long championed by the science and technology sector, will be pivotal to prosperity,” he said.

“The next task is to deepen our nation’s investments in essential discovery and blue sky science - to deliver major research breakthroughs that can catapult Australia’s capabilities.”

“The extension of the Patent Box tax breaks to low-emissions technologies in this Budget will help entice onshore manufacturing of climate transition technologies - and is a smart move that Science & Technology Australia has advocated for consistently.”

“The scale of the climate change challenge for humanity is sobering - the grave safety risks driven by climate change will mean more floods, bushfires, cyclones, storms and droughts on a scale never witnessed before.”

“Science will be our lifeline as we face all these threats - and further deep investments in Australia’s transition strategy are imperative over the next year.”

The nation’s peak body representing more than 90,000 scientists and technologists thanked the Government for its investment in the Superstars of STEM program for four more years.

“Superstars of STEM is a game changing program to transform the visibility of diverse women role models and inspire girls to pursue STEM study and careers.”

STA is pleased to see the further investment in this Budget in Indigenous rangers programs - backing in the deep scientific and engineering knowledge of Australia’s First Scientists.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

Key budget measures for science and technology in the 2022 Budget include:

$505.2 million over five years from 2021-22 (and crucially around $182.3 million ongoing) to establish Australia’s Economic Accelerator to support projects to take university research to proof-of-concept and proof-of-scale.
$295.2 million over five years from 2021-22 ($142.8 million a year ongoing) to create new research training pathways for students and researchers in Industry PhDs and Industry Fellowships
$150 million in equity funding over five years from 2021-22 to expand CSIRO Innovation Fund (Main Sequence Ventures)
$37.4 million over four years from 2022-23 to establish CSIRO Research Translation Start program to build entrepreneurial skills in the research workforce.
$5.3 million over two years to support science and technology advice to Government via the National Science & Technology Council
$4.7 million over 4 years from 2022-23 to support the Women in STEM Ambassador and Future You campaigns
$2 million over four years from 2021-22 to extend Science & Technology Australia’s Superstars of STEM program to build the profile of women in STEM
Expanding the Patent Box tax concessional rate of 17% tax rate to low emissions technologies.
$839.2 million for East Antarctic exploration.

SSA is teaming up with the Random Sample…

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 06:41:54 GMT

…and needs you! The Random Sample is a podcast that shares stories all about the impact of statistics, data science, and maths, and the statisticians, data scientists and mathematicians behind the impact. The SSA is now teaming up with the Random Sample, and is looking for an enthusiastic person to drive the organisation of stats and data science-themed episodes.

No podcasting skills are required: all that is required is enthusiasm! This is an opportunity for you to upgrade your communications skills. You will be paid for your time (expected to be around 2 to 3 hours a week). To express your interest and for more information please get in touch with SSA’s President, Jess Kasza.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 00:16:34 GMT

This week, STA President Mark Hutchinson and I gave evidence to the Senate hearing on the Australian Research Council Amendment (Ensuring Research Independence Bill). Our full submission is here.

On your behalf, we made a strong case that there is no need for a Ministerial power to approve individual research grants for funding because Australia has a rigorous and robust system of expert peer review and national science and research priorities set by the Government.

There always needs to be accountability for public spending – that’s an important principle.

But the best way to achieve that doesn’t require Ministerial involvement in approving hundreds and hundreds of individual grants in specialised fields of knowledge outside of their expertise.

Indeed, the Westminster traditions on which Australia’s democracy was modelled enshrine the Haldane principle of research independence. In the UK, Governments and Ministers set the overarching strategic research priorities, but individual grants are decided by expert peer review.

The Australian Research Council has rigorous and robust grant assessment procedures guided by the top experts in each field. Given this, there is no need for a Ministerial power of approval.

We also reiterated our call for fixed dates for ARC grant applications, approvals, and recipient notifications to be set and published three years ahead. This is key to bring certainty to both industry and researchers.

Views were strongly aligned across the sector, including the Australian Institute of Physics, the learned academies and university peak bodies and vice-chancellors.

This year’s Science meets Parliament was a triumph - our biggest and most successful event ever. Our huge thanks to everyone who supported it as a delegate, speaker, or sponsor. A record-breaking 528 delegates had an incredible week of professional development, networking, and skills building.

Some of the many highlights in 2022 included:

A fireside chat with Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty on the power of science in our era;
Global media stars Professor Brian Cox and Wiradjuri astrophysicist Kirsten Banks in conversation on the importance of clear science communication to tackle misinformation and disinformation; and
STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson outlining a vision for how Australia can take more of our great science and technology breakthroughs from the lab “bench to boardroom”.

This week, Science meets Parliament delegates met with MPs and Senators to discuss their science. This included an inspiring meeting with Science and Technology Minister Melissa Price MP.

Huge thanks to the whole team at STA who brought together the 22nd Science meets Parliament with such skill, talent and a prodigious amount of work. Here’s a tiny glimpse from behind the scenes.

And it’s not over yet! On 2 June, we’ll bring together STEM leaders and policymakers for in-person dinners in all eight capital cities across Australia hosted by our MC, ABC star Nate Byrne – tickets are open to the whole STEM community.

If you haven’t yet done the SmP2022 delegate survey, please do so. This feedback ensures Science meets Parliament will continue to be a great success connecting the science and technology community with decision-makers.

Finally, the 2022 Federal Budget will be handed down on Tuesday 29 March. Please join us for our STA members-only post-Budget briefing on Thursday 31 March at 2pm AEDT. Register here.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

Could you be our new Chair of SSA's Student and Early Career Statistician Network Committee?

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 05:13:36 GMT

We are looking for a student or early career statistician to take on the role of Early Career & Student Statisticians Network (ECSSN) Chair from April 2022.

The ECSSN Chair is an important position on the Society’s Executive Committee (EC). The holder of this position will work closely with the ECSSN Branch representatives, consider important issues facing early career statisticians and report back to the EC at their monthly meetings. Traditionally, the ECSSC Chair helps with organising events, including SSA’s signature event for early career and upcoming statisticians, the biennial ECSS Conference.

Being the Chair of the ECSSN will provide a fantastic opportunity to broaden your own experience while helping your fellow student and early career statisticians and promoting statistics. Contribute to your field and build your CV! This is an honorary two-year role; find more details here.

Please contact the current Chair, Janan Arslan or the SSA President, Jess Kasza if you have questions about the role.

To apply, please email your CV and a brief description of what you think you could bring to the role to the SSA Executive Officer before 1 April 2022.

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics is looking to fill the position of "Social Media Editor".

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 02:32:39 GMT

This position reflects the journal’s continued commitment to strategic use of social media channels to amplify its content. The successful candidate will work closely with the ANZJS editorial team, Wiley staff, and the authors of published papers to promote the contents of the journal. The focus will be on developing a strategy to improve the journal’s social media presence, particularly on Twitter, and investigating other appropriate social media platforms.

This is a formal editorial position, and the Social Media Editor will be part of the editorial team.

The Social Media Editor will ·

Manage and contribute content for the journal’s Twitter account: @ANZJStat
Ensure that each new published article is promoted on Twitter at least once using appropriate hashtags
Work with authors to maximise opportunities for summarising and promoting their work
Investigate additional social media platforms that may be appropriate for promoting the journal’s outputs

Other Key Responsibilities

The additional key responsibilities of a Social Media Editor include:
Represent and promote the journal amongst colleagues/at conferences
In collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial team, make every effort to ensure that there is no defamatory or plagiarised material
Attend Editorial Meetings in person or via teleconference if and when required
Maintain confidentiality of journal matters, content and collaborators
Carry out the responsibilities of the Social Media Editor to the reasonable satisfaction of the Editor-in-Chief.
Identify and suggest topics and authors for invited manuscript submissions for consideration to Editor-in-Chief.

Further Information

The Social Media Editor’s name and affiliation are included on the journal editorial board page. The Social Media Editor position is voluntary and honorary.

Social Media Editor position has a duration of three years, with possibility of renewal and extension, as recommended by the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial team.

The application deadline is 1 April 2022. More information can be found here.

The SSA Mentoring Committee is looking for members!

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 03:46:44 GMT

Would you like to become a committee member for the SSA Mentoring Program?

The SSA mentoring committee is about to start planning the third year of its successful mentoring program. The program provides an opportunity for emerging statisticians to develop personal and professional skills, as well as providing connections between statisticians from across the nation.

This wonderful initiative is developed and managed by the SSA Mentoring Committee (pictured below). We are a team of statisticians eager to increase the support available to our community for success in the workplace. The committee is dedicated to delivering a program that meets the needs of its diverse range of mentees . To do this, the committee is seeking expertise, experience and perspectives to ensure diverse representation of the statistics community. Do you have the fresh new voice we’re looking for? Please get in touch!

To express your interest in joining the SSA Mentoring Committee, or for more information, please email ssa.mentoring@gmail.com with a couple of paragraphs about yourself and why you are keen to get involved.

SIGNIFICANCE 2022 EARLY-CAREER WRITING COMPETITION

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 07:31:53 GMT

Are you an early-career statistician with a compelling data story to tell? Think you can take the jargon out of your stats chat? Keen to put your writing skills to the test? “Yes!”, I hear you cry! Well, I’m delighted to hear you say that: it sounds like the Significance 2022 writing competition is for you! The Significance magazine, a partnership between the Royal Statistical Society, American Statistical Association and the Statistical Society of Australia, is seeking applications for the ‘Statistical Excellence Award for Early-Career Writing’. As the SSA began its partnership with Significance mid-2021, we are particularly keen to encourage contributions from our members so get your thinking caps on to come up with some exciting content.

Eligibility:

Students currently studying for a first degree, master’s or PhD in statistics, data science or related subjects;
Graduates whose last qualification in statistics, data science or related subjects (whether first degree, master’s or PhD) was not more than five years ago.
Note that you do not have to be a member of the SSA (or the other partner organisations) to enter.

Rules:

Submit your best statistical writing in the form of a magazine article (1,500 to 2,500 words) on any subject you like as a .docx, .odt or .rtf file to significance@rss.org.uk, making sure to include the competition entry form.
Writing style must be accessible and engaging: you are not writing for a technical audience.

Prizes:

Articles will be reviewed by a judging panel with the winning entry (and up to two runners-up) published in Significance later this year.
Up to three finalists will win a full registration to the 2022 Royal Statistical Society International Conference in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Still not sure? Check out the 2021 winning entry for inspiration. The closing date is 31^st May 2022; further details can be found here.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 03:20:35 GMT

What a hectic fortnight it has been.

It began with the Prime Minister’s announcement at the National Press Club of a $2.2 billion investment in research commercialisation. This includes a $1.6 billion fund - Australia’s Economic Accelerator – to offer grants up to $500,000 and $5 million to enable researchers to take their science and technology to proof-of-concept, prototype and market. Science & Technology Australia’s long-term leadership has advocated for just such a scheme. Further details on the package can be found on the DESE website. We were particularly delighted that two of STA’s key leadership figures and commercialisation trailblazers – STA President Mark Hutchinson and STA Policy Chair Sharath Sriram – featured as successful case studies in the action plan. You can also find FAQs on elements of the plan here and here. STA warmly welcomed the investment.

And the fortnight closes today with excellent news for women in STEM. Today, the Australian Government and Science Minister Melissa Price have announced a $2 million investment in our game-changing Superstars of STEM program. This will extend the opportunities of the program to another 120 women over the next four years. We thank the Government and Minister Price for this powerful investment in the talent of Australia’s women in STEM. This unique program - created by STA in 2017 - works powerfully to boost the public and media profiles of diverse women in STEM and fast-track their careers. By building this critical mass of visible role models, and through skilled outreach into the nation’s schools, this program is inspiring the next generations of girls and young women into STEM. Its success is documented in a detailed evaluation report that STA has launched today. It shares data, case studies and clear evidence of its success. We publish it to share knowledge of how to spur gains in pursuit of gender equity.

The Australian Research Council Amendment (Ensuring Research Independence) Bill 2018 was this week referred to the Education and Employment Legislation Committee for an inquiry and rapid report by 15 March. We expect a call for submissions will be made soon. STA continues to engage on these and related matters.

STA’s Board met this week for our first full Board of the new year. STA’s cluster representatives expertly relay information from your cluster reports and meetings to the full Board to inform our whole-of-sector advocacy. We also held a strategic planning session to set STA’s strategic framework and approve the annual work plan for 2022. It’s going to be a very busy year!

Finally, it’s now just over two weeks until Science Meets Parliament! If you haven’t already, please register your delegates ASAP and encourage your members to apply for one of our coveted scholarships - open until Monday. It’s a powerful program of skills development.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

SUPERSTARS OF STEM FUNDED FOR STRATOSPHERIC SUCCESS

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 03:34:33 GMT

Media Release Science & Technology Australia

FRIDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2022
The Australian Government has today announced a further $2 million investment to advance women in STEM through Science & Technology Australia’s game-changing Superstars of STEM program.

This powerful investment in Australia’s STEM leadership talent will enable 120 more brilliant and diverse women in STEM to turbo-charge their media profiles and career success over the next four years, helping to inspire the next generations of girls and young women into these crucial fields.

STA thanks the Australian Government and Science Minister Melissa Price for the announcement of this crucial investment in Australia’s science, technology, engineering and maths talent.

Since 2017, this world-leading program has fast-tracked the profile and careers of 150 brilliant Australian female scientists, smashed gender stereotypes about what a scientist looks like, and inspired tens of thousands of school children to consider studying STEM.

An evaluation report highlighting the astronomical success of the program is being launched today.

Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert said the Superstars of STEM program was “starting to powerfully ‘shift the dial’ on women’s under-representation in STEM and deliver more equity and diversity of scientists in public life.”

“We know it’s hard to be what you can’t see. By nurturing these diverse visible role models of women in STEM - in the media, in public leadership and in our schools - this program powerfully shows girls and young women that STEM is for them.”

“At its heart, the Superstars of STEM program is about brilliant women scientists lifting each other up to be visible public role models and inspire our next generations into these crucial careers.”

The evaluation report was launched today by twin events with Science Minister Melissa Price at Western Australia’s Pawsey Supercomputer facility, and an online national event with the Australian Government’s Ambassador for Women and Girls in STEM Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith.

The evaluation report of the program’s impact from 2019 to 2021 shows more than 21,000 Australian school students have been inspired by school visits and talks by the Superstars of STEM.

The program has stratospherically elevated the profile and fast-tracked the careers of Superstars, reaching cumulative media audiences of 83 million people through more than 4000 media appearances from July 2020 to June 2021.

The Superstars of STEM program is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, and is an initiative of Science & Technology Australia.

Science & Technology Australia is the not-for-profit peak body for the sectors, representing more than 90,000 scientists and technologists across Australia.

STA CEO Misha Schubert and several Superstars of STEM are available for interviews.

Read the Hon Melissa Price MP’s media release here.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

Ministerial interference in 2021 Australian Research Council Discovery Grants

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 06:01:29 GMT

Jointly with related societies, the SSA recently sent an open letter to the Education Minister regarding the use of the National Interest Test to block research proposals recommended for funding by the Australian Research Council. The view of these societies is that such veto powers severely erode public trust in the ARC process. You can read the open letter here.

Scientific Programming Committee members needed for ASC2023

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 02:22:06 GMT

The Scientific Programming Committee for the 2023 Australian Statistical Conference, co-Chaired by Dr Nicole White (QUT) and Dr Karen Lamb (University of Melbourne), is seeking new members to help plan the program for the conference taking place in December 2023. The conference theme is ‘Statisticians in society’, focussing on the key role statisticians play in communication across diverse areas that are key to our society.

Interested? Please email Nicole White (nm.white@qut.edu.au) by 25^th February to tell us a little more about yourself, including brief details of i) the statistical section you align most with (e.g., biostatistics, environmental, official), ii) employment sector (e.g., academic, industry, government), iii) how long you have been working as a statistician, iv) what prior experience you have in conference or event organisation, and v) what you will bring to the committee. Please note that no prior experience in conference organisation is required. We would love to hear from people keen to get more involved in the SSA and strongly encourage people who may not have participated in SSA activities before to reach out (including early career statisticians). We look forward to hearing from you!

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 04:00:17 GMT

RESEARCH COMMERCIALISATION FUND COULD BE A GAME-CHANGER

TUESDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2022

Today’s announcement by the Prime Minister of a $2.2 billion investment in a research commercialisation fund, venture capital and new industry scholarships and fellowships could turbo-charge Australia’s research commercialisation success.

In recent years, Science & Technology Australia has made a powerful case for Australia to create a new Research Translation Fund to deliver strong returns on investment to the nation.

Its role would be to turn more great Australian science and technology into products, jobs, start-ups and new income streams for Australia.

STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson is one of a new generation of ‘bench-to-boardroom’ scientists - an entrepreneur, innovator and neuroscientist at the ARC Centre for Excellence in Nanoscale Biophotonics.

Under his high-energy leadership, the centre has forged more than 30 industry partnerships and seeded 15 startup and spinoff companies from its discovery research.

“This new research commercialisation fund is an exciting development. We see vast potential for it to ‘level-up’ Australia research commercialisation success, and generate stronger returns on investment for the nation from our world-leading research,” said Professor Hutchinson.

“Australia has a wealth of talent, ideas, and expertise in research breakthroughs. But for too long, the country has lacked the support and infrastructure for more of our research to bridge the ‘valley of death’ between research and commercialisation.”

“This announcement has the potential to be a game-changer.”

“Australia’s Economic Accelerator will offer seed capital for more research to be taken to proof of concept and prototype to attract further capital from the private sector, and enable more products to be made in Australia."

“It offers the possibility of turbo-charging Australia’s research commercialisation, by giving researchers support to ‘lean in’ to business, and helping business ‘lean in’ to the brilliant talent pool of scientists in this country.”

“This funding can kickstart the next-generation science capabilities we need to face the next set of complex challenges that will confront our country.”

“Science & Technology Australia has been the leading voice for a Research Translation Fund for several years. We are excited by this development and the potential it offers Australia to create the products, services, and jobs of the future,” he said.

Science & Technology Australia is the peak body representing more than 90,000 scientists and technologists in Australia.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

Thirty years on, Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics remain the shared foundation of an informed society

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 01:32:22 GMT

2022 marks 30 years since the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, now a General Assembly-endorsed global standard, were first developed and adopted at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

Created by the Conference of European Statisticians, UNECE’s highest decision-making body made up of the national chief statisticians of member countries, these principles were devised at a time of immense change and upheaval across the region. As centrally-planned economies transitioned to market economies in many member States, statisticians realized more than ever that they needed a shared framework to define the principles that guide what they do. Such a framework helps to secure the trust and credibility upon which effective statistics depend. There are many differences across countries in how their statistical production is organized, what data they gather, what needs they fulfil, yet these central principles are universal.

The principles underlie everything that the producers of official statistics do: from the methods for collecting, processing and storing data to the ways that statistical offices disseminate statistics and communicate with those who use them. The principles ensure independence from political influence and the right and duty to publicly correct misuse or misinterpretation of statistics. They safeguard the trustworthiness of official statistics, enabling them to play a unique role as a public good that underpins sustainable development and democracy.

By marking this 30th anniversary, statistical offices across the region are recognizing the continued and increasing importance of the principles in guiding what they do. As the sheer amount of data produced increases everywhere, those who rely on facts to shape their decisions are faced with a vast range of possible sources to which they can turn. At the same time, deliberately misleading uses of data, selective use of figures and incorrect interpretations abound.

With their collective manifesto for serving society with impartial, relevant and accurate information to guide decisions, the community of official statisticians will continue upholding and being led by the Fundamental Principles for 30 more years and beyond.

To celebrate this anniversary, starting on 31 January, selected CES member countries will lead a series of campaigns marking each of the principles in turn. The first principle relates to ‘relevance, impartiality and equal access’, which will be highlighted by Canada. Participating countries will take the lead in showcasing the ways in which they fulfil the principle, how this impacts everyday life, and why this matters to society.

The ten principles will be celebrated at two-week intervals from January to June, culminating in the 70th plenary session of the Conference of European Statisticians on 20-22 June.

In summary form, the principles are:

· Principle 1: Relevance, impartiality and equal access

· Principle 2: Professionalism

· Principle 3: Accountability

· Principle 4: Prevention of misuse

· Principle 5: Cost-effectiveness

· Principle 6: Confidentiality

· Principle 7: Legislation

· Principle 8: National coordination

· Principle 9: International coordination

· Principle 10: International statistical cooperation.

The campaign can be followed and joined on social media with the hashtags #FPOS30 and #cesUNECE, supported on Twitter by @unecestat and @UNECE.

If you wish to subscribe to the UNECE Weekly newsletter, please send an email to: unece_info@un.org

Check out the UNECE's website here

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 01:06:20 GMT

The year is in full swing already. As we navigate the Omicron wave of the pandemic, the nation is preparing for a Budget and an election.

In our pre-Budget submission, Science & Technology Australia makes a powerful case that science has shielded Australia’s economy from the pandemic – and science should be at the centre of this Budget. This is an urgent moment to secure the strategic science capabilities Australia will need to face the next set of complex challenges ahead. As STA President Mark Hutchinson and I see it: “We should fund science like our lives and our economy depend on it, because they do.”

Meanwhile the research community has come out strongly over the Ministerial veto of six ARC grants late last year. There’s an important principle at stake here. The independence of research is key in a liberal democracy. That independence is enshrined in the Haldane Principle dating back to 1918. STA’s statement is on our website. We are also concerned about fresh delays in two more grant rounds - the ARC LIEF and Discovery Projects 2023. We need an end to these delays once and for all, by shifting to fixed timetables for grant applications and announcements. We will continue to seek progress on this.

It was uplifting to see this week’s Australian honours recognise so many scientists. Former STA Vice-President Sue Barrell is now an AO, Superstar of STEM Kate Cole an OAM, and Australia’s former Chief Scientist Alan Finkel an AC. Our warmest congratulations to every scientist honoured.

The PM’s Prizes for Science nominations close soon - on 10 February. Diversity and representation matter. Please take time to nominate brilliant scientists of all backgrounds for these prestigious awards - and especially Indigenous scientists, women and people of colour.

The STA staff team is expanding to help support our strong membership growth. We are delighted to welcome Emma Hibbert from 1 February in the new role of Membership Engagement Officer. She’ll work to our Director of Membership and Events Lucy Guest and with our Membership Officer Shannon Wong. Emma is a science student at ANU and is passionate about diversity in STEM. You’ll be able to reach her at members@sta.org.au

Finally, it’s now just a month until Science Meets Parliament! If you haven’t already, register your delegates now and encourage your members to apply for one of our coveted scholarships.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 07:00:00 GMT

BUDGET 2022: TIME TO ‘DOUBLE DOWN’ ON OUR SCIENCE INVESTMENT

WEDNESDAY 26 JANUARY 2022

The 2022 Budget should “double down” on Australia’s return-generating investments in science to prepare for new complex challenges after this pandemic, fast-track our economic recovery and smooth the nation’s climate transition.

This would start with boosting direct R&D investments to shift Australia closer to the top-ten OECD countries to seize economic opportunities for our nation.

The first major stride towards that goal would be a $2.4 billion Research Translation Fund to secure Australia’s science future and generate strong returns on investment.

In its pre-Budget submission, Science & Technology Australia proposes the fund and other strategic investments to safeguard our economy, build on the country’s outstanding science capability, respond to threats, and seize new income-generating opportunities.

“Australia should use the next federal Budget to fund science like our lives and our economy depend on it - because they do,” said Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert.

“We should heed the lessons of the pandemic and ‘double down’ on our investments in science to see off major threats and seize new economic opportunities for Australia.”

“As we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s never been clearer that Australia needs the deep expertise of scientists to navigate this historic challenge - and many others.”

“Science has given us diagnostic testing, respirators, medical equipment, epidemiological expertise, and – crucially – life-saving vaccines.”

“Those vaccines have saved lives from COVID-19, and could open the door to a host of potential new vaccines against cancers - and create tens of thousands of Australian jobs.”

Science & Technology Australia President Professor Mark Hutchinson urged the Government to use the 2022 Budget to safeguard the future of our science talent, institutions, and infrastructure.

“The lessons of the past few years are clear. We must invest deeply in science and scientists. The success of science is crucial to our safety.”

“Now is the time to secure the next-generation science capabilities we need to face the next set of complex challenges that will confront our country.”

The pre-Budget submission sets out fiscally responsible initiatives to deliver strong returns on investment to both tax revenue and the economy. They include:

Boost direct R&D investment to shift Australia closer towards investment levels in the top ten OECD countries;
Create a new $2.4 billion Research Translation Fund to turn more of Australia’s science into applications that will generate returns on investment;
Safeguard the next wave of science breakthroughs by lifting ARC and NHMRC research grants budgets to $1 billion/year for each agency;
Secure the future of science and research infrastructure with long-term funding certainty for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy;
Deepen investment in climate science and low-emission technologies, including extending the proposed Patent Box initiative to include clean energy tech;
Avert a disastrous exodus of science talent by shifting to longer-term grants, employing researchers on longer-term contracts, adopting fixed timelines for grant applications and announcements, and slashing red tape in grant applications;
Invest $3 million in an STA Bench to Boardroom program to turbo charge training for scientists to pursue commercialisation;
Access Australia’s full STEM talent pool by investing $2.3 million to advance women in STEM through STA’s groundbreaking Superstars of STEM program; and $4 million to establish an Indigenous STEM Network;
A $2.3 million endowment to secure Science meets Parliament for the decade; and
Resource the promised review of the Job-Ready Graduates legislation and top up funding for STEM degrees if they have fallen under the new model.

Science & Technology Australia is the peak body for the nation’s STEM sector, representing more than 90,000 scientists and technologists.

Read Science & Technology Australia’s pre-budget submission here.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, STA: 0432 606 828

SSA Mentoring Program Update

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT

The SSA Mentoring Committee has spent the first couple of weeks of January busily pairing mentees and mentors for the 2022 mentoring program. Excitingly, we had an overwhelming number of applications, with more than 60 SSA members applying for one of the coveted 20 spots in the program. With a bit of juggling and thanks to a larger number of mentor applications than anticipated, we have been able to expand the 2022 program to just over 30 pairs and will be introducing mentees to their mentors in early February.

Although disappointing for mentees who missed out this year, these applicants will be prioritised for future mentoring programs and will have the opportunity to participate in supported peer group mentoring to help build greater connections and support across the Australian statistical community.

The committee would like to say a huge thank you to all members who expressed an interest in the mentoring program, particularly those supporting as mentors. We are excited to work with you all in 2022 and look forward to hearing how you all get on. For members interested in participating in future (particularly mentors!), further details about the mentoring program can be found on the SSA mentoring webpage.

Call for nominations: Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 23:12:38 GMT

Statistics is a cornerstone of science, health, industry, economics, government and more, and benefits society as a whole. Nevertheless, research in statistics does not yet receive the same level of recognition as in related fields such as mathematics, physics, and computer science.

To help remedy this gap, a new biennial prize has been created by the King Baudouin Foundation, a large public utility foundation in Belgium. The prize is named after its sponsor, the statistician Peter J. Rousseeuw.

The Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics will award pioneering work in statistical methodology. The prize recognizes a statistical innovation, that is, an outstanding contribution or tool that has had significant impact and found wide application in statistical practice, with relevance to society. One of the goals is to promote awareness of the important role and intellectual content of statistics and its profound impact on human endeavors.

The prize will be awarded in even years, starting in 2022. The award amount is one million US dollars per prize, to be split over awardees if there are several, which it is hoped will typically be the case. The first award ceremony is scheduled for November 2022 at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

Nominations, including letters of recommendation, are to be submitted by 31 March 2022 on the website which contains all information about the prize and nomination procedure.

ASC2023 Logo Competition

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 01:34:57 GMT

The theme for the 2023 Australian Statistical Conference (ASC) is ‘Statisticians in society’, focussing on the key role statisticians play in communication across diverse areas that are key to our society. The importance of statistical thinking has become increasingly prominent in recent years through the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change discussions around COP26. Our communication theme acknowledges the important role that statisticians play - not only as experts in analysing data, but as communicators of uncertainty - when making decisions that affect our daily lives and the world around us. ASC 2023 will bring together statisticians from across Australia, as an opportunity to communicate with one another, and advance our collective knowledge of statistical methods and applications. We look forward to offering a diverse program featuring speakers from academia, government and industry across a range of disciplines and career stages.

The Local Organising committee of ASC023 is keen to involve the SSA community in a competition to create a logo for ASC2023 conference. Please note that the conference will be in NSW. The winner will be awarded with free conference registration for ASC2023 and $200 travel funds if they reside outside NSW.

Please upload the logo you designed here before 17 January 2022.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 02:17:17 GMT

Dear STA Members,

What a hectic end to the year! 2021 continues to demand every bit of energy from us all.

Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert’s Letter of Expectations to the Australian Research Council seeks significant changes. STA welcomes the move to strengthen ARC governance. It would adopt comparable structures to the NHMRC. However we have urged a sensible rethink on a proposed move to tie at least 70 per cent of Linkage grants to the national manufacturing priorities in future funding rounds. The Linkage program funds Centres of Excellence doing fundamental research in a wide array of fields. STA is engaging with Government on this element of the changes. We have also offered input on the consultations ahead. And we have urged a swift resolution on the current round of ARC Discovery grants, which are well behind the normal timetable, with hundreds of researchers anxiously awaiting news.

Responses to the exposure draft of the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap are due Wednesday – 22 December. Our sincere thanks to STA members who contributed to our discussions in recent weeks to shape STA’s imminent response.

Register now for our blockbuster program for Science meets Parliament 2022. The program is packed with a constellation of global and Australian stars. To widen participation, STA has scholarships made possible by our generous sponsors – apply now. To put your brand in front of the nation’s science and technology community, MPs and policymakers as a sponsor of Science meets Parliament, please get in touch.

A very warm welcome to the newest member of the STA community. The Australian Research Council Training Centre for Medical Implant Technologies (ARC CMIT) is headed by Professor Peter Lee. It trains PhD students and early career researchers in medtech to work with industry partners. It brings together world-leading biomedical engineers, scientists, and clinicians with a global supply chain in medical implants in Australia, China, Belgium, the UK and US. We are excited to have you!

Finally, wishing you all a safe and restorative break in the weeks ahead. It’s been a hectic and challenging year for so many people. Our thanks to each of you for your leadership, collegiality and support. It has been an honour to advocate with and for you in 2021.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

SCIENCE MEETS PARLIAMENT 2022

Registrations are open for SmP 2022. Each STA member organisation is invited to send three delegates to the online event running from 28 February–4 March. The stellar line-up includes world-leading scientists and science communicators, two Nobel Laureates, Australian media superstars and Members of Parliament. Early-bird registration ends 20 December.

INDUSTRY INTERNSHIPS - PHD FUNDING

A new incentive will be created for universities when their future PhD graduates have completed an ‘eligible industry internship’. The incentive will apply for PhD completions from 2024 onwards. To qualify, an internship agreement must be signed in the first 18 months of the student starting a full-time PhD (or in the first 36 months for part-timers). The three-month internship can be done at any time during the PhD and must relate to the student’s area of research. They can be on-site, on-campus or online - and done with either Australian or offshore research end-users. More details here. The arrangements include more flexibility than when the incentive was first floated in the May Federal Budget. They reflect key changes advocated by STA in our submission.

NEW SURVEY: COVID-19 IMPACT ON RESEARCH AND TEACHING

STA and Professional Scientists Australia run an annual survey of the science workforce each year to track pay, conditions, morale, wellbeing and the disruptions of the pandemic. Our 2021 data was sobering. Researchers at Deakin University’s Centre for Regional and Rural Futures (an STA member) are also surveying scientists on how COVID-19 has disrupted their research and teaching. Their 2020 data is here and you can do their survey here.

CAMPAIGN ON ARC & NHMRC FUNDING

A group of Early and Mid-Career Researchers and the National Association of Research Fellows have launched a campaign asking people to write to federal MPs and Senators to advocate for an urgent boost to ARC and NHMRC funding. Here’s more on the campaign and how to get involved.

NOMINATE A DIVERSITY OF SCIENTISTS FOR A PM’S PRIZE FOR SCIENCE

Nominations are now open for the 2022 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. Having strong diversity in the field of nominees is crucial – and takes active leadership. We encourage everyone in the STA community to think about the many brilliant colleagues in your orbit – and nominate a diverse array of talent for next year’s prizes. Nominations close 10 February.

REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook was released yesterday.
CSIRO released a new model on bushfire spread predictions .
DISER released a State of Hydrogen 2021 report.
A new Digital Technologies Academy will be set up in SA.
AAMRI released its Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan.
Agrifutures released a report on using AI to detect disease in ginger seeds.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUBMISSIONS

National Research Infrastructure Roadmap Exposure Draft responses are due 22 December.
The Department of Home Affairs is seeking feedback on the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure Protection) Bill 2022 exposure draft. Submissions close 1 February.
DISER invites feedback on native vegetation regeneration projects under the Emissions Reduction Fund.

Further information: STA Director of Policy and Engagement Sarah Tynan.

STA MEMBER EVENTS

The Statistical Society of Australia’s virtual and free seminar series: Frontiers of Big Data, AI & Analytics on 19 January 2022.
Registrations are open for the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research joint scientific meeting 9-11 March 2022.
Submissions to present at the Australian Psychological Society’s conference to be held 7-9 July close 10 January.
Save the date for AusME: Australian Microbial Ecology conference to be held in Melbourne 7-9 November 2022.
Looking for digital research training events & resources? Check out DReSA: a free portal for researchers, trainers and providers.

To add an event, contact STA Events & Membership Manager Lucy Guest.

GRANTS, FUNDING, AND OPPORTUNITIES

Applications for NHMRC accreditation as an NHMRC Research Translation Centre close 21 January.
MRFF 2021 Research Data Infrastructure grants - applications close 8 February.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards for 2023 funding - applications close 2 February.
NSW Smart Sensing Network grants for projects in ageing, bushfires, COVID-19, water, mining, and smart buildings. Applications close 21 February.
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research research proposals by 10 January.
The Awards for Excellence in Women’s Leadership recognise women who have advanced leadership opportunities for other women..
The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences' Jian Zhou medal and the medal for an Outstanding Female Researcher – nominations are open.
The Footprint Coalition offers small, fast grants in cellular agriculture, Indigenous futures, conservation biotechnology, community science and AI.

STA MEMBER STORIES

The Australian Museum is digitising its collections, including the historic and diverse Marine Invertebrate collection. Read how the Museum is opening up its treasure trove of specimens to the world and the discoveries they are making along the way.

Know of a terrific STEM idea, technology, innovation, product or program that has been translated or commercialised? Please tell us about it! Email our Director of Communications Martyn Pearce.

Get in the picture: Are you following Science & Technology Australia on Instagram? If you’re an STA member using Insta, please follow us and we’ll follow you back!

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 07:00:00 GMT

Register now for our blockbuster program for Science meets Parliament 2022. Packed with a constellation of global and Australian stars, SmP2022 will include Laureate Professor Peter Doherty. Throughout the pandemic, he’s spent countless hours correcting misinformation and sharing facts with warmth, wit and candour.

Why not put your brand in front of the nation’s science and technology community and policy decision-makers as a sponsor of Science meets Parliament? STA members who are SmP2022 sponsors include Western Sydney University, Deakin University, ARC Centre of Excellence for Exciton Science, NCI Australia, New Edge Microbials and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems. Thank you all! To explore sponsorship, please get in touch.

The exposure draft of the eagerly-awaited new national research infrastructure roadmap is out. This hugely important document will shape investment decisions on research infrastructure. STA will coordinate a response from our members. Please get in touch as soon as possible to share your insights. Submissions are due by 22 December.

Yesterday, the ARC announced it would fund fellowships for six brilliant scholars in quantum and astrophysics whose appeals over the pre-prints issue were upheld. We are deeply relieved for these scholars, who have had a hugely stressful six months. While these developments are welcome, there is deep consternation in our community about the delay in the latest ARC funding round. More on this here. If you have further insights to share, please get in touch.

Our new leadership team has hit the ground running. Mark Hutchinson used his opening media as STA President to outline his key priorities including nurturing a skilled, diverse STEM workforce. Five more impressive STEM leaders have also joined the Board – our new Vice President Dr Anita Goh, new Treasurer Mark Stickells, new Executive member Professor Chris Matthews, new ECR representative Diana Zhang and new Board Director Rachel Przeslawski.

STA is also thrilled to welcome six more members. Deakin University is a science and technology powerhouse - and four of its science, technology, and engineering centres have joined us. They are Deakin's Institute for Frontier Materials, Institute for Intelligent Systems and Research, Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation, and the Centre for Regional and Rural Futures. The Australian Research Data Commons, headed by its dynamic CEO Rosie Hicks, gives Australian researchers competitive advantage through access to vast collections of data – funded through NCRIS. The University of Adelaide Sciences Alumni Network connects science alumni to forge a powerful network, spark clever collaborations, and build a thriving community. A very warm STA welcome to you all!

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

SSA equity, diversity and inclusivity issues survey

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 06:41:35 GMT

The SSA is committed to making the Society, and the discipline of statistics more broadly, welcoming, inclusive, and equitable. The SSA formed an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) committee in 2021 to help achieve this goal, however not all issues of equity, diversity, or inclusion may be obvious to those on the committee. To help the EDI committee identify EDI issues that the Society can work on, and understand perceptions of the SSA in relation to EDI, the SSA is conducting a short (5 mins), anonymous, survey.

To share your views, please fill in the survey here before 25 December 2021.

WA Branch November 2021 Seminar: Research in engineering statistics: Current trends and future challenges

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 04:30:22 GMT

Manuel Herrera PhD Senior Research Associate, Institute of Manufacturing, University of Cambridge

Manuel Herrera who is the 2021 Frank Hansford-Miller Fellow gave the WA Branch November seminar virtually. His stated intention was to show fellow statisticians what it is like to work with engineering problems using statistics and statistical methods.

As noted by Brenton the seminar fitted in perfectly with the Fellowship since Frank Hansford-Miller was a person who championed Applied Statistics and how it supported the fabric of society and even the politics of the day.

Manuel expressed pleasure in being able to explain to fellow statisticians the problems that he had faced in engineering where he had been working as long ago as 12 years for instance in looking at water supply systems, initially resolving problems to do with leakages using clustering methods, but also following up with time series methods where he made some useful predictions for demand management and infrastructure operation.

Different projects included smart boards maintenance and optimal operation of cranes in a port in this case in Felixstowe where there are 31 quay cranes, 82 yard cranes and ships having 20,000 containers with containers roughly around 35 tonnes.

Trying to ascertain where crane failure and maintenance was needed and time series provided a way through, but it was important to look for anomalies not only in the current asset but also in neighbouring assets. It was noted that while digitization was becoming normal and there are all the incumbent problems of big data, there is importance of understanding the problems at hand.

Different problems exist in long-haul internet backbone networks… again using anomaly detection in time series. Again, we are looking at anomalies in time series not only in the network node, that may represent a router station, but also anomalies in neighbouring network areas for an automated and optimal network operation and control. There are lots of challenges in a more than ever interconnected world that needs to work towards a high capacity, low latency and high accessibility internet service

Manuel then introduced a paradigm regarding digital transformation based in 5 ascending steps, Step 1. Digitization of the information, step 2 Organize the information, step 3 Automate processes using digital technologies and information to transform individual institutional operations, step 4 Streamline processes, step 5 Transform the institution which briefly summarized involve Digital transformations.

Manuel then referred to IoT and 5G solutions and better management of systems. Here IoT is the internet of things and giving information on many devices leading to big data that needs to be efficiently managed for an optimal decision making and infrastructure (asset) monitoring. Discussion involved how to work with managing data coming from IoT etcetera? Links further to Blockchains that show their ability to secure information sharing, so we don’t need to know the whole system but maybe a part of the system and neighbouring parts. That will be a key technological tool for further modelling interdependencies, for instance, between multiple urban systems.

Manuel noted the idea of having a digital twin in asset management and the opportunities offered by that.

His personal view is that it is not about technology use, if any; it is about the way one can extract maximum information [from the available technology] for a better infrastructure operation and management.

Traditional thinking was analysing data in a single analysis, but we are more often now seeing many internet connections and now we may be examining several layers in a dynamic relationship. Multilayer networks are coming to the fore. The challenge is to be able to work with traditional time series in a network dynamic.

Manuel further described predictive analytics blending time series and regression analysis tools to optimization of systems. If we detect anomalies, we can interactively complete optimization of decision making.

Manuel concluded that we must explain what we are doing and how training the network to go differently in order that decision makers may trust our involvement.

His personal view was that it is not about methodology use; it is about an approach of proper engineering challenges for a better infrastructure system operation and subsequent management.

Manuel then explained his viewpoint by looking at a long-haul internet backbone network

The challenges include anomaly detection (for very long time series). Covid has revealed a new phenomenon in interrupted time series and now the IoT reveals another dimension.

Manuel fielded several questions and we had insight of a statistician working in engineering.

Brenton R Clarke

Science Meets Parliament 2022

Vanaja Thomas — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 23:20:27 GMT

SSA is delighted to announce that in 2022 it will be once more involved in Science & Technology’s (STA) “Science Meets Parliament”. This marks the 22nd time STA has held this flagship event since it was created in 1999. Science Meets Parliament is Australia’s single largest vehicle for deep engagement between the science and technology sector and decision-makers.

This event includes inspiring speakers, high-quality professional development, meetings between scientists and Parliamentarians, a National Press Club address, and a National Gala Dinner to nurture relationships between science and technology and policymakers.

Like this year’s event, it will be held in a mostly virtual format, allowing it to be both COVID-safe.

The conference and training will be delivered online from 28 February to 4 March. An in-person National Press Club address by STA President Professor Mark Hutchinson is planned for 2 March in Canberra. The national gala dinner to bring together STEM leaders and Parliamentarians will be held concurrently in capital cities across Australia on Thursday, 2 June.

Click here to see the preliminary program.

SSA will sponsor up to two members to attend STA’s signature event. Early career statisticians are particularly encouraged to apply. Please email your expression of interest, explaining your reasons why you think this event could be of benefit to you, and your CV to eo@statsoc.org.au before 10 December 2021.

In addition, 2021 STA are offering the opportunity to apply for scholarships to attend Science meets Parliament:

First Nations scholarship for Aboriginal or Torres Strait applicants
LGBTIQA+ scholarship for members of the LGBTIQA+ community
Rural and regional scholarship for delegates in the regions
Technology scholarships for people working in the technology sector.

Applications close 4 February 2022. More information on these scholarships can be found here. Any questions about this additional opportunity should be taken up directly with Science and Technology Australia.

Marie-Louise Rankin
SSA Executive Officer

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 04:30:00 GMT

It’s on! Registrations are now open for Science meets Parliament 2022 – with a truly stellar program. Global science superstar Brian Cox will headline the event in conversation with another scicomm superstar, Wiradjuri astrophysicist Kirsten Banks. We will have further announcements in coming weeks about more of the superb sessions and brilliant speakers ahead. Book now to secure the early bird rate – only available until December 20.

STA has unveiled the science and technology sector’s 2022 election priorities. Setting the policy agenda, this blueprint was the product of STA’s annual Presidents and CEOs leadership dialogue. We’ve highlighted our push for deeper investment in R&D and a new Research Translation Fund in my comments in widespread media coverage. STA President Jeremy Brownlie also noted in the Australian Financial Review that deeper R&D investments are needed to enable science and technology to drive Australia’s climate transition.

We were honoured to give evidence to the Senate inquiry on manufacturing last week, noting STA’s proposals for a Research Translation Fund, bench-to-boardroom scientists, and extending the patent box to clean energy technologies. STA Policy Chair Sharath Sriram joined our President and me to give testimony. We were delighted to see Sharath recognised as a finalist for the AFR’s emerging leaders in higher education award – check out his opinion piece here. We also welcomed this week’s announcement of $111 million in quantum technologies.

This is our last STA Member Update before Jeremy Brownlie hands the STA Presidency to Mark Hutchinson. On behalf of the whole STA community, we thank Jeremy for his tireless leadership of this organisation and the sector – and his remarkable 11 years of service on STA’s Board. We have been blessed to have a leader of his vision, skill, kindness and grace in the Presidency in the extraordinary years of a global pandemic. We will have more to say on this at the AGM.

Finally, if you haven’t already, please register ASAP to attend the virtual AGM – or register a delegate to represent your organisation. We need a strong turnout to ensure quorum.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

The Tjanpi Award for best Student paper in Environmental Statistics - deadline extended!

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 04:22:59 GMT

The SSA Environmental Statistics section proudly announces a new annual student prize for best student paper in environmental statistics. To be eligible a student must be:

An author of a paper that has been accepted in the previous 12 months, having made a substantial contribution to the work
A student at the end of semester 1 this year (June 30 2021)
A current member of the SSA and the Environmental Statistics Section

The winner will receive $500 and will be asked to present in an invited session at the next annual stats conference (in 2023).

Please submit your nominations to eo@statsoc.org.au, with Tjanpi Award submission in the header, by 5 PM ADST Thursday 2 December 2021, including:

Full name, institution

Paper, as one pdf file.

Letter of support from supervisor or other academic at the institution, confirming student status of applicant and describing the student's role in the paper.

Central Australian landscape dominated by Tjanpi, photo by Sara Winter

SSA Mentoring Program

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 02:09:12 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia is excited to invite you to be a part of the 2022 mentoring program for all members of the Society. We are looking for up to 20 mentor-mentee pairs to take part in the 6-month mentoring program.

Our aim

This program will connect early and mid-career statisticians to experienced mentors to provide them with career guidance and to share their experiences to help them achieve their professional goals.

Mentees

Mentors

We are looking to recruit mentors who have at least five years’ experience working as a statistician. Note that mentors will be paired with mentees with less experience working in statistics (i.e., those with less than five years’ experience will not be paired with mentees with more than five years’ experience). To be eligible to participate, you must be a member of the SSA and be willing to commit to participating in the program over a 6-month period. Prior mentorship experience would be beneficial but is not a requirement for participation.

Program details

The SSA Mentoring Committee will match mentors to mentees and contact the mentee to seek approval to introduce them to the proposed mentor. Each mentor will only be assigned one mentee. Mentees are responsible for arranging the initial meeting and establishing ongoing meetings with their mentor. Ideally, mentors and mentees should aim to meet at least monthly for one hour during the program, with a minimum of four meetings over six months. There is no requirement that mentors and mentees live in the same city; meetings do not have to be face-to-face and may be held via phone or Zoom as necessary. A member of the Mentoring Committee will be in touch throughout the program to learn how things are progressing and to help resolve any issues that arise. There is no expectation that the relationship continue beyond the 6-month program. However, we would be delighted if mentor-mentee pairs continue to keep in touch!

In addition to the paired mentoring, mentees and mentors will have access mentor/mentee training, to be held virtually in February prior to the program’s commencement, and be given the opportunity to participate in a peer mentoring group of up to five participants to share experiences and build greater connections within the SSA community.

Further details about the program will be provided before the program commences.

Interested?

To register your interest in participating in the mentoring program, please complete the form by Sunday 12^th December: Successful applicants will be notified by the 31^st January 2022, with training via Zoom between 11am and 3pm AEDT on the 23^rd and 24^th of February. The program will run from March to August 2022.

If you have any questions about the mentoring program, please email Karen Lamb, SSA Mentoring Program Committee Chair.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 05:57:15 GMT

Dear Marie-Louise,

What an inspiration. Seeing the profound contributions to humanity made by the winners of the 2021 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science was cause for such pride. How fitting to see the top prize go to evolutionary biologist Professor Eddie Holmes - the Sydney University scientist who shared the genome sequence of the COVID-19 virus freely online so the world could develop tests and vaccines. It was a game changing moment in the pandemic.

The eyes of the world have been on the COP26 climate summit this week. "It will be our scientists, our technologists, our engineers, our entrepreneurs, our industrialists and our financiers that will actually chart the path to net zero - and it is up to us as leaders of government to back them in,” the Prime Minister told the gathering.

Science & Technology Australia is about to release our STEM sector election priorities statement. This major piece of work will frame our shared advocacy heading into an election year. Thanks to all who joined the leadership dialogue at STA’s annual President and CEO Forum to shape the framework.

We are pleased to announce a webinar for STA members to deepen your knowledge of intellectual property. Presented by staff from IP Australia, the session will be a practical guide to understanding IP rights and how to secure them. At the event registration page you can also shape the content of this session by choosing the top topics you want the presenters to cover in detail.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible online for the 2021 STA AGM on November 25. The meeting notice and agenda went out yesterday. Please register now if you are the delegate for your member organisation.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

Reports of interest:

All eyes were on Glasgow and COP26 this week.
The Australian Government released The Australian Way, its plan to meet net zero by 2050.
It also released the 2021 Low Emissions Technology statement and a National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy.
The PM’s address to the summit highlighted the key role of scientists, technologists and engineers to meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
CSIRO released a report examining the need for critical metals in the energy transition.
STA CEO Misha Schubert chaired a National Press Club address by climate scientists Professor Mark Howden, Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, and economist Professor Frank Jotzo.
Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley signed a joint statement with global counterparts calling for climate change action and highlighting science and technology’s role in transition.
The Grattan Institute released its take on The Australian Way.
The Royal Australian College of Physicians called on the Australian Government to act on climate change on human health, after an MJA–Lancet Countdown paper on health and climate change.
The Australian Academy of Science launched a Climate Change Hub – a repository of scientific and policy content covering all aspects of climate science.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute called for sovereign capacity in quantum science.
The Environment Minister announced new Great Barrier Reef protections on live coral harvesting.
The Invasive Species Council released a report on The Native Plant Communities of Norfolk Island.
The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists announced a new Chair, Dr Ian Pollard, AM.
The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences announced 26 new Fellows.

Opportunities for submissions:

The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources and the Clean Energy Regulator are conducting consultations under the Emissions Reduction Fund:
- Biomethane method package - submissions close 30 November.
- Blue Carbon method - submissions close 10 November.
- Plantation forestry method - submissions close 22 November.
The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences wants to better enable research to be conducted in the health system. Contribute through the online survey or make a submission.

Further information: STA Director of Policy and Advocacy Sarah Tynan - sarah.tynan@sta.org.au

APBG Scholarship Winners Announced

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 05:12:01 GMT

Congratulations to Bob Xia and Sarthak Das

The Australian Pharmaceutical Biostatistics Group (APBG) are pleased to announce the winners of the APBG Statistics and Data Science Collaboration scholarship. We would like to congratulate Bob Xia (Statistician) and Sarthak Das (Data Scientist) for being selected for this award. Thank you also to all the candidates for their applications, which were of a very high standard.

Bob and Sarthak will work together on a large simulated dataset provided by the APBG to find an algorithm that best fits the data. They will explore the different approaches biostatisticians and data scientists have of answering important clinical questions. We look forward to hearing from them at an upcoming APBG meeting.

This scholarship opportunity was provided by APBG, in partnership with the SSA. The Australian Pharmaceutical Biostatistics Group is a not-for-profit association of pharmaceutical industry statisticians in Australia, whose mission is to ensure high statistical standards within Australia to assist in the decision processes which provide safe, efficacious and cost-effective health care products produced in a regulated environment for the health and quality of life of people. For more information on the scholarship, please see the original posting.

SSA Fellowship Funding Award Recipients Announced!

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 22:45:25 GMT

Congratulations to our SSA Fellowship Funding Award Recipients!

The SSA extends our congratulations to our latest SSA Fellowship Funding Award Recipients:

Clara Grazian, UNSW
David Gunawan, University of Wollongong
Lauren Kennedy, Monash
Houying Zhu, Macquarie University
Tao Zou, ANU

These early career statistical researchers are currently hard at work on their ARC DECRA Fellowship applications. Those whose DECRA applications are successful will receive $3000 to complement their fellowship activities. We wish them, and all of our members applying for DECRAs and Future Fellowships, all the best in the preparation of their applications. A round to support our members applying for NHMRC Investigator Grants (at the Emerging Leadership level) will be opened early in 2022.

Jessica Kasza
SSA President

NSW Branch September Meeting: SIEVES MEET BOOTSTRAPS

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 04:14:06 GMT

Sieves help us cook pasta and rice, whilst bootstraps come in handy when donning a pair of boots. The September 2021 seminar to the New South Wales branch had nothing to do with cooking or dressing. However, statistics has borrowed these terms quite heavily and Professor Han Lin Shang of Macquarie University's Department of Actuarial Studies and Business Analytics explained how statistical sieves and statistical bootstraps aid the analysis of functional time series data.

The main parameter of interest throughout the talk was the memory parameter when the time series exhibited long-range dependence. A central question is obtaining confidence intervals for this parameter and a recent Journal of the American Statistical Association paper by the author and two co-authors addressed this problem.

The rise of functional time series data is due to ongoing improvements in technology, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging for measuring brain function. Han Lin described functional data in stochastic process terms and how functional time series arise when the time series index is a continuous time variable. Despite the continuum aspect of the framework, in practice the measurements are at discrete time points. Professor Shang explained the difference between dense and sparse functional data - with the former having high sampling frequency. Various theoretical constructs such as continuous time covariance functions, Mercer's representation, Karhunen-Loeve expansion and functional auto-regressive integrated moving average models were explained as being useful for analysis of functional time series data.

Then speaker Shang discussed long-memory processes and formally introduced the memory parameter. Various estimators were described and, based on the speaker's 2020 simulation study, methodology by time series researchers Peng and Whittle were recommended. After that, the branch was told how sieve bootstrapping can be used to obtain confidence intervals for the memory parameter. Simulation results showed good performance of Professor Shang's new methodology.

At the end of the presentation it was pointed out that the sieve bootstrap approach can be applied to any memory parameter, whilst asymptotic confidence intervals are only possible for a selected range of memory estimators.

Matt Wand, University of Technology Sydney

UNDER SEVERE STRAIN: A STARK SNAPSHOT OF SCIENTISTS

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 06:20:11 GMT

Science & Technology Australia Media Release

Widespread job insecurity, a spike in workloads and fatigue, and devastating job losses are eroding the morale of Australia’s science workforce at a time when we need science at its strongest, new research has found.

The ual Professional Scientists Employment and Remuneration Report by Science & Technology Australia and Professional Scientists Australia reveals the mounting toll on scientists of the pandemic and longer-term chronic job insecurity.

This year’s survey lays bare a steep drop in morale amid growing exhaustion, mounting workloads and job insecurity from short-term work contracts and the high stakes lottery of science careers relying on competitive grants.

Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert said Australia’s scientists desperately needed better job security.

“There’s a huge risk that many more of our brilliant scientists will hit breaking point and just walk away if we don’t fix this broken system of insecure work,” she said.

“We need stronger investment in science such as a $2.4 billion Research Translation Fund and much greater job security for scientists to avert a disastrous loss of talent and pursue a science-led recovery.”

“This year’s federal Budget is a legacy-defining opportunity for a lifeline for Australian science.”

Science & Technology President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie said the “pincers of the pandemic and precarious work” were taking a brutal toll on scientists.

“Australia’s scientists have prevented a vast number of deaths in this pandemic - yet our country isn’t supporting them nearly well enough in return,” he said.

“We’re seeing rising levels of fatigue, a bleak drop in morale, and widespread job insecurity with job losses at universities and precarious short-term contracts.”

Nearly two-thirds of scientists surveyed said morale at their workplace had fallen in the last year - a steep spike up from one in two who said morale fell in 2020.

And seven in ten scientists said fatigue levels had risen this year - another steep rise from the five in ten who said the same last year.

Almost one in four scientists in today’s survey said they were on a fixed-term contract, with an average length of 18 months, offering very little job security.

Modelling by Universities Australia estimated 17,300 jobs were lost at universities in 2020, a devastating toll fuelling workloads and job insecurity for staff who remain.

Key findings from this year’s scientists survey include:

· 62.5 per cent of scientists surveyed said morale fell in their workplace in the last year. That’s a big jump from 45.8 per cent in 2020.

· 70.6 per cent of scientists said fatigue had risen over the past year - up from 54.6 per cent in 2020.

· One in four scientists surveyed were on fixed-term work contracts, with an average contract length of just 18 months.

· 39.4 per cent of scientists have not had a pay increase in the last 12 months (with pay freezes at many universities amid the pandemic’s financial hit).

· Women scientists earn just 82.8 per cent of male scientists’ salaries - a gender pay gap of 17 per cent.

· One in five scientists (19.9 per cent) indicated they plan to leave the profession entirely in coming years. This figure was 18.3 per cent in 2020.

· Scientists are working an average of 7.5 hours overtime each week. 58.9 per cent said they received no extra pay or compensation for overtime.

Science & Technology Australia and Professionals Australia run this survey every year to gather accurate data on salaries and workplace conditions.

The survey of 1,275 professional scientists ran in June 2021.

The full report is here.

Media contact: Martyn Pearce, Science & Technology Australia - 0432 606 828

If you or anyone you know needs help:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or its COVID-19 support service 1800 513 348

Headspace on 1800 650 890

The Tjanpi Award for best Student paper in Environmental Statistics

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 07:32:46 GMT

The SSA Environmental Statistics section proudly announces a new annual student prize for best student paper in environmental statistics. To be eligible a student must be:

An author of a paper that has been accepted in the previous 12 months, having made a substantial contribution to the work
A student at the end of semester 1 this year (June 30 2021)
A current member of the SSA and the Environmental Statistics Section

The winner will receive $500 and will be asked to present in an invited session at the next annual stats conference (in 2023).

Please submit your nominations to eo@statsoc.org.au, with Tjanpi Award submission in the header, by 5 PM AEDT Thursday November 4^th 2021, including:

Full name, institution
Paper, as one pdf file.
Letter of support from supervisor or other academic at the institution, confirming student status of applicant and describing the student's role in the paper.

Central Australian landscape dominated by Tjanpi, photo by Sara Winter

SSA SA Branch: Statistics Careers Event

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 04:09:18 GMT

The SA branch of the SSA held its Statistics Careers Event on 8 September, 2021. The event was an opportunity for current students and recent graduates to learn about the sorts of roles that statisticians in South Australia are currently working in. A variety of statisticians gave presentations on the places they work, the skills they have developed in their roles, and upcoming opportunities for graduates.

Sam Rogers represented The Biometry Hub at the University of Adelaide, where statistics and machine learning are used to analyse modern and sophisticated problems in plant breeding, biotechnologies, wine science and human nutrition science.

Chris Davies spoke about the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA), the national registry which collects data on kidney dialysis and transplant patients.

Julian Whiting from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) spoke about the role of statisticians in Australia's official statistics agency, and gave some examples of projects he has been involved in.

Richard Woodman and Barbara Toson from the Flinders Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics (FCEB) discussed their experience of working as statisticians in a medical research group, and the way career paths form out of this work.

Jennie Louise represented Adelaide Health Technology Assessment (AHTA), and spoke about statistical consulting work and the variety of problems and she and her team have come across.

Barbara Francis from Avance CRO discussed the sorts of work undertaken by statisticians preparing designs and analyses for clinical trials in a CRO, as well as opportunities and career paths for statisticians in this company.

Robert Jorissen from SAHMRI spoke about his work on ROSA, the registry of older Australians, and their projects evaluating the epidemiology of aged care in Australia.

Approximately 15 students attended and enjoyed the opportunity to chat with the invited speakers after the presentations, and were able to gain some insight into their future career paths.

We thank all the employers and above listed presenters for their continued support of this event within South Australia. All the students had an opportunity to engage and interact with the presenters after the event.

Annie Conway

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 00:26:00 GMT

As we hurtle towards the final quarter of 2021, the cumulative effects of lockdowns are hitting hard. We urge everyone in the STA community to ask for help when you need it, and seek out the support and kindness of this remarkable membership network.

We look forward to seeing many of you at our President and CEO Forum on 11 October. We will convene the nation’s senior STEM sector leadership to set the agenda heading into an election year. This leadership dialogue is always a powerful vehicle for us to use our collective voice. STA is also delighted to be developing an alumni cohort to amplify the work of the Australian Science Policy Fellowship program run by the Office of the Chief Scientist. We will hold a powerful networking opportunity for STA’s senior leaders to expand strategic networks across the public service by meeting Fellows and Alumni at the end of the President and CEO Forum.

STA has been active on the Australian Research Council pre-prints issue. After a lengthy process, the ARC made a public statement last week reversing the ban on pre-print citations in future funding rounds. The new definition on pre-prints incorporates feedback gathered from our physical sciences members about the myriad tools, datasets and products that are commonly placed on pre-print servers to be cited in cutting-edge research proposals. It is a source of continuing anger in the research community that the revised policy does not resolve the issues for applicants in the current and recent rounds. The ARC is relying on applicants exercising their appeal rights to seek a resolution. STA has continued to raise this matter. Further information on the history of the issue is here.

There’s a flurry of further STEM policy submissions activity and consultations over the next month. This includes a rapid consultation on standard IP contracts for research organisations, the next steps in the National Research Infrastructure roadmap with an exposure draft expected soon, and an MRFF consultation. More detail on each of these is outlined below. With the change of Science Minister and a new Greens spokesperson on science, we have also renewed relationships with key advisers.

Our Superstars of STEM continue to smash new media records, with growing public profiles and appearances. Among a host of recent highlights, Superstar Dr Jiao Jiao Li won the Australian final of the Falling Walls competition, and Superstar Dr Vanessa Pirotta and Superstars trainer and Wiradjuri astrophysicist Kirsten Banks appeared on QandA’s science special last night on the ABC.

Finally, we are in the process of finalising our new Director of Policy and Engagement. I look forward to introducing you to the new appointee soon.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

MEDICAL RESEARCH FUTURE FUND 2021-26 STRATEGY

The Australian Medical Research Advisory Board (AMRAB) has opened consultations for the Australian Medical Research and Innovation Strategy. This strategy will be used to ensure a coherent and consistent approach to funding research from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and will be in place from 2021-26. Along with this review AMRAB is also asking for feedback on their related priorities which must be consistent with the strategy. In both cases they are asking:

How could the current strategy be altered to better meet the purpose set out in the MRFF Act?;
Current critical and future issues and factors impacting on the health system, including primary prevention, and on the health and medical research sector;
Options for how the next strategy could address these critical issues and factors; and
Given the new and significant impact of COVID-19 on health services and health research how should the new strategy address COVID-19 related topics and impacts.

A webinar will be held on September 28. Submissions close October 11.

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH COMMERCIALISATION - IP FRAMEWORK

As part of the university research commercialisation project being run by the Department of Education, Skills, and Employment, the Department has developed a standard Intellectual Property framework. The purpose of this framework is to enable university-led research commercialisation and collaboration.

STA will engage in this consultation. We seek your input on questions posed in the consultation paper, including:

Should such standard agreements be mandatory or optional?
What is needed to ensure the framework can be applied consistently?
What parts of standard agreements need to be flexible rather than fixed?
If you have experience with the current Australian IP toolkit, what has worked and what hasn’t?
Are there other agreements and process that need to be considered in implementing an IP framework (cross-institutional research, international collaborations, IP resulting from PhD candidate research etc)
If this IP framework has merit, should it be applied to ARC and DESE research programs or all publicly funded research?
What materials would make it easier to implement and understand the new framework?

To provide input to STA’s submission, please email Policy Manager Peter Derbyshire before 8 October.

Submissions to the department close 18 October.

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

Reports of interest:

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a paper on the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 in the first year.
ANU has released a paper on clean energy agreement-making on First Nations’ Lands.
The Productivity Commission has released a research paper on working from home.
Farmers for Climate Action has released a report on how the agriculture sector can realise the opportunities of a low emissions future.
The Australia Institute has released a paper on job losses in higher education.
The Australian National Audit Office has released a report into Improving Immunisation Coverage.
ATSE and the AAS have released a joint report on Australia’s Digital Future.
The Annual Global Innovation Index has been released with Australia slipping from 23rd to 25th in the rankings.

Opportunities for submissions:

The Australian National Audit Office is auditing the management of threatened species and ecological communities - due 31 October.
The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences is conducting a project to improve healthcare for Australians by better enabling research to be conducted within the health system. You can contribute through the online survey or by making a submission.

Further information: Peter Derbyshire, STA Policy Manager - peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

STA MEMBER EVENTS OF INTEREST

The Australian Science Innovations Curious Minds program needs Curious Minds STEM Coaches to help empower girls to excel in STEM.
Cicada Innovations is hosting a fireside chat on 13 October with Daniel Faber, CEO of Orbit Fab, a startup putting petrol stations in space. This event is hosted as part of the National Space Industry Hub, an initiative of Investment NSW, powered by Cicada Innovations.
The Ecological Society of Australia will hold its annual conference online from 22 - 26 November. ESA2021 will explore the theme of ‘Renewal’.
The Australian Society of Plant Scientists hybrid conference is on 25 November. Abstracts due by 22 October.
The AMSI BioInfoSummer2021 hybrid conference will be held 29 Nov - 2 Dec with event hubs around the country.
The Nutrition Society of Australia will hold its annual scientific meeting online from 2-3 December with the theme ‘Opportunities for Nutrition Science in a New Era’.
The HBPRCA Annual Scientific Meeting will run from 8-10 December. Abstracts must be submitted by 1 October.

To add a conference or event: contact STA Events & Membership Manager Lucy Guest – lucy.guest@sta.org.au

GRANTS, FUNDING AND OPPORTUNITIES

If you would like to be one of 100 women in STEMM on the next Homeward Bound voyage you should apply by 14 October. The visionary leadership program runs for one year and culminates in a voyage to Antarctica.
Applications are now open for the 2021 Tasmanian STEM Excellence Awards, celebrating Tasmanians who have excelled in their field. Apply by 27 September.
The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) offers undergraduate students from around Australia scholarships to spend their summer holidays working on supervised research projects. The scholarships are open to honours and masters students, and are a fantastic opportunity to broaden academic interests and experience. Apply by 30 September.
The Women in Leadership Development program supports women attaining and succeeding in leadership positions in the STEM sector. Applications are open for their 2022 program until 10 October.
Curious Minds are looking for enthusiastic women to become volunteer Curious Minds STEM coaches to empower girls in years 9 and 10 to excel in STEM. Applications close Sunday 3 October.
Women & Leadership Australia is offering partial scholarships to women in STEM areas wanting to undertake leadership training. Applications close 24 September.
The ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science is looking to fill two Research Fellow positions open to female applicants only at a Centre node and in a related research area of your choice.

STA MEMBER STORIES

Do you know of a terrific STEM idea, technology, innovation, product or program that has been successfully commercialised? Then we want to hear from you. STA is launching a new project where we’ll aim to highlight research translation and commercialisation success stories. Get in contact with our Communications Manager, Martyn Pearce.

Get in the picture: Are you following STA on Instagram? If you’re a member organisation using Insta as one of your communication channels, please follow us and we’ll follow you back!

Two SSA Members receive prestigious federal grants

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 03:40:34 GMT

Congratulations to SSA members Dr Susanna Cramb and Dr Margarita Moreno-Betancur, who were amongst those awarded National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grants. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. Investigator Grants consolidate separate fellowship and research support into one grant scheme that provides the highest-performing researchers at all career stages with funding for their salary (if required) and a significant research support package. These grants provide the investigator with flexibility to pursue important new research directions as they arise and to form collaborations as needed, rather than being restricted to the scope of a specific research project.

Dr Susanna Cramb of the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Faculty of Health received funding for the research project PLACE (Prioritising Location-based Analysis and Consumer Engagement) for Change. This research uniquely incorporates both complex spatial analyses and lived consumer experience to identify priority areas and propose actionable solutions to help reduce health inequities for cancer, diabetes and injuries. Location plays a key role in Australia’s health inequities yet is usually ignored or aggregated to large regions. This hinders identifying appropriate, localised solutions.

The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s (MCRI) Dr Margarita Moreno-Betancur’s project will tackle “big data” problems in longitudinal studies by developing new statistical methods for analysing pathways to disease. “Existing tools simply do not work in data-intensive studies such as those using large-scale biomarker datasets or real-time measurements in clinical care,” she said. “I’m aiming to address this critical gap through an integrated research program that will develop solutions, including dissemination to health researchers, as well as advanced capacity in the critical discipline of biostatistics.”

Both recipients received funding support through SSA’s Fellowship Funding initiative.

WA Branch - August Meeting - Nicola Armstrong on 'Investigating Epigenetic Clocks'

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 00:24:14 GMT

Western Australia’s SSA August branch meeting took on something of a festive air in what looks set to become an annual event – a special joint meeting with the Australasian Region of the International Biometrics Society. The presentation by A/Prof Nicola Armstrong from Curtin University provided an interesting introduction to the topic of epigenetic clocks. The title of her talk was “Investigating Epigenetic Clocks”. These clocks estimate “biological” age from blood or other tissues by measuring modifications to the epigenome, such as levels of DNA methylation (the accumulation of methyl groups to DNA molecules), that occur as a direct consequence of ageing.

Nicola described the basic modelling process that underpins the construction of such epigenetic clocks, being built via a penalized regression such as lasso or elastic net to identify a sparse set of predictive CpGs from the hundreds of thousands of potential methylation sites that are probed. With the supervised learning algorithms trained against chronological age, markers of biological age are derived from observed methylation levels at the final set of predictive sites. Measures of age acceleration/deceleration are then used to assess if underlying tissue ages faster or slower than expected. For illustration, two popular clocks were applied to three different datasets of elderly cohorts, and results from studies assessing disease-induced tissue degeneration were also presented. Several issues arising in application of these methods were discussed. These included the impact on performance of missing probes and pre-processing methods, variation arising from use of different platforms, and dependence of biological interpretation on the sample characteristics of the training data set used. A final word of caution regarding model interpretation noted there are inherent limitations in making personal predictions.

The evening drew a good crowd, and the host of questions and lively discussion at its conclusion demonstrated that attendees found the talk interesting and engaging!

Bethy McKinnon

WA Branch - April meeting – Luke Prendergast on “Meta-analysis: common traps and misconceptions”

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 03:59:54 GMT

On Tuesday 13^th April, 2021, the Western Australian branch was pleased to have Professor Luke Prendergast to present at the monthly branch meeting. The title of his talk was “Meta-analysis: common traps and misconceptions”.

Luke is Associate Head of School, School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Statistics Consulting Platform at La Trobe University. He has worked on Meta-Analysis for the past 6 years in his career. He gave a talk on certain flaws and misconceptions in meta-analysis and provided recommendations on how these flaws could be overcome using examples from published research. He mentioned that some of the flaws may be due to researchers lacking adequate training in meta-analysis.

Using the published examples, Luke identified problems and confusion from authors on whether to use random effects or fixed effects models in meta-analysis. He proposed that random effects models would be appropriate to use, which assumes heterogeneity between the studies. In addition, analysts should avoid allocating very large weights to a small number studies which may bias the results of the analysis and which may happen with fixed effect are used. Another problem relates to the interpretation of the meta-analysis results. Simple tests may lack power, especially when the number of studies is small. Authors should make it clear that the tests are for a mean effect and not effects overall. Prediction intervals which take into account the variance in the estimators and the variance associated with heterogeneity are one good example of how the magnitude of heterogeneity can be assessed. If there are wide prediction and confidence intervals in random effects models, this is to account for the heterogeneity among the studies.

The key message was that “Heterogeneity in studies can be a good thing”. Heterogeneity may be very interesting and may lead to new research directions. He further responded to questions from the audience and recommended that researchers should look for additional information on studies included in the meta-analysis to explain the analysis and conduct sensitivity analysis as appropriate.

Fadzai Chikwava

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 03:00:00 GMT

One of STA’s greatest strengths is the breadth and diversity of our membership. While other policy and advocacy organisations represent segments of this sector, the STA community’s unique role and reach enables us to bring together a combined STEM sector view. This breadth and our role as the key connector for the STEM sector has been powerfully in evidence in recent months.

One of the issues of greatest concern across the sector is the continuing toll of this pandemic on jobs and job security. Next month, Science & Technology Australia and Professional Scientists Australia will release the 2021 results from our annual workplace survey of scientists’ working conditions. In member catch-ups, we’ve heard further examples of closures and cuts in STEM departments and disciplines. We are gathering these examples to highlight these issues further as part of our advocacy around the release of the survey. Please get in touch if you have further examples you can share - especially if they could be referenced in our media pitching for the survey release.

We’re also supporting and coordinating with member organisations providing input to the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure roadmap process. And we continue to engage over the Australian Research Council policies on pre-print citations. Yesterday the Audit Office also released its report on the Medical Research Future Fund. We were pleased to see the Department of Health agreed to implement all of the report’s recommendations. STA’s submission on further steps to improve MRFF transparency are here - we will continue to advocate for them.

The diversity and breadth of our membership is also crucial in STA’s governance. Nominations have opened for election for three roles on our Board - covering Aquatic Sciences, Medical and Cognitive Sciences, and General Sciences. Nominations also open today for Executive Committee roles. We strongly encourage candidates from a wide diversity of demographics and disciplines to nominate. In particular, noting our commitments under our Reconciliation Action Plan, we especially encourage nominations from First Nations people in STEM. Here’s how to nominate.

A final call for you to send superb candidates our way for STA’s influential Director of Policy and Engagement. Applications close on Monday at 10am AEST - so please encourage any truly outstanding people in your networks to apply.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

ECSSC 2021 - A memorable experience

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 02:19:09 GMT

The Early Career & Student Statisticians Conference 2021 (ECSSC 2021) was an enjoyable and memorable experience for me. The event took place virtually for the first time ever due to the pandemic and it was the first statistics conference I attended since I became a PhD student early this year. At the conference I met some passionate young statistics researchers and learnt a lot throughout the whole event.

A large varieties of topics were discussed from the presenters in the fields of Data Science, Biostatistics and Economics, for instance. Lots of PhD students and early career researchers showed their fantastic work and this gave me some ideas to try for improving my own projects which I would have never thought of before! All the posters were well designed and had a high level of detail.

The keynote presentations were instructive and useful. I enjoyed the one by Prof. Tran from USYD the most. He gave a clear comparison between Variational Bayes (VB) and MCMC approaches, and explained why he thinks VB can be preferred to MCMC in certain situations. The career panel sharpened my view about what statisticians can do in the future and described career pathways alternative to academia.

I would like to thank the Statistical Society of Australia and all the sponsors for organising ECSSC 2021. Despite the fact that the event took place online, some social events such as the Trivia Night and Bingo still ran and were successful. The organisers definitely put a lot of effort in the organising and I would like to express my deepest gratitude to SSA for sponsoring my attendance at ECSSC 2021.

Hanwen Xuan

NSW August Branch Meeting: With most of the NSW Branch in lockdown, a tele-meeting used for a Pandemic-Era talk

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 01:58:00 GMT

Many of us in the New South Wales branch will remember the winter of 2021 for being locked down due to a stubborn COVID-19 Delta variant outbreak. As of late August, the lockdown was still in place and the August branch meeting was carried out totally using the Zoom tele-meeting application. We have some bright spots: spring is around the corner and accelerating vaccination rates are pointing to gradual returns to normality. Another bright spot was a pandemic-era seminar by Dr Nancy Briggs, who is a manager and senior statistical consultant at Stats Central, University of New South Wales. Around 30 people signed in for the event.

A major theme throughout the talk was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, starting with how it has changed where we work, how we work and the kind of work that we can do. Statistical issues concerning, for example, conclusions in a COVID-19 world compared with those pre-pandemic were discussed.

A running example throughout the talk concerned a randomised clinical trial on parenting of children aged between 14 and 24 months. The trial had three treatment arms: parent-child interaction therapy-toddler, circle of security-parenting and waitlist control. Some of the outcomes were parenting sensitivity and stress. The writer of this article was pleased to see that generalised linear mixed models played a central role in the analyses. The study was designed before anyone knew that a pandemic was about to occur, but the analyses were carried out in the early 2020s. After it was clear that the pandemic was having a big effect on the many randomised clinical trials going on, authors Cro et al. published a 2020 paper titled "A four-step strategy for handling missing outcome data in randomised trials affected by a pandemic". Speaker Briggs told us that she found this paper very useful for her recent research. One issue was whether data, missing or observed, should be treated differently depending on whether participants are directly affected by COVID-19 (either by infection or changes in treatment). Pandemic-related papers by Degtyarev et al. (2020) and Meyer et al.(2020) were also mentioned.

The main body of the talk was a detailed look at the toddler parenting randomised clinical trial by following the four steps recommended by Cro et al. (2020), as well as advice in Degtyarev et al. (2020) and Meyer et al. (2020). These latter papers recommend that, for trials that started pre-COVID-19, a pandemic-free estimand be chosen since this is what the trial was established to do. The Cro et al. Step 2 is "Establish what data are missing for the chosen estimand". For the toddler parenting clinical trial Nancy explained that there are missing data due to ceasing data collection. An example of a recommendations from these references is to summarise study population characteristics before and after pandemic onset.

Even though we are all looking forward to getting this pandemic behind us, it was interesting to see how it is impacting applied statistics.

Matt Wand University of Technology Sydney

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 00:35:58 GMT

Our deepest thanks to all of you who have engaged over the past week on the ARC pre-prints matter. We have had a lot of conversations - and we are especially grateful for your generosity in sharing key insights across the disciplines as we’ve worked on your behalf. It has been terrific to see our STA member professional societies respond to this issue with deep thought and care - with the important message of support to our early career researcher community. We’ll continue to do our part of this work in the days ahead.

As we head into a federal election year, STA will convene the leadership of our member organisations at our annual President and CEO Forum. We hope you can join us for this key STEM sector leadership conversation on our shared priorities and STA’s further growth and development. Registration is essential. Please join us via Zoom on Monday October 11 at 1pm AEDT.

We are thrilled to welcome powerhouse STEM innovator Western Sydney University and two of its world-leading STEM institutes - the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development and the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment into the STA community this week. We’re inspired by the brilliant work you are doing - and by their impressive STEM talent led by PVC-STEM and MARCS Institute Director Professor Kate Stevens and HIE Director Professor Ian Anderson. A warm welcome to you all.

In the first week of October, STA will farewell Peter Derbyshire after three fabulous years when he heads to his next role as Director of Policy at ATSE. We will miss him greatly. I know you have deeply appreciated Peter’s skilled work on policy issues in his tenure here, his grasp of policy and the political landscape, support and excellent humour. We thank him for it all!

STA has begun our search for our next Director of Policy & Engagement. This senior strategic role is key to our influential advocacy - we need a skilled policy developer, writer and networker with a deep understanding of the STEM sector. Please send any great candidates from your networks our way.

Finally, Happy Wear It Purple Day. This day was created to help foster environments that are safe, supportive and inclusive every day for LGBTQIA+ young people. So, to all our rainbow young people, today and every day, we say: we see you, we value you, and we celebrate who you are.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

SAVE THE DATE: STA PRESIDENT & CEO FORUM

As the nation heads into an election year, STA invites the leadership of our member organisations to join us at our annual STA President and CEO Forum. We will discuss shared policy advocacy priorities for the STA community, and the approach to the next year of policy engagement. We will also seek the input of our member leadership as we consider the next stage of STA’s growth and development as an organisation, and a process to review our legal structure and governing documents. Join us via Zoom on Monday 11 October at 1pm AEDT. Registration is essential.

2021 ANNUAL MEMBER SURVEY

Our annual membership survey is used to collect ways to improve STA's activities, programs and the advocacy support we provide. We endeavour to ensure our programs and initiatives are effectively supporting your organisation goals, while also supporting your members, staff, and stakeholders. Please do the survey if you can – it will only take around 10 minutes, and will provide enormously valuable input for STA. Complete the survey now.

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

CSIRO has released a synthetic biology roadmap which indicates Australia could develop an industry worth $27 billion and 44,000 jobs by 2040.
The report intoMitochondrial donation legislation has been released, as an issue of conscience there were no recommendations.
Australia’s health tracker by socioeconomic status was released by the Mitchell Institute.
A study intoAustralian burden of disease in 2018 was released.
The Centre for International Governance Innovation released a report on how to agree on WTO rules for digital trade.
The Productivity Commission released a study on vulnerable supply chains.
The OECD released a policy paper on thefuture of robots and making our life easier.
The Grattan Institute released a report into reducing industry emissions.
An article has been published on funder suppression of health behaviour intervention trial findings.
The Australian Research Data Commons released a report on Data-Driven Research Impact.
The Perth USAsia Centre released a report on the Indo-Pacific hydrogen transformation.

Opportunities for submissions:

There are three opportunities to provide feedback on the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap:

Discussion paper: Precision Measurement Scoping Study;
Discussion paper: National Environmental Prediction System (NEPS) Scoping Study;
Ideas Jam Issues Paper: Industry Engagement.
A Senate inquiry into the Australian Manufacturing Industry has begun - submissions close 10 September.
The Australian National Audit Office is auditing the management of threatened species and ecological communities - due 31 October.

Further information: Peter Derbyshire, STA Policy Manager - peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

STA MEMBER EVENTS OF INTEREST

Join a community of impact-focused researchers atCruxes Innovation’s Impact Pathfinders event. This community will gather to inspire, support, and encourage one another on their journeys to impact, and to hear from leaders in the field. Cruxes are offering free tickets to this event to the first 10 STA members who sign up to attend the event. Please click here to sign up to the event, and use discount code HISTA to get your free tickets.
Join the Australian Psychological Society for a two-day event ‘Unpacking trauma’ to learn about the latest research and best-practice approaches in the treatment of trauma. All health professionals are welcome to register.
Register now for the 11th National AeRO Forum Identifying the gaps - Digital Research Infrastructure on Tuesday 14 September.
Thursday 9 September is ruokday. This year, the theme is #aretheyreallyOK? Exciton Science will host a panel discussion on understanding mental health and the important role of conversations and positive approaches. Register here.
AMOS, with the NZ MetSoc, are holding an international conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography in February 2022. Submit your abstracts by 19 September.

To add a conference or event: contact STA Events & Membership Manager Lucy Guest – lucy.guest@sta.org.au

GRANTS, FUNDING AND OPPORTUNITIES

ANSTO FutureNow and FutureNow Plus Scholarships – open to graduates or early career researchers working on industry-focused research projects that support developments in health, defence, aerospace engineering and nuclear technologies.
Entrepreneurs' Programme - Accelerating Commercialisation – Ongoing.
The Kenneth Myer Innovation Fellowships support breakthrough solutions to Australia’s most pressing challenges. Fellows are funded to take 12 months away from their current role to pursue big ideas that have the potential to achieve positive outcomes in the areas of poverty and disadvantage, sustainability and environment, human, civil and legal rights. EOIs are open until 5 September.
The Volvo Environment Prize is open for nominations for the 2022 Laureate. The prize covers all fields of environmental and sustainability studies and initiatives.
Women & Leadership Australia is offering partial scholarships to women in STEM areas wanting to undertake leadership training.

My ECSSC2021 Experience

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 04:50:19 GMT

The Early Career & Student Statisticians Conference (ECSSC) 2021 was held online over 26^th July-1^st August. As an early career quantitative researcher at Monash Rural Health, Bendigo, I was excited to hear about ECSSC 2021 and to receive funding from SSA Vic to attend. This conference provided me with opportunities to share my pharmacoepidemiological research, refine my presentation skills, meet and interact with fellow ECSSs, and learn about multifarious topics from inspiring keynote speakers and ECSSs. Topics of particular interest to me included causal inference, multicentre trials, psychometrics, spatial modelling, social media analytics, consulting, communication, and the sociology of statistical expertise.

From my perspective, while I enjoyed and learned from the relatively specialised, technical topics covered at ECSSC 2021, I feel that I personally derived greater benefit from the more human-centred presentations. This includes presentations emphasising qualitative approaches and the personal narratives of statisticians, as exemplified by:

Atousa Ghahramani’s poster presentation ‘Use of social media analytics for raising awareness of cardiovascular diseases risk factors in the female population of Australia’ (a mixed methods study)
Taya Collyer’s oral presentation ‘What is statistical expertise?’ (a qualitative study)
Cameron Patrick’s oral presentation ‘Tales from the trenches of statistical consulting: five tips for early career statistical consultants’
Sharm Thuraisingam’s oral presentation ‘Surviving a PhD with a toddler during a pandemic’.

It was also helpful to hear the personal experiences and insights conveyed through panels and information sessions, including the experiences shared by my fellow Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia (BCA) alumni during the BCA information session. I agree with this sentiment expressed by one of the delegates: all statisticians are statistical consultants, be it informally or formally. I found it refreshing to attend a statistics conference with such a strong emphasis on the human side of the profession. The human side of statistical practice is rarely formally taught in statistics courses yet, in my experience and opinion, is of paramount importance to us statisticians and our collaborators.

I thought that technology was employed to great effect by the ECSSC 2021 Committee. The use of a solitary Zoom link for all presentations, panels, information sessions, and social events simplified attendance from an end-user perspective. Breakout rooms were well utilised during social sessions to encourage interaction and networking among delegates. The Zoom sessions were complemented by the conference’s Slack workspace—a dedicated online communication platform for conference updates, reminders, Q&As, comments, and conversations. As a first-time Slack user, I was impressed by the user-friendliness and effectiveness of this software solution. Slack facilitated many fruitful conversations about varied topics while providing a place for delegates to share helpful resources and information, such as statistics-related videos and the Twitter handles of statisticians who regularly tweet (including advanced R users). Furthermore, thanks to the sharing of recorded presentations through the ‘post-conference’ Slack channel and electronic posters through an online exhibition, my fellow delegates and I have been able to revisit particular presentations or view any that we may have missed. The ECSSC 2021 YouTube video competition was a terrific accompaniment to ECSSC 2021, further exemplifying the conference’s effective use of technology.

Overall, I found attending ECSSC 2021 to be an informative, interesting, and inspiring experience. I offer my congratulations and thanks to the ECSSC 2021 Committee as well as all conference presenters and attendees. In a contemporary world full of so much uncertainty, I feel confident about the bright future of statistics—and statistics conferences—in Australia.

Dr Michael Leach
Senior Lecturer (Education and Research)
Rural Health, Monash University

News from the International Biometric Society

Vanaja Thomas — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 04:46:31 GMT

The IBS Travel Awards Program (hooray, travel!) will launch its pre-International Biometric Conference travel funding campaign very soon. More information may be found here. Those who reside in lower and middle-income countries may apply. Funding of up to $3,000 USD per applicant is to be used to attend the 2022 International Biometric Conference in Riga, Latvia, taking place from July 10-15 at the Radisson Blu Hotel and Conference Center.

Related to the conference, there is no membership requirement to join the new IBC online Community, which was recently launched . Obviously, those eventually planning to attend the 2022 IBC will find this more useful than others. Updates related to local travel restrictions and much more will be posted there, as well as full session information.

And speaking of sessions, just a reminder that submissions from a broad range of perspectives are encouraged during our IBC Call for Contributed Sessions. Click here to view an list of the methodological topics and application areas that have been covered at previous conferences and which likely will also be covered at the next conference. This is not an exhaustive list by any means.

Submissions for oral presentations and poster sessions must be submitted online through the ScholarOne abstract portal, and will be accepted through 30 September 2021. Click here to get started.

And finally, it might be helpful to know that new rates for online advertising have just been posted online. Click here to view them:.

As always, we are happy to answer any questions you have at ibs@biometricsociety.org. Thanks for your interest!

Peter E Doherty, CAE

Executive Director

ECSSC2021 - Were you there?

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 04:32:03 GMT

The Early Career Statisticians and Students Conference (ECSSC) kicked off a full week of keynote speakers, panel discussions, abstract and poster presentations, and social events on the 26^th of July, 2021. The event, previously known as the Young Statisticians Conference, is a forum designed to connect statisticians who are in the early stages of their careers. This year it was entirely virtual for the first time.

Delegates were treated to talks on a wide range of topics covering innovative academic research, solutions developed for industry, and tips for navigating the rigors of study and life on the job.

Keynote speakers with a wealth of experience in their respective fields generously shared their work and wisdom. Peter Taylor of the University of Melbourne discussed modelling the Bitcoin Blockchain. Minh-Ngoc Tran of the University of Sydney made the case for Variational Bayes. Kendra Vant took us through the machine learning techniques she uses to create products at Xero. Paola Oliva-Altamirano shared the lessons she and her team at Innovations Lab (Our Community/ SmartyGrants) have learned in creating text classifiers for machine learning models. And finally, Helena Jia presented an inside look into the complex world of educational survey assessment design and analysis.

Talent and enthusiasm were on full display during the delegate presentations. The line-up of fascinating and conversation-provoking talks provided tough competition for the Louise Ryan award for best oral presentation. Elena Tartaglia ultimately secured first prize for her talk “Understanding the role of causal inference from observational datasets in developing government policy”. Second prize went to Sharm Thuraisingam for “Surviving a PhD with a toddler during a pandemic” and third to John Warmenhoven for “A non-conventional entry into the world of statistics.”

The newly created Alison Harcourt award for best poster went to Josh Jacobson. Puxue Qiao snared second place and Vanessa Pac Soo was awarded third. Parinaz Mehdipour won the Sue Finch Data Visualisation award for the presentation of data in her talk “Bayesian Within-host Modelling of Red Blood Cell Dynamics and Primaquine-induced Haemolysis in G6PD Deficiency”.

Shawn Lew Wei Hwa won the video competition for his presentation of “Project Guide Me”, an analysis of how well the visually impaired have been able to integrate into Singaporean society.

Despite the virtual setting, there was an abundance of opportunities to connect with other attendees and perhaps even win some prizes. The virtual pub was open for casual chats at the close of the last presentation each day. Delegates networked in breakout rooms, competed in trivia games, and even watched a movie together.

The youngest generation of future statisticians took centre stage during the high school engagement day. Participants got a rundown of the basics of R during an introductory workshop. They heard about the exploits of statisticians working at the ABS, Data61 and NSW Health, and got the chance to win books about statistics and other prizes.

Throughout the conference, there were also panel discussions, information sessions from our sponsors, and a conversation about how the SSA and the ECSSN could better meet the needs of members. All the while, delegates chatted in the slack channel, punctuating posts with an increasingly creative use of emojis.

An inspiring video interview with the incomparable Alison Harcourt concluded the event.

The ECSSC 2021 could not have been put together without the generous support of our sponsors: ABS, ASMI, ACEMS, BCA and Survey Design. Special thanks to the SSA, in particular Marie-Louise Rankin and Jodi Phillips, whose tireless efforts ensured the event’s success. Special thanks also to the keynote speakers, panelists, and delegates whose contributions motivated discussions, provided insight and encouraged connections and collaborations between members of the statistics community in Australia and beyond.

We look forward to seeing you at the next ECSSC!

Sherri McRae

ECSSC2021 Committee Member

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 01:49:01 GMT

With just a fortnight until National Science Week, please join us on 12 August for the official national launch. You can register here for this free virtual event - and we’d love you to extend this invitation to your networks. STA is honoured to deliver the launch in partnership with Questacon on behalf of the Australian Government. We’ll bring you an inspiring array of experts to speak on The Science of Recovery, Resilience and Renewal - and unveil some fascinating new insights on how Australians value science and the work of our scientists.

Our thoughts are especially with all of you and your members in New South Wales right now as this lockdown continues. We’re acutely conscious of the impact for those juggling working and caring responsibilities at home, and those facing an uncertain outlook in their employment. Please know the rest of the nation sends love and support - and wishes you every strength.

STA has been busy on your behalf over the past month with a raft of engagements across Government and with Parliamentarians, public service departments and agencies. This includes promoting our new STA policy vision. In an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review last week, we made the case for further investments in research translation, commercialisation and R&D. We’ve published our recent submissions on the Australian curriculum review - here’s the write-up in Campus Morning Mail - and on mitochondrial donation law. We’ve also been concerned about the timing of the latest round of Australian Research Council funding grants.

To wrap up the fortnight, STA is delighted to welcome another great STEM education organisation to our membership. The Victorian Space Science Education Centre inspires students in scientific learning and literacy, and supports teachers and schools with high quality education resources. Please warmly welcome VSSEC, its Director Michael Pakakis and its External Relations adviser Dr Brett Biddington to STA.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

ANZSC2021 - Experiences

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 05:47:29 GMT

by MALINDRIE DHARMARATNE

The Australian and New Zealand Statistical Conference 2021 (ANZSC 2021) was held online from the 5th to 9th July, where this conference brought together a broad range of researchers across a variety of statistical disciplines. The conference’s theme this year was “Modelling Data for a Brighter Future” and the conference program included presentations by both international and national keynote speakers, including experts in the statistical arena, mini tutorials on trending research areas of statistics, as well as oral and poster presentations.

I had the opportunity to participate and present at ANZSC 2021, where I received a scholarship covering my registration fee from the SSA Qld. One of the main highlights of the conference was the panel of keynote speakers, and how they each represented a variety of statistical disciplines. The keynote presentation by Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen, (Not) Aggregating Data, was particularly of interest as she discussed how different statistical models can be used to bring together cancer data from different registries around Australia, and how they can be combined with GIS/location details and digital earth technology.

I also had the opportunity to give an oral presentation during the Biostatistics session and my talk was titled, “scShapes: A statistical framework for identifying distribution shapes in single-cell RNA-sequencing data,” where I presented the work from my PhD research. I particularly enjoyed presenting my work to such a diverse audience, and for receiving valuable feedback. However, the biggest highlight of the conference for me was the opportunity to be part of the panel at the Women in STEM session, since I felt extremely privileged to talk about my PhD journey in my talk “Pursuing a PhD: Journey so far,” and to be on the same panel as Professor Melanie Bahlo; who’s at the forefront of statistical bioinformatics both nationally and internationally.

I would like to thank the SSA Qld for providing me with financial support to attend ANZSC 2021, as I was extremely pleased with my conference experience since I learned new statistical methods, and applications in the field which I believe will be very useful in my career. Although this year the conference was online, the organisers ensured that participants had the full conference experience through platforms like Zoom and Slack, as we had the opportunity to ask questions and network with other presenters and participants. Attending ANZSC 2021 was a fantastic experience because students and experts working in a variety of statistical disciplines came together to share their research and provide feedback to each other.

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by MOHOMED ABRAJ MOHOMED HASEEM MOHOMED AMSAR

The ANZSC2021 conference began with an inspiring keynote presentation by Professor Frauke Kreuter, as her presentation on combining data from different sources for social media was useful, and quite new to me. Afterwards, I enjoyed the wonderful talk about randomized trials by Hon. Dr Andrew Leigh, MP. However, I need to highlight the talk by Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen about The Australian Cancer Atlas, since this talk helped me to understand geological based cancer data in Australia, and I hope to use this data in my research. Noel Cressie, one of my favourite authors, presented an interesting talk on the comparison of global geophysical models, and all the talks were useful for my research career, but specifically for my area of research in copula modelling, spatial modelling, and spatio-temporal modelling. The sessions for environmental statistics, modelling, statistical theory, and methods were useful, because they provided numerous insights to my PhD project.

I presented my conference talk on Day 3 titled, “Copula modelling for spatial data: a new approach to model multivariate spatial dependency,” although I was quite nervous before the talk began since this was my first experience at a virtual conference. However, I presented well and answered all the questions from the audience, and Noel Cressie’s question was especially helpful in improving my methods. Also, other members of the audience had positive feedback on Slack, which encouraged me to progress well with my research.

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my principal supervisor Associate Professor Helen Thompson, who suggested I attend this conference and helped me in preparing the conference talk and abstract. Secondly, I sincerely thank my Associate supervisor Professor You-Gan Wang, who also reviewed my abstract and gave me valuable suggestions. Finally, I must thank QUT, ACEMS, and SSA Qld for their financial assistance.

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by OWEN FORBES

Extending Bayesian model averaging methodology for application across multiple unsupervised clustering methods

A variety of methods have been developed to combine inference across multiple sets of results for unsupervised clustering, within the ensemble and consensus clustering literature. The approach of reporting results selected from the “best” model out of several candidate clustering models ignores the uncertainty that arises from choosing the model, and results in inference that is sensitive to the chosen model and parameters, especially with small sample size data. Bayesian model averaging (BMA) is a popular approach for combining results across multiple models that offers some attractive benefits in this setting, including intuitive probabilistic interpretation of an overall cluster structure integrated across multiple sets of clustering results, with quantification of model-based uncertainty.

Previous application of BMA for clustering has been developed in the context of finite mixture models, using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) to approximate model evidence for weighted averaging of results across selected models. In this work we proposed an extension to BMA methodology to enable weighted model averaging across results from multiple clustering algorithms, by using a combination of clustering internal validation criteria in place of the BIC to weight results from each model. We presented results exploring the utility of this approach with a case study applying BMA across results, from several popular unsupervised clustering algorithms, to identify robust subgroups of individuals based on electroencephalography (EEG) data. We also used simulated clustering datasets to explore the utility of this technique to identify robust integrated clusters.

Personal Highlights

Overall, I was amazed at how smoothly and seamlessly this online conference ran, and massive kudos to the organisers for making everything run without hiccups across Slack and Zoom! Some talk highlights for me included: Professor Renate Meyer's plenary about Bayesian Time Series Tools for Gravitational Wave Astronomy; Dr Karen Lamb's talk about Obesogenic Environments and the Health Effects of Residing in 20-minute Neighbourhoods; and Dr Edgar Santos-Fernandez's talk about Spatio-Temporal Models for River Networks. I was also helped by Dr Nicole White's mini tutorial on implementing mixture models for unsupervised clustering, since this tutorial really helped bed down my familiarity and confidence with these methods, and I am grateful for Nicole's expertise and clear explanations. There were so many interesting talk titles and abstracts, that it was hard to choose which parallel session to attend live, and I’m looking forward to watching recordings of some more great talks over the next couple of weeks!

Thank you very much to the SSA Qld branch for funding my attendance, as I’m grateful for the opportunity, and I had an awesome time at ANZSC2021.

SA Branch July Meeting: Programming paradigms x Statistical software design

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 08:11:47 GMT

Dr Emi Tanaka* from Monash University gave a talk to members of the South Australian Branch on Programming paradigms x Statistical software design.

Emi started off by illustrating 5 computer programming paradigms in terms of drawing faces which was a very useful analogy.

Imperative programming is when your code to draw a face is lines of code that instruct the computer to do something. Functional programming where you gather your code together and generalize it in a ‘function’, so you can repeatedly apply the same code but with different attributes. Syntactic sugar where functions are designed to make it easier to express for humans- this may be as simple as giving a function a sensible name representing what it actually does, for example instead of calling it “face1” it could be called “face_angry”. Rethinking functions arguments -separating the parts of the function into sensible parts. In terms of the face, instead of having a function that creates the whole face, breaking it down into face parts (eyes, mouth, face shape)- each of which can be altered individually and also added to eg. Adding a mole or eyebrows. Object -oriented programming where the previous arguments of function are now objects. Now anyone can add a new object to add to the available options.

Emi recognized that software implements a mix of paradigms- and illustrated how they related to statistical programming. She looked at the ‘Grammar of graphics’ and illustrated with ggplot (a function from the R package ggplot2) which uses object-oriented programming style. ggplot follows the equifinality principal where there is more than one approach to the same thing. This allows users which may have different mental models to approach the same graph in different ways. Emi gave examples using a data set of the agridat R package, where the plot can show either infection rate or treatment, how easy it is to add captions, titles labels, change colours. ggplot allows the user to draw publication ready graphics.

Next was the ‘Grammar of data manipulations’ illustrated with the R library dplyr which combines element of syntactic sugar but has the disadvantage that the user may not understand the nuances of what is happening. dplyr is essentially a pipeline – consistent in terms of input and output, where both are ‘data.frames’.

Emi finished with the ‘Grammar of experimental design’ and touched briefly on some standard experimental design- from completely randomized design to split-plot designs. For the R package there is a CRAN task view of design of experiments with 112 R-packages, with the top downloaded packages in 2020 being AlgDesign and agricolae. Emi noted that Python another popular software language doesn’t have a lot of experimental design tools- R is really the best for experimental design and has the latest tools available in this space. In the grammar of experimental design space Emi has been developing her own package in R called edibble. Emi had taken the 3 components of experimental designs: Experimental units, treatments, allocations to treatments along with potential constraints for example blocks and created an interactive approach to generating an experimental design using ‘edibble’ which maps the 3 components using a sequential pipeline with ‘syntactic sugar’, complementing other experimental design tools.

Emi has made her slides available, and they can be found at: emitanaka.org/slides/SSA-SA-2021

Emi is hoping to expand to designs for clinical trials next year in collaboration with Andrew Forbes- so watch this space!

On behalf of those attending the talk – thanks Emi for an insightful look into programming and your new R package.

Helena Oakey

*Dr. Emi Tanaka is a lecturer in statistics at Monash University whose primary interest is to develop impactful statistical methods and tools that can readily be used by practitioners. Her research areas include data visualisation, mixed models and experimental designs, motivated primarily by problems in bioinformatics and agricultural sciences. She is currently the President of the Statistical Society of Australia Victorian Branch and is an avid programmer in R, HTML/CSS and other computational languages.

SSA Vic Conference and Workshop Funding Scheme

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 23:11:27 GMT

A reminder that SSA Vic are offering financial support to our members for the attendance of statistical workshops, conferences, winter/summer schools and short courses; both national and international, in 2021. This includes for example, the ECSSC 2021.

Members are invited to apply for funding via one of the two schemes:

1. (Conferences 2021) We are offering up to $200 of total funding, per member, for the registration and travel expenses associated with attendance of national and international conferences; or

2. (Summer & Winter Schools/Short Courses/Workshops 2021) We are offering up to $150 of total funding, per member, for the registration cost of short courses or workshops for their statistical development.

Members may apply to both schemes, however the total amount of funding available per member is $250 (e.g., if a member has received $150 for a Workshop, and then applies for conference expenses, then they will only be eligible for $100 from the Conference scheme). Members who were funded in 2020 are also eligible for funding in this 2021 round.

To be eligible for access to funding, the applicant must satisfy the following criteria:

1. The applicant must be a member of SSA Vic at the time of application. (Membership is only $20 for students!)

2. Provide invoices/evidence of registration and expenses that the funding will be used to cover.

Members seeking more information may email vic.branch@statsoc.or.au for more information, by including the subject line “SSA Vic Funding Applications 2021”.

Please use this form to apply for either funding schemes.

We hope that this funding program will help alleviate the financial burden of our members and look forward to receiving your applications.

Rob Hyndman awarded the Pitman Medal 2021

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 05:40:50 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) awards the Pitman Medal (named after E. J. G. Pitman), at most once annually, in recognition of outstanding achievement in, and contribution to, the discipline of Statistics.

SSA is pleased to announce

Rob J Hyndman FAA FASSA, Professor of Statistics and Head of the Department of Econometrics & Business Statistics at Monash University,

as the Pitman Medal winner in 2021.

Rob Hyndman is one of the world’s most recognised statisticians and is internationally recognised for cultivating widespread interest around forecasting. He has authored about 200 papers, chapters, or books on statistical topics since 1991. His most important contributions are in the areas of time series forecasting, forecast reconciliation, energy forecasting, and demographic fore- casting. The methodology developed in Hyndman’s research papers is used in many fields including epidemiology, demography, energy management, optometry, meteorology, operations research, pharmacology, environmetrics, tourism, ecology, satellite imaging, and chemistry. Google Scholar calculates more than 29 400 citations of his work (17 900 in the last five years). His H-index is 62.

Rob Hyndman has been Editor of three statistical journals as well as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Forecasting from 2001–2004 and 2019.

Hyndman was a Director of the International Institute of Forecasters from 2005–2018. He was Secretary of the Victorian branch council of the Statistical Society of Australia for several years in the late 1990s. Also, he was the Victorian representative on the Central Council of the Statistical Society of Australia for some time in the 1990s.

Hyndman is frequently asked to advise the Australian Bureau of Statistics on methodological is- sues, most recently to correct the well-publicised problems they had with unemployment seasonal adjustment in August 2014. He was also a member of the ABS Methodological Advisory Committee from 2010–2018.

He has been on the scaling committee for the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (overseeing the calculation of the ATAR for all Victorian VCE students) continuously since 1994.

He has been on the ATAR technical group (and its predecessors) for the Australian Conference of Tertiary Admissions Centres (overseeing the calculation of the ATAR for all Australian Year 12 students) continuously since 2003.

He has been on the Indigenous Statistical and Information Advisory Group for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare since 2017.

Hyndman’s work with the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging involved reducing the forecast error in the budget for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from nearly $1 billion per year to less than $50 million per year (out of a budget of $7 billion at the time). His methods continue to be used for forecasting the PBS budget nearly 20 years later.

Hyndman was the founding Director of Consulting for the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics at Monash University, and founding Director of the Monash University Business and Economic Forecasting Unit. In these roles he has collaborated with more than 100 commercial clients, in Australia, New Zealand, China, USA, India, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Winner of EJG Pitman Prize announced!

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 05:35:58 GMT

The E J G Pitman Young Statisticians Prize is awarded for the most outstanding talk by a “young statistician” at an Australian Statistical Conference. The prize is only open to members of SSA or – in the case of ANZSC2021 - to members of SSA or NZSA, and a ‘young statistician’ means a person enrolled for a degree who is studying either full-time or part-time without age limit, or a person who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree within the past five years, or a person awarded a postgraduate degree within the past year. The prize winner is selected by a committee of members of the Society appointed by Council.

At the closing ceremony of ANZSC2021 today, Adrian Barnett commented on how difficult the selection of the winner had been, as so many deserving presentations had been seen during the course of the conference. After thanking the panel of judges involved in making the decision, he was pleased to announce that the Pitman Prize winner for 2021 is Elizabeth Korevaar, who presented “Evaluation of statistical methods used to meta-analyse results from interrupted time series studies: a simulation study”.

Congratulations, Elizabeth Korevaar!

APBG: $2,000 SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR TWO SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 05:44:06 GMT

Can artificial intelligence answer important medical questions?

A collaboration between a biostatistician and a data scientist.

$2,000 scholarships available for two successful applicants

The Australian Pharmaceutical Biostatistics Group (APBG) is providing a fantastic opportunity for undergraduates or new graduates in the data science and statistical fields to work together on this important conundrum.

Biostatisticians and data scientists often have different approaches to answering important clinical questions. Classical statistical regression methods used for prediction modelling are well understood in the statistical sciences and the scientific community that employs them. These methods tend to be transparent and are usually hypothesis driven but can overlook complex associations with limited flexibility when a high number of variables are investigated. In addition, when using classic regression modelling, choosing the ‘right’ model is not straightforward. Non-traditional machine learning algorithms, and machine learning approaches, may overcome some of the limitations of classical regression models in this new era of big data, but are not a complete solution as they must be considered in the context of the limitations of data used in the analysis.

In this project, you will receive a large dataset with an underlying correlation structure. You will work together with your assigned collaborator to discover the algorithm that best fits the data.

You will be expected to meet with the APBG steering committee to present updates on your project, provide a written report, code, and present your findings at our annual meeting which is to be held in December 2021.

Applications are welcomed from undergraduates or graduates of Data Science or Statistics or related fields who are based in Australia or New Zealand.

Grant amount: $2,000 each for successful applicants (one data scientist, one biostatistician).

How to apply: Send your one-page CV, plus a covering letter explaining why you would be suitable for this opportunity to apbgsteering@gmail.com by 15 August 2021. Successful applicants will be notified by the end of August 2021.

This scholarship opportunity is provided by APBG, in partnership with the SSA. The Australian Pharmaceutical Biostatistics Group is a not-for-profit association of pharmaceutical industry statisticians in Australia, whose mission is to ensure high statistical standards within Australia to assist in the decision processes which provide safe, efficacious and cost-effective health care products produced in a regulated environment for the health and quality of life of people.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 03:23:57 GMT

This week’s Intergenerational Report highlights the vast structural challenges ahead for Australia’s society, economy and federal budget. In the coming years, we face a slowing economy, a huge productivity challenge, a dropping birth rate, and a long-term COVID hangover. This sharpens the imperative for clever investments now to put Australia on a path to become a global science and technology superpower. Science and technology are the answer to every one of these challenges. We made this case in STA’s media commentary this week, syndicated nationally and in The Canberra Times and Business Insider.

STA’s lifeblood is our members. We are always delighted to welcome the leadership of our member organisations to serve in STA’s governance structures. This month, Women in STEMM Australia co-chair Dr Marguerite Evans-Galea joins STA’s Policy Committee. Ecological Society of Australia President Dr Bek Christensen and former Statistical Society of Australia President Professor Adrian Barnett were reappointed for a second term. Joining the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee are Dr Susanna Cramb of the Statistical Society of Australia, Dr Erin McGillick of Reproductive Health Australia, and Dr Tara Roberson of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems. Susannah and Erin are also Superstars of STEM. We warmly welcome them to all their new roles!

Following last year’s excellent virtual event, STA will host the official launch of National Science Week 2021. Register now for this free online event as we explore The Science of Recovery, Resilience & Renewal with an outstanding expert panel.

Next week, we will proudly launch our Reconciliation Action Plan. It sets out a clear path with measurable actions over the coming year. We will soon be inviting you and your members to join us for this important online event. We also congratulate Kamilaroi man Corey Tutt - CEO of STA member organisation Deadly Science - whose new book The First Scientists is now available for pre-order. We can’t wait to read it, Corey!

Finally, this week we are delighted to welcome our newest member of the STA family - Cruxes Innovation. Cruxes runs research translation coaching and mentoring programs to help researchers to work with industry to apply brilliant science and research. Their membership of STA is especially timely as momentum grows in the opportunities for Australia on research translation. Please join me and the STA Board in warmly welcoming Cruxes - and its leaders Jonathan Lacey and Emily Chang - to the STA community.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

Australia as a STEM Superpower - Science A& Technology Policy Vision

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 04:30:18 GMT

Science And Technology Will Enable Us To Seize The Future.

Together, they are key to solve humanity’s most complex challenges – and to forge new opportunities for Australia.

To enable them to play this pivotal role, we need to safeguard and strengthen our sovereign science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) capabilities.

Our competitor nations have a clear-eyed strategic understanding about how a strong STEM system unleashes economic growth and creates jobs, seeds new industries, and leads to major breakthroughs to save lives.

Australia should be every bit as ambitious in its STEM capabilities as other nations across the globe.

In this blueprint, we outline a bold policy vision for how Australia can achieve this.

Through clever strategic investments, leveraged global collaboration, and a coordinated national strategy, we can seize advantages for our nation – and keep pace with the world.

And this will enable us to tackle the next big challenges we face at home and abroad.

Science and technology have been at the forefront of Australia’s approach to managing intensifying bushfire seasons and a global pandemic. They are essential in the urgent rebuilding of our economy.

A stronger STEM capability will help to save and improve lives - and translate more of our world-leading research into products, services, jobs and industries in Australia.

This blueprint offers Science & Technology Australia’s policy vision on:

A national strategy to extend crucial science and technology capabilities;
An ambitious target of levelling-up R&D investment to 3 per cent of GDP to keep pace and compete with our international rivals;
A new $2.4 billion research translation and commercialisation fund to turbo-charge more of Australia’s ideas and innovations into products, services, and jobs;
A major new initiative to inspire school students to grow their skills, knowledge, and love of STEM in order to arrest the alarming slide in maths and science skills among school students;
Policy deeply informed by research and evidence;
Increased and deepened internationally collaborative research and engagement; and
A diverse and inclusive STEM workforce.

The policies are mutually reinforcing, and of equal importance to the STEM sector.

We commend this policy vision to you.

See our vision here.

The SSA supports trans and gender diverse people and high-quality data collection on sex and gender

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 01:44:27 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia wishes to emphasise our support of trans people and the gender diverse community: within the SSA, and more broadly. The SSA is committed to ensuring the statistical community in Australia is welcoming and inclusive, and will not tolerate anti-transgender bias, including discrimination in any form.

As statisticians, we are often involved with the collection and analysis of data on gender and sex. The SSA encourages all researchers to collect data on gender and sex in an inclusive way, in compliance with the Federal Sex Discrimination Act. We encourage our members to ensure that data collection for gender and sex can accurately and adequately reflect both cis and trans people in studies that they are involved in. We recommend consulting the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables, available here.

The SSA wishes to thank Transgender Victoria for their advice in the preparation of this statement.

Science Meets Parliament 2021

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 03:36:07 GMT

Science & Technology Australia (STA) has been offering its flagship event, “Science Meets Parliament” since 1999. It’s objectives are

To stimulate and inform parliamentarians of how science contributes to and informs public policy, and
To assist in professional development through providing participants with an insight into political, policy, media and parliamentary processes.

Science meets Parliament plays an important part in Science & Technology Australia’s advocacy effort, as it demonstrates, with real examples, how Australia benefits from public and private investment in science. It is also a terrific networking and professional development opportunity for participants.

_{In 2021, “Science Meets Parliament” was delivered virtually from 2 March to 1 April. Two lucky members were chosen to represent SSA at this year’s event. We always ask them for a written report on their experience, and here is the first one, written by Jason Whyte:}

Science Meets Parliament 2021 - Part 1

Unlike you, gentle reader, few of our parliamentarians have a science qualification. So, they may not appreciate the contributions made by statisticians to Australia’s interests. Science Meets Parliament (SMP) provides an opportunity for statisticians to increase their visibility, and to inform parliamentarians of the scope and value of our work. Through this, SMP aims to forge lasting relationships that will allow scientists to contribute to the processes of setting national priorities and policy development. No pressure….

Unlike the pre-coronavirus SMPs held in Canberra over two days, the 2021 instalment featured around a month of Zoom-like information sessions for delegates scattered across Australia. Those with a full registration would also join three or four other delegates for an online meeting with an MP or senator.

A statistician seeking to engage with SMP for the first time may find the process somewhat daunting (cough!). To help with this, some SMP sessions featured advice from experienced delegates or Canberra insiders on how to approach your scheduled meeting. Some suggestions seem particularly appropriate for statisticians considering SMP participation.

In the session “Preparing to meet a parliamentarian”, I wondered if details of my work might be off-putting, and asked:

“I'm concerned that my meeting might play out like an episode of "First Dates": I want to meet again but the MP is not so keen. Any tips on what materials are likely to best complement my presentation?”

Kylie Walker, CEO Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering, advised: “Sweep right back out for that big picture.” (That is, think beyond than your own specific area of work and its direct implications.) “I’d be interested to hear about the some of the broader applications of the field rather than your specific area if it’s too conceptual to be able to explain succinctly to a non-technical audience.”

Dr Tien Huynh from RMIT (2017-18 Participant and one of the “Superstars of STEM”) suggested: “The three main areas that I thought were really important for most parliamentarians that you can’t get wrong are Environment, Health, and [the] Economy, and amongst those you’ll find maths and statistics in every single part.” Also, it’s appropriate to connect your work to what your field is trying to achieve: “You have to make that linkage for the parliamentarian so that they can see the relevance of what you are doing.”

An SMP meeting can be interrupted when your parliamentarian is summoned for a vote. However, this may give a delegate the opportunity to talk to the parliamentarian’s political staff.

The SMP programme covered this possibility with the session “How to Engage with Advisors”. The panel included Mr Harry Godber, a former Adviser to the Turnbull & Morrison Governments on “tech, innovation, financial regulation & space policy”, and now Head of Strategy at Flare HR. Godber’s advice included some questions to think about before your meeting: “What is the value you provide to Australia as a whole? What could it add to the government’s policy platform? Can you provide case studies?”

“Be very concise in your pitch. What can you provide? What are you asking for? Don’t talk in the abstract so that the meeting doesn’t address these points.”

In preparation for my meeting, I found my MP’s maiden speech quite instructive. I learned that we grew up in demographically similar areas, and we also had intersecting concerns in education and environmental management.

Following the conclusion of the information sessions, my group of SMP attendees spent around an hour with our MP, zooming in from her home on April 1st. Each delegate gave a short presentation and responded to questions. The MP seemed to show a genuine interest in these contributions.

Immediately following the meeting I sent the MP links to my publications and outreach activities relating to our discussion. After almost three months, I am yet to receive a reply. Perhaps some MPs really don’t have the time for a second meeting, or maybe I had spinach in my teeth? Delegates may wonder what data there is on meetings between scientists and parliamentarians that have led to continuing relationships. If only there was some professional body that had the skills to look into this….

By Jason Whyte

Interested in attending Science Meets Parliament next year? Keep an eye out for of search for expressions of interest in the SSA newsletters from early 2022.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 01:07:16 GMT

Next week is the final sitting week of Parliament before the mid-winter break. As always, STA will be active on Capital Hill on behalf of you and your members. On Tuesday, we’ll host a Parliamentary Friends of Science event for MPs and Senators on science and evidence informed policy. Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley and CSIRO CEO Dr Larry Marshall will join me on stage for an engaging discussion. We’ll also unveil STA’s refreshed policy vision next week - with our President Jeremy Brownlie doing the honours in Canberra. This blueprint is the result of almost a year of deep consultation with the science and technology sector. We look forward to sharing the final document with you ahead of it being made public.

Our annual survey of the science workforce - a collaboration with Professional Scientists Australia - is in the field. Thank you to those who have already shared the link with your membership, staff and networks - and encouraged them to complete it. This survey is an invaluable source of data in our advocacy for scientists and technologists across the country. Please remind your networks to take the survey before it closes on June 27.

Don’t forget to register for our exclusive event for STA members next Tuesday on how to access the Global Talent Visa. This is a terrific opportunity to hear directly from the Department of Home Affairs about current eligibility for this visa - and especially valuable if you or your employing institution are seeking to recruit brilliant overseas STEM talent.

Congratulations from all of us in the STA community to Professor Bronwyn Fox on her appointment as CSIRO’s next Chief Scientist. Bronwyn is a materials and engineering scientist, a Fellow of both RACI and ATSE, and was founding director of Swinburne’s Manufacturing Futures Research Institute. We’re delighted for her and for CSIRO on this excellent decision.

As part of our commitment to reconciliation, STA plans to make a submission shortly to the review of the Australian school curriculum. As the peak body for Australia’s STEM sector, we support a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, culture, history and contemporary circumstances being taught to Australian school students. We encourage other STA member organisations to offer similar support. You can make a submission by 8 July.

Finally, this week we convened our first training session for our third cohort of STA STEM Ambassadors, and the last formal training session for our second cohort of Superstars of STEM. We wish them all well for their next steps - and are excited to watch their stars continue to rise.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

CONSULTATION BEGINS ON THE RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE ROADMAP

As a first step to develop the next research infrastructure roadmap, the Government is asking researchers to participate in a survey about current national research infrastructure use. The questions ask how you currently use or interact with Australia's NRI, what you need from NRI now and in the future, and what you see as the emerging trends, challenges and opportunities for NRI. The survey takes around 30 minutes to complete and is here - it closes Wednesday 30 June.

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

The Australian Government has released the Review of the Parliamentary Workplace: Responding to Serious Incidents report by the Prime Minister’s Department.
Canada’s Public Policy Forum reported on improving linkages between university and work.
The Digital Commons Policy Council released a report on the co-production of open source software by volunteers and big tech firms.
The Australian Medical Association released its vision for Australia’s health.
The first Ocean Decade report was released by Ocean Decade Australia.
Senate Estimates revealed no funding is planned for the Industry Growth Centres from 2022.
The CSIRO released a report on the SME enablers and barriers to research.
ACOLA released an Australian Energy Transition Research Plan.
Bruce Chapman has an article on Understanding recent HECS–HELP price misunderstandings.
The Australian Research Council released its final report and action plan on the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) and Engagement and Impact (EI) assessment. All 22 recommendations have been accepted.
The Academy of Science has released a sustainable oceans and coasts national strategy.
Opportunities for submissions:
- Consultations are open on the Government's Regional Data Hubs – due 2 July.
- A review of the national school curriculum – due 8 July.
- The Australian National Audit Office is auditing the management of threatened species and ecological communities - due 31 October.

Further information: Peter Derbyshire, STA Policy Manager - peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

Financial support - attendance ANZSC2021 and ECSSC2021

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 07:18:35 GMT

SSA Canberra is inviting student members of SSA Canberra branch to apply for financial support to attend the virtual Australia and New Zealand Statistical Conference (ANZSC, 5-9 July 2021) or the Early Career and Student Statisticians Conference (ECSSC, 24 July - 1 August, including pre-conference workshops). The grant will reimburse the fee you pay for the appropriate registration/workshop costs, with the maximum amount being $200 in total.

To be eligible for the grant, you must either be a student member of SSA Canberra Branch, or have applied to be a student member with SSA Canberra, at the time of submitting your registration grant application. Membership is only $20 for full time students, so it is definitely worth joining just to apply for the grant!

Application details:

Please prepare the following documents and a submit a single PDF form containing:

A brief resume/CV of up to 4 pages.
Which costs and amounts you would like SSA Canberra to reimburse; note that you can select any combination of costs from the two conferences.
A short document (max 200 words) describing the anticipated benefits to you that will result from your attendance at the conference/workshop, and declaring any other financial support offered to you for this conference/workshop.
(Optional) If you are presenting, your submitted talk/poster abstract for ANZSC2021/ECSSC2021.

Please send these via email to ssacanberra@gmail.com by 5pm on 28 June 2021, but we will evaluate applications on a rolling basis.

Outcome and show me the money!

Successful applications will be notified by email no later than 4 July 2021. If you are successful, we will request you to send us relevant registration receipts/invoices, and SSA Canberra will reimburse you the awarded amount.

Successful applications should:

Acdgeknowle the financial support of SSA Canberra during their presentation (if you present);
Contribute a short piece about their experience to the SSA Stats Matters newsletter, to be sent to ssacanberra@gmail.com.

If you have any questions, feel free to send us an email at ssacanberra@gmail.com.

We look forward to your application,
SSA Canberra

STA Member Update

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 24 May 2021 04:25:44 GMT

The federal Budget had a host of initiatives in science and technology, and a detailed analysis is in STA’s budget breakdown. We were pleased to see so many of you at our STA members-only post-Budget briefing last Friday.

Among other commentary, STA welcomed announcements to establish mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability in Australia and a new patent box scheme to incentivise biotech and medtech patents and manufacturing onshore - with a pledge to consult on extending the scheme to clean energy technology. We also backed a pledge to create new scholarships for women in STEM. Our President Jeremy Brownlie and I were quoted in InnovationAus.

The launch of the new intake of STA STEM Ambassadors generated good media coverage, with stories about our new Ambassadors in the Canberra Times, West Australian, ABC, and the Border Mail. Campus Morning Mail noted the strong interest from MPs right across the breadth of the Parliament in this terrific program. One of this year’s MPs - NSW Nationals Senator Perin Davey - said she was delighted to join “as we know how important it is for science to inform policy in so many critical areas”. “I congratulate Science & Technology Australia on developing a program that will improve the links between policy and STEM across a wide range of policy areas and across all parties.”

I was also honoured to speak at the opening of the Western National Innovation Games about STA’s Superstars of STEM program which tackles the visibility barrier for diverse women in STEM. And we are gearing up for National Reconciliation Week - and looking forward to seeing the STEM sector sharing Indigenous knowledges during that period.

Lastly, after an impressive 16 years in the role, Sam Popovski is moving on from leading the CSIRO Staff Association. Our thanks to Sam for his leadership and dedication to CSIRO staff throughout his time in the role, and we wish him the very best in his new role at the CPSU.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

NOMINATIONS FOR STA’S EDI AND POLICY COMMITTEE NOW OPEN

STA invites nominations for our Policy Committee and our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. These are great opportunities to participate in STA’s work in these areas. We strongly encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disability, people from diverse faith, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and LGBTQIA+ identified STEM professionals.

To register your interest or to see the Terms of Reference, head to our website. Applications close midnight 6 June.

SORRY DAY & NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK

Two important events next week: Sorry Day, and the start of National Reconciliation Week. Sorry Day – Wednesday 26 May - is a national commemoration to remember past policies of forced child removal and the intergenerational damage those policies caused to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities. National Reconciliation Week, which begins on Thursday 27 May (the anniversary of the 1967 referendum to count Indigenous Australians as citizens in their own land), is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements. It's also a time to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. We will be marking Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week on our social media channels and would encourage member organisations to do the same. Social media assets are available on the National Reconciliation Week 2021 website.

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

STA’s budget breakdown has detailed information on Budget measures that affect the science and technology sectors;
Further Budget analysis from the Parliamentary Library is available in briefs uploaded daily;
A report from NCVER shows job rates for VET graduates have fallen due to COVID-19;
One of our STA STEM Ambassadors, Dr Tara Roberson, has co-authored a report on an Australian strategy for the quantum revolution;
Swinburne University released a report on Data for Good Collaboration;
The Federal Government released its 2030 Digital Economy Strategy;
The inquiry into improving Question Time has been released;
The International Energy Agency has released a global energy roadmap for Net Zero by 2050;
There is a new book on Building Better Schools with Evidence-based Policy;
Opportunities for submissions:
- Medical Research Future Fund Audit – due 30 May.
- A review of the national school curriculum – due 8 July.
- A review of Initial Teacher Education – No due date set yet.
- A Therapeutic Goods Administration Advertising Code consultation – due 18 June.

Further information: Peter Derbyshire, STA Policy Manager - peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

BRIEFING ON THE GLOBAL TALENT VISA PROGRAM FOR STA MEMBERS

STA has been exploring opportunities with the Department of Home Affairs to share updated information with STA members about accessing the Global Talent Visa Program for brilliant global STEM talent. Some of the criteria have evolved, and there is a strong opportunity globally to recruit outstanding STEM talent. If you would find it valuable to attend an information session organised by STA and presented by the Department, please get in touch with STA Membership Manager Lucy Guest at lucy.guest@sta.org.au.

TELL US YOUR RESEARCH TRANSLATION/COMMERCIALISATION SUCCESS STORIES!

Do you have a STEM idea, technology, innovation, product or program that could become a reality if you could just source some financial support or even just some key introductions? Then we want to hear from you. STA is launching a new project where we’ll aim to highlight activities and ideas that need some level of extra support to get them to the next stage, whether that is government funding, industry collaboration, or commercialisation. Get in contact with our Communications Manager, Martyn Pearce.

STA MEMBER EVENTS OF INTEREST

The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) is supporting a terrific series of events and scientific workshops. Check them out here.
The Early Career & Student Statisticians Conference 2021 is accepting abstracts until 31 May.
The next seminar in the Australian Society for Parasitology will be held on Friday 28 May. Register now to learn about flukes in Southern Bluefin Tuna.
Cicada Innovations has an event on 2 June exploring what would happen if we rebuilt the world using biotech. Register here.
Early and mid-career researchers can get involved with an initiative to Reboot STEMM. The half-day virtual think tank aims to co-design a strategy for a more inclusive and diverse way of defining, recognising and rewarding ‘success’. Apply to be a part of it by 28 May.

To add a conference or event: contact STA Events & Membership Manager Lucy Guest – lucy.guest@sta.org.au

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Entrepreneurs' Programme - Accelerating Commercialisation – Ongoing.
The annual Australian Academy of Science awards are now open. The awards shine a light on researchers who are making outstanding contributions to science in Australia. There is also conference funding available.
The Academy also recently expanded its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scientists award, which now covers research funding as well as travel up to $20,000. Apply by 1 June.
STEM Executive Experience day gives ambitious leaders aged between 22 and 35 the chance to see what it takes to be an executive. You can win a place at the event including return flights to Sydney and two nights in a five-star hotel. Enter by 29 May.
Applications are open for ABC’s 2021 Top 5 Science Residency program. The scheme aims to equip emerging science scholars with media and communication skills, and will give you the chance to work alongside some of Australia’s leading journalists. Applications are open to PhD-qualified early career academics in all STEM fields. Applications close Tuesday 1 June.

STA MEMBER STORIES

The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are open for application! This year there are 16 prizes across the categories of Research and Innovation, Leadership, Science Engagement, and School Science. Prizes cover a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines and recognise the work of scientists, researchers, and science communicators at all career stages. There is a prize pool of $160,000 to be shared between winners. Entries close at 7pm AEST on Friday 28 May.

Australian Science Innovations (ASI) is seeking expression of interest for board directors with broad governance and business skills, particularly with qualifications or extensive experience in government relations, digital marketing and communications, and/or fundraising. Find out more here.

Are you following Science & Technology Australia on Instagram? If you’re a member organisation using Insta as one of your communication channels please follow us and we’ll follow you back!

QLD Branch Announcement: Funding for ANZSC2021

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 20 May 2021 01:39:27 GMT

Conference Scholarship Queensland Branch

The Statistical Society of Australia QLD Branch is offering an award to fund participation at the Australian and New Zealand Statistical Conference 2021. The ANZSC is being held Online on the 5-9^th of July 2021, conference details can be found here. The focus of the conference will be Modeling data for a brighter future. 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. The scholarship will cover conference registration. The recipient/s will be required to provide an article on personal conference highlights within two weeks of the end of the conference for publication in the SSA Newsletter.

ELIGIBILITY

Open to all Honours, Masters and PhD research students enrolled at a Queensland university (full-time or part-time), who are SSA members and will be presenting a talk at the conference, either as a formal presentation or poster (note abstract submissions are closed). Award recipients are required to submit to the SSA Queensland Branch Secretary a short summary (of approximately 250 to 500 words) of their presentation and their personal conference highlights within two weeks of the conclusion of the conference for publication in the SSA Newsletter. You need not be a current member of the SSA at the time of application but will be expected to join before reimbursement. The cost of SSA student membership is $20 per year.

AWARD AMOUNT

The maximum award is $250 per person. The award can only be used for conference registration. Awards will be paid directly to the award recipients unless otherwise requested. The award monies will be distributed after receipt of paid invoices. Up to five scholarships will be awarded.

DETERMINITION OF AWARD RECIPIENTS

Award recipients will be selected by the SSAI Queensland Branch Council and will be notified by email on 7^th June 2021.

HOW TO APPLY

E-mail the following to the Queensland Branch Secretary:

· Personal details: name, email address and phone number and a short paragraph introducing yourself, your current degree and qualifications and/or career experience.
· Evidence of enrolment at a Queensland university (e.g., picture of student ID card).
· Evidence of acceptance of talk or poster
· Abstract of talk or poster.

The closing date for applications is 5PM Monday 31^st May 2021. Late applications will not be considered.

Applications and requests for further information should be directed to the Branch Secretary, Adrian Barnett.

Winners of SSA's Top-Up Scholarships Announced!

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 13 May 2021 02:12:29 GMT

Earlier this year SSA launched a scheme helping statistics students in Australia with top-up scholarships. These annual scholarships, worth $5,000 each, are awarded to members who are also current higher degree students. We received 17 applications in total, of which 12 were eligible for the scheme. The reviewers were impressed with the high standard of the applications. Given that they were all excellent, the four winners were chosen at random.

We aim to continue this scheme in future years if this initial pilot goes well.”

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2021 top-up scholarships:

· Elizabeth Korevaar

· Parinaz Mehdipour

· Owen Forbes

· Jiaxin Zhang

Adrian Barnett
SSA Vice President

Science & Technology Australia Media Release

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 11 May 2021 23:14:02 GMT

MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday 11 May 2021

A BUDGET WITH AN EYE ON THE FUTURE

New Budget investments in Australia’s next-generation technology workforce, science infrastructure, vaccine capabilities, and tax incentives to lure firms to commercialise and manufacture patented technologies onshore have an eye firmly on the future.

“This future-focused Budget charts a path to develop the workforce Australia will need to seize opportunities in next-generation technologies,” said Science & Technology Australia President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie.

“It also makes important investments in essential science infrastructure through the Australian Space Agency, ANSTO, and the Square Kilometre Array giant telescope.”

“A $206.4 million ‘patent box’ tax break will incentivise medical and biotech companies to not only register their patents in Australia - but manufacture products from those patents onshore.”

“We welcome the commitment to consult on extending those tax breaks to clean energy.”

“The Budget also expands opportunities to deploy Australian science and technology as powerful assets of global diplomacy.”

Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert said new women in STEM scholarships would pave the way for more women and girls to study science and technology.

“As longtime champions of women in STEM, STA welcomes this boost through industry placement scholarships to get more women and girls into STEM,” she said.

“The $1.7 billion over five years to expand childcare subsidies will be welcome help for working parents everywhere, including in STEM.”

“We also welcome the commitment to develop an onshore manufacturing capability for mRNA vaccines here in Australia, which will need future funding.”

Key science and technology measures in the 2021 Budget include:

$206.4 million in tax incentives with a ‘patent box’ to strengthen sovereign manufacturing of Australian-patented technologies.
$42.4 million over 7 years to support 230 women in STEM with higher education STEM scholarships including industry placements.
$300 million for the Square Kilometre Array giant telescope in regional WA.
$116.7 million to upgrade waste storage and maintenance of equipment at ANSTO.
$13.3 million over four years for the Australian Space Agency to boost regulatory and technical capabilities.
A commitment to develop onshore mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability.
$10.4 million over four years to extend the national partnership agreement on clinical trials and introduce mitochondrial donations into medical research.
$26.8 million over four years for a national soils science challenge.
Streamlining visas to target highly skilled individuals.
$643.4 million over four years to develop clean energy technologies.
$43.8 million over three years to expand the cyber security skills innovation fund.
$22.6 million over six years for 234 scholarships in next generation emerging technologies (such as AI).
$1.2 billion for digital economy transformation in measures announced last week.
$52.4 million over four years for global science and technology collaborations and diplomacy.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 06 May 2021 23:48:47 GMT

In the lead-up to the Budget, STA has been pressing the case once again for a major push on research translation and commercialisation. We published our submission to the current taskforce in the Department of Education, and generated strongly positive media coverage and stakeholder support.

The story was covered in Campus Morning Mail, InnovationAus and AuManufacturing - and we deployed our key team on the communications strategy. I was interviewed on ABC Newsradio, our President-elect Mark Hutchinson spoke to Fran Kelly on ABC RN Breakfast, and our President Jeremy Brownlie had this piece published in The Australian.

Next Tuesday, the STA team will monitor the Budget closely on the night, and produce rapid public comment. We’ll also deliver further analysis at our special STA members-only briefing on Friday May 14. Please register ASAP if you haven’t yet done so and are keen to attend.

This week we also announced STA’s newest group of STEM Ambassadors. Now in its third cohort, the program offers STEM professionals from STA member organisations the chance to build a productive ongoing relationship with a federal Parliamentarian. We are excited to introduce the new group to you.

STA continues to focus strongly on the issues of job security and safeguarding our STEM workforce as pandemic continues to be felt. We are especially concerned about the impact on those on fixed term contracts, given the anticipated ongoing pressure on university finances, including many early career researchers.

And as Reconciliation Week approaches later this month, we also encourage members to consider how to mark this important annual event with further progress on Indigenous advancement. It was inspiring to listen to some of the cluster group discussions for this quarter on how member organisations are working on this key goal.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

The Australian Council of Deans of Information & Communications Technology released a report on intervention programs that can influence first year female students to choose ICT degrees.
The Mitchell Institute released a report on international students being stuck in transit.
The Parliamentary Budget Office released a report on long-term budget scenarios.
The Australia Institute released a report on fossil fuel subsidisation in Australia. It amounts to $19,686/minute
AAMRI released a report on the benefits of medical research.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has given a pre-budget speech which has set the scene for more spending.
The OECD released a report on whether 15-year olds are able to distinguish fake-news.
Minister Tudge had an op-ed on the proposed national curriculum changes.
This year’s STEM Equity Monitor Report was published.
Universities Australia released a briefing on its 2021 Budget requests.

Further information: Peter Derbyshire, STA Policy Manager - peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

STA MEMBERS-ONLY BUDGET BRIEFING

As a benefit to STA members, STA will host a post-Budget briefing in the week of the May Budget - which is handed down on Tuesday 11 May. This session will cover STEM-related announcements in the Budget, and share additional information on how proposed measures may affect the STEM sector, and next steps for engagement or consultation on any Budget announcements.

Date: Friday 14 May
Time: 11am-12noon AEST
Fee: This online event will be free and only open to STA members – with up to two attendees per member organisation. please RSVP here.

AUDIT OF THE MEDICAL RESEARCH FUTURE FUND

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is assessing whether the Department of Health is effectively managing the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF). Science & Technology Australia would like to use this opportunity to get feedback from our membership to inform our response. We invite you to provide feedback using this form by 17 May.

Further information: Peter Derbyshire, STA Policy Manager - peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU FOR OUR EXCITING NEW PROJECT

Do you have a STEM idea, technology, innovation, product or program that could become a reality if you could just source some financial support or even just some key introductions? Then we want to hear from you. STA is launching a new project where we’ll aim to highlight activities and ideas that need some level of extra support to get them to the next stage, whether that is government funding, industry collaboration, or commercialisation. We’ll tell you more about this exciting project in a future Member Update, but for now, send us your pitches! Get in contact with our Communications Manager, Martyn Pearce.

STA MEMBER EVENTS OF INTEREST

National Youth Science Forum 2022 Year 12 program applications close on 2 July. If you know a STEM enthusiast currently in Year 11 encourage them to apply.
Plastics – are they a problem, benefit or a game-changer? Join RACI’s 10-part virtual series exploring innovations, challenges, sustainable uses, recycling and the future of plastics. The series runs until August. Register here.
ARPS 2021 Conference: Legacy and Innovation in Radiation Protection - 13 – 16 September 2021, Canberra Rex Hotel. Enrich your understanding of non-ionising and ionising radiation safety, highlight the importance of effective communication and stakeholder involvement on radiation safety, highlight new technologies and generate discussion across a broad range of radiation protection.

To add a conference or event: contact STA Events & Membership Manager Lucy Guest – lucy.guest@sta.org.au

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Entrepreneurs' Programme - Accelerating Commercialisation – Ongoing.
The annual Australian Academy of Science awards are now open. The awards shine a light on researchers who are making outstanding contributions to science in Australia.
The Academy also recently expanded its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scientists award, which now covers research funding as well as travel up to $20,000. Apply by 1 June.
Grants are still available in some states for National Science Week events. If you are in the ACT apply by 9 May, in SA apply by 14 May.

STA MEMBER STORIES

The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are open for application! This year there are 16 prizes on offer across the categories of Research and Innovation, Leadership, Science Engagement, and School Science. Prizes cover a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines and aim to recognise the work of scientists, researchers, and science communicators at all career stages. There is a prize pool of $160,000 to be shared between winners. Entries close at 7pm AEST on Friday 28 May.

NSW Branch ANZSC 2021 and ECSSC 2021 Registration Grants

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 04 May 2021 23:27:35 GMT

The SSA NSW Branch is now accepting registration grant applications for the Australian and New Zealand Statistical Conference (ANZSC 2021, 5^th – 9^th July 2021) and the Early Career and Student Statistician Conference 2021 (ECSSC 2021, 26^th July 2021 – 1^st August 2021). Applications are open to student members of the SSA NSW Branch who will give an oral or poster presentation at one of the conferences. Limited spots are also available to student members who will attend ECSSC 2021 without giving a presentation, and early career statisticians (up to 5 years post-PhD) that have been members of the SSA NSW Branch for at least 2 years at the application deadline and have no financial support available to present at one of the conferences. Successful applicants will receive a reimbursement for registration fees and workshop costs paid by the applicant.

A complete application will consist of:

An outline of the importance of attending the conference to the candidate’s research or work (2-3 lines).Abstract of the presentation, if available.
A list of other funds sought or promised, including those from the candidate’s home institution.
Any other supporting material the candidate considers relevant to the application.
A letter of support signed by the candidate’s supervisor; for early career statisticians, the letter should also state the candidate has no funds available to attend one of the conferences.
The candidate’s up-to-date CV.

Applications can be submitted electronically to the Secretary of the SSA NSW Branch on or before Saturday, 26^th June 2021.

Recipients of the grant will also need to supply a report of their involvement in the conference to be published in the Society’s newsletter.

Recipients of the grant are asked to acknowledge the SSA’s support in their presentations and in any published version of presented papers. We reserve the right not to reimburse if the recipient did not acknowledge the support of the SSA NSW Branch in their talk or poster.

Previous successful applicants of similar awards from SSA are not eligible to apply.

All applicants will be notified of the outcome by email no later than Monday, 21^st June 2021.

2021 Dennis Trewin Prize - Call for nominations

Vanaja Thomas — Sun, 02 May 2021 04:40:39 GMT

SSA Canberra are calling for nominations for the 2021 Dennis Trewin prize! The prize, named after the former Australian Statistician Dennis Trewin, is awarded annually for outstanding postgraduate research in statistics or data science.

Eligibility criteria:

At least 12 months into a postgraduate research degree, or graduated from a postgraduate research degree in the last 36 months (at the time of application).
Undertaking/undertook the research degree from a university with a campus within the ACT or regional areas of NSW outside Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong.

If you have innovative research from your research degree that is of interest to statisticians and/or data scientists, we strongly encourage you to apply!

Please submit an abstract of your research work to ssacanberra@gmail.com by Friday 14th May. You will also need to provide proof of enrolment at the university that the research was undertaken in.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to record a 15-20 minute video on their research, and will receive a one-year complimentary SSA student membership following this. A selection committee will then decide the winner of the Dennis Trewin prize, who will additionally receive a $1,000 cash prize and an invitation to present their research as part of SSA Canberra's branch meeting in October. Whilst most recent branch meetings have been held virtually, there is a possibility that this branch meeting will be held physically, in which case the cost of dinner will be covered, as well as travel and one night’s accommodation if required.

If you have any further questions regarding the nature/format/scope of the prize, please contact ssacanberra@gmail.com.

SSA Canberra "rego grants" for upcoming ANZSC and ECSSC Conferences!

Vanaja Thomas — Sun, 02 May 2021 04:09:20 GMT

SSA Canberra is inviting student statisticians and data scientists who are student members or join as student members of SSA Canberra branch, and are planning to either:

+ Attend and present a talk or poster at the Australia and New Zealand Statistical Conference on 5-9 July online (ANZSC 2021), or

+ Attend and present a talk or poster at the Early Career and Student Statisticians Conference on 26 July to 1 August 2021 online (ECSSC 2021)

to apply for financial support in the form of a "registration grant".

Application Details:

prepare the following documents and a submit a single PDF form containing:

i. A brief resume of up to 4 pages;

ii. A brief statement of which of the above three "grants" you are applying for.

Please note you can only apply to be reimbursed for one of the above three grants;

iii. Your submitted talk/poster abstract for ANZSC2021/ECSSC2021;

iv. A short letter describing the anticipated benefits to you that will result from your attendance at the conference/workshop, and declaring any other financial support offered to you for this conference/workshop.

Please send these via email to ssacanberra@gmail.com by 5pm on 31st May 2021

Successful applications will be notified by email 30th June 2021. After

receiving a confirmation of your acceptance of talk and your registration

receipt/invoice, and after SSA Canberra has confirmed that you are a student

member, then SSA Canberra will then look to reimburse your relevant

registration/conference fees.

Successful applications should:

+ Acknowledge the financial support of SSA Canberra during their

presentation;

+ Contribute a short piece about their experience to the SSA Stats Matters

newsletter, to be sent to ssacanberra@gmail.com.

Victoria Branch Offering Financial Support for Events

Vanaja Thomas — Sun, 02 May 2021 04:00:06 GMT

SSA Vic are proud and happy to announce that we will once again be offering financial support to our members for the attendance of statistical workshops, conferences, winter/summer schools and short courses; both national and international, in 2021. This includes for example, the ANZSC 2021, the ECSSC 2021 and AMSI Winter School.

Members are invited to apply for funding via one of the two schemes:

1. (Conferences 2021) We are offering up to $200 of total funding, per member, for the registration and travel expenses associated with attendance of national and international conferences; or

2. (Summer & Winter Schools/Short Courses/Workshops 2021)

We are offering up to $150 of total funding, per member, for the registration cost of short courses or workshops for their statistical development.

To be eligible for access to funding, the applicant must satisfy the following

criteria:

The applicant must be a member of SSA Vic at the time of application (Membership is only $20 for students!).
Provide invoices/evidence of registration and expenses that the funding will be used to cover.

Members seeking more information may email vic.branch@statsoc.or.au for more information, by including the subject line "SSA Vic Funding Applications 2021".

Please note that the successful applicants may need to write a small report about their experience. Successful applicants that are presenting at the conference will need to acknowledge support from SSA Vic in their talks or poster. The names of all successful applicants will be publicly shared.

Please use the following form to apply for either funding schemes:

http://bit.ly/ssavic-funding2021

We hope that this funding program will help alleviate the financial burden of our members and look forward to receiving your applications.

NSW Branch April Meeting: The NSW Branch Welcomes R Ladies And Hears About Improved Visualisation Of Discrete Data

Vanaja Thomas — Sun, 02 May 2021 03:25:02 GMT

The April 2021 meeting of the New South Wales branch was co-hosted by the Sydney section of the R Ladies group. Jenny Sloane gave a short presentation about R Ladies, both at the international and local levels, and explained how it promotes gender diversity within the R computing community - and also how it helps her as a researcher and data analyst.

We then had a seminar by Dr Gordana Popovic who is a research fellow and statistical consultant at the University of New South Wales. Gordana's talk was titled "Carrots are good for vision. Models are good for visualising discrete data". We didn't hear much about carrots after that, but penguins and spiders came up quite a bit. The animal theme was in keeping with Gordana's membership of the Ecological Statistics Research Group at her university. The commonly used pairwise scatterplot or visualisation of multivariate data was likened to drawings of the top and side views of an object commonly used in high school technical drawing courses.

Improved visualisation of the object is, of course, achieved by viewing it from several angles. Gordana likened this to flying in a drone around a multi-dimensional point cloud. The visualisation term for this is "tour" and the R package named "tourr" was mentioned due to it supporting drone-type views of multivariate data controlled by a computer mouse. A data concerning features of penguins collected at Palmer Station, a research station in Antartica, was used to illustrate problems with pairwise scatterplots and tours. This is because of factors such as discreteness of the observations and counts having very many zeroes. A common quick and simple remedy is to jitter the data but this has shortcomings such as not preserving ordering.

Speaker Popovic then moved onto her central theme: using models to help with visualisation. A key principle for this is Dunn-Smyth residuals, which were cooked up at the University of Queensland in the 1990s by Peter Dunn and Gordon Smyth and published in a very well-cited 1996 Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics paper. Gordana explained how Dunn-Smyth principle is like jittering but preserves ordering. The upshot is much more useful pairwise scatterplots and tours. Similar illustrations were made for spiders and interpretations of the fondness for leaves by some spider species was made possible by the new methodology.

An R package by Gordana and colleagues, named "ecoCopula", was advertised as a way for R Ladies and gentlemen to do it themselves. There was a brief technical part concerning copulas as a latent variable model and biplot concepts. Then there was final theme concerning ordinal data and how the ideas translated well to their visualisation as well.

Matt Wand
University of Technology Sydney

The Australian Mathematical Society and Statistical Society of Australia: Statement on the Inequitable Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 23:08:19 GMT

We would like to reinforce the statement made by the European Women in Mathematics¹ on the inequitable impacts of the global pandemic on mathematicians. We wish to provide further recommendations in the Australian context.

The Australian mathematical sciences community reiterates that the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have not been equally experienced, and they will continue to be felt for a long time to come. Impacts including reduction of research output, loss of networking opportunities and collegiate connection, and increased stress on mental health have been devastating to many, but have been most acutely felt by those in more vulnerable positions.

The pressures brought on by the pandemic have exacerbated many pre-existing issues:

researchers and practitioners in mathematics, statistics, and data science on short-term contracts or casual appointments (many of whom are early career) have faced increasing job insecurity;
those with caring responsibilities have seen significantly increased obligations at home, including home- schooling children or providing elderly care;
women, in particular, who are over-represented in the above groups, have experienced these as a double-burden; and
people from underrepresented groups in the mathematical sciences have seen increased structural barriers in career development and a disproportionate load of service.

The economic and social case for developing diverse workforces is well established. Now is a time for proactive and decisive action by all of us to formulate long-lasting change in the mathematical sciences, ensuring we retain the gains already made and continue to further inclusivity. Here we offer just a few areas where creative solutions are needed in the immediate future.

In assessments made for hiring, promotions, grants, prizes and committees across academia, considering the academic age of candidates (rather than years since PhD) is now common place. However, the impacts of lost momentum and collaboration development are far longer lasting, but less obvious, than those of lost absolute research time. We must now look beyond metrics to consider a more nuanced definition of what makes a talented and productive scientist.
Where possible, extending contracts and allowing for teaching relief in academic settings will enable opportunity to regain research momentum lost during the pandemic. We recognise the significant budgetary challenge in this area, but we implore individuals, departments and organisations to think creatively in this space, seek out non-traditional solutions and make conscious decisions to support those from underrepresented groups and in their early career.
This is a time to redouble our efforts towards inclusion and diversity across the mathematical sciences, and across academia, industry, and government. We empower you to petition managers, departments and organisations to avoid cuts in equity programs. As a minimum, we can ensure that deadlines, meeting times and workplace arrangements allow for the flexibility that staff need, not only in this time but into the future, to support the careers of researchers and practitioners in mathematics, statistics, and data science, particularly women and caregivers.
The pandemic has impacted many people from diverse backgrounds in ways that are as varied and nuanced as people are different and nuanced. We exhort colleagues, managers and organisations to genuinely listen, to treat each case, thoughtfully, on its merits, and be prepared to work on suitably varied and nuanced solutions.

During this time of increased uncertainty and heightened physical and mental burdens, we ask our fellow mathematicians, statisticians and data scientists, our departments and our organisations to support each other in retaining and developing our diverse and talented Australian mathematical sciences community.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. S. Ole Warnaar
President of the Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS)

Dr Jessica Kasza
President of the Statistical Society of Australia (SSA)

(printable, accessible PDF)

The following organisations have endorsed the AustMS/SSA Covid-19 impact statement:

· ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical & Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS)

· Australian Academy of Science (AAS)

· Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE)

· Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI)

· Mathematical Research Institute (MATRIX)

· The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU)

· University of Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI)

· Science & Technology Australia (STA)

Useful Resources:

¹An open letter from the EWM, European Women in Mathematics, 22 September 2020
https://www.europeanwomeninmaths.org/ewm-open-letter-on-the-covid-19-pandemic/

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in the STEM workforce,
Rapid Research Information Forum, 17 May 2020
www.science.org.au/covid19/women-stem-workforce

Impacts of COVID-19 for EMCRs National Survey, EMCR Forum, August 2020
https://www.science.org.au/news- and-events/news-and-media-releases/early-and-mid-career-researchers-fear-their-careers-are-risk

In the Eye of the Beholder: Avoiding the Merit Trap, Chief Executive Women and Male Champions of Change
https://cew.org.au/topics/merit-trap/

National Evaluation Guide for STEM Gender Equity Programs, Women in STEM Ambassador, 8 December 2020
https://womeninstem.org.au/national-evaluation-guide/

Women in Science decadal plan
https://www.science.org.au/support/analysis/decadal-plans-science/women-in-stem-decadal-plan

STEM Women: https://www.stemwomen.org.au/

Science & Technology Australia - Member Update

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:52:40 GMT

This week we launched Science & Technology Australia’s Pre-Budget submission. In it, we proposed a big and bold idea: a new $2.4 billion research translation and commercialisation fund. A once-in-a-generation seismic investment in science in the 2021 Budget would be a defining legacy for the Government, securing the science heft needed to face the next challenges after COVID-19. It would be a powerful vehicle to turn more of Australia’s world-class university research into products, services and jobs with deeper industry-university collaboration. The proposal generated positive coverage, including in The Australian, InnovationAus, The Canberra Times, and Campus Morning Mail.

Late last week, we also garnered global coverage with our joint media statement with other key science groups drawing attention to the decision by Facebook to block the feeds of science and health organisations on the eve of the nation’s largest-ever vaccine rollout amid a global pandemic. STA’s Facebook page was among those blocked for several days - before the coverage managed to restore our feed. Please let us know if your organisation is still having difficulties with getting your feed restored.

Our Superstars of STEM had their first two days of high-quality training last week. The cohort is brimming with talent, and it was a joy to see these diverse and brilliant women lifting each other up. If you haven’t already, follow them all using our list in Twitter - it’s a daily dose of inspiration.

Meanwhile, a continuing volume of policy, program and events work continues at STA.

If you haven’t already - please register your delegates for Science Meets Parliament by Sunday (Feb 28). With an outstanding online program in 2021, we want to make sure your members have the chance to access this excellent professional development opportunity. Register now!

Finally, we encourage you to spread the word. Even if people aren’t attending #SmP2021 as a delegate, they can still buy a ticket to one of the five concurrent events for our SmP National Gala Dinners on Monday March 29 in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. This will be the first big gathering for the STEM sector leaders in many capitals since the outset of the pandemic. It will be a chance for us to say thank you to those who’ve shared their expertise, celebrate the role of science in saving lives, and enjoy a night of inspiring company and content. Please join us - you can buy tickets here!

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

The 2021 Economic and Political Outlook was released by CEDA
After 2 years of anticipation the final report into the inquiry into Nationhood, National Identity, and Democracy has been released
The ANU National Security College has released an occasional paper on navigating between foreign influence and foreign interference
Meat and Livestock Australia released an R&D wrap up of their latest report
The UK Institute for Public Policy Research has released a paper on skills for a green recovery for the construction sector
The Gonski Institute has released a report on Why Australia keeps falling short of its educational goals
DIGI Australian code of practice on disinformation and misinformation
The Australian Academy of Science has released its pre-budget submission
The Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering released a report on how Antarctic science can help us understand the Australian climate

Further information: Peter Derbyshire, STA Policy Manager - peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

HURRY - LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER: SCIENCE MEETS PARLIAMENT 2021

Don’t miss out as our flagship event turns 21! Science meets Parliament is an unrivalled opportunity for STEM professionals to upskill and connect with Parliamentarians and the broader STEM sector.

In 2021, over two days of superb online content, 50 experts will share invaluable insights on policymaking, communications and Parliamentary engagement. It’s the best-value professional development event of the year.

Registrations for #SmP2021 close Feb 28 - so be quick! See the updated program and register here.

PM’S PRIZES FOR SCIENCE: NOMINATIONS OPEN NOW

STA encourages our members to identify deserving nominees whose commitment, talent and contributions to science should be recognised in this year’s Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.

These awards should reflect the strong diversity of our STEM sector, and we encourage members to reflect that diversity in nominations.

Nominate someone here. Nominations close March 9.

STA MEMBER CONFERENCES/MEMBER EVENTS/EVENTS OF INTEREST

Plastics – are they a problem, benefit or a game-changer? Join RACI’s 10-part virtual series exploring innovations, challenges, sustainable uses, recycling and the future of plastics. Commencing Tuesday 16 Feb 2021

To add a conference or event: contact STA Events & Membership Manager Mitchell Piercey – mitchell.piercey@sta.org.au

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Heck Media is looking for scientists, researchers, academics and science communicators to feature on their upcoming as-yet unnamed podcast to share their findings related to animals and microbes. You can apply to be featured here.
Dr Catherine Ball is re-launching her podcast News from the Future: convergent tech, disruptive engineering, genomics, environmental and social change, the peak of civilisation or the end of society as our parents knew it…. If this sounds like you and you want to be involved get in touch with Catherine.
Discovery Indigenous for funding commencing in 2022 – Closing 17 March 2021
Entrepreneurs' Programme - Accelerating Commercialisation – Ongoing

STA MEMBER STORIES

A number of our members were affected by Facebook’s recent blocking of content. STA was one of the organisations that were affected – you can read our joint statement with the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Science Media Centre here. Our Facebook page is showing content again now, but a number of our members may still be affected. If your organisation’s Facebook page is still not showing content (make sure you ‘View as visitor’ to test this) please let our Communications Manager, Martyn Pearce know.

Science & Technology Australia - Media Release: SEISMIC SCIENCE INVESTMENT TO AVERT THE NEXT CRISIS

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 04:00:12 GMT

A once-in-a-generation seismic investment in science in the 2021 Budget would be a defining legacy for the Government, securing the science heft needed to face the next challenges after COVID-19.

A new $2.4 billion research translation and commercialisation fund would be a powerful vehicle to turn more of Australia’s world-class university research into products, services and jobs with deeper industry-university collaboration.

In its pre-Budget submission, Science & Technology Australia proposes a strategic investment to boost job creation, strengthen sovereign capability and turbo-charge the economic recovery.

Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert said a research translation and commercialisation fund would secure Australia’s ability to respond to the crisis after COVID.

“The pandemic has put into stark relief the fact that science investments made over previous decades have come into their own in this moment of national need,” she said.

“With the crucial role of science front and centre in the public mind, it’s time to secure the science capabilities we need to face the crisis after COVID – and the ones after that.”

“A Science Future Fund or Research Translation & Commercialisation Fund would help turbo-charge Australia’s economic recovery and maximise our bang-for-buck return from university research.”

“What’s missing from our research funding system at the moment is a vehicle to get more of our ‘almost there’ stage research turned into products and services that create new jobs and growth.”

“Australia has a highly-skilled STEM workforce and world-class research – our challenge is to maximise even further the returns those assets deliver to the nation and economy.”

STA estimates the proposal would cost $2.4 billion over the Budget forward estimates.

“A new research translation and commercialisation fund would drive deeper collaboration between universities and business, create new local jobs, and boost sovereign capability,” she said.

“As we come out of the pandemic, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enable science and technology to boost our economy, secure Australia’s intellectual property rights, and prepare us for whatever crisis comes next. A research translation fund would do all of this and more.”

Science & Technology Australia proposes the Government use the May 2021 Budget to make long-term reforms that create a powerful legacy. These include:

● Secure Australia’s capability to respond to future crises by establishing a new ‘Science Future Fund’ or ‘Research Translation Fund’ to turn more of Australia’s science into rapid applications;

● Tackle the urgent need to stop the brain drain of young people out of STEM and boost future STEM talent for Australia with a new strategic initiative to inspire more Australian school students into science, technology, engineering and maths;

● Tap into deep Indigenous knowledge in science, technology, engineering and maths by investing $4 million over four years to support an Australian Indigenous Scientists/STEM Network;

● Invest in a comprehensive long-term national plan for Australian science and technology;

● Continue the commitment to nurture expert STEM advice and connections for policymakers with a long-term endowment to support Science Meets Parliament; and

● An initiative to track the loss of researchers and scientists from Australia’s university sector and a program to provide workforce bridging for those affected.

Media contacts:

Science & Technology Australia: media inquiries:
Martyn Pearce – 0432 606 828

SSA Mentoring Program

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 03:47:27 GMT

Following a pilot mentoring program hosted by the Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Section in 2020, the Statistical Society of Australia is excited to be launching a new mentoring program for all members of the Society. We are looking for up to 20 mentor-mentee pairs to take part in the 6-month mentoring program.

Our aim

This program will connect early and mid-career statisticians to experienced mentors to provide them with career guidance and to share their experiences to help them achieve their professional goals.

Mentees

Mentors

Program details

The SSA Mentoring Committee, a sub-committee of the Continuous Professional Development committee, will match mentors to mentees and contact the mentee to seek approval to introduce them to the proposed mentor. Each mentor will only be assigned one mentee. Mentees are responsible for arranging the initial meeting and establishing ongoing meetings with their mentor. Ideally, mentors and mentees should aim to meet at least monthly for one hour during the program, with a minimum of four meetings over six months. There is no requirement that mentors and mentees live in the same city; meetings do not have to be face-to-face and may be held via phone or Zoom as necessary. A member of the Mentoring Committee will be in touch throughout the program to learn how things are progressing and to help resolve any issues that arise. There is no expectation that the relationship continue beyond the 6-month program. However, we would be delighted if mentor-mentee pairs continue to keep in touch!

In addition to the paired mentoring, mentees and mentors will be given the opportunity to participate in a peer mentoring group of up to five participants to share experiences and build greater connections within the SSA community.

Further details about the program will be provided before the program commences.

Interested?

To register your interest in participating in the mentoring program, please complete the form by Monday 1 March. Successful applicants will be notified by the 15^th March, with the program running from April to September 2021.

Check out our recent webinar "Introducing the SSA Mentoring Program" to see an overview of the benefits of a mentoring program for the SSA, a discussion of the findings from the mentoring pilot program and an introduction to the Mentoring Program Committee and the program to be launched in March 2021.

If you have any questions about the mentoring program, please email Karen Lamb, SSA Mentoring Program Committee Chair at klamb@unimelb.edu.au.

Dr Karen Lamb
SSA Mentoring Program Committee Chair

Apply The Lessons Of Covid To Climate Risk: Scientists

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 20:30:00 GMT

Science & Technology Australia - Media Release

Australia must apply the same expert science-led approach to climate change as it has to the coronavirus pandemic, the nation’s peak body for science and technology has urged.

Science & Technology Australia says the nation’s success at navigating the pandemic and managing risks proactively is a model for how to tackle climate risk and transition to a net-zero economy.

STA President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie said Australia’s COVID strategy was among the best in the world, using scientific evidence to inform policy, save jobs and protect the public.

“The last year has clearly demonstrated that to protect lives and livelihoods, we need to listen to the scientific evidence and use it to guide policy,” he said.

“That’s a lesson we also need to apply to the increasingly urgent challenge of climate change.”

“The terrifying bushfire season last summer in Australia was a sign of things to come.”

“If we don’t transition to a net zero emissions economy, we’ll see further lives lost, lasting damage to our unique flora and fauna, and more local communities devastated by fire and drought.”

“An orderly transition to a net-zero economy will save both lives and livelihoods.”

STA is the peak body representing more than 88,000 scientists and technologists in Australia. Its membership base includes geologists and mining engineers as well as scientists working in renewable energy and environmental sciences.

STA has made a submission to an inquiry into two climate change Bills currently before federal Parliament.

Associate Professor Brownlie said the Bills propose a long-term national approach to the issue and an orderly transition to a net-zero economy.

“These Bills enshrine an evidence-based approach to climate change. That approach has been the key to Australia’s success in tackling COVID-19,” he said.

“It particularly recognises the need for an orderly transition that supports workers in industries as they move to net-zero carbon emissions.”

Recent research from Deloitte highlighted stronger action on climate change could add $680 billion to the Australian economy and create 250,000 new jobs by 2070.

Associate Professor Brownlie said business, scientists, and investors are increasingly united in calling for stronger climate action and further proactive management of climate risk.

This boost to the overall national economy modelled by Deloitte need not come at the cost of local communities and individuals.

“A move to net-zero emissions does not have to result in job losses and does not mean an end to mining or Australia’s resources sector.,” he said.

“While there will be changes to fossil fuel industries, a transition that safeguards jobs is not only possible – it’s achievable,” he said.

“For a country as rich in renewables as Australia, climate change can be an opportunity to open up new markets and new technologies.”

“Climate change is a major challenge, but as the pandemic has demonstrated, if we have science at the heart of our response, Australia can meet this challenge.”

Media contacts: Science & Technology Australia: media inquiries: Martyn Pearce – 0432 606 828

IN MEMORIAM: SEPPO S. LAAKSONEN

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 02:48:46 GMT

Seppo S. Laaksonen, ISI Elected member and Professor Emeritus of Social Statistics in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, passed away on 20 December 2020.

SSA Chair of the Official Statistics Section, Stephen Horn, reflects on an Australian and a personal link to Laaksonen, which may be of interest to the Official Statistics community.

In 1993 I travelled to the 4th international workshop on survey nonresponse - a rather informal gathering, then of about 30 people organised by a core of north Atlantic methods people, in the wake of the 1982 multivolume review of response in survey by Hansen, Hurwitz and Madow and the alarming collapse in response rates in represented agencies. I used this rare opportunity to seek out experience on weighting, particularly for periodic household expenditure surveys, notorious for layers of missed data. Seppo, then working for Statistics Finland, had recently completed his thesis on the topic with an offprint reaching me in Canberra.

This motivated a whistle stop call on him and colleague Kari Djerf at SF. We crossed paths a few times in next years at the increasingly grand successors to the workshop, and the increasing interest at European level in survey inference under missingness. Seppo attended the 2006 ISI gathering hosted by ABS in Sydney and agreed to travel to Canberra afterwards to give a seminar at my then workplace the Department of Family and Community Services - host of a stable of longitudinal surveys exploring the social condition of Australians.

The subject of his talk was imputation in panel surveys, bringing up to date his thinking on survey adjustment, and timely for us as we were sorting out quality issues with HILDA. Statistics Finland had been collaborating with the Finnish DFaCS equivalent on welfare series and inference binding survey results with administrative data. Their experience in the mid-1990s would come in handy with the big push for harmonised statistics for the European Union over the next decade, and the launch of a European panel on income.

The informal workshop on nonresponse had evolved in the meantime to a full-blown European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics; with the 2010 round being held in Helsinki. This pooled the gamut of methods challenges of individual agencies, transforming an internal concern with declining response to household surveys into a continental push for new techniques and technologies for collecting information from businesses and households. Agencies became incubators for both practice and theoretical advance, with some levening from academics. By the end of the decade small teams from across Europe, drawn from agencies and universities were commissioned to reinvigorate statistics collection. It was an exhilarating prospect from an agency perspective, given the wide remit, resources and determination. We may not yet have seen its full flowering, although I suspect that the current fascination with data analysis and statistical integration at the expense of a good inferential base may spell the end of that wave.

Seppo, like me, had a career in the shadow of ‘The yellow book'.

Särndal, Swensson and Wretman's text Model Assisted Survey Sampling, appearing in 1992 was instrumental in the long reforms in survey design and adjustment. Li-Chun Zhang has been invited to give this year’s Foreman Lecture at the 2021 ANZSC. This will be an important marker in the next chapter for survey inference applied to official collections. I look forward to Professor Zhang's lecture. Like Seppo Laaksonen Li-Chun is a hybrid, with a solid agency background (Statistics Norway) and dedication to the foundations of inference through an academic career. Seppo's 2006 Canberra seminar, a friendly gesture at the time, reminds me of the peculiar blend among agency methods people of borderless deep thinking, and pragmatic application.

It is a small and loose convocation, but no signs of diminishing; it was personified for me by Seppo Laaksonen.

Stephen Horn
Chair, SSA Official Statistics Section

NSW Branch December Meeting: The New South Wales Branch Says Good-Bye To 2020 With Lecture and Dinner

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 04:48:57 GMT

University of Sydney statistics professor, Gillian Heller, delivers the New South Wales branch 2020 annual lecture on her career-long journey though regression modelling and computing, followed by a vibrant end-of-year dinner at a pub around the corner.

Professor Gillian Heller spent 28 years in the statistics group at University of Macquarie before recently moving to the University of Sydney Clinical Trials Centre. Prior to that she was a graduate student at the University of Cape Town in her home country of South Africa. During this time flexible regression modelling and computing has been a theme that permeates her work – most recently driven by clinical trials studies and their data. Gillian described her career-long journey on this topic in a talk titled "The New Normal: Flexible Regression Models". It was the 2020 Annual Lecture of the New South Wales branch - and the first one to have a tele-audience because of pandemic restrictions.

An early figure plotted log(computing efficiency) against time for the period 1946-2010. The signal was linear and consistent with exponential increase since the ENIAC computer of the late 1940s. Gillian told us about being exposed to the package GLIM as a graduate student and made its use
sound quite painful from a 2020s standpoint. Later in the talk R packages such as gamlss, VGAM and mgcv were mentioned - which allow very flexible regression analyses to be carried out on laptops for large data sets.

A key paper that was highlighted early on is the 1972 one by Nelder and Wedderburn titled "Generalized Linear Models", that extended Gaussian response models to those with general response and has had a profound effect on many of us, including Gillian. A quote from esteemed Australian statistician, Murray Aitken: "Theoretical and applied statistics were both convulsed by the publication of the GLM paper by Nelder & Wedderburn (1972)" was shared with the audience.

The theme of parameter orthogonality ran through most of the talk. It is well-known that location and scale parameters are orthogonal in Gaussian response models. This matter is less clear in generalized response models and speaker Heller showed the importance of this aspect via analysis of some clinical trials data with the Poisson Inverse Gaussian family and a particular reparameterization.

Gillian also told us about her work with Mikis Stasinopoulos and Bob Rigby on the gamlss package. This has involved yet another extension: nonparametric regression approaches for flexible functional location, scale and shape effects. The talk finished with a statistical version of the song "It ain't necessarily so" such by Gurdeep Stephens and fellow South African statistician Michael Greenacre from a conference held in Spain in the mid-200s.

The speaker and almost the entire live audience then headed down to the Duck Inn pub in Chippendale and had an appetizing and lively three-course meal together. It was a great way for the branch to say good-bye to 2020.

Matt Wand
University of Technology Sydney

NSW Branch November Meeting - Woodcock Scores Big With Sports Science Controversy Innings

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 02:52:58 GMT

University of Technology Sydney mathematician, Steve Woodcock, describes the controversial alternative statistical inference culture within the field of sports science.

Elite sport is a multi-billion dollar industry and data analyses involving sports decisions are prone to abuse. This is one of the main messages from Dr Steve Woodcock's talk to the New South Wales branch of the society on 25th November 2020. Steve is a senior lecturer within the mathematics group at University of Technology Sydney.

The talk started by pointing out that out of Australia-based researchers who describe themselves as a statistician within the Google Scholar system, one that has among the highest number of citations is Victoria University employee Will Hopkins. His work is almost exclusively applied in sports science and he pioneered a concept known as magnitude-based decisions. According to the talk, Hopkins is best known for, in his words, "rejecting statistical inference and replacing it with a clinically and practically more relevant method of inference based on uncertainty in the magnitude of effects". It was then pointed out that several prominent statisticians - including big contributors to our society such as Adrian Barnett and Alan Welsh – have strongly criticised and debunked the magnitude-based decision approach.

The speaker gave us the following quote from former society president Barnett ``If I was ever to peer review a paper using magnitude-based inference then I would reject it and tell the authors to completely redo their analysis''.

Speaker Woodcock expressed at least some sympathy for magnitude-based decisions and said that in the context of small sample studies and potentially skewed risk-reward payoffs - which he defined loosely as "this won't do any harm and may be beneficial" - the approach may be a useful decision-making tool.

Moving away from Hopkins and the magnitude-based decisions controversy, Steve then described some dodgy sports science analyses and claims - such as one involving concussion evaluation in the Australian Football League. Another one concerned the claim of a sweet spot for reduced industry risk which relied on a dubious quadratic regression model.

The talk concluded with the question "An unmissable opportunity?" concerning how high quality statistics can permeate into Australian sports decision-making. He concluded by making the observation that the stumbling block is not from an unwillingness to improve statistical practice in the field, but rather a lack of dialogue between practitioners and statisticians about possible improvements to employed methodology.

Matt Wand

University of Technology Sydney

AMSI Media Release

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 05:30:00 GMT

Australian school students elevated into global top-10 for mathematics performance

Data released overnight from the latest quadrennial TIMSS testing reveals Australian students at Year 8 level have achieved significantly improved performance levels compared to previous surveys, and compared to their peers worldwide.

TIMSS – Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study – is administered every four years assessing the effectiveness of teaching in mathematics and science at Year 4 and 8 levels, enabling comparison over time, and across states and countries.

The 2019 TIMSS results released this evening are the sixth iteration of this influential assessment, showing that Australia has improved academic achievement in mathematics by Year 8 students. Only six countries included in the survey achieved higher outcomes than Australia, placing it ahead of 25 nations, with another 7 performing at the same level as Australia.

“An improvement of this magnitude validates the commitment of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) to promoting the attraction and career relevance to students and parents, developing resources for teachers of mathematics in primary and secondary schools, and advocating for heightened qualifications and professional development needed by mathematics teachers”, said Professor Asha Rao, AMSI’s interim director.

“We urge governments to heed AMSI’s calls for mathematics teachers to possess specific qualifications in the discipline, recognising the importance of educating a future workforce equipped to innovate through application of mathematics, statistics and data sciences”, Professor Rao added. “The current pandemic illustrates the risk to Australia’s wellbeing if a basis of informed advice from epidemiologists with mathematical modelling capabilities are not sustained.” mongst Australian Year 8 students, 68 percent achieved the TIMSS Intermediate international benchmark for proficiency in mathematics, with Singapore continuing to dominate at the top of the global table with an outcome of 96 percent.

“The increased result at Year 8 level is highly encouraging and shows the value of AMSI’s work across the sector” said Professor Rao, “but static performance by Year 4 students shows that investment in mathematics education at primary and secondary levels needs to be increased.”

“AMSI research confirms continuing inequity exists across socio-economic groups, and between cities and the regions” warned AMSI advocacy and policy manager Dr Maaike Wienk. “These results are encouraging but heavily skewed by improvements in the achievement of Year 8 students in New South Wales, and do not necessarily reflect national trends. AMSI remains a vocal advocate for redressing inequalities and ensuring every Australian child has access to high quality mathematics education.”

14,950 students from 571 schools across Australia participated in the 2019 TIMMS study spanning 64 countries.

See the original media release here.

Congratulations to the Young Statistician Prize winners of the WA Young Statisticians Workshop 2020!!!

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 23:10:26 GMT

Announcing the winners of the commendable Young Statistician Presentations

First place

Fu Shi Ching

Using Bayesian Networks to Identify Significant Crime Events in WA

Second Place

Duffin Connor

A Statistical Finite Element Method for Nonlinear PDEs

Third Place

Malone George

The L2 Method for Robust Estimation of Mixtures: An Application in Diagnosis

of Equine PPID

Poster Presentation Winner

Ng Kenyon

Predicting Oats Cutting (Flowering) Time with Semiparametric Additive Models

Congratulations from all of us at SSA!

WA Young Statisticians Workshop 2020

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 23:06:13 GMT

On 30^th September and 1^st October 2020, the Western Australia branch held its 11^th biennial Western Australian Young Statisticians Workshop. The workshop aimed at supporting Young Statisticians and students to further their professional career in statistics. The workshop was held online this year to safely engage and assist Young Statisticians in collaborating with local professionals amongst the pandemic disruptions. This free workshop was held over two half-days, with a morning session on the first day and an afternoon session on the second day. On the first day, we had four invited speakers present as well as three Young Statistician talks. The morning concluded with a breakout session. Between sessions, attendees could view a poster presentation. On the second day, we held an afternoon session where three invited speakers presented, and four Young Statisticians gave oral presentations. The afternoon ended off with a breakout session followed by the announcement of the Young Statistician prize winners.

Seven invited speakers from industry and academia presented during the workshop, namely; Nazim Khan, Ross Taplin, Alex Maund, Anna Hayes, Emi Tanaka, Brenton Clarke andNoel Cressie. We gratefully thank our invited speakers for volunteering their time to talk and participate in breakout sessions.

We were delighted to hear from seven worthy Young Statisticians who expertly presented their work, namely; Sofina Begum, Joseph Sigar, Audrey Yeo, Alexander Rohl, George Malone, Connor Duffin, Shih Ching Fu and Kenyon Ng. The SSA awarded prizes to four excellent Young Statistician presentations. We also had a draw for survey respondents, with Parsa Amid being the lucky winner.

We would like to thank our sponsors, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Statistical Society of Australia and Murdoch Guild for supporting our Young Statisticians Workshop. Their generous sponsorship allowed us to have a free event with prizes and gifts for invited speakers.

A huge thanks goes out to our Young Statisticians sub-committee: Barbara Kachigunda, Alun Pope, David Urginov, Rick Tankard, Torben Kimhofer, and led by Deneegan Subramanian. We also thank our Young Statistician presentations judges Brenton Clarke, Ross Bowden and Berwin Turlach.

by Deneegan Subramanian

SSA WA Branch Young Statisticians Representative

SA Branch October meeting 2020: Instrumental variables: a review of the rationale for their use, assumptions and validation methods with application to estimating the impact of health spending on health outcomes

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 22:30:05 GMT

Laura Edney, Research Fellow in Health Economics at Flinders University, spoke to our October meeting on her own work about the motivation for the use of Instrumental variables (IVs), the assumptions they make and how these can be appropriately tested either directly or through sensitivity analyses by examining the impact of assumption violation. This is the topic of her current research, following on from many years of work on various fields on health economics.

At the beginning of her talk, Laura described the IVs and their application to make causal conclusions from observational data when randomized controlled trials are not feasible. IV methods have been widely used to estimate the impact that spending on health has on health outcomes due, in part, to historic health outcomes representing an important unmeasured confounder that, if unaccounted for, will result in biased coefficients on spending in standard regression models. She addressed few examples of IVs and illustrated to determine variation that is exogenous in treatment and to estimate causal inferences. In particular, smoking and health outcome relationship, an IV cigarette price is not logically directly related to health. The only logical relation is an indirect one: price affects cigarette use that, in turn, affects health.

To illustrate the key concepts of IVs, Laura reviewed the application of IVs to estimating the impact of health spending on health outcomes focusing on eight publications that have estimated this relationship nationally. Using two-stage least squares estimation (2SLS), health spending has a significant impact on health outcomes in presence of IVs. IV quantile regression, an extension of IV approach, was also discussed about estimating across the full distribution compared to unweighted IV 2SLS estimates of the mean effect.

In conclusion, Laura mentioned two key questions to consider: (i) Is the instrument meaningfully related to the predictor variable? (ii) Does the instrument directly or indirectly

influence the outcome variable? Merits and demerits of IVs were also highlighted at the end of the presentation. The meeting was held in virtual platform Zoom video communication with almost 25 attendees in the meeting.

By Shahid Ullah

New Director announced by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 00:23:04 GMT

The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) today announces the appointment of Professor Tim Marchant as its new Director, commencing in January 2021, following a comprehensive recruitment process.

Most recently Dean of Research at the University of Wollongong, Professor Marchant brings extensive academic and leadership experience to AMSI, and has a demonstrated passion for mathematical sciences having been President of the Australian Mathematical Society, Chair of Australia and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ANZIAM) and Director of the Mathematics in Industry Study Group.

“AMSI has a strong track record in working with schools, universities, industry, philanthropists, government and the community in shaping policy and skilling Australia for the future through its diverse programs across education, research and industry”, said Dr Adelle Howse, AMSI Chair. “Our Institute is delighted to welcome Professor Marchant as Director at a very exciting time for the mathematical sciences community, facing high demand from many sectors of Australia’s innovation ecosystem.”

“Professor Marchant is looking forward to working with AMSI membership, staff, stakeholders, government and funding partners in delivering AMSI’s mission: championing the mathematical sciences for Australia’s advancement.” added Dr Howse. “Tim shares AMSI’s passion to promote and develop mathematical sciences in education, research and industry.”

Completing his PhD at the University of Adelaide before starting an academic career at the University of Wollongong, Professor Marchant is an Applied Mathematician whose research stature in the fields of nonlinear waves, optics and industrial modelling is evidenced by 80 journal publications and supervision of 17 graduate research students to completion.

SSA Canberra Branch – 2020 Dennis Trewin prize

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 04:22:28 GMT

Congratulations to Basim Alsaedi from University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and formerly from the University of New England where he completed his PhD, who has won the 2020 Dennis Trewin prize. Basim has received $1000 and a complimentary one-year SSA student membership for his efforts.

The Dennis Trewin Prize, named after the former Australian Statistician, is awarded to a student from the ACT or regional NSW for their postgraduate research in statistics or data science. This year, five applications were received, from which shortlisted applicants were asked to submit a 15-20 minute recorded talk on their topic. Based on these submissions, we were privileged to have an external selection panel comprising of Dennis Trewin, Geoff Lee, Marijke Welvaert and Rachael Quill to decide on the recipient of the prize.

As the winner of the Dennis Trewin prize, Basim presented his research on the topic of “Bayesian Modelling of Ion-selective Electrode Sensor Arrays” at the October Canberra branch meeting, which had an attendance of 29. Basim’s talk centred around the concept of the Limit of Detection (LoD) of a sensor – the lowest amount of a substance that can be reliably distinguished from absence of that substance for a given confidence limit. He proposed a Bayesian approach to determining the LoD that accounts for estimation uncertainty. This was then extended to the case where multiple sensors were being simultaneously used for substance detection.

Following the talk, there was engaging discussion regarding the methodology used and the relevance of Basim's work to COVID testing. We thank Basim for presenting his fascinating research.

Francis Hui

Inquiry into the Performance of the Opinion Polls at the 2019 Australian Federal Election final report released

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 23:10:33 GMT

The pollsters did not perform well in the lead up to the 2019 May Federal election. All predicted a win by the Labour party (ALP) with margins from 2% to 4% of the two party preferred vote. In the event, the Liberal National Party (LNP) coalition won by 3.0%. Election and political polling are consequential and influential and play an important role in the democratic process. In recent times, at least one Prime Minister lost his job as a result of poor polling. Furthermore, policy decisions are influenced by opinion polls.

Both the Statistical Society and the Australian Market and Social Research Organisations (AMSRO) proposed reviews of the performance to determine why all the published polls incorrectly called the outcome at 2019’s Federal election and how methods can be improved in the future.

It was agreed that AMSRO would take the main responsibility for the review but that the Statistical Society would be closely involved.

Modalities

A panel was established under the leadership of Darren Pennay. Darren was the Founder and past CEO of the Social Research Centre. the other panel members were a mixture of political scientists, statisticians and polling experts. Several were Statistical Society members. They were assisted by an Advisory Board. John Henstridge was the Statistical Society nominee for the Board. The Chair was Dennis Trewin who is also a Statistical Society member.

AMSRO invited pollsters, media organisations and others who commission election and political polling to contribute to the inquiry. While the Inquiry Panel was grateful for the cooperation it received from the pollsters, the lack of access to data sets (which have been routinely provided to similar reviews overseas) and to detailed descriptions of the survey methods and statistical techniques used affected their ability to conclusively identify all the specific factors that contributed to the relative inaccuracy of the 2019 polls.

The Inquiry sought cooperation from the four pollsters responsible for these polls: Essential Research, Ipsos, Roy Morgan Research and YouGov (responsible for the YouGov Galaxy and Newspoll polls). Roy Morgan Research refused outright to co-operate.

Despite the limited information, a quite substantial report was prepared. It was released on 11 November and it and further information on the AMSRO Polling Inquiry can be found at: https://www.amsro.com.au/amsro-polling-inquiry/.

Findings

The report said that the polls erred in their estimate of the vote in a manner that was statistically significant and erred in the same direction and at a similar level. It also found that the source of errors lie in the polls themselves and was not a result of a last-minute shift in preferences among voters.

The first preference votes were either underestimated (LNP) or overestimated (ALP) because of inadequately adjusted, unrepresentative samples. The report said that it was very likely the polls were skewed towards over-representing more politically engaged and better educated voters and this bias was not corrected and as a result, the polls over-represented Labor voters.

The Inquiry Panel could not rule out the possibility that the uncommon convergence of the polls in 2019 was due to ‘herding’ although it may be due, in part, to their methodologies leading to similar weaknesses in the representativeness of their samples. The absence of access to the data or the detailed methods means that this this remains a conjecture.

The Inquiry Panel also found that the reporting of the polls failed to meet the basic disclosure guidelines for editors and journalists set out by the Australian Press Council.

Recommendations

The Inquiry report has made 10 key recommendations aimed at improving polling methods and the disclosure thereof. Recommendations include (1) calling for an enforceable Code of Conduct for Election Polling developed in consultation with experts including statistical experts; (2) improvements and greater transparency in polling methods, (3) better measures of uncertainty and (4) better education of the media and public on polling.

We believe there is an important role for statisticians and members of the SSA in particular in improving the quality of polls, both in the design of the surveys and in generating a productive debate about their performance.

Postscript - 2020 US election polling

The accuracy of the US election polls has come under criticism. Most of the criticism came early when it appeared that Biden might lose the election. As the count progressed with the inclusion of mail-in votes the difference between the poll predictions and the actual vote narrowed. In the end, how did the polls perform?

The following analysis is based on data from Real Clear Politics, one of the main poll aggregators in the US.

Our [Real Clear Politics] conclusions are:

The performance of the polls was not great but better than generally perceived.
At the national level, the poll average was a 7.2% margin to Biden compared with an expected final outcome of about 4.5%. At least 4 of the polls predicted the result within the margin of error.
There was only one State where there was a polling miss – FLORIDA – where the average of the polls suggested a small win to Biden rather than a comfortable win to Trump.
The average of the polls was very good in many of the Swing States and predicted the correct outcome in PENNSLYVANIA, MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA, NORTH CAROLINA, ARIZONA, and NEVADA, mostly quite close to the actual margin. We are treating GEORGIA as an effective dead heat, but the average of the polls suggested a small win to Trump.
The average of the polls was outside the margin of error in several of the rust belt States – OHIO, WISCONSIN, IOWA.

Like Australia and in the 2016 US elections, we expect the main reason for any lack of performance will be unrepresentative samples but that is conjecture at this stage. Polling is more difficult in the US because they have to predict election turnout which may vary between the candidates.

Dennis Trewin and John Henstridge

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 04:47:59 GMT

Science and Technology Media Release

Monday 9 November 2020

STA warmly welcomes Dr Cathy Foley as Chief Scientist

Science & Technology Australia has warmly welcomed today’s announcement that former STA President Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM FAA FTSE will take the reins as Australia’s next Chief Scientist.

Science & Technology Australia President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie congratulated Dr Foley on behalf of the STA membership representing Australia’s 80,000 scientists and technologists.

“Cathy is a superb choice for this role. She is hugely respected across the worlds of science and policy, a wise and clever leader, a generous mentor, and a skilled public communicator,” he said.

“All of those qualities will come to the fore in this moment of historic opportunity for science: to apply the centrality of science during COVID to so many other complex challenges.”

“We are also especially proud that she is a former President of STA, which is a crucial voice for the science community.”

Dr Foley was also the inaugural chair of the STA policy committee in its re-formation in 2017, deepening the sector’s policy engagement, and served as STA President from 2009-2011.

She is also a highly accomplished physicist and the current Chief Scientist at Australia’s national science agency CSIRO. Her research interests have focussed on solid state physics, quantum physics, and research translation.

The events of 2020 have highlighted the crucial role of bringing scientific advice to Government – an effort led by the Chief Scientist – and we know Cathy will excel in the role.

She was deeply involved in the STEM sector’s response to the bushfire crisis providing expert advice on the capabilities of industry and science and has had a key role in the Rapid Research Information Forum.

“STA also thanks outgoing Chief Scientist Alan Finkel for his work in creating the Science Policy Fellows program, setting up the RRIF and engaging widely.”

SA Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia - August meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 00:15:49 GMT

A LEGENDARY way to do observational data analysis at scale

The South Australian branch was pleased to have A/Prof Nicole Pratt to present at the august monthly virtual branch meeting. A/Prof Pratt is an expert in biostatistics and pharmaco-epidemiology, specializing in the development of methodologies to study the effects of medicines and medical devices in linked health-care datasets. She gave a talk on A LEGENDARY way to do observational data analysis at scale.

The talk was interesting and well-presented. A/Prof Pratt started with information on OHDSI (Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics) coordinating center which works as a platform for international researchers to work collaboratively on a large-scale observational health dataset. In this distributive network, source data has transferred to standardized de-identified patient level data and you can perform analytics and produce results for publishing. She talked about ATLAS software and cohort Pathway package to perform collaborative studies and gave example of a hypertension study where data from 11 different databases in 4 countries (N= 250 million) was analyzed for different treatment pathways to treat hypertension.

Later in her talk, A/Prof Pratt informed us that OHDSI collaborative launched a Large-Scale Evidence Generation and Evaluation across a Network of Databases (LEGEND) research initiative, aiming to generate evidence on the effects of medical interventions using observational healthcare databases and addressing the missing evidence from clinical trials. She defined ten principles of LEGEND, prescribing the generation and dissemination of evidence on many research questions at once, comparing all treatments for a disease for many outcomes, thus preventing publication bias and avoiding p-hacking. The Best-practice methods addressed measured confounding and control questions (questions where the answer is known) quantify potential residual bias. She gave an example of a study published in Lancet where they have looked at comprehensive comparative effectiveness and safety of first-line antihypertensive drug class, where every treatments contrast for every health outcomes (52 outcomes) with 9 different data sources. This study has enhanced the evidence around first line hypertension. She concluded her talk mentioning how OHDSI framework helping in generating evidence in a network of databases to assess consistency, by sharing open source analytics code to enhance transparency and reproducibility, but without sharing patient-level information, ensuring patient privacy.

There were quite few questions from the audience after the talk, finishing the meeting at 7:10 pm.

By Aarti Gulyani

Strong skills and diversity among new STA Board directors

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 03:23:14 GMT

Australia’s peak body for science and technology has today welcomed four new members to its Board of Directors, representing strong diversity and breadth in STEM disciplines.

STA announced the following new appointees to its Board:

Agricultural and food sciences – Mr Michael Walker, Soil Science Australia Executive Officer
Biological sciences – Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa, Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (La Trobe University)
Physical sciences - Professor Jodie Bradby, Australian Institute of Physics (ANU)
Technological sciences - Dr Vipul Agarwal, Australasian Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Royal Australian Chemical Institute (UNSW Sydney)

STA President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie warmly welcomed the new members of the Board, which oversees governance and sets strategy for the organisation.

“STA’s governance reflects our diverse membership, which collectively represents over 80,000 STEM professionals in Australia,” Associate Professor Brownlie said.

“Our incoming Board is genuinely diverse across the STEM disciplines represented, as well as across gender and culture.”

“Diversity of experiences and expertise is vital to strong Boards. It’s essential to robust decision-making, quality governance and visionary leadership for organisations.”

“On behalf of the organisation, I warmly welcome our incoming Board members, both those who have been newly appointed, and those who have been re-elected.”

Dr Tom Cresswell (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Australasia), Jas Chambers (Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society), Marina Costelloe (Institute of Australian Geographers), Professor Adrian Barnett (Statistical Society of Australia) and Professor Rachel Burton (Australian Society of Plant Scientists) return to the STA Board for another 2 year term each.

STA’s new executive committee will be elected at the Annual General Meeting in late November.

For interviews, please contact STA Communications Manager, Zoya Patel on 0406 249 786.

More about our new Board members:

Dr Vipul Agarwal

Vipul is an NHMRC Fellow and Lecturer at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) who applies multidisciplinary research to develop bioimplants for spinal cord regeneration. He has strong experience working with industry and takes pride in advocating diversity and equity in science and scientific research.

Professor Jodie Bradby

Jodie is a physicist at the Australian National University with expertise in high pressure physics and the creation of new crystal phases of matter. Her group has made a type of silicon that can create a more efficient solar cell and a new form of diamond which is predicted to be even harder than regular diamond. Jodie is the Past-President of the Australian Institute of Physics and was a former AIP Women in Physics medallist. She has a strong interest in equity issues in STEM.

Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa

Tatiana is an early career biochemist and Group Leader at La Trobe University. She has won NHMRC Early Career and ARC DECRA fellowships to research antibiotics and herbicides to tackle the exponential rise in resistance. Tatiana was the founding President of La Trobe’s postdoctoral society. She is Editor of the Australian Biochemist magazine and the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s Chair of Communications and Science Advocacy.

Mr Michael Walker

Michael is Executive Officer of Social Science Australia and has spent his career in horticultural and agricultural professional associations. He has extensive experience in NFP membership, events management, board governance and project management. Michael is a former Chair of the Horticultural Training Council and of Primary Skills Victoria.

SSA SA Branch September Meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 01:21:18 GMT

Propensity score techniques in multiple treatments framework: the estimation of neighbourhood effect

The speaker for the September branch meeting was Margherita Silan, who is a postdoctoral research fellow at Padua University. Margherita was the winner of the Italian Statistical Society annual award for best PhD in Applied statistics. Her research interests include causal inference in multiple treatment frameworks, composite indicators and partially ordered set theory. Margherita’s research involved the estimation of the neighbourhood effect using propensity score techniques in a framework with many treatments, with an application to two health outcomes in Turin.

The neighbourhood effect is the independent causal effect of a neighbourhood on health and/or social outcomes. In order to compare the neighbourhood effect, it is important to make neighbourhoods comparable with respect to confounders. The Turin longitudinal study was used as the data source and outcomes considered were hospitalised fractures and incidence of depression or dementia. Neighbourhoods in Turin were represented as treatments, with at least 10 neighbourhoods included, depending on the partition methods.

Magherita compared two methods to estimate the neighbourhood effect; inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) for multiple treatments and logistic regression with dummy indicators for neighbourhoods as covariates in the model. Simulations were performed to compare the methods with fracture as the outcome. Performance of the two methods depended on the scenarios simulated.

The neighbourhood effect was estimated for the outcome of dementia or depression using IPTW. An effect on mental health with respect to the mean was found, which was protective or harmful depending on the neighbourhood and gender. Based on her results, Magherita proposed a novel method: Matching on Poset based Average Rank for Multiple Treatments (MARMoT). The average rank summarises individual characteristics which are important for treatment allocation and is used as a tool to improve the balance of covariates between groups through matching. She described how to use the tool to achieve covariate balance and performed a simulation study to evaluate its performance. MARMoT improved covariate balance for 70 neighbouring zones in Turin and the average treatment effect in the treated changed considerably for many neighbourhoods.

The talk concluded with a Q & A session, including suggestions for future collaboration and requests to share her code.

By Lan Kelly

NSW Branch September meeting - Rob Salomone takes the NSW Branch on a Monte Carlo trip

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 01:38:29 GMT

For the past couple of years Rob Salomone has been part of the University of New South Wales and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers as a post-doctoral fellow. At the latest meeting of the New South Wales branch, held on 30th September 2020, Rob gave a very entertaining talk about Monte Carlo - the statistical version.

As is well-known, Monte Carlo is a casino city in the small Mediterranean country of Monaco. In the 1940s, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico, USA, working on atomic bomb research, borrowed the name for the idea of using sampling methods to approximate integrals. Monte Carlo methods are now a mainstay of statistical methodology. Rob described the Monte Carlo approach in general, and then recent from contributions him and his collaborators.

A recurring theme throughout Rob's presentation was "integration by darts". This involved a graphic of an image plot of a bivariate function, with dart board concentric circles superposed - and these circles being contours of a bivariate density. Throwing darts matches draws from the density, which can be used in an obvious way to approximate the expectation of the function. However, if the bivariate function has important features well away from the bull's eye then integration by darts, i.e. Monte Carlo approximation, can perform poorly. Even in this two-dimension setting the challenges were made apparent. Connections with Bayesian inference were given.

Getting into the second half of this very animated talk, Rob discussed remedies for Monte Carlo challenges such as multiplying by one and adding zero in very smart ways. One of several examples from Rob's research concernedrare events for the sum of dependent log-normal variates. He pointed to papers such as Botev, Salomone & Mackinlay (2019), Salomone, South, Drovandi and Kroese (2020) and Hodgkinson, Salomone & Roosta (2020). The last one got into Stein operators and Polish spaces - which, from appearances, involve some elegant mathematics in the name of improved Monte Carlo statistical methodology.

Matt Wand
University of Technology Sydney

AMSI 2020-21 Annual 'MathsADDS' careers guide available now

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 05:14:36 GMT

The annual 'MathsADDS' careers guide published by AMSI in collaboration with La Trobe University informs and inspires students with maths-based career successes, and insights into the breadth of professions and industry sectors that can be entered with an undergraduate mathematics-based degree.

The 23rd (2020-21) edition of MathsADDS is available to download here.

Students often ask: “how will I use maths in the real world?” MathsADDS provides students and careers advisors with an array of real job advertisements reinforcing the opportunities available.

Changing perceptions of the value of mathematics, this 23rd edition of MathsADDS highlights career possibilities in ten industry sectors. It inspires students with profiles of practitioners, emphasising women excelling in careers requiring mathematical skills including a financial analyst, a civil engineer working on Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel project, and a robotics engineer at the Department of Defence utilising unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Introduced again by maths teaching icon, Eddie Woo, MathsADDS includes endorsements by science luminaries including former Australian of the Year, Professor Michelle Simmons, the nation’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, and Australia’s ambassador for STEM, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith.

This year has presented significant challenges to universities in staging traditional Open Day activities. Whether your insitution's event was on-campus or virtual, forwarding a copy of MathsADDS (either online using the link below, or by sending a soon to be available print copy) enables your recruitment team to follow-up with your prospective students.

Could I ask you to please forward this email to your Faculty's / University's recruitment management?

Print copies are in production and will be delivered to your School / Department. Again (if possible) you may care to send copies to your Recruitment Office.

With best regards,

Clint Rodgers

AMSI Marketing and Communications Manager

Julie Simpson awarded 2020 Australasian Epidemiological Association mentoring award

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 23:27:47 GMT

Julie Simpson, Head of the Biostatistics Unit and the Melbourne Clinical and Translational Sciences Platform, has been awarded the 2020 Australasian Epidemiological Association mentoring award. The award was announced at the AGM on 16^th September.

In their speech to award Julie, nominees David Price and Karen Lamb said “Julie is truly an inspiration to us and to the many biostatisticians, epidemiologists and public health researchers that are fortunate enough to know her. Julie is a fantastic role model; she sets the example for the type of researcher that so many of us aspire to be. She is always focussed on promoting and supporting others around her by assisting with fellowship applications, nominating people for prizes, extending invitations to provide workshops and seminars to junior members of staff, and offering opportunities for more junior members of her team to be on projects with collaborators in her place. She is always available for a chat, whether it be for technical queries or to provide help managing a difficult collaborator. It is the selflessness that Julie offers in mentoring and supporting her team that really stands out. She will gladly provide assistance on applications or publications regardless of whether she is involved or will personally benefit from the outcome. Julie is so invested in being a good supervisor that the success of her peers and team is the reward. We know of no one more deserving of this award."

Congratulations from all of us at SSA!

Science & Technology Australia - Media Release

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 02:19:11 GMT

Higher education legislation must be amended to avert cuts to STEM

In its submission to a Senate inquiry on the higher education legislation, Science & Technology Australia has proposed key amendments to avert damaging cuts in funding for STEM degrees.

In June, the Australian Government announced its Job-Ready Graduates plan. It proposes to make major changes to how university education is funded.

The Government has said it wants to see more graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) courses – and wants more humanities students to acquire STEM literacy and skills – because these are areas where Australia expects strong future jobs growth.

STA strongly supports this goal - however, this legislation as drafted would cut the level of funding for universities to teach students in STEM courses by $690 million in 2021 alone.

STA President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie said it was important for people to understand the magnitude of the proposed cut to STEM degree funding in the legislation as currently drafted.

“While the Government’s stated goal is to boost STEM places, this proposed legislation would actually cut base funding by 17% for maths degrees, 16% for science and engineering degrees, and 29% for environmental sciences.”

“Our members in STEM faculties have analysed this very carefully and concluded the practical effect of the proposed cuts would actually limit the STEM places universities can afford to offer - which is the opposite of Education Minister Dan Tehan’s stated intention.”

“These cuts would also lower base funding into STEM faculties which has supported staff to teach but also to do some research and supervise training of our next generation researchers.”

“That’s especially important in crucial STEM fields such as mining, engineering, agricultural science and advanced manufacturing - vital fields to build greater sovereign capability for Australia.”

“As a result, we urge the Senate to ask the Government to avert the proposed cuts in the legislation to STEM as a condition of Senate support to pass the Bill.”

“If the Senate is unable to secure amendments by the Government or from a Senate majority to keep the current resourcing level for STEM, it would be better if the legislation did not proceed.”

As a constructive way to avert the proposed cuts to STEM, STA recommends the Senate add a “science loading” clause to the legislation to ensure funding for STEM education does not fall.

“Our proposed amendment would essentially ensure base funding for STEM degrees remains the same – meaning universities don’t reduce the number of places they can offer in STEM courses.”

“The proposed cuts to STEM are being proposed when universities are reeling from the colossal economic hit of the COVID-19 pandemic including the loss of international student income.”

STA members have also highlighted cautions, caveats and gaps in the assumptions on which the Deloitte report – which was used to design the package – sought to model the costs of teaching.

Australian Council of Deans of Science President Professor Brian Yates said: “The strong view of the Deans of Science is that the legislation under consideration is extremely damaging to STEM and should not be passed as is.”

“Given the funding incentives in the legislation and the proposed fall in STEM resourcing, universities are likely to enrol more students in the better funded disciplines and fewer in STEM.”

Australian Council of Engineering Deans President Professor John Wilson said: “We think the funding levels in the legislation could see smaller and regional universities struggle to fund the costs of teaching engineering courses.”

“It would also make it hard to deliver the ‘heavy engineering’ disciplines – which involve expensive large-scale facilities and infrastructure – such as mining engineering, petro-chemical engineering, electrical engineering, heavy mechanical engineering and advanced manufacturing.”

Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors President Professor Dianne Gleeson said: “The cuts to STEM education are largest of all in the environmental sciences - with a 29% funding cut proposed in this legislation.”

“That is likely to see a sharp drop in places in courses that equip students for careers in bushfire prevention, recovery and resilience; water management in our arid continent; helping farmers with soil improvement and weed eradication; and managing our unique State and National Parks.”

Professor Brownlie said: “We appreciate the complexity of this legislation. STEM degrees feature across the proposed new funding clusters in a way that makes it hard to adjust the references to cluster funding rates in the legislation cleanly and simply.”

“We have therefore proposed a way forward that would ultimately align with the Government’s objectives while protecting STEM faculties from cuts to current funding.”

“We also seek an amendment to the legislation to uncap places for Indigenous students from all parts of Australia, not just regional and remote communities. Extending that access would help the Government to meet its own Close the Gap targets in education and employment.”

STA’s full submission is available here. For interviews, please contact STA Communications Manager, Zoya Patel on 0406 249 786.

WA Branch August Meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:03:02 GMT

The speaker for the August meeting with the Western Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia and the International Biometrics Society Australasian Region was Dr Smaila Sanni. Currently, Dr. Sanni works at SAGI-West as a biometrician, and has been in that role since October 2019. His talk discussed the research that Dr. Sanni conducted with the Applied and Industrial Mathematics group from the University of New South Wales for a chapter in the book 'Advances in Forest Fire Research 2018' (Jovanoski et al., 2018). The work considered methods in stochastic differential equations to describe the rate of spread (ROS) of fire. Interest is in how the fire develops within the initial minutes of a fire starting. The method used in this work can be applied to numerous fields, including cellular dynamics, animal genetics, disease spread in crops, and yield response to changes in growth factors.

The accelerated phase of fire ROS is incredibly important to know as it can inform first responders of how rapidly a fire may develop, and what resources they will therefore need to handle that situation. While undoubtedly an important topic, the majority of studies in wildland fire science have been dedicated to the development of models after its initial acceleration phase, when the fire has reached a quasi- equilibrium rate of spread. Comparatively little attention has been given to the development of models that specifically account for the growth phase of a fire's development.

The findings put forward by Dr. Sanni and his research team presented interesting relationships in fire dynamics. One key finding was that the probability that the fire would self-extinguish was found to be governed by the ratio between the equilibrium fire ROS and the variability of the fire ROS. Another notable outcome was that the confidence interval for the stochastic differential equation model used in the research was found to be narrower than that used in nonlinear regression models. This means that the stochastic model gives a higher level of precision for its predictions than that found for the nonlinear regression model. Finally, the stochastic model is also advantageous as it provides a way to generate statistics such as the mean, variance, containment probability and the distribution of fire ROS.

As mentioned above, the use of stochastic differential equations can be applied to other fields, and Dr. Sanni sees potential for the use of the modelling in areas such as crop disease spread which undoubtedly has stochastic elements. He hopes that this can be integrated into his work done at SAGI-West to improve their current outcomes.

Due to the nature of the online talk, no dinner was planned afterwards but one was offered for Dr. Sanni in the future.

Jordan Brown

References

Jovanoski, Z., J. J. Sharples, A. M. Gill, S. Watt, H. S. Sidhu, I. N. Towers, and S. Sanni. 2018. "Modelling the rate of spread of fire: An SDE approach." In Advances in Forest Fire Research 2018 VIEGAS, D. X., 555-565: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:14:52 GMT

Last week we lodged STA’s submission to the Senate inquiry on the higher education legislation. As soon as the committee publishes it, we will be able to circulate it. You can read all the submissions as they are published on the committee’s website.

We share the Government’s goal of having more STEM graduates – however the proposed legislation would cut resourcing for STEM degrees. We have done some careful thinking about constructive ways in which the Senate could amend the legislation to avert the proposed cuts to STEM. It has been so important to be able to hear from many of you about the likely impact of the proposed legislation as we crafted this important piece of work. Having the collective voice and information conduit of STA becomes even more valuable at times like this. Our thanks to each of you who helped with insights and expertise.

At the end of this month, we will host the next webinar in our skills series. This one is on how STEM organisations can continue their equity, diversity and inclusion work amid COVID-19. Our presenters are STA Vice-President Tanya Ha and Corey Tutt from Deadly Science. You can register here: Diverse By Design: tips and resources to enhance equity in STEM (Webinar).

A final call as well today for Victorian applicants for Superstars of STEM. Amid the lockdown in Victoria, we extended the deadline in that state until 5pm today. If you know a woman in STEM in Victoria who is a potential Superstar, please encourage them to apply.

As always, we’re conscious of the continued pressure of COVID-19 on the sector. Last week the nation marked R U OK Day, and STA is here to support you. Please always feel free to be in contact if there are additional ways in which we can help support you and your members.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

The Department of Home Affairs seeks feedback on changes to the Protecting Critical Infrastructure Act. These changes may create new reporting obligations for universities and medical research institutes (along with many other sectors). (Submissions close September 16).
An Inquiry into Australia’s Foreign Relations Bill has been called (submissions close September 25).
The Medical Research Future Fund has opened consultations for its 2020-2022 priorities (submissions close October 7).
The NHMRC is running a public consultation on ethical conduct in human research (consultations close October 30)
The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources has opened up consultations on the guidance provided to business on the Research & Development Tax Incentive (contributions close September 25).
A review of the Disability Standards for Education 2005 has opened (submissions close September 25).
The Department of Agriculture, Water and Soil seeks input on the National Soil Strategy (survey closes September 25).
In-depth analysis of the Job Ready Graduate Package has been released by policy experts Andrew Norton, Mark Warburton, and the Parliamentary Library.
The Government-led Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology has released a report urging changes to the Research & Development Tax Incentive.
The Bushfire Royal Commission has released an interim report.

Science & Technology Australia - Member callout for examples of international collaboration

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 05:33:20 GMT

I know it continues to be a very hectic time for us all. Thank you for the important work each of you are doing across our STEM sector.

Among the many policy issues we are all currently navigating, helping policymakers to understand the importance of international research collaborations is a continuing priority.

We are therefore looking to collect some great examples and case studies to highlight global research collaborations between Australian STEM researchers and counterparts abroad.

We are looking for the following information:

What (types of) research are you and your members currently collaborating on with international partners?
What research and products/services/insights/jobs have come from your or your members international collaborations (links or pdfs to papers and websites would be excellent)?
What countries are your research partners in?
Are you collaborating with international businesses or industry and, if so, who and how?

We are looking for as much specificity in examples as possible – although we understand that some research might be commercial in confidence.

STA intends to use this research as public case studies however if requested we will not include your name or research institution.

We would like to gather this information before September 21. If you could email it to our Policy Manager Peter Derbyshire – peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au – we would be most grateful.

Many thanks in advance for your engagement as always.

All the very best,

Misha

Misha Schubert
Chief Executive Officer
P: 02 6257 2891 M: 0421 612 351
PO Box 259, Canberra City, ACT 2601
E: misha.schubert@sta.org.au

A message to AMSI members and friends from the interim Director, Professor Asha Rao

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 01:33:15 GMT

Dear AMSI members and friends,

The 'Securing Australia’s Mathematical Workforce' (SAMW) program is a significant initiative by AMSI and the Australian Government through our partners in the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

Since 2012, SAMW funding has further enabled AMSI to grow the nation’s future public and private-sector workforce with advanced skills in the mathematical sciences, whilst also providing opportunities for increasing participation by female and Indigenous students. The overarching objective is to contribute to the preparation of a world-class mathematical sciences workforce in Australia.

I am delighted to inform you that following an independent review of the SAMW program (2016-20) and the AMSI Vacation Schools and Scholarships Grant program (2012–16), funding has been secured for another 12 months, continuing the success of our highly important partnership with the Department.

This enables valuable events including BioInfoSummer 2020, Vacation Research Scholarships 2020-21, Summer School 2021, our Scientific Workshop Program and Winter School 2021 to be sustained.

I would like to recognise and acknowledge the collective contribution of our Deputy Director, Professor Mat Simpson, and the members of the working committee he chaired, together with our wonderful RHED team of Angela Coughlin, Anna Muscara and Francesca Hoban Ryan -- and of our former program manager, Chloe Pearse -- to successfully securing this vital funding enabling this great work by AMSI to continue.

Congratulations and thank you!

Asha Rao

Statistical Consulting in the 21st century

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 01:42:41 GMT

Canberra Branch SSA, Victorian Branch SSA & Statistical Consulting Network, August meeting

Over 120 SSA and NZSA members joined online to hear from four statistical consultants, in a webinar jointly hosted by the Canberra and Victorian Branches, and the Statistical Consulting Network.

Elyse Corless (Data Analysis Australia) drew on her commercial experience in dealing with the challenges of An abundance of data where quantity should not be taken to imply quality. While large amounts of data can be overwhelming, they can also draw the inquisitive consultant in and be potentially distracting. Commercial consultants often need to juggle multiple projects each with their own time and budget constraints, while considering the client’s knowledge and understanding of statistical methods and concepts. Elyse emphasised the importance of careful project scoping and planning, and of understanding the value of the project to the client facilitated by regular communication. She provided tips for improving data quality including inspecting and visualising data, sampling snippets of very large data sets, and using coding in the data review process. Routine use of coding should be used to support reproducibility of both data checking processes and subsequent analytics. Elyse shared examples from a range of her recent projects.

Graham Hepworth (Statistical Consulting Centre, University of Melbourne) discussed The art of the possible. Among important qualities of a statistical consultant is being able to make a judgement of what is needed by the client; this also requires judgement about the capacity of the client to deal with the complexity of the analysis provided. Graham shared some findings of a client-consultant survey from the Statistical Consulting Centre, and showed that within generally good levels of satisfaction, clients tended to be more satisfied when the problem involved was less complex. However clients’ perception of the quality of service (overall very positive) varied little in terms of their statistical competence. Graham suggested that this reflected good judgement on the part of the consultant in adapting to client capacity; he illustrated the range of options a consultant might consider in the analysis of an ordinal outcome variable and discussed his experience in weighing up these options.

Hwan-Jin Yoon’s (Statistical Consulting Unit, Australian National University) contribution focussed on Statistical consulting in the university: some challenges. Jin contrasted problem-minded versus solution-minded focus, and characterised four different types of roles that might be adopted by a consultant depending degree of activity and engagement on the part of both the consultant and the client. These roles were helper, leader, teacher and collaborator. Jin shared examples of how clients’ questions can shape expectations about the statistician’s role, and he discussed the drawbacks inherent in some roles. Ideally the consultant takes on a collaborative role, with learning on both sides; this is Jin’s “joy of statistics”. In addition to dealing with client expectations, challenges in academic statistical consulting included the variability in the type of statistical questions and client background in statistics, and the need to deal with the human side of the interactions. Ultimately, the success of the consultation come down to the human side – the empathy on the part of the consultant.

Doug Zahn (Professor Emeritus, Florida State University) invited participants let him know What is your most troublesome stumbling block? This elicited a very generous response from over 50 people, and so Doug focussed on four stumbling blocks that resonated with many of the examples provided. These were:

When the data have already been collected and can't answer the question of interest.
Being left out of the study design, taken in too late.
Eliciting the actual research question from the researcher.
What to do when I don't know what to do Knowing how to say “I don’t know!”

An effective 21st century consultation relies on open communication that is co-operative and collaborative. It results in an agreed plan of shared work that is robust to scrutiny, and that is carried out in a timely way. Seeing value in a consultant’s skills and contribution, the client identifies a resource for future work.

It results in an agreed plan of shared work that is robust to scrutiny, and that is carried out in a timely way. Seeing value in a consultant’s skills and contribution, the client identifies a resource for future work.

In a wanted conversation the consultant endeavours to find out what the client wants from the consultation, rather than making assumptions or, worse, guessing. Doug emphasised the expanded wanted conversation where a consultant strives to elicit all that the clients wants, in an iterative process. Importantly, there should be agreement about the final list of all wants, and this should reflect consideration of relevant stakeholder requirements and application of the project results.

Consultants need to be honest about their capacity to meet client needs, and about the limitations of a client’s project; Doug advised we look for velvet gloves in delivering these messages!

Doug will be the Keynote Speaker in December at the Statistical Consulting Network 2020 meeting. This is a virtual event where statistical consultants can connect, present their ideas, discuss best practice and more. You can find more information here and you can register via the SSA website.

There was a lot of lively discussion in the chat during the webinar. In brief, here is a summary of some contributions.

On negotiating authorship, or the offer of co-authorship in lieu of payment

Every university in Australia has an authorship policy. Consultants working in unis should be aware of it and make sure their clients are aware of it.
For students I would be referring them to various guidelines about what warrants authorship... there are a lot of resources available and education is key.
The SSA Statistical Consulting Network could also come up with a statement on co-authorship specific to statistical consultants to publish on the website. Will let you know plans as they develop.
We find it helpful to have a policy document on co-authorship that can be produced.
Even if co-authorship is not on the table, appropriate acknowledgement of consulting support should be explicitly discussed. We also have statements around this when clients come to our service.
Here is the Australian code of conduct around research authorship.
ICMJE guidelines on co-authorship can/could also be applied to other substantive areas of application

Is it better to do something wrong (at client's direction) and get paid or do nothing and not get paid?

Sometimes an older, stubborn client may be persuaded with issues of reputation; that is one thing they are concerned about. "The technique you want to use is no longer respected." (expressed politely)
If you can walk away then you may have to do so - otherwise you may suffer reputationally
I think Dunning (a psychologist) had studied on why older/ specialised client/people refused to take in advice, I cannot remember the exact study sorry. only thing I can remember is that they did trials with London taxi drivers and proved that when someone knew something very well, they tend to question new/conflicting information strongly.
When I was early in my career in medical/hospital consulting, I put in my mind that often these people came in with an offsider. So, in that situation I convinced myself that they were more scared of me than I was of them (helped me relax with a bit of an internal smile to myself)
Other
This could be useful re correct versus useful reporting of frequentist results: https://discourse.datamethods.org/t/language-for-communicating-frequentist-results-about-treatment-effects/934

SSA members can watch the recording of this webinar here.

Sue Finch
Co-chair Statistical Consulting Network

SA YOUNG STATISTICIANS career event 2020

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 01:29:28 GMT

The SA branch’s annual young statisticians career event was held successfully on August 14^th, 2020 via Zoom. This event aimed to help statistics students or early career statisticians, less than five years in the field of statistics, to meet their potential employers.

A young statisticians career event e-poster was created and sent out to all guest employers, mathematics and statistics students from three universities: University of South Australia, Flinders University and the University of Adelaide, a few weeks before the event. A rsvp was required before students were able to gain access to the zoom meeting.

For this event, we were pleased to have invited senior statisticians from the Biometry Hub, the University of Adelaide; Advance Clinical; Adelaide Health Technology Assessment (AHTA), the University of Adelaide; Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and SAHMRI to give formal presentations. These presentations included information about introduction of the organisation; roles of statisticians; analyses/software; future opportunities/career paths and opportunities/support for continued professional development.

After the presentations, in the Q&A session, students asked questions to our presenters regarding their talks or general questions regarding the career opportunities. Some questions were directed to a specific employer representative and some were directed to all employer representatives. This section went smoothly and there was good interaction between our employers and our students.

Finally, Wendy Li, the young statistician representative from SA branch, closed the event with great thanks to all employers presented and all students attended the event.

By Wendy Li

JOANNA WANG SHOWS USE OF STATISTICS FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE (AUGUST 2020)

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 05:02:21 GMT

JOANNA WANG SHOWS USE OF STATISTICS FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE (AUGUST 2020)

University of Technology Sydney senior lecturer Joanna Wang describes statistical evaluation of a prison alternative.

About 50 society members logged into Zoom on 27th August 2020 to hear about Joanna Wang's work with the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. This bureau has lots of publicly available data on crime and prison populations. An example of its objectives is to identify factors that affect the frequency and distribution of crime.

Most of Joanna's presentation was on a case study concerning evaluation of a prison alternative known as an intensive correction order. If a judge gives you an intensive correction order then, rather than sending you to Long Bay, Goulburn or Grafton Gaol, then you have to do at least 32 hours of community service work a month, participate in programmes and submit yourself to regular drug and alcohol testing. New South Wales gaols are filling up at an unprecedented rate so there is a great deal of interest in this non-prison alternative. The research aim that Joanna presented to us was:

"to examine the risk of re-offending on those who receive an intensive correction order, relative to those who received a short (less than 2 years) prison sentence".

Randomised clinical trials to are not an easy, or ethical, option in this case and so propensity score and instrumental variable methods were used instead. One analysis of this kind led to a 31% reduction in the odds ratio of re-offending for intensive correction order offenders, with a reasonable degree of statistical significance.

As advertised by Joanna towards the end of her talk, the details of the case study are in a 2017 paper by J.J.J. Wang and S. Poynton in the "Crime and Justice Bulletin" (No. 207).

Matt Wand

University of Technology Sydney

STA signs on to APEC principles to support women in STEM

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 04:55:18 GMT

MEDIA RELEASE

Friday 28 August 2020

STA signs on to APEC principles to support women in STEM

Building on our longstanding commitment to support women in STEM, Science & Technology Australia has formally signed on to the APEC Women in STEM Principles.

And our Chief Executive Officer addressed an APEC Policy Partnership on Science, Technology & Innovation forum overnight on the impact of COVID-19 on equity, diversity and inclusion.

The APEC Women in STEM principles and actions invite Governments and organisations to support greater representation of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Australia is represented on the APEC PPSTI by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, who worked closely with other member economies to develop the APEC Women in STEM principles.

STA has had a longstanding commitment to support initiatives to make inroads on the under-representation of women in STEM.

This includes through our acclaimed Superstars of STEM program – supported by the Australian Government – to enhance the visibility of women in STEM to inspire more young women and girls into STEM study and careers.

Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert presented on a panel to a virtual APEC forum overnight.

She shared the Rapid Research Information Forum report on women in the STEM workforce, and highlighted the role of data to ensure crucial equity gains are not lost during the pandemic.

“The early evidence certainly suggests the hard-won equity gains of many years are at risk during the pandemic, so it is even more important that we all work together to hold those gains.”

“Seeking data on the impact of the pandemic on equity, diversity and inclusion can help policy-makers and STEM employers protect the gains we’ve all worked so hard to make.”

“This formal step of signing on to the APEC principles builds on STA’s long commitment to action to redress the under-representation of women in STEM,” she said.

The panel was chaired by Chile’s Mr Rodrigo Perez. Speakers included Ms Staci Rijal from the US Government’s Office of Science & Technology Cooperation, and Ms Karine Morin from the Canadian Government’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

For interviews, please contact STA Communications Manager, Zoya Patel on 0406 249 786.

Science & Technology Australia, 3/8 Phipps Close, Deakin, Australian Capital Territory 2600, Australia

News from AMSI

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 03:54:35 GMT

Despite the various uncertainties of our times, the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) remains highly focused on its mission championing the mathematical sciences in Australia, supporting the national STEM agenda and enabling growth of a knowledge economy.

Given the daily relevance of statistics in assessing the wellbeing of Australians, AMSI is heavily promoting the importance of statistical data collection, analysis and reporting, particularly in epidemiological applications and in informing public health policy. We commend our news feed [amsi.org.au/media-releases] to SSA members as a source of information and commentary.

July has been marked by our Director, Professor Tim Brown, completing his tenure with AMSI. Maintaining relationships with wider stakeholders in the mathematical sciences sphere was central to Tim’s thinking, and will be sustained moving forward. The AMSI Board is presently working with the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne to identify AMSI’s new permanent Director; details regarding this process are available online from the University of Melbourne’s recruitment portal or through the AMSI website.

This month also marks the departure of our National Program Manager for Research and Higher Education, Chloe Pearse. Chloe is well known to many SSA members through directing high profile events such as AMSI Summer Schools, the ACE Network, BioInfoSummer and AMSI Optimise, and passes her appreciation to members of the advisory and organising committees that have supported AMSI’s ‘RHED’ operations. AMSI is ensuring that its capability to manage research and higher education-focused operations continues seamlessly moving forward.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Asha Rao from RMIT as the interim Director of AMSI pending the permanent appointment of a Director. As an academic and researcher Asha is very well known throughout the maths community and has a significant profile as a contributor to AMSI’s #MathsTALK social media discourse on teaching mathematics to school children. Asha has commenced on a part-time basis from Monday 18 August.

Further ensuring continuity through our leadership transition, we are pleased to inform the SSA community that Leanne Taylor has been appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer. Leanne has significant experience within the university sector and is well-equipped to coordinate and drive operational and administrative activities of the Institute in the temporary absence of a full-time Director. Leanne’s appointment enables AMSI to maintain the confidence of its members (such as SSA) and stakeholders in promoting the criticality of the mathematical sciences to the wellbeing of Australians and recovery of the nation’s economy.

Clint Rodgers
AMSI Marketing and Communications Manager

Using disparate data sources to research economic disadvantage in Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 03:34:32 GMT

SSA Webinar report, 17th August

The 1-hour webinar covered in compressed format the challenge of researching economic disadvantage in Australia given data constraints. The speakers, Anders Holmberg, Chief Methodologist at the ABS and Rajeev Samarage, Senior Data Analyst at the Melbourne Institute, representing respectively producers and users of official statistics, built the case for an entirely new approach to assembling analytical datasets applicable to the economic debates that are being brought on by a rapidly changing economic climate.

This approach is organised around the framework presented by Li Chun Zhang in a 2012 Statistica Neerlandica paper. The Total Survey Error Model had been maturing for a generation from its introduction by Torre Dalenius and co-workers in Sweden to the succession of publications and transatlantic conferences organised by Robert Groves and associates at Maryland as a way of organising the business of population survey taking that had become the central activity of national statistical offices.

The 2012 paper reinterpreted TSE - expressed in terms of the diad of measurement processes and representational units - as stepped generation of errors into the survey dataset - in more general terms palatable to analytical workers: a common conceptual parcel of variables; and objects from a variety of sources.

By this means the statistical task becomes forward looking: to align analytical measures and statistical units brought together into an integrated secondary microdata set, fully documented, and with a level of quality assured.

By allowing the Zhang construction to carry through time we can bring further statistical tools to bear to deliver a credible longitudinal dataset from which the impact of external shocks can be demonstrated, within robust statistical constraints. Equally the fully constructive nature of this process allows for cross jurisdictional conceptual datasets leading into aggregate and comparative study.

The most valuable point however made in the course of the presentation was drawing attention to the contrasting, and legitimate, perspectives of producers and users - so much so that it had been difficult in the past to retrieve a common interest between the two communities:

On the one hand is concern with integrity and an industrialised process at public expense subject to narrow legislative restraints concerning the release of any information that can relate to any one respondents, even though the furnishing of information to the statistical office is privileged over any other producer;

On the other hand analysts have struggled with data access and data fluency issues, with interpreting the specificity of survey designs and underlying limitations in official census sources, with misalignment between official measurement base and that used in other sources where the design is not as transparent or absent, as for some administrative data troves.

A common model means a shared vocabulary, where the methodology used in collection design and production is converted to strengthened analytical reach, meeting the rigour required for research publication, and the lucidity and authority required of political communication.

That ABS and MI are working in harness is encouraging for the future of official statistics and business analytics; whether the answer to the question posed is at best highly qualified or not.

The presenters have given a limited set of references; other sources are output of workshops on survey nonresponse from the 1990s that mutated into European Conferences on Quality in Official Statistics and their offshoots in international fora; the working papers from the ABS’ long term Data Integration project; and technical papers documenting the design and adaptation of HILDA - since its launch by the MI on behalf of the Department of Social Security in 2001 - and its sister longitudinal studies of economic disadvantage in Europe and North America. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the future.

Stephen Horn

Chair, Official Statistics Section, Statistical Society of Australia

SA Branch of Statistical Society of Australia – July meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 02:41:39 GMT

Unlocking the secrets in your DNA USING machine learning and cloud-computing

Dr Natalie Twine is team leader of the CSIRO Transformational Bioinformatics Group and gave a talk to the SA members in July. The groups’ vision is to improve health care through digital technology.

The potential information held in within an individual is huge. A genome contains DNA which holds the blueprint for every cell in the human body and is like a fingerprint- unique to an individual. CSIRO have developed technology platforms around using cloud computing to investigate DNA, for example, VariantSpark and TRIBES.

VariantSpark

This can be used to explore differences in genes between sick and healthy individuals. Often diseases are controlled by more than a single gene, such that genes interact each with a variable contribution. An example is motor neurone disease or ALS which is a serious condition leading to death within 2 years of diagnosis. There is a data set of the genomes of 22K individuals of healthy and sick individuals that can be used to investigate the genes underlying this disease. The genome of one individual covers over 80 million gene variants for each individual so it is a large data set. Using VariantSpark on this data set, a machine learning (ML) approach using Random Forests was implemented to investigate interacting genes. Where traditional bioinformatics tools are underpowered, VariantSpark uses using an apache spark cluster which is parallelised with capacity for adding extra computing power. This approach can be implemented in various platforms such as AWS or Microsoft Azure. There is an example on AWS marketplace in demo notebooks

https://databricks-prod-cloudfront.cloud.databricks.com/public/4027ec902e239c93eaaa8714f173bcfc/8497971343024764/53198984527781/2559267461126367/latest.html

TRIBES

Disease is often inherited. With genetic ancestry it is becoming possible as more genome data becomes available to find genes underlying disease. Determining whether there is distant ancestry between people with the disease is important as it enables the identification of DNA that they have inherited from a common ancestor. These segments of DNA are known as identical by descent (IBD) segments. By exploring these IBD segments it narrows the research and enables potential drivers of the disease to be targeted. TRIBES which is available from GITHUB, is a pairwise classifier and very accurate compared to other tools. It enables the identification of new disease genes, it is also able to connect different families through these IBD regions. In an ALS example, it was able to connect 19 families from 25 and identify 5 independent or different mutations associated with ALS. The identification of different mutation is particularly important as it means that drug therapy can be targeted. The identification of novel genes was also possible.

COVID-19

A final example using technology was in the fight against the corona virus or COVID-19. CSIRO has been involved in replicating the virus, sequencing the genome, developing animal models and preclinical vaccine testing. They have found that the virus mutates approximately 25 times a year compared to influenza which mutates around 50 times per year. Identifying COVID-19 strains for vaccine testing is important. From the original host of the virus it may have mutated multiple times but its only possible to capture those virus in people that are tested so intermediate strains are lost. CSIRO have used ML to compare the virus genome isolated from people who have been tested and to identify how identical they are. This can aid in determining the most appropriate strain for vaccine testing.

CSIRO have developed a web service which monitors new genome sequences of COVID-19. Data from around the world can be uploaded to an AWS platform and each day an analysis can be run comparing strains with results available on a website. This is enabled by using serverless powered computing which is agile, such that resources are able to be shared when it’s not used, its good if software is used sporadically.

The final impact is detecting community spread of the virus, where the different strains are monitored. They are able to track mutations to see how they may effect transmission, virulence and symptoms.

The take home message from the talk was that there is a massive explosion in data. IT technology can make a big difference in the fight against disease.

By Helena Oakey

Scientists sense community trust in science is on the rise – even as they face job losses and pay freezes amid COVID-19

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 04:39:09 GMT

MEDIA RELEASE - Science & Technology Australia

12 August 2020

Results of a nationwide survey of over 1,000 professional scientists and researchers shows COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the science workforce in Australia.

In a first snapshot of the impact of the pandemic on scientists’ jobs and wages, a survey by Professional Scientists Australia and Science & Technology Australia found despite the frontline role of scientists in the pandemic, they too had been hit by job losses and wage freezes.

In The Initial Employment Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Australia's Science Workforce, scientists reported job losses, pay freezes, changes to job roles, and limitations on their ability to work due to juggling working from home while caring for children.

At the same time, as an indicator of the central role science is playing in Australia’s response to the pandemic, the survey found almost six in 10 scientists said Australians now placed greater value in science and our nation’s professional scientific workforce as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even at that early stage, key findings in the report include:

One in 20 scientists in the survey had taken a pay cut, and one in 10 said their paid work hours had fallen.
Around 7 in 10 had been instructed to work from home, and almost one in three said physical distancing and home isolation had limited their work.
One in seven scientists surveyed said their work role had changed during the pandemic, and nearly one in four said anxiety/ mental distress caused by the pandemic was affecting their ability to work.
One in five said caring for children/home schooling had limited their ability to work.
A lack of job security was a key source of stress affecting mental health and well-being.

Science & Technology Australia President Jeremy Brownlie said the report is a timely reminder that whilst Australians rely on our exceptional science sector to respond to crises such as the pandemic, the wellbeing of the science workforce needs to be a stronger priority.

“This report provides vital insight into the vulnerability of scientists and researchers as employees, as the economic impact of COVID-19 places significant strain on universities and research institutes, even as the demand for their skills had grown,” Associate Professor Brownlie said.

“Australia boasts incredible talent in scientific research, and we’ve drawn on this extensively amid COVID-19 – yet the job security and conditions of scientists and researchers are at risk.”

“We need to protect Australia’s scientific workforce so it can play its crucial role in Australia’s recovery from COVID-19 in job creation and economic growth.”

Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert noted the survey ran in May before major job losses started to be announced at universities

“Even at that early stage of the pandemic, almost one in 20 scientists surveyed said they had had their employment terminated, their contract not renewed, or had been stood down without pay,” she said.

“And since this survey was in the field, we’ve seen announcements of thousands more job losses at universities.”

“Now is the time for a stronger investment in the science and technology workforce. This pandemic has highlighted how crucial our scientists are to the safety and security of all Australians.”

Please see the full report, The Initial Employment Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Australia's Science Workforce here. For interviews, please contact STA Communications Manager, Zoya Patel on 0406 249 786.

Science & Technology Australia, 3/8 Phipps Close, Deakin, Australian Capital Territory 2600, Australia
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Message from the SSA and NZSA Presidents

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 02:35:21 GMT

Had 2020 been an ordinary year, ANZSC would already have been and gone. But 2020 is far from an ordinary year! Although ANZSC has been pushed back to July 5-9, 2021, this does not diminish the excitement that we, the Presidents of the Statistical Society of Australia and the New Zealand Statistical Association, have for this event. We can’t wait to see old friends and make new ones from around Australia and New Zealand in July 2021.

So why should you come along to the Gold Coast on July 5-9 2021 for ANZSC? Here are just a few reasons:

Catch up on the latest in statistical theory and practice from our region;
Hear from some leading statistical thinkers from around the world, including Professor Frauke Kreuter and Professor Iain Johnstone.
Socialise with colleagues and enjoy delicious food at the conference dinner.
See what the future of statistics has in store with presentations from our early career and student members.

2020 has been a challenging year for many of us, and we look forward to celebrating the resilience and strength of the Australian and New Zealand statistical communities at ANZSC 2021!

Jessica Kasza
President of the Statistical Society of Australia

Vanessa Cave
President of the New Zealand Statistical Association

SSA and ASPAI AGM 2020/Florence Nightingale at 200: using data to improve health from the time of the Crimea to the time of the coronavirus

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 02:34:29 GMT

On a chilly, wintery evening, SSA history was made last Tuesday when we held our first Society AGM via Zoom. As a result of these unprecedented times the ACT Government recently amended the Associations Incorporations ACT 1991, now allowing association AGMs to be held online rather than face-to-face only.

However, the history-making did not stop there. Counting over forty members at the Zoom meeting, the participation rate at this AGM exceeded any number previously recorded at an AGM held outside a Statistical Conference year. Thank you to everyone who joined in!

Our new President, Jess Kasza, took us through the agenda items in such an efficient way that the AGMs for SSA and ASPAI were completed within half an hour. After a brief break, attendees were then treated to a captivating talk by RSS President, Professor Deborah Ashby. Professor Ashby is the Director of the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, where she holds the Chair in Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials. She is a Founding Co-Director of Imperial Clinical Trials Unit. Her talk was titled

Florence Nightingale at 200: using data to improve health from the time of the Crimea to the time of the coronavirus

and the audience was taken on a journey through Florence Nightingale’s fascinating life. Many pieces have been written about Florence being recognised as a pioneering and passionate statistician. Coming from a background of privilege and with powerful connections, Florence chose a life of hard work and never-ending learning, using her - what we these days would call “network” - to try to improve the health situation in her country and abroad. She recognised the connection between statistics and health and used her influence to make the government officials of her time see it as well. The slides of the talk can be viewed here.

I can truthfully say that this interesting talk, presented by a statistician to statisticians, was thoroughly enjoyed by this non-statistician as well.

Marie-Louise Rankin
Executive Officer
Statistical Society of Australia

News from the Bayesian Section

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 00:01:34 GMT

There are some conferences coming up soon that will be run wholly online: the 14th International Conference in Monte Carlo & Quasi-Monte Carlo Methods in Scientific Computing (MCQMC) will be held from August 9-14. StanCon will be a 24-hour event, held on August 13, for those interested in the Stan software for Bayesian computation. Also, the Bayesian Young Statisticians Meeting: Online (BAYSM:O) to be held online from November 17-18, 2020.

Our update includes some brief reviews of the book “Bayesian Probability for Babies” and the software packages JASP and Jamovi.

Ferrie, Chris (2019) "Bayesian Probability for Babies", Baby University

This book has been out for a year! I first found out about it when a graduating PhD student gave it to me as a gift. It is a children's board book, and uses cookies to explain how Bayes Theorem works, in an entertaining and intuitive way. I did a book reading at a conference, and whilst the academics didn't sit on the floor, they really enjoyed it, and more importantly, quickly got the hang of things. We can attest that this "cookie book" is well liked by at least one small child and one teenager. The author also has a YouTube video where he reads his book.

Bayesians may find a couple of beginner friendly and free statistical packages useful for teaching. Just Another Stats Package (JASP) is freely downloadable from jasp-stats.org. It provides a simple menu-based interface to simpler statistical analyses (like t-tests and ANOVA) but provides "curated" Frequentist and Bayesian outputs (for posteriors and Bayes Factors too) using a similar frontend. Then Jamovi is a relatively new R package that makes it easier to write user friendly interfaces for R functions. There are already some useful interfaces available: https://www.jamovi.org/library.html

JASP and jamovi were introduced by the same group of people, as written up here:

Matt Moores & Sama Low-Choy,

On behalf of the executive committee, Bayesian Section of SSA

https://twitter.com/BayesSsa

APPLY TO BECOME ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S SUPERSTARS OF STEM

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 23:19:07 GMT

The search is about to begin for Australia’s next constellation of Superstars of STEM.

Science & Technology Australia created #SuperstarsofSTEM in 2017. This trailblazing program builds a critical mass of high-profile women scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians to serve as role models to inspire young women and girls into STEM. It aims to smash society’s gender assumptions about STEM careers – and lift the public visibility of women in STEM – to make gains towards more equal media representation of women in STEM.

Over the first three years of the program, Science & Technology Australia have developed the profiles of 90 women in STEM. These women acquired advanced communication skills and exciting opportunities to use these skills in the media, on stage and speaking with Parliamentary and industry decision-makers.

Science & Technology Australia are launching the search to find their next 60 Superstars of STEM to be part of another brilliant and diverse cohort for 2021-22. Applications open on 4 August. Apply by August 31.

Media Release - Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 06:13:49 GMT

STEM Jobs At Risk Without A JobKeeper Lifeline For Unis

Jobs in the science, technology, engineering and maths workforce are now at greater risk as hundreds more job losses start to be announced at universities across the country.

The peak body for the science and technology sector is asking the Australian Government to take a fresh look at the damage being inflicted by the pandemic on Australia’s research and teaching jobs.

Science & Technology Australia President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie said our nation’s university STEM researchers and teachers were "the lifeblood of Australia’s research system".

“The grave risk now is that we may start to lose brilliant talent from our STEM research and teaching workforce as universities face the stark choices forced by a collapse in income,” he said.

“If Australia loses this STEM talent, the danger is that we may never get them back into our research system to work on the next set of cures, breakthroughs and lifesaving treatments.”

“We ask the Government to look at the risks starting to materialise to Australia’s sovereign capability in research – and step in with a JobKeeper lifeline to university researchers and teachers.”

A Rapid Research Information Forum report in early May predicted up to 21,000 jobs could be lost at Australia’s universities over the next six months – including 7,000 in research – due to the pandemic.

It found women, early-career researchers and recent graduates are disproportionately at risk because they are more likely to be in vulnerable casual and fixed-term contract roles.

Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert said there was a strategic interest for the nation to safeguard our STEM research and teaching workforce through this crisis.

“Just as the Government has done in response to the devastating impact on the tourism industry, we’d ask it to look with similar compassion at the plight of the nation’s research workforce,” she said.

“If we can avert these tens of thousands of jobs being lost through the pandemic, it will put the nation further ahead in the enormous task of economic recovery.”

STA has also proposed a one-off boost to the Research Training Program which funds postgraduate research students, who make up more than half of Australia’s university research workforce.

To seek further comment, please contact STA on 02 6257 2891.

This email was sent to eo@statsoc.org.au
Science & Technology Australia, 3/8 Phipps Close, Deakin, Australian Capital Territory 2600, Australia

From Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 05:38:13 GMT

The heartbreaking scale of this pandemic’s toll on jobs continues. Yesterday’s Australian Bureau of Statistics figures revealed almost one million Australians are now out of work. And the nation’s official unemployment rate is now at a two-decade high – reaching 7.4 per cent in June – despite the creation of more than 210,000 jobs in June.

In a media release this morning, STA has warned jobs in the science, technology, engineering and maths workforce are now at greater risk as hundreds more job losses start to be announced at universities across the country. We have asked the Australian Government to take a fresh look at the damage being inflicted by the pandemic on our research workforce and consider again a JobKeeper lifeline for universities and a one-off boost to the Research Training Program to help keep postgraduate research students employed.

We also continue to engage closely with the proposed changes to higher education funding. The two groups of Vice-Chancellors working with Government on the industry linkages fund and research funding both met for the first time this week. STA will continue to draw the views of our membership into consultation processes.

STA’s Board also met this week. It was heartening to see our clusters report on work by many member societies to deepen Indigenous partnerships, and promote Indigenous STEM knowledge. Work towards STA’s inaugural Reconciliation Action Plan is also well advanced. Our draft RAP has now been lodged with Reconciliation Australia for feedback. We thank our RAP working group which includes the leadership of STA’s Indigenous member associations – Quandamooka First Nations man Professor Chris Matthews of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance and Kamilaroi man and Deadly Science founder Corey Tutt – for their leadership and expertise in this important work.

Our thanks to each of you for your membership renewals in recent weeks. Our members are the lifeblood of STA and we are here to support you through these challenging times.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

NEW REPORTS AND POLICY CHANGES OF INTEREST TO STA MEMBERS

The long-awaited Australian & New Zealand Standard Research Classifications review has been released;
Education Minister Dan Tehan announced two working groups on sustainable research funding and an Industry Linkages Fund;
The Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet released a research report into Vocational Education and Training;
The Public Policy Forum has released a report on science disinformation in the time of the pandemic;
The UK has released its research & development roadmap;
TEQSA released a good practice note on preventing and responding to sexual assault and harassment in higher education settings;
The Australian National Audit Office reported Referrals, Assessments and Approvals of Controlled Actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999;
A University of Sydney study found almost 45% of PhD students are considering leaving their PhD for financial reasons;
The Australian Education Union has released its survey into the state of the VET/TAFE sector; and
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC has released its 2020-21 bushfire season outlook.

Further information: Peter Derbyshire, STA Policy Manager - peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

SSA Canberra registration grant

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 05:55:26 GMT

Dear SSA Canberra et al.,

Please (also) forward to those who you think may be interested in the below.

SSA Canberra is inviting young statisticians who are planning to attend a conference/workshop/short course in a field related to statistics or data science to apply for financial support in the form of a "SSA Canberra registration grant".

What does the grant support?
SSA Canberra will award an amount up to $200 AUD per successful application. The amount to be awarded will depend on the registration costs of the event the applicant is attending. Note the conference/workshop does not necessarily have to be held in the ACT (since most events are currently online anyway!), nor does it have to be an SSA event.

Who can apply?
Applicants must be:

A current student in, or within five years of last conferred degree from, the ACT or in a regional area of NSW outside Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong;
A member of the SSA Canberra branch at the time of registration; membership is only $20 for full time students, so it is worth joining just to apply for the grant!

If you have questions regarding eligibility or anything else, please contact the SSA Canberra council at ssacanberra@gmail.com

How do I apply?
Prepare the following documents and a submit a single PDF form containing:

If attending a conference, evidence of your submitted abstract for a poster/talk to that conference. If attending a workshop/short course, evidence of your confirmed registration to that event;
A brief resume of up to three pages;
A letter up to one A4 page describing the anticipated benefits to you that will result from attending the event, and declaring any other financial support being offered to you to attend.

Please send these via email to ssacanberra@gmail.com

When do I have to apply by?
We are accepting applications on an ongoing basis until 31 December 2020, or until the budget we have allocated for the rego grant runs out. So it is first-in-first-served, subject of course to a proposal being successful!

A maximum of one successful grant will be awarded per person.

Outcome and show me the money!
Successful applications will be notified by email in due course. Afterwards, SSA Canberra will then look to reimburse registration fees after receiving the receipts.

If I am successful, who do I have to do?
1) If presenting at a conference, please acknowledge the financial support of SSA Canberra.
2) Contribute a short piece about their experience of attending the conference/workshop/short course etc...to the SSA newsletter, to be sent to ssacanberra@gmail.com.

Revised ANZSRC Now Available

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 04:53:30 GMT

The revised Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC 2020) was released on June 30 on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

Here are the new 2020 categories for statistics, with additions in red and changes in blue:

490501	Applied statistics
490502	Biostatistics
490503	Computational statistics
490504	Forensic evaluation, inference and statistics
490505	Large and complex data theory
490506	Probability theory
490507	Spatial statistics
490508	Statistical data science
490509	Statistical theory
490510	Stochastic analysis and modelling
490511	Time series and spatial modelling
490599	Statistics not elsewhere classified

For comparison here are the previous 2008 categories:

0104 Statistics

010401 Applied Statistics
010402 Biostatistics
010403 Forensic Statistics
010404 Probability Theory
010405 Statistical Theory
010406 Stochastic Analysis and Modelling
010499 Statistics not elsewhere classified

We gave feedback to the review consultation draft, with thanks to our members who helped with this. We are happy with the changes as these reflect the growth in statistics and allow our members to more accurately reflect their work.

Vic Branch Mentoring evening

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 03:00:01 GMT

On June 23rd, the Victorian Branch brought together mentors and mentees for a brilliant, socially-distant, mentoring evening via Zoom. Hosted by Hien Nguyen (Communications officer) and Daniel Fryer (Young Statisticians' Representative), we first heard from five of our mentors who told us of their careers and their thoughts on some of the key opportunities, decisions, lessons and strategies they felt contributed to their successful journeys so far.

Mentees were then given the chance to chat one-on-one with four of the mentors, and a fantastic opportunity to pick their brains! I, as a mentee, certainly learnt a lot! One of the many nuggets of wisdom that resonated with me was that there is no one-size-fits-all career for us in statistics; it was a pleasure to hear the many and varied pathways each mentor took to be where they are now.

A great thanks to all the mentors: Helen Bartley, Michael Dalton, Alison Harcourt, Roger Hilton, Jessica Kasza, Karen Lamb, Dina Neiger, Cameron Patrick, Mathew Spittal, Dennis Trewin and Antony Ugoni.

Lizzie Korevaar

Fourth Victorian Research Students' Meeting in Probability and Statistics(VRSMiPS IV)

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 00:17:44 GMT

Dear all,

I hope you all are doing good and well. I am writing to inform you that the Fourth Victorian Research Students' Meeting in Probability and Statistics(VRSMiPS IV) will be hosted by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, La Trobe University this year. Our students' conference is going to be held on 02nd of September at La Trobe University.

VRSMiPS IV is an all day event and an annual event that is organised by students, for students. The goal of the event is to provide doctoral and masters by research students from Victorian universities an opportunity to present their research to their peers as well as to hear from other students in an environment which facilitates collaboration. We want to provoke discussion about Probability and Statistics and to build inter-institution connections.

Due to the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference might switch to an online format via zoom on the same date and time. It is with great pleasure we confirm the website and registration process for VRSMiPS IV. Attached is the itinerary and some background information regarding the event.

https://sites.google.com/view/4th-vrsmips/home

https://sites.google.com/view/4th-vrsmips/schedule

The link to the registration form is https://sites.google.com/view/4th-vrsmips/registration

We look forward to receiving your registration.

On behalf of the other organizer, Illia,

Yours sincerely,

Ravindi.

Ravindi Nanayakkara

PhD Candidate & Sessional Academic

Department of Mathematics and Statistics | College of Science, Health and Engineering
La Trobe University | Bundoora Victoria 3086 Australia

SA Branch June Meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 03:45:18 GMT

Machine Learning: From damned lies to statistics, where does machine learning lie within the field of data science?

The monthly seminar of the SSA in SA was presented by Dr Oscar Perez-Concha, Lecturer at the Centre for Big Data Research in Health (CBDRH), University of New South Wales, Sydney. Oscar is also the founder of the CBDRH Machine Learning Club, a special interest group which meets weekly to discuss ideas about machine learning and its application to health data science. CBDRH Machine Learning Club is an open forum and people interested in joining online or in person could contact Oscar directly at o.perezconcha@unsw.edu.au.

I have been part of the special interest group on Machine Learning Club for now about two years I was very much looking forward to Oscar’s presentation. Over 40 people connected from all over Australia using Zoom. Lots of people in many fields are at least curious and would like to learn more about Machine Learning and the talk titled ‘Machine Learning: From damned lies to statistics, where does machine learning lie within the field of data science?’ was the perfect opportunity to get started.

I thoroughly enjoyed how before delving into the talk, Oscar provided a quick overview of his pathway from engineering to ML expert and examples of ML applications provided by his past and current projects.

His presentation started with recounting his own journey of marrying ML and statistics and moved on to discussing the similarities and differences between the two in terminology and aims. Critical ML events like Gauss derivation of the normal distribution, Turing cracking the wartime Enigma code and the release of R package were highlighted over the timeline of statistics. What followed was the introduction of the founders of Artificial Intelligence AI and the timeline of AI. Frankly, as a female researcher I always get some satisfaction hearing about Ada Lovelace. So much I almost named my daughter after her.

Oscar gave a remarkable overview of ML theory from random forests to support vector machines, concluding with deep neural networks. In doing so he pointed out the dichotomies between statistics and ML but never in a way to keep them separate, always creating bridges between the disciplines by understanding the different nuances in language.

The discussion was vivacious, I particularly enjoyed hearing more about using machine learning in a causal inference scenario and in the area of longitudinal data. Check out the video to hear what he says.

Oscar spoke very frankly of the limitations of ML which is not a box to fix all data problems. He clearly stated what stage ML currently is (Association) and where it hasn’t gone yet (Intervention or Counterfactual world).

Just after the meeting I was on the phone with Oscar to congratulate him on the brilliant presentation and cheer him on his efforts. Pretty soon we were talking about new ideas for presentations and workshops and even collaborating in person once the COVID-19 restrictions ease a little more. Something we both look forward to.

By Barbara Toson

Changes to Higher Education Funding

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 03:29:01 GMT

A message from Science and Technology Australia

Last Friday, Education Minister Dan Tehan unveiled a package of very complex proposed changes to higher education funding in Australia in a speech to the National Press Club. There is more detail in a Government discussion paper and a series of FAQs. The Minister also plans to work with Vice-Chancellors to devise a new way to fund research amid the proposed loss of research cross-subsidy from student places funding and a sharp fall in international student income due to the pandemic.

The proposals are incredibly complex. Like all advocacy bodies across our STEM and university research communities, Science & Technology Australia will analyse the detail, seek further information, and assess likely impact. We made a careful initial set of observations within hours of the announcements, and will have more to say in the coming weeks and months. The Government would need crossbench support in the Senate to amend the Higher Education Support Act.

This week, it was the turn of Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese to make a major address on science, technology, climate change and expertise. STA welcomed his central message that science had led our COVID success, and could now drive Australia’s recovery.

And with International Women in Engineering Day last week, check out Superstar of STEM Bianca Capra’s video about her trailblazing career as an aerospace engineer, and her powerful efforts to bring other women into the field. Here’s her uplifting video series to promote other women from diverse backgrounds who are working or studying as engineers.

Until next time,

Misha Schubert
CEO, Science & Technology Australia

Science led our COVID success; now it can rebuild our economy

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 07:07:47 GMT

Science and Technology Australia - Media Release 24 June 2020

Today’s reaffirmation that science will be core to Australia’s future economic growth, new industries and new jobs has been welcomed by the science and technology sector.

In a speech to the National Press Club, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said Australia’s success to contain COVID-19 was due to a strong bipartisan embrace of scientific expertise.

Science & Technology Australia President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie said it was pleasing to see a strong bipartisan understanding that science and technology are major economic drivers.

“Expert scientific and medical expertise has steered Australia safely through the COVID crisis,” he said.

“Now we must take that same approach for science and technology to shape the economic recovery and create new jobs, businesses and industries.”

STA also welcomed the call for Australia to enhance our future pandemic preparedness with a continued focus on advance planning.

Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert said the sector welcomed the focus on how to generate stronger economic opportunities from new technologies like AI.

“A national centre for AI excellence would help Australia to a bigger slice of the estimated US$16 trillion global industry,” she said.

“We welcome a strong bipartisan commitment to be guided by scientific expertise in policy right across our economy and society.”

STA is pleased to see the Opposition’s description of research and development as an investment not a cost.

In recent years, STA has proposed a research translation fund to help boost private sector investment in R&D.

For interviews or further comment, please call STA on 02 6257 2891.

WA Branch May Meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 01:26:06 GMT

This meeting featured two very interesting presentations by Emily Whitney and Andrew Grose and was the second of our monthly meetings to be held by Zoom.

When one is unfamiliar with the venue there is always the possibility of getting lost when trying to find a meeting, and your correspondent managed to achieve this, finding himself in another Zoom meeting room – along with three or four others who had also followed the wrong link. A virtual search party retrieved us in time and your correspondent was able to bring the lost people back to the meeting, bringing the numbers to more than 25.

Emily graduated mid 2019 with First Class Honours in Mathematical Sciences from Curtin University. Her dissertation, supervised by Aloke Phatak, focussed on regularisation penalties for categorical predictors with the application of predicting stillbirth. With the support of WA Branch of the Statistical Society through their Honours Scholarship, she was able to present her work at the International Workshop on Statistical Modelling in July 2019. Recently Emily began work as consultant data scientist at EY and now works in the health analytics space.

Emily spoke about her work on the problem from her dissertation, comparing use of LASSO, a group-wise LASSO, and a structured fusion penalty in logistic regression. She related this to prediction of stillbirth, using a large data set capturing information on all singleton births in WA in the years 1980 through 2015. All three penalties are L1 in style, and hence encourage sparsity. The group LASSO also encourages similarity between coefficient estimates that ought to go together. The structured fusion penalty in addition encourages satisfaction of desired constraints (such as monotonicity for coefficients of ordinal factors, or equality of coefficients of a factor) – so you discourage differences that are not really interesting to you, unless the data force you to see these differences. The take-home message was that structured fusion penalties offer a tool to make categorical predictors more interpretable.

Andrew Grose graduated at the end of 2019 from Murdoch University with first class honours and now works for SAGI-West. He talked about comparisons of robust methods for identifying outliers, which is ongoing research he has been doing with Brenton Clarke following completion of his honours degree. Brenton supervised his honours thesis. In his talk, Andrew examined in detail differences between the abilities of a variety of strategies for outlier identification, including multivariate ATLA (Adaptive Trimmed Likelihood Algorithm), which was a strong performer, FSM (Forward Search method), BACON, and others. He also discussed concepts such as swamping and masking of outliers.

Naturally, Tukey and Huber got a mention, and more surprisingly, so did Bradman. Although in retrospect he would have to be a clear illustration of the fact that outliers do not necessarily indicate problems with the data item (unless there was a conspiracy of scorers in Test cricket matches).

Both talks were followed by questions and applause (sometimes the sound of a muted hand clapping) but not, in view of the circumstances, by dinner out with the speakers. This omission will be rectified at a later meeting, face-to-face.

Alun Pope

WA Branch June Meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:09:50 GMT

The monthly seminar of the SSA in WA was presented by Brenton Clarke, the current President of the Branch. The seminar was held via ZOOM, the web-based video conferencing tool, because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Since I live very close to Brenton, I made the short journey to his home for the live seminar in his study.

About 20 people were on the video conference. I sat in the front seat with Brenton, together with my M&M chocolate coated peanuts to help me enjoy the video! The title of the talk was ‘Generalisations of Orthogonal Components in Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)’. I had a feeling from the abstract that we were going to be bombarded with ‘elegant’ matrix algebra.

The seminar reminded me of when I was a student when it was imperative to see and suffer through the construction of much theory if you were serious in understanding statistical methodology.

We were treated to an entertaining historical talk from the 1870s to the 2020s on the orthogonal Helmert matrices used in an example of a 2-way ANOVA (randomised complete block design) to relate the decomposition of the sums of squares in the ANOVA table to uncorrelated random variables. Brenton showed us the long-hand way versus the ‘elegant’ mathematical matrix algebra approach involving Kronecker products. Brenton showed remarkable knowledge and recollections of the use of many references in his talk spanning 1860s to 2020.

He showcased work from his 2002 paper and his 2008 book on ‘Linear Models’.

I think we witnessed a marvelous exposition of theory illustrating Brenton’s breadth of work he has done in the last 20 years of his research on the theory of linear models. One could say we saw the beauty of statistics with echoes of Beethoven’s 5th symphony ‘Eroica’ in the background.

A good series of comments in the discussion followed the talk which left us pondering on the use of the elegant theory in practice. Brenton even alluded to work on the Hasse or lattice diagram of the ANOVA table showing the effects of the terms in the model as shown by Rosemary Bailey work (2020).

Well done Brenton on a very informative discussion and summary history of work with various authors on the linear models and their matrix algebra investigating the various theoretical relationships in the analysis of variance table.

During the night I was pondering how the sweep algorithm used in the ‘beautiful’ ANOVA module of the GenStat (https://www.vsni.co.uk/software/genstat) program related to this talk. We will leave that for another talk.

Brenton and I enjoyed a meal at the local Thai restaurant to celebrate the night observing the small numbers of people at at the restaurant due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

Three cheers for my great friend for a great talk!

by Mario D’Antuono

References

Bailey, R.A. (2020) Hasse diagrams as a visual aid for linear models and analysis of variance. Communications in Statistics- Theory and Method. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610926.2019.1676443

Clarke, B.R. (2002) A representation of orthogonal components in analysis of variance, International Mathematical Journal, 1, 133-147. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-representation-of-orthogonal-components-in-of-Clarke/a7b2d8f31ac011c13f222741b8f97f6ced801a68

Clarke, B.R. (2008) Linear Models The Theory and Application of Analysis of Variance, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J. https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Models-Application-Probability-Statistics/dp/0470025662

Farhadian, R. and Clarke, B.R. (2020) A note on the Helmert transformation, Communications in Statistics- Theory and Method, submitted

Irwin, J.O. (1934) On the independence of constituent items in the analysis of variance, J. Roy. Statist. Soc., Suppl., 1, 236-251

Global STEM community backs justice, equality and respect

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 01:03:50 GMT

Science and Technology Australia MEDIA RELEASE

10 June 2020

"Today our colleagues in the STEM community all around the world speak as one in support of equality, respect and justice – and we raise our voices with theirs.

In recent weeks, we have drawn hope from seeing so many people globally support the goals of the #BlackLivesMatter and #AboriginalLivesMatter movements to end racism, injustice and inequality.

The science, technology, engineering and maths workforce in Australia joins our colleagues worldwide in the STEM community to express our support for these defining values.

This movement has called attention not only to Indigenous deaths in custody in our country and abroad, but also to racism, exclusion, disrespect and a lack of safety for people of colour.

This historic moment offers all Australians an opportunity to ask ourselves and our leaders what more can and should be done to end inequality and injustice.

STA members Deadly Science and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance work daily to celebrate Indigenous excellence, create opportunity and tackle inequality.

We stand together to say there is no place for exclusion, inequality or injustice anywhere – including in the STEM community.

Throughout today, Science & Technology Australia will use our social media channels to highlight the sophisticated STEM expertise embedded in Indigenous knowledge systems across this country.

We invite members of our own communities across Australia to share this content, along with their own messages of hope, respect, dignity, and strong support for equality."

Joint statement from:

Science & Technology Australia President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie

Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert

Deadly Science founder Corey Tutt

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance Chair Professor Chris Matthews

Science & Technology Australia EDI committee co-chair Tanya Ha

Science & Technology Australia EDI committee co-chair Associate Professor Sumeet Walia

For media enquiries, contact STA on 02 6257 2891

Expert scientific evidence key to avert future megafires

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 03:06:03 GMT

Media Release - 11 June 2020 - Science & Technology Australia

Expert scientific evidence should guide every element of Australia’s bushfire prevention, mitigation and recovery efforts, the nation’s peak body for science and technology has urged.

In a submission to the Senate inquiry on the devastating 2019-2020 bushfire season, Science & Technology Australia says the strong embrace by Governments of science evidence to stop COVID-19 should be a model for bushfire prevention.

Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert said the devastating fire season of the past summer had turned the predicted effects of climate change into a stark reality.

“These fires were unprecedented, but not unpredicted,” she said.

“In NSW, fires burned for 240 days – from mid-winter all the way through to the following autumn. In south-east Queensland, rainforests thought to be immune from fire burned for the first time.”

“The work of our scientists can help limit climate change and the risk of terrifying megafires of new scale and ferocity - and help us to fight bushfires and recover from them more effectively.”

Science & Technology Australia has also pointed to the long-run effects of toxic smoke and the mental health challenges for firefighters and emergency services personnel as areas for action.

The submission urges a new monitoring system be developed to monitor particulate hazards, similar the published UV index readings.

“The Australian Government has worked side-by-side with the scientific community during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on this deep expertise to save lives,” Ms Schubert said.

“Australia’s vast scientific expertise should also guide our national response to the devastating bushfires of the past summer, and the recovery, mitigation and prevention work that has begun.”

Scientific advice is also needed to help Australia’s fragile ecosystems recover– to rebuild and protect our unique habitats, to save native animals, threatened species and avoid extinction of species.

The submission notes there is much scope to draw expert knowledge in Indigenous fire and land management practices into Australia’s bushfire prevention and preparedness work.

“The science and technology community will continue to work closely with Government on the recovery task and on preparation for future fire seasons.”

STA’s submission makes a series of recommendations on how Australia can better prevent, mitigate and aid recovery from bushfires, and draws on insights from STA member societies about the impact of the 2019-20 bushfire season.

“Our national scientific and technology workforce is a crucial part of our firefighting defence, and we think there’s potential for an even greater role to deliver evidence and research to help fire chiefs in rapid real-time responses during bushfire seasons,” Ms Schubert said.

“Where there are gaps in knowledge, we could seek to fill them through direct investment in a research translation fund that could leverage additional private sector R&D.”

“Strong investment is crucial to ensure the health, wellbeing and livelihoods of all Australians, to boost Australia’s capacity to innovate and adapt, and to outsmart future threats.”

For media comment: Science & Technology Australia CEO Misha Schubert 02 6257 2891

A statement from the Statistical Society of Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 03:24:44 GMT

It has been a terrible few weeks watching the events precipitated by the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in the USA. Australia urgently needs to confront its own issues with police brutality and institutional violence, with 437 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991. This statement is to express our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter campaign. The Statistical Society of Australia is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

I was heartened to read the strong statements from the presidents of the American Statistical Association and Royal Statistical Society. I echo their sentiments that a key thing we can do is educate ourselves about the problems in our own borders. Another positive step statisticians can take is to use our knowledge of statistics to work with our colleagues in health and social sciences who research the areas of health, justice and equity. Data can make a difference and we have the power to help bring about positive change.

You might have seen the campaign to rename the Fisher lecture after the African American David Blackwell. I support this change and I have signed the petition. David Blackwell was a remarkable talent and it is important that our field can tear down the statues of our past, as happened literally in Bristol this week.

As a Society we recently made changes to our code of conduct, to include personal as well as professional conduct. We want to make it clear that our Society will not tolerate racism. Codes of conduct are now mandatory at our conferences and large events: these Codes explicitly state that racist behaviour will not be accepted at our events. Promotion of equity and diversity are now key criteria in Society awards.

There is undoubtedly more that our Society can do to become the safe and welcoming place for everyone that we want it to be. We want our Society and our country to be free from racism and disrespect. We recognise that we are working and living on Aboriginal land, and that there is much work to be done towards reconciliation.

Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss these issues or have any ideas about how the Society might support the Black Lives Matter campaign.

Adrian Barnett
President of the Statistical Society of Australia

2020 SSA Society Awards Announced

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 02:46:16 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia offers several awards to its members, honouring their contributions to the statistical community. Honorary Life Membership honours outstanding contribution to the profession and the Society. A Society Service Award may be awarded to a Society member in recognition of sustained and significant service to the Society.

The SSA is pleased to announce the following awards for 2020:

Honorary Life Membership:

Dr Alison Harcourt AO

Alison Harcourt, a lifelong supporter of the Statistical Society of Australia and contributor to the statistical discipline, was nominated for Honorary Life Membership in recognition of her inspiring career, remarkable achievements, and dedicated service. She was the founding secretary of the Victorian Branch of SSA in 1964 and served in that role for four years. Alison continued to support the VIC branch ever since, regularly attending branch events and contributing to discussion of important topics at our meetings.

In her career, Alison made important advances to mathematics and statistics, and their application to informing government policy. The most visible ones include her seminal paper on the “branch and bound” method, her contributions to quantifying the extent of poverty in Australia and her work that led to the introduction of the “double randomisation” method in allocating positions on ballot papers (still in use today).

Alison was working at a time when there was much less support for women. It is only in recent times that her achievements have received proper recognition. In 2018 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Melbourne, and in 2019 she was named Victoria’s Senior Australian of the Year and an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Although she formally retired in 1994, Alison continues to work as a sessional tutor at the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne, where she is known as a passionate and knowledgeable teacher of statistics. Indeed, she has been a mentor to many great statisticians who have long-since retired!

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Honorary Life Membership:

Professor Annette Dobson AM

Annette Dobson was the inaugural Chair of the Medical Sciences Section of the Statistical Society of Australia when it was formed in 1983. She held that position until the AGM in 1986 and actively lobbied for greater involvement of statisticians in refereeing for medical journals (eg, via the Newsletter). At the 1984 and 1986 Statistical Conferences, Annette organised a Medical Statistics session. During this time she also supported the Compstat-Medstat ’85 symposium held at Macquarie University jointly with the Statistical Computing Section. Throughout the years Annette has been an active participant in the activities of many of the Society’s Sections, including being an invited speaker at DATA ’86 and one of two speakers at the first Statistical Education meeting held in NSW in 1987.

In 1986 Annette Dobson became the first President of the NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia who was not based in Sydney. She was based at the University of Newcastle and commuted to Sydney for Branch meetings and events. Annette was on the NSW Branch Executive as President for 1986-88 and Past President until 1990.

In 1998 Annette became an Accredited Statistician, serving on the Accreditation Committee from 2000-2003. She was also a member of the Data Science Accreditation subcommittee from 2019 to 2020.

Annette Dobson has had a major influence on the standing of the statistics profession within Australia through outstanding leadership in the area of medical statistics. She is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Queensland in the Centre for Longitudinal and Life Course Research. She was the founding Director of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health and held the post from 1995 to 2013.

In 2012 Annette was awarded the Moyal Medal for her contributions to biostatistical methodology, practice and education. In 2013 she was made a Life Member of the Australasian Epidemiological Association for having contributed significantly through research or other involvement in epidemiology to the international reputation of Australasian epidemiology and the advancement of public health in Australasia.

Annette was the inaugural Chair of the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia (BCA) that coordinates training provided by seven universities to deliver the Master of Biostatistics degree, producing the next generation of medical statisticians in Australia. This is a highly successful program that has been operating since 2000. The BCA is regularly referred to as the model for university cooperation in delivering postgraduate training and it has provided a template for other cross institutional collaboration schemes such the Australian Technology Network’s Industry Doctoral Training program. The BCA was acknowledged in the 2016 Decadal Plan for the Mathematical Sciences and was awarded the Statistical Society’s Presidential Award for leadership in statistics in 2019.

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Service Award

Professor Scott Sisson

Scott was an active Chair of the Bayesian Statistics Section from 2009 to 2014, and the NSW Branch President from 2012 to 2013. He was Scientific Program Chair for the ASC/IMS joint conference in Sydney in 2014. In August 2016 Scott became the President of SSA for two years, and served as outgoing president until mid- 2019. The Presidency had been vacant for a year prior to Scott accepting the position, so he did not have the benefit of a year’s experience as Vice President before taking on the new position. Nevertheless, he did an excellent job as national President and brought great energy and vision to the role. He was passionate about increasing the membership and visibility of the SSA, and his ideas are still bearing fruit now. In particular it was Scott Sisson’s idea to create the Vice President roles in membership, media and Finance to provide the Executive with focus on key strategic issues for SSA.

Scott began the work on increasing equity and diversity in the Society which led to an updated Code of Conduct. It was also Scott Sisson’s idea to create a southern version of the Joint Statistical Meeting and this will happen in Darwin in 2022. He is an active member on the program committee for JSSM.

Scott represented the Society nationally on the National Committee for the Mathematical Sciences and on the methodology advisory committee for the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

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Service Award

Professor Ian Gordon

Professor Ian Gordon of the University of Melbourne has a long history of service to the Society. After 11 years of service on the Victorian Branch Council, he stepped down in 2019. Ian led the Victorian Branch as President from 2009 to 2010, taking on the role in the wake of the 2008 conference debacle: his steady leadership helped to ensure that the Victorian Branch, and the Society as a whole, was able to recover. For example, Ian was instrumental in carrying out a survey of Victorian Branch members to canvas opinions about strategies for recovery, and he led the Branch in a resurgence of activity: increasing the number and variety of Branch activities, thereby increasing the participation of members. In 2012 the Victorian branch was incorporated; during his tenure as President, Ian oversaw the process of revision of the Constitution and application to achieve this important outcome.

Ian’s ability to gently guide new branch council presidents, vice-presidents and members, and his exhaustive knowledge of the Branch Constitution and Regulations made him an incredibly valuable member of the Council. Since stepping down from the Council, he accepted an invitation to join the newly convened Advisory Committee for the Branch, and thus he has continued to provide advice to the Council on important and strategic matters.

Further to this formal service for the Branch, Ian supported archiving the history of the Branch; for example, as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations in 2014, he accessed the archives to provide the SSA with insights from the very beginnings of the Vic Branch. He has regularly accepted invitations to present monthly branch seminars and was named the Belz Lecturer in 1995.

Ian has contributed more broadly to the Society and the statistical community as a whole. He was on the SSA’s Accreditation Committee from early 2008 to late 2013. In addition to his keen mentorship of junior statisticians, in 2018 he chaired the E. J. G. Pitman award prize committee at the Australian Statistical Conference (joint with the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics Annual Meeting) in Melbourne.

Ian is passionate about promoting the value of quality statistical science to the broader community. For example, he has played an important role in the resolution of high profile issues, including legal cases, such as the landmark class action over transvaginal mesh implants (Johnson and Johnson, and Ethicon, 2019), Hazelwood mine fire enquiry (2015), and the Haile-Michael case against Victoria Police (2013).

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Congratulations to these outstanding members of the Statistical Society of Australia, who, through their tireless work, have helped to steer and shape the Society into the vibrant community that it is.

The names of all SSA Honorary Life Membership recipients are available here. A list of Society Service Award recipients can be viewed here.

Remember that any member of SSA can be nominated for an award. SSA has awards for service, contributions to statistics, and outstanding achievement in statistics.

For more information, see our Awards page on the SSA website.

News from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 28 May 2020 02:58:17 GMT

Email received Misha Schubert, CEO of Science & Technology Australia on 28 May 2020:

"The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on everyone. But now the early evidence of its impact on the STEM sector reveals women in STEM have been disproportionately hard hit.

Australia’s scientific and technical services industry recorded job losses of 5.6% from mid-March to mid-April 2020, with jobs down 6.3% for women compared with 4.8% for men.

Science & Technology Australia and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering partnered to gather evidence for the report for Industry and Science Minister Karen Andrews.

It was prepared by the Rapid Response Information Forum chaired by the Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel. The report’s lead author is Professor Emma Johnston.

It shows us the impact of the pandemic has been particularly acute for women in STEM with children under 12, given their greater share of caring responsibilities and domestic work. The combination of juggling working from home while supervising distance learning for children has made women’s double burden even greater again.

Further, there are early signs that women’s submission rates for publishing research may have declined. With publication records being a factor in career promotion and grant funding, a reduction in research publications is likely to harm women’s job and funding prospects.

STA has worked hard to help advance greater representation of women in STEM. Now we fear the pandemic will reverse some of the hard-won gains of recent years.

The impact of this uneven burden could be felt for years to come – with potential long-term consequences for Australia’s social and economic future.

So our plea to all STEM employers is to keep a very close eye on and mitigate the gender impact of the pandemic on jobs and careers – or the hard work over many years to recruit and retain more women in STEM could be undone.

We cannot afford to go backwards.

Until next time, Misha"

2020 Dennis Trewin Prize

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 27 May 2020 00:26:09 GMT

Are you/do you know a young statistician or data scientist from the ACT or regional NSW interested in presenting their recent research and winning some prize money?

Then luckily for you, SSA Canberra has extended nominations for the 2020 Dennis Trewin prize until 19th June! The Dennis Trewin prize, named after the former Australian Statistician Dennis Trewin, seeks to award young statisticians from the ACT and regional areas of NSW outside Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong for outstanding research in the fields of statistics and data science. It is open to postgraduate students in their final year of study, or who have graduated in the last 12 months.

If you are interested in applying, please submit an abstract of your research work to ssacanberra@gmail.com by 19th June. You will also need to demonstrate that you are undertaking/undertook a research degree from a university with a campus in the ACT or in a regional area of NSW outside Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong.

If you know someone that would be interested in the prize, please get in touch with them about this prize!

Applicants who are shortlisted will be invited to record a 15-20 minute talk on their research. The winner of the Dennis Trewin prize will receive a $1,000 cash prize + invitation to present their research as part of SSA Canberra's branch meeting in October. Dinner will also be provided, along with travel + one night's accommodation costs if the winner cannot travel from their current address and return on the day of the meeting.

If you have any further questions regarding the nature/format/scope of the prize, please contact ssacanberra@gmail.com.

Regards,

SSA Canberra Council DT prize committee

International Visitor Program of the University of Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI)

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 14 May 2020 03:52:34 GMT

From SMRI Executive Director Anthony Henderson (smri.exec@sydney.edu.au):

The current application round of the International Visitor Program of the University of Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI) closes on Wednesday 26 August 2020 (at 11.59pm Sydney time). This program provides funding to support visits to Australian universities by international researchers in the mathematical sciences. The current application round is for visits of at least 1 month taking place within the period April - December 2021 and including at least 2 weeks spent at SMRI. For full terms and conditions, selection criteria and the application form, and for the current list of SMRI visiting researchers, see the website.

Applications from female and gender-diverse researchers, from researchers employed in developing countries, and from researchers belonging to other groups which are underrepresented in the mathematical sciences, are particularly encouraged. In cases where an arranged visit cannot go ahead as planned because of disruptions to international travel or other unexpected factors, it is generally possible to reschedule the visit for a later period subject to consultation. Please direct questions about the conditions to the Institute's Executive Director Anthony Henderson at smri.exec@sydney.edu.au.

COVID-19: modelling and public health policy, presented by Allen Cheng and Freya Shearer

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 13 May 2020 01:52:17 GMT

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a lot of interest from the statistics / data science community. On the 28th of April, we invited two Melbourne based statisticians/epidemiologists who actually advise the government on the coronavirus pandemic to share their work with us.

The first half was presented by Prof. Allen Cheng, who is both an AStat as well as an infectious diseases physician. Allen first described several models that have been used to inform the policy makers around importation risk, transmission risk, and potential load on the health care system — this underpinned the discussion around ‘flattening the curve’. Allen also discussed some ‘unhelpful models’ that are being used elsewhere, as well as other on-going analyses/investigations around the next step to combat the pandemic. A key perspective that Allen brought to us was the fact that the modelling work is just ‘one piece of the puzzle’, and that the policy makers have to weigh up many other factors into the decision making process. Allen ended his presentation by commenting on the feasibility of sampling the population for the virus — a proposal that got some attention within the statistics community.

The second half was presented by Dr. Freya Shearer, an epidemiological modeller at PRISM. Freya and her colleagues were instrumental at developing the framework that quantified the importation risk from various countries. This framework helped uncover countries that have a high likelihood of under-reporting their cases, and by extension their risk posed to Australia. This ultimately helped the policy makers to decide on international travel bans during the early stage of the pandemic.

An equally well-engaged session was the Q&A at the end, where the presenters were asked to comment on issues such as the reliability of data sources, school closure, practices in other countries, and sensitivity of some key model parameters, to list a few.

Overall, the event was extremely well attended. We had 223 attendants (9 from overseas), which is a record for a non-named lecture.

The recording and other resources (e.g. slides) can be found here.

Kohleth Chia

News from the Environmental Statistics Section

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 May 2020 00:38:25 GMT

The big event in environmental statistics for the year is coming up June 22-26 – the virtual International Statistical Ecology Conference (vISEC2020), an exciting opportunity (and affordable) opportunity to catch up on the latest innovations in statistical ecology, and to explore the virtual conference format. The SSA Environmental Statistics section has also started a seminar series, inviting excellent environmental statisticians worldwide to present virtually to our members.

The virtual International Statistical Ecology Conference (vISEC2020) was going to be hosted in Sydney, the first time it was to be held in the Southern hemisphere. But the virtual move means that while the organisation is still being done mostly out of Sydney, you can watch from anywhere (Phillipp, right, will watch from his kitchen!).

vISEC2020 has a huge program, with over 250 presenters, and activities focussed around two sessions, 8-11am & 9pm-12am GMT (in Australia, this corresponds to early morning and early evening). As with any conference there is excitement around the plenary talks, including Christl Donnelly, a leading statistical epidemiologist and member of the influential Imperial College COVID19 response team. The conference has a focus on training, networking, and generating ideas – e.g. we will use a conference discussion forum to generate and refine ideas for a Special Issue proposal to Methods in Ecology & Evolution, and expect the virtual format to turbo-charge this conference component. Another exciting aspect of the virtual format is its accessibility and breadth of engagement – low cost, the capacity to pre-record your talk, and to watch session recordings later, means anyone anywhere can contribute. Many excellent researchers (especially early career) will now participate who otherwise could not due to family commitments, including some who are expecting during the week of the conference! We are expecting over 500 attendees. Registration is only $50, if you are curious about the virtual format, register now!

In the Environmental Statistics committee, Scott Foster (CSIRO) has stood down, we thank him for his contributions over the last couple of years. If you are interested in joining the committee, e-mail David, the more the merrier!

Environmental Statistics Seminars- With everyone working at home, and physical seminar programs on hold, there has never been a more opportune time to connect environmental statisticians nationally through virtual events. We have started a regular Environmental Statistics seminar program, aiming for monthly talks, from researchers world-wide. Our May talk was by James Thorson (NOAA), “Forecasting nonlocal climate impacts for mobile marine species using extensions to empirical orthogonal function analysis” with 38 attendees from around the country. If you have ideas for someone you would like to hear speak – from any continent – send them to David, and keep an eye on SSA announcements for future talks.

the Environmental Statistics Committee

David Warton (chair), Andrew Zammit-Mangion, Denny Meyer, Gordana Popovic, Joanne Potts, Robert Clark.

virtual International Statistical Ecology Conference (vISEC2020) - register now!

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 May 2020 00:31:22 GMT

Registration now open! (and it’s only $50!)

The International Statistical Ecology Conference is a biennial meeting of researchers at the interface between ecology and statistics. At vISEC2020 we have planned an exciting list of keynote speakers that bridge these two disciplines, as well as training opportunities for attendees, a forum for interdisciplinary collaboration, and a healthy dose of fun - all online!

Home base for the conference will be a Slack workspace, where registered participants can mingle, watch live-streamed talks (and recordings of talks you missed, or want to watch again!), browse poster presentations, interact with presenters and other attendees via text or video chat, plan papers for our Special Issue proposal, check our Twitter stream, or compete at trivia night! There will be two conference sessions each day, no more than three hours in length, set at opposite ends of the Sydney day to better align with timezones around the world (8-11am & 9pm-12am GMT).

Prior to the conference opening, you can enrol in interactive short courses (20-21st June) to train up in a specific area, registration for these is $75AUD each. Each short course will be delivered using video conferencing tools, across two days, in one of the two regular conference session times (8-11am GMT or 9pm-12am GMT).

The first day of the conference (22nd June) is a Skills Showcase, with hands-on tutorials run in parallel on topics as diverse as high-dimensional data visualisation, hidden Markov models, deep learning, passive acoustics and more.

The remaining four days (23-26th June) will be an exciting mix of plenary talks, contributed and speed talks, poster sessions and discussions, and social mixers.

Registration for the conference is just $50AUD, giving you access to the Slack workspace where talks and discussions are stored for the duration of the conference and for two weeks following the conference close.

If you are experiencing financial hardship, conference registration fees can be waived, by selecting the appropriate item during registration. Please contact us if unsure whether this applies to you.

For further details, see the vISEC2020 website.

Questions? Send us an email at isec2020@unsw.edu.au

See you in June,

the vISEC2020 Local Organising Committee.

Announcing the Statistical Consulting Network

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 May 2020 00:15:28 GMT

The SSA has established a new body – the SSA Consulting Network. The goal of the network is to provide a forum to support and advocate for statistical consultants, and to provide training and professional support opportunities.

You can join our mailing list from the SSA website; just edit your membership profile and check the box. If you would like to join the committee, please contact either of the Co-chairs.

Our first activity will be a Q&A panel on remote consulting – tips on how to consult effectively under the physical distancing and work-from-home constraints we have all been negotiating of late. We have all learnt a lot about how to do this over the last couple of months, so this will be an opportunity for practice-sharing. This event will be held within the next month, stay tuned for an SSA announcement.

What would you like the Consulting Network to do? Please tell us your thoughts using this short form.

This will help shape priorities in network activities.

We look forward to hearing from you.

David Warton and Sue Finch

Co-chairs, Statistical Consulting Network

Join the YSC2021 Committee!

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 May 2020 00:08:49 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia’s (SSA) Young Statisticians Network (YSN) has organised the biennial Young Statisticians Conferences (YSC) since 2009. The conference is designed for students and early-career statisticians. The next YSC will run alongside ANZC2021 during 5^th-9^th July 2021 in Gold Coast. We are looking for some energetic members interested in helping to shape the YSC21.

Really, stating that the conference will be held in the Gold Coast should be enough of a reason to join the committee. But if you need more convincing (shame on you, dear reader, for making me do more work), then let me outline the many facets of the YSC that will show you how rewarding it is to be a committee member.

On a more professional note, listing your YSC position will look impressive on your resume. It shows you are capable of planning and organising a major event. It also illustrates that you are an excellent communicator and collaborator. In addition to your existing role on the committee, you will also get a chance to Chair or Co-Chair sessions at the conference.

The conference offers delegates a platform to share their latest research, with statistical applications being presented from a range of areas, including agriculture, computer science, and bioinformatics. Delegates can win the Louise Ryan Best Presenters Award. At YSC19, Sarah Romanes from the University of Sydney won the award for the presentation titled ‘Using Variational Approximations to efficiently build a generalised discriminant analysis (genDA) algorithm’.

It does not end there. Delegates are further spoilt through speeches given by seasoned professionals and have the opportunity to ask career-related questions to an amazing careers panel. For YSC19, we were honoured to hear presentations from keynote speakers Teresa Dickinson (ABS), Calvin Hung (QuantumBlack), Alison Presmanes Hill (RStudio), and Margarita Moreno-Betancur (VicBiostat). The YSC19 careers panel consisted of Louise Ryan (UTS), Teresa Neeman (ANU), Warren Muller (CSIRO), and Smitha Ramaswamy (Teachers Mutual Bank/UniBank). Sounds like a red-carpet event, right?

But it is not all work work work with the YSC. There are multiple social events to organise and attend, such as the pre-conference trivia night and the conference dinner. To illustrate how much fun these events can be, we will again refer back to YSC19. The YSC19 dinner included a Wiki-a-thon; the objective of this event was to create a Wikipedia page for influential women in statistics using your smartphone. Simultaneously, a mini competition was held where we had to draw the perfect normal distribution. Sadly, I did not win (boo). However, the very talented Rushani Wijesuriya and Nicholas Tierney took home the prize that day.

Have I convinced you to join the YSC committee? Great! We still have several positions available, including Program Chair, Graphic Designer, Event App Liaison, Social Events Manager, Treasurer and Sponsorship Manager. For more information on each role and to apply, just click here. If you have experience in any of these areas that would be great, but it is not a prerequisite.

Have any questions? Do not hesitate to reach out to me! You can send me an email, or message me via Twitter.

Janan Arslan.

SA Branch April meeting 2020: Targeted maximum likelihood estimation for causal inference in observational studies

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 06 May 2020 23:58:46 GMT

Murthy Mittinty, Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics at the University of Adelaide, spoke at our April meeting on his work about targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) for causal inference in observational studies. This is the topic of his current research, following on from many years of work on causal inference. At the beginning of his talk, Murthy described the targeted maximum likelihood estimation, which is a semiparametric doubly‐ robust method that improves the chance of true parameter estimation by allowing for flexible estimation using (nonparametric) machine‐ learning methods, or super learner. He provided a step‐ by‐ step guided implementation of TMLE and illustrated it in a simulation scenario based on dental epidemiology.

To attain causal inference from observational studies, methods such as G-estimation, inverse probability treatment weighting, or targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) are preferred over traditional regression approaches, which are biased under misspecification of a parametric outcome model. He claimed that the assumptions such as positivity, consistency, exchangeability, and faithfulness needs to be made when using TMLE. Doubly robust methods, which require correct specification of either exposure or outcome model have been proposed as an improvement over simple IPTW methods. He demonstrated that the assumptions about correct model specification and positivity (ie, when a study participant has zero probability of receiving the treatment) were nearly violated when implementing TMLE to a realistic scenario based on dental epidemiology.

In conclusion Murthy demonstrated that his research provides a concise and reproducible educational introduction to TMLE for a binary outcome and exposure. The user should gain sufficient understanding of TMLE from this introductory tutorial to be able to apply the method in practice. It was an entertaining and engaging presentation through our first zoom meeting in the SA Branch.

Key reference: Schuler & Rose (2017). Targeted maximum likelihood estimation for causal inference in observational studies. AJE; 185(1): 65-73

Shahid Ullah

HOW CAN STATISTICIANS ASSIST IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 06 May 2020 23:55:15 GMT

The Statistical Society organised an online meeting of statisticians and epidemiologists to discuss the statistical issues concerning how Australia is battling COVID-19. Below are the five recommendations that resulted from the meeting.

HOW CAN STATISTICIANS ASSIST IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

IN THE SHORT TERM (i.e. over the next month)

1. The tests to date have been on a ‘self-selected’ basis. They will not be representative of the population at large and so care needs to be taken on what inferences can be made about the population at large. For example, NSW and Victoria are encouraging testing to anyone who wants it. This will have a bias towards those people who have the time and capacity to drive to a site. Young adults and children are less likely to be tested. The better educated are more likely to be tested. Statisticians could provide advice on how get the best possible population inferences from the active virological (self-selected) testing regime (by geo-demographic reweighting?) and the likely limitations (biases). They could explain what the estimates mean (e.g. possible upper bound rather than actual ratio of infected persons). The extent of advice depends on the amount of geo-demographic information that is associated with individual test results.

2. At first glance, the self-selected sample might seem to produce an upward bias because people who are symptomatic are more likely to be tested. However, it is also likely that the self-selected sample will under-represent children and young adults especially males. These may be more likely to be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic although not tested and, if so, this would provide a bias in the opposite direction. Statisticians could provide advice on how to best supplement the active testing sample with populations that will be under-represented.

3. Statisticians could review procedures for estimating R₀ (the basic reproduction number). This is a crucial statistic for future planning but the statistical science behind it might be able to be improved (Methodology available on the Doherty web site). Also, there are a number of assumptions in the calculations such as all asymptomatic cases actually being pre-symptomatic. It would be importance to know the extent of uncertainty created by these assumptions through tools such as sensitivity analysis.

IN THE MEDIUM TERM (Until the virus is under control but should start work in the short term)

4. As soon as feasible, a national survey be conducted jointly by the ABS and health authorities to estimate the number of infections after restrictions start being released. This information is very important for monitoring the potential for a second wave that is difficult to contain. It is may become more important in the winter months when there will be more overlap between COVID-19 symptoms and other winter ailments. Also, the number of asymptotic infections is unknown. International studies show the percentage is much higher than what health experts believe is the case in Australia. Statisticians might be able to assist the ABS with the analysis of the data. The survey should be repeated until there is confidence the virus is under control.

5. Assist with the design, calibration and analysis of sewage testing. It could be combined with the national survey in the first instance to provide a ‘calibration experiment’. This would allow calibration with what we see in the population, reducing the need for large scale surveys in the future.

Dennis Trewin

South Australian SSA Branch Meeting and AGM March 2020

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 07:09:54 GMT

The SA Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia held its branch meeting and AGM on March 25 2020. Outgoing President Shahid Ullah presented the annual report for 2019-20 calendar year. Murthy Mittinty was elected as President for the new council, along with Vice President Barbara Toson. Aarti Gulyani remains as Secretary, Paul Sutcliff as Treasurer and Wendy Li as the Young Statistician representative. Other council members elected were existing members Kylie Lange, Helena Oakley and Lan Kelly.

Shahid Ullah presented the results of an online survey of members’ and non-members’ feedback about past and future activities such as meetings, workshops, networking and memberships. The survey was conducted during the month of March before the AGM via an email to everyone on the SA Branch mailing list. Of 24 responses, 71% of respondents were full members and 28% of these had been for more than 10 years. 12.5% were not current members but had been in the past and 8.3% had never been members. 67% of respondents were employed at a university or academic institution, while 21% were employed outside these areas. The remainder were students or retired.

The primary reason for joining SSA was networking (74%,) followed by training events such as conferences/workshops/seminars (39%). 79% of respondents had attended some or all of the meetings in the past year, mainly because they were interested in the seminar content. The main reason for not attending the branch meeting was due to other commitments (76%).

Regarding future content of the meetings, applied statistics (83%) and data visualization (61%) were the most popular. And despite the survey having been designed before face to face meetings were cancelled due to COVID-19, 83% said they would consider attending meetings by Zoom!

Lan Kelly

Perpetual Membership of SSA

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 01:56:07 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia is pleased to offer the new membership option of Perpetual Member. If you are 50 years or older you can pay a one-off fee of 15 times the current full membership (currently 15 × $250 = $3,750) and then never have to pay again.

For the next 12 months, members over 55 years old who have been a member for at least 10 years can pay a one-off reduced membership of 10 × $250 = $2,500 for those aged 55 to 60 years, and 5 × $250 = $1,250 for those aged 60 years or over.

We chose not to call this a “Life Membership” because we did not want it to be confused with the title of “Honorary Life Member” which is awarded to those members who provide outstanding service to the discipline of Statistics.

We hope some of you will take up this option to reduce your paperwork and support the Society!

To take advantage of this offer just log into your membership account, and where it gives your membership level click on "change" and the new options will come up. During the upgrade-process you'll be asked to upload proof of your age to confirm your eligibility.

Members upgrading to this membership type who are AStat accredited or who want to subscribe to "Significance" will be invoiced annually for these extra items.

2020 Vic Branch AGM and Public Lecture by Dennis Trewin

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 02:41:36 GMT

On the 31st of March we held our Annual General Meeting and Public Lecture by the Former Australian Statistician, Dennis Trewin AO FASSA. Due to the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, both events were held online via Zoom, where both sessions were conducted successfully without technical hitches.

The AGM was well received by the 30 members of the Victorian SSA who attended. A general review of the previous year was provided and our plans for the future were discussed. Most importantly, the services of outgoing council members Geoff Adams, Luke Prendergast, Jess Kasza, Julie Simpson, and Georgia Tsambos, who have all dutifully served the branch, were recognised. For 2020, the members have elected Emi Tanaka as the Vice-President, and have elected as council members: Ben Harrap, Patrick Robotham, Rheanna Mainzer, Elizabeth Korevaar, Daniel Fryer, Lidija Turkovic, Kohleth Chia, and Hien Nguyen.

The Public Lecture was well attended, with 58 people logging into the session. Dennis spoke eloquently and with authority on his work regarding the construction and calculation of well-being indices. In particular, he gave a broad introduction to the history of indexation and critiqued the current prevailing state-of-the-art of such methodologies. A review of the Measures of Australia's Progress (MAP) report series by the ABS was provided as well as an introduction to the ongoing Australian National Development Index (ANDI) project. He also provided a comprehensive comparison of Australia's approach, in comparison to those of other nations, such as New Zealand and the OECD. Although the talk was largely non-technical and general, Dennis was also open to answering specific questions by the audience regarding the methodology. The audience was particularly interested in the specifics of regarding the computation, interpretation, and construction of the indices that were discussed.

Hien Nguyen (Twitter: @tresbienhien)

The Pod of Asclepius

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:46:04 GMT

Looking to stay up to date on developments in health care technology around the world? The American Statistical Association is sponsoring “The Pod of Asclepius”, a new podcast where data scientists, statisticians, engineers, and regulatory experts discuss the technical challenges in their healthcare domain.

We have over 20 episodes published and
available on YouTube, Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Podchaser, Tune In Radio, and Google Play.

Looking for a good place to start? Check out the following episode links:

Risks and Opportunities of AI in Clinical Drug Development with David Madigan and Demissie Alemayehu
Kidney Injury - Biomarkers for Prediction and Prognosis with Allison Meisner
NHS Digital Health Initiativeswith Emma Hughes
Data Platforms to Monitor Animal Healthwith Shane Burns
Bayesian Approaches in Medical Devices: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 with Martin Ho and Greg Maislin

You can catch up on all episodes on our YouTube playlists for Season 0 and Season 1.

The easiest way to catch new episodes is to subscribe via our channels….

Youtube

Podbean

You can see our full schedule on the website.

We would like to thank the SSA for its assistance in promoting the new series!

Glen Wright Colopy
ASA Section on Statistical Learning and Data Science

A statistician’s guide to coronavirus numbers

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:14:49 GMT

From the Royal Statisticial Society:

"Our Statistical Ambassadors have collated an essential guide for understanding statistics about COVID-19. Here, they list definitions, things to look out for, and what you should do about the numbers you are seeing.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, you will hear or read about many different numbers. The Royal Statistical Society exists to help the public better understand statistics. We have prepared this short guide to help you at this difficult and uncertain time."

Obituary: Sue Wilson

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 01:31:25 GMT

SSA Canberra is greatly saddened to advise that Professor Susan Wilson passed away on Monday 16 March 2020. Sue was a strong supporter of the SSA Canberra for her entire professional career, and attended meetings until very recently. In 1997 she presented the Knibbs lecture entitled “Who counts and why? A perspective of the history of women and men in statistics”. She was later a discussant for Oliver Mayo’s Knibbs lecture in 2002, when the topic was “To what extent has Fisher’s research programme been fulfilled In Australia?”

Sue also presented named lectures for the SSA on multiple occasions. She gave the first Moran lecture at the Australian Statistical Conference in Canberra in 2016. Her topic was “The ongoing influence of genetics/omics on advances in statistical science”. Outside of the SSA, Sue was an elected member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS, 1995). She was the President of the International Biometric Society (IBS, 1998-1999).

Sue provided excellent support to female statisticians in a generally male-dominated profession and also to early career statisticians, encouraging them to attend national conferences as well as local meetings such as Canberra Branch meetings. We will all miss her wisdom and humour.

She is survived by her son Jonathan.

Regards,

Alice Richardson, Conrad Burden, Alan Welsh, Francis Hui

NEW SCIENCE AMBASSADORS AIM TO PUT SCIENCE ON NATIONAL AGENDA

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 01:34:44 GMT

On 5 March 2020 Science & Technology Australia (STA) announced 17 STEM Ambassadors who will work together with their local MP to help bridge the gap between science and government in Australia.

These STEM Ambassadors represent 17 different electorates across Australia and have been matched with MPs from across the country and the political spectrum who have expressed a desire to build stronger scientific networks.

STA President Associate Professor Jeremy Brownlie said that the STEM Ambassador Program encourages the involvement of science in Australian politics and aims to put science and evidence-based policy on the national agenda.

“The STEM Ambassador Program is vital to forging relationships between science and parliament,” he said.

“STA advocates for evidence-based, science-informed policy, and the STEM Ambassador Program helps to connect our national decision-makers with scientific experts who can give them direct access to research, data and evidence.

Each Ambassador will meet regularly with their local MP to build associations between parliament and the broader STEM sector. It enables federal politicians to gain a deeper understanding of the potential impact of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in Australia.

“It’s brilliant to see so many of federal parliamentarians involved in the program and keen to know more about the science and technology happening in their own back yards,” Associate Professor Brownlie said.

“Australia’s STEM professionals play an incredibly important role in shaping Australia’s health and wellbeing, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. This program empowers our highly skilled STEM workforce to make positive change and use their work to help build better policy and shape Australia’s future.”

The STEM Ambassador program builds on the successful 2019 pilot program and brings the total number of STA STEM Ambassadors to 24 across Australia.

The latest cohort of STEM Ambassadors come from a wide range of science, technology, and engineering mathematics professions, representing a range of sectors.

Congratulations to SSA member Dr Alex Russell on his nominations as STA STEM Ambassador. Alex will be working with MP Zali Steggal in the electorate of Warringah.

Media contact: Leesa Maroske 0439 784 216

Better statistics needed to improve research quality

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 22:27:04 GMT

In case you missed it, a report from the 2019 Research Quality Workshop of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) was released in February 2020. This committee has arisen because of concerns with the quality of health and medical research, with estimates that 85% of health and medical research is currently wasted. The importance of statistics got several mentions in the NHMRC report, and was called a “critical competence” for researchers. The report also mentioned the need for institutional support, including “centrally funded statistical support for research groups”. There was also support for “statisticians as advisors to/members of ethics committees” and we lobbied for this recommendation by writing to the NHMRC with the letter led by members Prof. Sue Wilson (ANU) and Prof. Michael Martin (ANU).

This highlights the value of contributing to consultation processes which have an important statistical component or interest. If there’s an issue of national importance that you’d like our support on, email us to let us know.

Adrian Barnett

President, SSA

Building Future Generations of Statisticians – Who Cares?

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 22:20:21 GMT

A/Prof Ayse Bilgin (President-Elect of IASE) and I were Guest Editors for a Special Issue of the Statistics Education Research Journal published 29 Feb 2020, entitled ‘Building Future Generations of Statisticians’.

Following on from collaborative SSA national initiatives such as STEMS2016 ‘Putting Statistics into STEM in the Age of Data’, as I noted in the SERJ Editorial pp 8-10, for many, the theme of this Special Issue has been a perennial focus, discussed at national and international fora but perhaps lacking a consolidated emphasis in the literature.

The aim for this Special Issue was to provide such a platform for sharing the many and varied international ‘outreach’ initiatives, experiences, resources and supporting mechanisms for increasing the number engaging with the field of statistics.

Before you view the articles perhaps you may like to consider why you were drawn to statistics and whether the work you are performing is as you’d expected it to be when you began your studies.

Professor Peter Howley

Section Chair – Statistical Education

@peterhowley0

A new year, a fresh new SSA National Schools Poster Competition (NSPC) online look and vibe

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 22:04:46 GMT

Thanks to support from the ABS, a fresh and engaging SSA NSPC website has been created – please have a look and let me know your thoughts.

The NSPC is in its 6^th year as a national activity following its 2014 pilot and continues to engage new participants annually from primary and secondary schools.

Please inform friends, family and local schools of this enjoyable activity which engages teams of students with statistics via investigations and aligns with and supports national curriculum outcomes.

Professor Peter Howley

@peterhowley0

Section Chair – Statistical Education

SA Branch meeting: Probability-proportional-to-size ranked-set sampling from stratified populations

Vanaja Thomas — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 03:19:53 GMT

The SA Branch welcomed Professor Omer Ozturk, currently on sabbatical from Ohio State University, to our February meeting to speak on his work on probability-proportional-to-size ranked-set sampling from stratified populations. This is the topic of his current research, following on from many years of work on sampling methodology. Omer’s talk took us through a number of examples to demonstrate the value of finite sampling, particularly in agriculture and environmental science.

Motivating examples included (1) the Quarterly Agricultural Survey performed by the Ohio Agricultural Statistics Department to estimate corn yield. Due to the presence of both regular farms and ‘mega farms’ auxiliary data on the farms is required to be used to ensure an appropriate sampling scheme; (2) the US Census Bureau’s Monthly Retail Trade Survey. Size data based on the previous year’s annual revenues is assumed to be approximately proportional to the current year’s revenue and can be used to optimise sampling; and (3) the Turkey Statistical Institute estimates the total apple production in Turkey. Auxiliary data identified two sub-populations, and this was able to be used to develop a sampling scheme that increased the available information.

Omer’s work combines theory from the finite population setting, proportional-to-size (PPS) and ranked-set (RS) methodologies, and extends this to more than one population (eg, geographic regions) for a stratified PPS-RS approach. Proportional-to-size sampling requires an auxiliary variable assumed to be proportional to the outcome, and ranked-set sampling requires determining, with reasonable accuracy, the relative position of the sampled units. Omer presented results for estimating the mean, variance, and confidence intervals. Finally, he discussed methods for sample size allocation across strata including equal allocation, proportional allocation, Neyman allocation, and allocation under a fixed cost plan. Results demonstrated that stratified PPS-RS was more efficient than stratified PPS and stratified simple random sampling for all allocation procedures.

In conclusion, Omar demonstrated that ranking information induces more structure and improves the information content of the sample. This can be extended to more complex population structures such as clustered populations, with further work to be published soon. It was an entertaining and engaging presentation.

Key reference: Ozturk O & Bayramoglu Kavlak K. (2018). Model based inference using ranked set samples. Survey Methodology, 44(1): 1-16.

Author: Kylie Lange

SSA ANZSC 2020 Family Caring Bursaries

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 03:49:13 GMT

Family caring responsibilities (such as caring for children or elders) can be a barrier to conference participation. The SSA will make a number of bursaries available to people wishing to attend ANZSC2020 to help defray the additional costs of familial caring responsibilities.

SSA members who will incur additional costs associated with familial caring responsibilities due to their attendance at ANZSC2020 are invited to apply for a bursary. These bursaries are available to people of all genders. These funds could be spent on additional childcare or eldercare expenses that would arise as a result of attendance at the conference, or on flights for an accompanying person to look after children while the awardee is at the conference, for example. Bursary awardees do not need to present work at the conference to be eligible for a bursary. The SSA has a maximum of $2000 available for these bursaries, with the maximum amount available to any one applicant being $500.

The application form is available here. Applicants need to confirm they are a member of SSA, and intend to attend ANZSC2020. A short statement is required on how attendance at ANZSC2020 would be beneficial for their career, and details of the requested funds. Successful applicants would be reimbursed upon presentation of ANSZC2020 registration confirmation and receipts/invoices. The deadline for applications is March 25 2020, with decisions to be communicated to applicants by April 6 2020 (the Early Bird Registration deadline of ANZSC2020).

February update from the Bayes Section

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 05:09:12 GMT

There will be a pre-conference workshop at ANZSC in July on logistic regression in Autostat. We have a trip report from the BayesComp workshop in January, which was attended by members of the Bayes SSA section. The ISBA Program Council have extended the early registration and poster submission deadlines for the ISBA World Meeting and BAYSM (June/July, 2020). A reminder about ABC in Grenoble (March, 2020) and announcement of an SMC workshop in Madrid (May, 2020).

There will be a pre-conference workshop “From machine learning to statistical modelling (Frequentist & Bayesian), via logistic regression in Autostat” held on Sunday, July 5, prior to the Australian Statistical Society and New Zealand Statistical Association Conference (ANZSC) on the Gold Coast. This year Griffith University has planned 70 workshops and other training events, delivered by 20 presenters, on statistics or mixed (quant/qual) methods. Several workshops introduce a Bayesian approach for particular models, with computing in Autostat and/or R. There are also introductory workshops on

“Understanding Probability”, and “Classical vs Bayesian Statistical Modelling.” All workshops are advertised a few months ahead here. Please have patience with a new process for attendees external to Griffith University to

enrol in workshops here.

The biennial BayesComp workshop, sponsored by the Bayesian computation section of ISBA, took place January 7-10 in Gainesville, Florida. The conference promotes original research into computational methods across all strands of Bayesian research. This year’s plenary talks included cutting-edge topics such as Continuous-time MCMC, variational inference (VI), as well as Bayesian analysis of large-scale time series. The advancement of methodology for high-dimensional and complex models was a persistent theme of the conference. An underlying theme of research present in many talks was the move away from more traditional, exact, Bayesian methods, to alternative methods that are approximate or robust to model misspecification.

The 5th Bayesian Young Statisticians Meeting (BAYSM) will take place in Kunming, China from June 26-27, 2020. Deadline for submission of abstracts is March 29. Due to concerns about the current coronavirus epidemic, the ISBA Program Council have extended the early-bird registration deadline for the ISBA World Meeting (Kunming, China, June 29 – July 3) until May 15. They will keep submission of contributed posters open until May 15 as well. More details about the conference programme are available here.

A workshop on Approximate Bayesian Computation, ABC in Grenoble, will be held in France on March 19 and 20. More details are available here.

A workshop on Sequential Monte Carlo methods, SMC 2020, will be held in Madrid, Spain, May 27 – 29. More details are available here.

Executive Committee, Bayes Section of SSA (Chris Drovandi, Clara Grazian, David Frazier, Sama Low-Choy & Matt Moores)

Twitter: @BayesSSA

https://statsoc.org.au/Bayesian-Statistics

Announcement and call for submissions: Special issue of Teaching Statistics “Teaching Data Science and Statistics: senior school or introductory tertiary”

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 22:24:30 GMT

Editors: Helen MacGillivray, Robert Gould, Jim Ridgway

The special issue of Teaching Statistics will be published in 2020 as an e-book, titled Teaching Data Science and Statistics: senior school or introductory tertiary.

A variety of chapters is envisaged, with a small number of invited chapters, and most oriented to classroom-ready ideas, case studies and/or materials embodying good teaching practice. Each of the latter type of chapter should focus on one or more aspects of statistical data investigations and data science. Authors will find valuable guidance in Unit 1 of the framework of the International Data Science for School Project (IDSSP). Case study approaches should embody classroom-ready implementation, with a rich data context with a number of variables.

Chapters should be between 2,000 and 4,000 words, and no more than 5,000 words, including references, figures and any appendices. Resources such as data, code, notes for teachers/instructors, and videos, may be placed in an online repository. Authors may wish to provide short, dynamic videos.

Timeline

Submissions to be made online to Teaching Statistics via ScholarOne.
Deadline for submissions, 25^th April, 2020.
Referee reports to authors by 30^th June, 2020.
Deadline for revised submissions, 31^st August, 2020.
Proofs to authors by 15^th October, 2020.
Deadline for corrections to proofs, 22^nd October, 2020.
Issue compilation, 29^th October, 2020.
Issue approved, 7^th November, 2020.
To printer and published online, 14^th November, 2020.
Published in print, 21^st November, 2020.

Teaching Statistics, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14679639, is published by Wiley on behalf of the Teaching Statistics Trust. It is intended for all those who teach statistics to students aged up to 19 years. The emphasis is on good practice in teaching statistics and statistical thinking in any context. Teaching Statistics seeks to inform, enlighten, stimulate, guide, correct, inspire, entertain and encourage. Teaching Statistics is a refereed journal, with double-blind reviewing.

For more information contact the Teaching Statistics editor h.macgillivray@qut.edu.au . Also see Teaching Statistics, 42 (1).

Helen MacGillivray

Inaugural Betty Allan travel award winners

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 02:13:23 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australian and CSIRO/Data61 are delighted to announce the inaugural winners of the Betty Allan travel award as:

Karen Lamb who will visit the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in Cambridge
Sharmala Thuraisingam who will visit the University of Calgary and attend the North American Primary Care Research Group Conference

The award of $3000 each is to support early career female statisticians in Australia to travel anywhere in the world in order to further their career.

There were 14 applications for what should have been just one award, but the judging panel recommended two awards because they were so impressed with the quality of the applications.

The president of the Statistical Society of Australia, Adrian Barnett, said, “The quality of the applications was inspiring. It proves that we have incredible early career female statisticians in Australia. But it did make the final decision very difficult.”

Frances Elizabeth (“Betty”) Allan (1905 to 1952) was CSIRO’s first statistician and provided statistical support across the organisation. She also lectured in mathematics and statistics at Canberra University College and Australian Forestry School. When she married in 1940 she was forced to retire, which was the law for female public servants.

The award will be open again in 2020 with applications called for in November. For details on last year’s application click here.

WA Branch Meeting, June 2019: Optimal Sample-Size-Dependent Significance Levels

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 04:33:00 GMT

Adriano Polpo, Associate Professor at UWA, spoke in the June meeting about Optimal Sample-Size-Dependent Significance Levels. The talk was based on the work (DOI: 10.1080/00031305.2018.1518268) published on the The American Statistician special issue about “Statistical Inference in the 21st Century: A World Beyond p < 0.05”. It can be seen that this is a hot topic given the number of publications in this issue is over 40. But Adriano and his coauthors address or revisit the nuances of hypothesis testing in the classical approaches in order to prepare the way for their approach to what has recently been a vexed question involving whether or not or how to use p-values?

For those who do not know Adriano, he has recently taken up his position at UWA having come from the Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil, where he spent 12 years. He originally got his PhD from the University of Sao Paulo in the year 2005 and has also taken post-doctoral study at Florida State University. He was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but also has dual citizenship with Italy. On the other hand, he does not confess to speaking Italian. Interestingly he tells me that he learnt English by using the computer.

The statisticians know of the inconsistency, or paradox, in the current classical tests of significance that are based on p-value statistics that are compared to the canonical significance levels (10%, 5%, and 1%). Adriano and his colleagues argued that researchers do not need to completely abandon the p-value, rather, they should instead stop using significance levels that do not depend on sample sizes. A testing procedure was presented, with a significance level that is a function of sample size, obtained from a generalized form of the Neyman–Pearson Lemma.

At the conclusion of his talk several people dined afterwards and continued discussions at the Bateman Chinese Malaysian Eating House.

Brenton Clarke

WA Branch: HANSFORD-MILLER FELLOW Professor Cathryn Lewis

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 04:29:00 GMT

On the 12^th November 2019 Cathryn Lewis who is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics at Kings College London, University of London received her Frank Hansford-Miller Fellowship medal, and led the audience in a tour through some of her research in a talk titled “Polygenic risk scores to predict risk of disease, hype, hope and statistical reality”. Cathryn has been working at her present position for 20 years and describes herself as someone who works on applied statistics. This is very fitting as Frank was very enthusiastic for applied statistics and the benefit that it could bring to the whole of society. Cathryn trained as a mathematical statistician, receiving a BA from Oxford, then a Masters and PhD from the University of Sheffield, before moving to do a postdoctoral work at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA. Here she was involved with discovering the link between the BRCA1 gene and the risk of breast cancer, which has motivated a lot of interest in genetics and risk ever since. She returned to England taking up her current position which she has worked at apart from short sojourns off for having children.

Cathryn noted that while she was in London reading about Frank she was struck by the quote “He was a rather eccentric Englishman who adopted Australia as his home after he retired from the UK”. On arriving in Perth, she could now see exactly why he had done this and volunteered to say that if we have any tutorial posts in 10 years time she would certainly be interested.

The synopsis of Cathryn Lewis’ talk started with an introduction to genetics and polygenic risk scores, analysis methods, challenges, and a return to quote Frank Hansford-Miller.

She introduced the discovery of DNA and highlighted the work of Rosalyn Franklin, somewhat overlooked when discussing the discovery of DNA in 1953 by Crick and Watson.

She then talked about why a statistician may be interested in DNA by alluding to the fact that there were 3 billion base pairs in the DNA which would take us 50 years to type out one letter at a time, but pointed out there were 0.1 % of these pairs distinguished us as individuals. While 0.1% is small this percentage of 3 billion is quite an amount of data. She went on to discuss the link or hypothesis that various alleles could lead to increased risk of disorders such as depression. The genetics technology now looks at sites across half a million sites at one time examining the whole genome at one time. There are matrices of data, and each row is examined at one row at a time, and individuals are examined for cases and controls. There are adjustments for ancestry. Essentially for each SNP a logistic regression is carried out so that one gets an odds ratio for a particular increased risk of a particular allele. The studies involve P-values which are adjusted for the large numbers of tests carried out.

In comparison to other disorders “hits” due to particular gene types only began for depression in 2015. Risks on a polygenic scale now lead to risk scores for every individual that give you information on risk of the disorder. Methods involve weighted scores across all SNP’s.. There are considerations of correlation and independence

Results involve scores that have roughly a normal distribution, and then interest is in the tails.

How do we predict outcomes for cases and controls?

We were led through various statistical methodologies of Cohen’s D and Nagelkerke’s R.

Depression has a prevalence disorder of 15%. Some discussion ensued about course of illness.

A discussion of risk in other areas put the ideas of screening for various disorders in perspective, and it was pointed out that predictions of disorder were not the same for African as opposed to European cases whereupon ancestry is important.

There is still a need to increase the predictive ability. We have gone from a yes/no genetic description to a polygenic risk on a normal scale.

To remind us of the aptness of her work Cathryn pointed to a quote from

Frank “We have been become too technical and should ask “How is this piece or research going to help humanity””

and challenged us all to play a part in making statistics relevant to society. She closed her talk with a picture of the double helix in the DNA tower at Kings Park.

Brenton R Clarke

Heidelberg Laureate Forum 2020

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 23:34:52 GMT

The following email, received by the SSA today, may be of interest to the statistical and mathematical community:

"To: The Adhering Organizations of the International Mathematical Union (IMU)

Dear colleagues

The 8th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), see

https://www.heidelberg-laureate-forum.org,

will take place in Heidelberg, Germany during September 20–25, 2020.

At HLF all winners of the Fields Medal, the Abel Prize, the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the Nevanlinna Prize, and the ACM Prize in Computing are invited to attend. In addition, young and talented computer scientists and mathematicians are invited to apply for participation.

The previous HLFs have been an exceptional success. The HLF serves as a great platform for interaction between the masters in the fields of mathematics and computer science and young talents.

Applications for participation at the 8th HLF are open in three categories: Undergraduates, PhD Candidates, and PostDocs. See the webpage https://application.heidelberg-laureate-forum.org/site/index.php

for the online nomination form. Please note that in compliance with European data protection law all previous login information and nominator accounts were deleted.

The IMU Adhering Organizations and national mathematical societies can nominate young researchers.

Nominated persons get “priority treatment”, but, since there may be too many nominations, they have no acceptance guarantee. During the nomination process you will be asked for an Org-ID, which is IMU93258 for the IMU. The deadline for application is February 14, 2020.

IMU asks its Adhering Organizations to distribute this information among their national mathematical

communities, if possible, through the newsletters of the national mathematical societies.

The HLF was initiated by the late German entrepreneur Klaus Tschira, and is supported by the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Association for Computing Machinery, as well as the International Mathematical Union.

Regards

Helge Holden

Prof. Helge Holden
Secretary General of the International Mathematical Union
https://www.mathunion.org
Phone:+47-92038625"

ANZSRC Review Consultation Draft Now Available

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 07:02:27 GMT

Following the initial round of public consultations, the Australian Research Council (ARC), Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and Stats NZ have now published the ANZSRC Review Consultation Draft. The proposed changes to both the Fields of Research (FoR) and Socio-Economic Objectives (SEO) classifications are now available for comment until 10 February 2020.

The Consultation Draft and details on how to make a submission are available on the ARC website.

The ANZSRC Review Consultation Draft proposes significant changes to both the Fields of Research (FoR) and Socio-Economic Objectives (SEO) classifications based on initial consultations. A new Division-level (‘2-digit’) classification for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori, and Pacific Peoples research is proposed for both the FoR classification and the SEO classification. These new Divisions would allow for greater recognition and visibility of this important and unique sector of the Australian and New Zealand research landscape.

Other proposed changes to the FoR classification include splitting Division 11 Medical and Health Sciences into two Divisions and removing Division 10 Technology by distributing its Groups among other Divisions. It is also proposed that the Sector level of the SEO classification be removed to align with the FoR hierarchy.

This draft is not final and the ANZSRC Review Steering Committee is allowing time for changes before finalisation of the new ANZSRC classification. Feedback is sought on:

Whether the revised classifications accurately capture the current Australian and New Zealand research landscape.
Whether any errors or ambiguities have been introduced in the drafting process.
Concordance between the old and revised ANZSRC classifications, including

where codes have been deleted, where would that research be classified in the revised ANZSRC?
where new codes have been created, where would that research have been classified in ANZSRC 2008?

To assist in a balanced evaluation of the draft, submissions in support of changes are also welcomed. This will be the last opportunity for public comment on the ANZSRC draft. It is anticipated that the final updated ANZSRC will be published in mid-2020.

If you have any questions regarding the ANZSRC Review or the Consultation Draft, please contact the ARC on 02 6287 6755 or ARC-ANZSRCReview@arc.gov.au.

Kind regards,

ANZSRC Review Team

Australian Research Council I Phone: 02 6287 6755

Christmas and New Year Greetings!

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 05:02:48 GMT

I can't believe we are reaching the end of another year already. Where did the time go? This year has seen many things happening in the statistical community and within SSA. Below I have listed just a few:

First of all we held a record number of workshops and other events. SSA’s branches and sections truly outdid themselves with their offerings to members, organising events for the many different interest groups within the society. I noticed especially the many events for our students or early career statisticians, all aimed at creating a kick-start to a successful career in statistics.

It is the many, many volunteers at branch and section level that made this possible and we can’t thank them enough.

The Betty Allen Travel Award was launched for the first time, and we received a good number of outstanding applications, making it very difficult to make a decision. The lucky winner will be notified in January. Then there was the inaugural Louise Ryan Best Presentation Award, awarded at YSC2019 by the wonderful Louise Ryan herself.

We now have a new ANZSTAT list on our very own website, drawing the statistical community closer together, which is fantastic.

SSA’s relationship with the Australian Bureau Statistics reached a new level with an official partnership between the two organisations being contracted and recently extended into next year! This is fantastic news indeed and opens many opportunities for strategic collaboration and funding of special projects. This partnership has also supported the International Data Science in Schools Project, which aims to create a 2 year, 240 hour course in Data Science for year 11 and 12 students, and an accompanying course to train teachers to give it, to be delivered internationally.

The SSA continues to improve its value proposition to members. We now have member discounts for Wiley, OUP, Taylor & Francis, Routledge, CRC Press, shinyapps and Significance magazine. We have created a page of videos of branch talks that are only available to members. A new webinar series started in the second half of 2019 and has proven immensely popular. One of the highlights would have to be the recent webinar with Sir David Spiegelhalter. We are delighted to be able to offer recordings of our webinars on the SSA website for our members. The link to Sir David’s webinar will be made available shortly. Please check the webinar page from time to time.

The results of the Federal Election in May took all of us by surprise and almost seven months on we are still grappling with questions about opinion polls and how they got it so wrong, but we will try to get to the bottom of this.

Let’s keep the momentum going into the next year!

Thank you for your continued support of the Statistical Society of Australia. You are the Society and you make coming to work every day a pleasure for me.

During what is for many a holiday time, let us look out for one another, keep safe and share plenty of smiles with those around us.

Very warm greetings and a happy, peaceful and prosperous new year.

Marie-Louise Rankin,
Executive Officer, SSA

Bayes on the Beach 2019

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:17:06 GMT

Bayes on the Beach, the 13^th biennial meeting of the Bayesian Section of SSA, was held in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, in November. It featured keynote presentations and tutorials by Prof Antonietta Mira (Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland), Prof Sudipto Banerjee (University of California, Los Angeles, USA), A/Prof Renate Meyer (University of Auckland, New Zealand), Prof Nial Friel (University College Dublin, Ireland), Prof Heikki Haario (Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland), Prof Mark Briers (Alan Turing Institute for Data Science, UK), and Dr Jegar Pitchforth (Booking.com BV), as well as many excellent talks and posters. A particular highlight was a game of beach cricket, in memory of Prof Richard J. Boys, a previous speaker at Bayes on the Beach who sadly passed away earlier this year. Many thanks to the organising committee and to our sponsors for making this event possible, and to all attendees for their enthusiastic participation.

A game of beach cricket in memory of Richard Boys. Photo by Cheryle Blair.

The symposium on Data Science for Social Good at QUT featured a keynote presentation by Prof Sir Peter Donnelly (Genomics PLC and the University of Oxford) as well as talks on conservation, the environment, healthcare, genetics, data science for non-profits, food security, public policy, and artificial intelligence. This was followed in the evening by the launch of the QUT Centre for Data Science.

Executive Committee of the Bayesian Section of SSA

@BayesSSA

https://www.statsoc.org.au/Bayesian-Statistics

Science Meets Parliament 2019

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 03:04:43 GMT

Science Meets Parliament (SmP19) – a conference run by Science & Technology Australia - has been bringing scientists and parliamentarians together since 1999. The objectives of the forum are to inform members of parliament how science can contribute to public policy, and provide insight for scientists to the political, media and parliamentary processes that govern the Commonwealth of Australia. Around 200 scientists and communicators were selected to attend this event to discuss the current and future role of science in politics. The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) selected Carmen Lim from the University of Queensland and Janan Arslan from the University of Melbourne to represent the society at SmP19.

The two-day event (26-27^th November) was held at both Hotel Realm and Parliament House in Canberra. The first day of the conference was packed full of presentations and workshops (particularly for first-time attendees), with captivating speakers, such as Professor Fiona Wood AM (Director of Burns Service of WA & 2005 Australian of the Year) and Dr Alan Finkel AO (Australia’s Chief Scientist) taking to the podium. Day One was also a great opportunity for the 200 attendees to connect with each other, which lead to exhilarating conversations. The day ended with a Gala Dinner, which was MC’ed by SCOPE TV presenter Lee Constable. Presentations were given by The Hon Karen Andrews MP (Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology), The Hon Brendan O’Connor MP (Shadow Minister for Employment and Industry, Science, Small and Family Business), and Marina Sara (Chemical Engineer, ANSTO), who shocked our delegates by revealing we work approximately 80,000 hours in our careers. Each table at the dinner contained several scientists as well as a parliamentarian. This was our first opportunity to connect and communicate with policymakers.

L to R:
Carmen Lim and Janan Arslan enjoying a night out at SmP Gala Dinner.

L to R:
Adrian Barnett, Susanna Cramb, Carmen Lim and Janan Arslan. Statisticians storm parliament house!

The second and final day was all about meeting our assigned parliamentarians. Every scientist was assigned to a parliamentarian based on either common scientific interests or by the electorate. Carmen was paired with Dr Mike Freelander MP while Janan was paired with Dr Adam Bandt MP. Janan also attended the National Press Club Address presented by Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith – an award-winning astrophysicist and the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador - in which she discussed current gender biases and committing to bringing equity in science, engineering, and mathematics. Additional tours were made available for delegates, such as the Parliament House Geology and Beekeeping Tours. The day concluded with a parliamentary panel and discussion that, unfortunately, was short-lived when the bells began to ring throughout Parliament House. The conference was a revelation. It emphasised the importance of scientific communication, highlighted Parliamentary processes, and offered an opportunity to build strong working relationships between scientists and members of parliaments.

L to R:
[First person - Unknown], Dr Mike Freelander, Susanna Cramb, and Carmen. Carmen and fellow scientists meeting Dr Freelander to discuss their respective scientific projects.

L to R:
Tracey Ellis, Peter Baines, Dr Adam Bandt, Janan Arslan, and Amy Winship. Lots of smiles after talking about our work with Dr Adam Bandt.

We want to thank the SSA for supporting our attendance at SmP19. We thank the ever so amazing Marie-Louise Rankin and Adrian Barnett for supporting us throughout the process and guiding us during the conference. This has truly been a remarkable experience. With meeting people across all the STEM careers and parliamentarians privately in small groups, we not only had the opportunity to share our research projects with prominent members of the community but also heard the scientific journey of many others. We connected with fellow scientists and felt completely at home during the entire event. We were reminded of the core values of being a scientist: to seek the truth and make a difference in the world. The most valuable lesson that we learnt was scientists and politicians are actually driven by common goals: we all want to make a difference. We conclude this article with some of Janan’s and Carmen’s highlights and remarkable quotes from the event.

Quotes:

“You could be the best visionary in the world, but if you’re in a soundproof room, what is the point?” – Professor Fiona Wood

“Collaborating with mathematicians and statisticians helps to shape our work.”– STEM Professionals in other fields

“We do not need to fix women. We need to fix the system.” – Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith

“We have to show the politicians where our impact is.” – Dr Alan Finkel

Carmen’s highlight:

My highlight was perhaps learning how to pitch my work in a minute. We fill in existing gaps in scientific knowledge by creating solutions and that has helped me to focus my pitch when speaking with the parliamentary leaders I met in Canberra. I met Dr Mike Freelander, a paediatrician turned MP for the Labour party. I was given an opportunity to discuss the issues around my research on substance abuse in vaping and got a chance to hear his political viewpoints on this. His vision to serve his electorate was truly inspiring. I encourage all scientists to get in touch with their local MP and see how your research can be translated into impactful research. Politicians are apparently good storytellers. SSA members, please consider attending SMP in 2020. You will have an experience of a lifetime.

Janan’s highlight:

The moment I walked into the Hotel Realm, I could immediately feel the buzz and energy in the air. As scientists, we sometimes find ourselves isolated from the world, for we are so focused on our own passions and research. You forget that there are others out there with similar aspirations and desires. Finding yourself with likeminded individuals who understand what it is like to wake up at 4 am and go to bed late at night all in the name of seeking scientific truth is refreshing, to say the least. While I consider myself to be an excellent communicator, I thoroughly enjoyed Dr Will Grant’s and Dr Rod Lamberts’ pitching workshop, in which I had to pretend to go back in time and explain a modern piece of equipment without being burnt at the stake (e.g., mobile phone). It may seem unorthodox at first, but the lesson of speaking in relatable, reassuring, and easily understandable language came through very strongly. These lessons from the first day proved to be very effective throughout the second day of the conference. I was able to have an incredible conversation with my assigned politician, Dr Adam Bandt – co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens Party - which has since led to securing further meetings with him to discuss the projects I (and my supervisor) are currently working on. I consider myself very fortunate to have attended the conference and to have been presented with such an excellent opportunity to improve myself as a scientist, expand my network of colleagues, and build a working relationship with a member of parliament. So, thank you SSA for such an amazing opportunity.

Janan Arslan & Carmen Lim

E.A. Cornish Lecture: Nonlinear models of species-environment relationships with modern tools for misbehaving errors

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 02:09:19 GMT

South Australian Branch SSA December 2019 Meeting

The SA Branch was pleased to welcome Distinguished Professor Marti J. Anderson, a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a recent recipient of a prestigious James Cook Fellowship, to give the tenth E.A. Cornish Memorial Lecture. Marti holds the Professorial Chair in Statistics in the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study (NZIAS) at Massey University in Auckland. She is an ecological statistician whose research is inter-disciplinary: from ecology to mathematical statistics. Her core research is in community ecology, biodiversity, multivariate analysis, models of ecological count data, experimental design and resampling methods, with a special focus on creating new applied statistics for ecology that can yield new insights into global patterns of biodiversity.

Her talk was based on a fundamental question in ecology – How do species respond to spatial or environmental gradients? To answer this question, one needs to think about how to best model these responses. A typical response is unimodal and a couple of classical models including generalized linear models (GLM) with one or more polynomial term(s) and a bell-shaped (Gaussian) curve were discussed to fit unimodal response patterns in ecology. However, there are problems with polynomial models because they are quite constrained and can generate unrealistic predictions (even yielding negative numbers). Meanwhile, Gaussian models don’t account for asymmetry.

Instead, something more flexible like generalized additive models, e.g. splines may be considered, but these do not provide interpretable parameters. Such flexible spline-type models also have only previously been applied to binary-type data.

Marti showed examples of real data of depth gradient distributions of different fish species in the NE Pacific. She explained her first principle of modelling is to re-visit data-types commonly encountered and re-visit genuinely observed patterns in such variables along large-scale gradients. The data were very messy and contained large numbers of zero values at certain depths.

The goal was to decide on a flexible nonlinear parametric mathematical form to model the mean response of species to environmental gradients. This needs to be coupled with a suitable statistical distribution to model the error structure. Model frameworks were discussed and four mean functions were introduced: Beta (modified), Sech (modified), HOF (Huisman, Olf, Fresco) and Gaussian mixtures. Various error distributions which could account for excess zeros and overdispersion were coupled with these four mean functions and models were compared using the AICc. Marti showed an example of the best fitting model for the Shortspine thornyhead (Sebastolobus alascanus), which was the Sech function combined with a zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB).

Visualisations of these models for multiple species simultaneously were also discussed, including overlays of mean distributions, ordered ‘floating’ distributions and ordered ‘strip’ distributions. A further example was given using data from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) from the North Atlantic. Beautiful visualizations displayed northern shifts in the latitudinal distributions of plankton species, showing how these have changed between 1960 and 2005: a cold-water species has contracted polewards, while a warm-water species has extended its range northwards.

Developments and extensions of these models are an area of current research and include cross-validation, estimation of variation in parameters, Bayesian approaches; extension of error distributions to include linked zero-inflated models, contagious distributions, under-dispersion, etc; modelling simultaneous responses of multiple species(Y), accounting for inter-specific associations; consideration of more than one gradient (X), including interactions; and ordination of species (modes, dispersions) in environmental space.

For more information contact m.j.anderson@massey.ac.nz

Yiwen (Wendy) Li

Python and R workshops

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 01:51:49 GMT

We're pleased to report that our two-day series of workshops in Nov 2019, covering both Python and R, was a success. Our Python workshops proved to be particularly popular.

We started on 18 November with Machine Learning with Python, hosted jointly with Eliiza and delivered by a team of presenters from Eliiza led by Patrick Robotham. This was the first time we have offered these workshops and they proved to be popular, with over 30 attendees. For those who missed out, don't worry, we plan to run them again next year. There was a lot of interest particularly in image classification techniques, for which we plan to develop some more material for next time.

We continued on 19 November with a repeat of our R skills workshops, hosted jointly with MIG. This year we were joined by Emi Tanaka from Sydney who delivered the R Markdown workshop, while Damjan Vukcevic presented on Building R packages. We had almost 20 attendees for each one and many requests for more workshops, both at a more introductory as well as a more advanced level.

Patrick Robotham & Damjan Vukcevic

We all count

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 01:44:54 GMT

VIC Branch final event for 2019

The Victorian branch final event for 2019 was a series of short talks and panel discussion on current activities within Australia and globally to promote strengthening stats and maths through gender diversity.

The first presentation was by SSA Vice President Dr Jessica Kasza on her work to establish a Safe SSA committee and updated code of conduct to prevent and respond to harassment within the statistics community. She led a response team (females and males from all career stages) at the joint meeting of the International Society of Clinical Biostatistics and Statistical Society of Australia (Melbourne 2019), a first for the SSA conference, where delegates could report to team members any unacceptable behaviour.

Next up was Professor Claudia Czado from the Technical University of Munich who spoke about the Global Challenges for Women in Math Science program. Here awards for scientific and entrepreneurial achievements are given to female students and ECRs to promote them to continue in the mathematical sciences disciplines. Professor Jessica Purcell from Monash University then introduced the Women in Mathematical Sciences Special Interest Group (WIMSIG) which was established in 2013, and held a highly successful conference in Adelaide in 2017. WIMSIG has launched a pilot mentoring program and is running a conference at Monash University in 2020 to celebrate women in Australian Mathematical and Statistical Sciences. The last speaker was Anna Quaglieri, one of the former main organisers of R-Ladies Melbourne. The R-Ladies Melbourne meet up group has now over 1300 members, and as well as events, has an active discussion board. To finish off the evening all speakers contributed to a lively panel discussion regarding the initiatives/groups/awards that each speaker has established.

Professsor Julie Simpson

Presenting Uncertainty and Risk

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 01:20:47 GMT

Western Australian Branch SSA Meeting article October 2019

Dr John Henstridge (Chief Statistician and Managing Director of Data Analysis Australia) spoke on “Presenting Uncertainty and Risk” at the WA Branch meeting on Tuesday 8th October 2019. This was held in the Cheryl Praeger lecture theatre (named after John’s wife) at the University of Western Australia. He outlined areas where uncertainty is often misunderstood by non-statisticians and gave suggestions for statisticians to more effectively communicate uncertainty to non-statisticians.

John based his talk around work performed for a client that presented challenges as how to report uncertainty and risk. He outlined that most statistics is performed for the benefit of non-statisticians; while statisticians are good at handling uncertainty, many non-statisticians are not and may assume statistical methods give certainty. It is up to statisticians to communicate uncertainty clearly to others.

In official publications, data is often presented as fact where the uncertainty is unquantified. This approach is often seen in accounting, where immaterial differences are allowed, when it “doesn’t make much difference” to the overall data. There may be uncertainty to the underlying mechanism giving rise to the numbers, but not the numbers themselves.

In some areas, it is argued that “there are too many numbers” such that it is impractical to represent the uncertainty. John stated the in reality this view is wrong, and uncertainty can be dealt with regardless of the complexity of the data. Where data can be generated, then you can almost always provide uncertainty estimates using bootstrap methods. John gave an example where he’d worked on the Western Australian Travel Survey. A jackknife (instead of the bootstrap for technical reasons) had been performed on the estimates produced by an automated report, where 10 sub-sampled reports were compared character-by-character to generate standard-errors. This was an extreme case, and not one he might suggest in the future, but it does illustrate that bootstrapped standard errors are virtually always possible. The issue is what to present and how to present it.

John then gave a brief history of error bars. Error bars have their origin in metrology (the science of measurement [1]) that interprets them as absolute limits, that is, the true value is always within the error bars. Statisticians later appropriated error bars, where they usually denote confidence intervals. Confidence intervals exist for mathematical convenience but are misinterpreted by most users. He suggested it would be worthwhile for statisticians to read standard texts from international metrology organisations.

In some publications it’s not always clear how this uncertainty displayed in error bars is derived. Examples were provided where the numbers were certain, but error bars were provided. When uncertainty is given without stating what the model is, it’s hard to know if the uncertainty has been calculated correctly.

Next, John questioned the practice of presenting an interval when we don’t mean it. While error bars have been borrowed from metrology, statisticians rarely think of error bars as giving the full variation, with the true value allowed to lie outside of the interval. When John Tukey invented boxplots, technological limitations enforced vertical and horizontal lines. We now have access to other ways of presenting variation with diamond, violin, fan and density strips plots. John Henstridge prefers representing variation with violin plots as these give a better idea of the full distribution and are more robust to display and printing methods.

Related to this is the “p-value problem”, where uncertainty is interpreted with certainty. This is in part the fault of statisticians in not effectively communicating the appropriate interpretation of p-values. Too often, significant/not-significant p-values leads to strict cut offs on the truth of the result. Similarly, confidence intervals are frequently misunderstood to have the true value within the range. Statisticians have some responsibility for these misunderstandings.

The American Statistical Association [2] provided a statement in 2016 on p-values, and although John Henstridge said it was technically correct and provided lots of things not to do, it was not clear what we should do. He felt that the statement may have missed the point, trying to have a formalism when presenting the results of analysis when there is a deeper problem of how to represent uncertainty.

Finally, John strongly recommended statisticians read “Communicating uncertainty about facts, numbers and science” [3] from the Royal Society Open Science initiative. This has lots of useful information on both types of uncertainty and communicating uncertainty.

A recording of the seminar is available on the Branch Seminar Videos page.

John Henstridge is the Chief Statistician and Managing Director of Data Analysis Australia, a statistical consulting firm that he founded in 1988. While his original specialty was time series applied to signal processing problems, as a consultant statistician he has worked across many areas of statistics. He is an Accredited Statistician (of the Statistical Society of Australia) and a Chartered Statistician (of the Royal Statistical Society) and served as the national President of the Statistical Society of Australia between 2013 and 2016.

Rick Tankard
SSA WA Branch Secretary

References:

[1] See for example International Bureau of Weights and Measures or Bureau international des poids et mesures, https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/guides/#gum

[2] Wasserstein, Ronald L., and Nicole A. Lazar. "The ASA’s statement on p-values: context, process, and purpose." The American Statistician 70, no. 2 (2016): 129-133.

[3] van der Bles, Anne Marthe, Sander van der Linden, Alexandra LJ Freeman, James Mitchell, Ana B. Galvao, Lisa Zaval, and David J. Spiegelhalter. "Communicating uncertainty about facts, numbers and science." Royal Society open science 6, no. 5 (2019): 181870.

Special moments deserve a special rate

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 00:44:38 GMT

For a limited time only, a special interest rate^ of 2.80%pa (3.29%pa comparison**) is available on a UniBank Classic Home Loan with a minimum home loan application of $250k*.

With interest rates lower than ever, take advantage of UniBank’s special rate for 12 months and benefit with great features such as unlimited additional repayments, no monthly fees and fee-free redraw¹.

Visit UniBank's online home loan resource centre for frequently asked questions or to contact a lending expert.

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.Know more.

UniBank is a division of Teachers Mutual Bank Limited ABN 30 087 650 459 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence 238981. Membership eligibility applies to join the Bank. Membership is open to citizens or permanent residents of Australia who are current or retired employees, students and graduates of Australian Universities or family members of members of the Bank. Consumer Lending terms and conditions apply and are available online here. For further information call 1800 864 864 or go to unibank.com.au. 1. Redraw is subject to application and registration.

^Classic Special Home Loan.The interest rates shown are for new business only and for principal and interest repayments. Existing borrowers can find out their current interest rate by checking their statement, accessing their loan account in internet banking or by contacting us.

The Special Rate of 2.80%pa (comparison rate 3.29% pa**) will apply for 12 months from date of first loan drawing. This offer is available only to members who apply during the ‘Special Rate’ period and excludes top ups, internal refinances and existing Teachers Mutual Bank Limited loans. Minimum loan amount is $250,000 with a maximum of $1,000,000. Maximum loan-to-valuation ratio of 80% applies. Principal and Interest repayments only. The Special Rate will cease 12 months from the funding date, at which time your home loan will revert to the then applicable Classic home loan variable interest rate. The Special Rate may be withdrawn or amended by the Bank at any time. Once the special interest rate applies, the interest rate will not alter during the relevant 12 month period.

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YSC2019 Report - Sarah Romanes

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 04:00:38 GMT

I am grateful to have received the NSW Statistical Society of Australia Travel grant to attend the Young Statisticians Conference 2019, held at Manuka Oval, Canberra, on 1-2 October. The travel grant helped cover all of my registration, dinner, accommodation and transportation costs to Canberra.

After driving down from Sydney on Tuesday morning, it was straight into a keynote session by Teresa Dickinson from the ABS, which started the day off well with many other excellent presentations from contributed talks throughout the day, as well as another keynote by Calvin Hung from Quantum Black. To conclude the first day, I attended the conference dinner, which was held at the Kingston Hotel. A lot of fun was had, with good pub food, competitions to draw the best normal curve, and helping build Wikipedia pages for famous female statisticians.

On the second day, after Alison Hill’s great keynote presentation, it was my time to present my work on generalised discriminant analysis, which was my last project in my PhD. I very much enjoyed presenting my work and had fruitful discussions about my work during lunch. For those who could not make it, my slides can be found here: http://bit.ly/SR-YoungStats.

To finish off the conference, I was very fortunate to receive first place for the ‘Louise Ryan Award for Best Presentation’, which was a very welcome surprise!

There were so many amazing talks and I was so humbled to be awarded with such an honour.

I would like to say thank you again to the NSW SSA branch for this opportunity, as it was a very enjoyable and educational conference, with many friendships and ideas I will take with me throughout my career. I highly recommend any young statistician to attend!

Sarah Romanes

YSC2019 Report - Aya Alwan

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 03:58:24 GMT

I attended the Young Statisticians Conference YSC2019 held in Manuka Oval Building in Canberra, Australia between 1-2 October 2019. For me, I can frankly admit that it was my first chance to attend such a conference. It was a great experience and magnificent opportunity for me to attend, present and exchange thoughts and ideas related to my research topic and other topics in statistics with my young fellow statisticians.

This conference involves a large scale gathering of young statisticians who are in the first 10 years of their statistical career, or currently studying for a PhD, MSc or BSc in statistics or a subject with statistical content and early-career professionals in statistics and data analysis from all around Australia and some keynote speakers from the world. Attending this conference allowed me to discuss the latest developments in statistics.

In general, this conference aimed at:

- Establishing channels of communication between the young statisticians to stay in contact with the latest developments, research efforts and innovations in the statistics filed.

- Discussion of the latest research topics in statistics and outcomes.

- Highlighting challenges facing the career and how to overcome these challenges.

This conference is considered a unique event that provide a serious opportunity for PhD students, around Australia to meet and exchange ideas and discuss plans to promote the role of statistics in the daily life aspects and in various industry fields.

For me, I did present about fitting dispersed count data using mean parametrized Conway-Maxwell-Poisson model and talked about my new package mpcmp.

This conference was organised and managed by a committee of young people mostly students, and that gave them the chance to improve their organisational and managerial skills and become leaders in their discipline in the future.

Absolutely, I would like to attend this conference again and be part of the Conference Committee if needed.

At this conference, a number of keynote speakers delivered very important speeches and presentations related to latest research efforts and developments in statistical industry.

Among those speakers, was Dr Alison Hill who presented on ‘The Art of Literate Projecting’ which was a very good presentation that gave a positive energy for young statisticians. Also, how great was hearing from Teresa Dickinson, deputy Australian statistician from the Australian Bureau of Statistics about Big data and about the role of Australian Bureau of Statistics in providing official statistics to inform Australia’s important decisions.

I am very graceful to Statistical Society of Australia of providing me with the Travel Grant and gave me the chance to attend this conference and deliver my presentation.

Aya Alwan

YSC2019 Report - Haruki Jeremy Osaka

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 03:55:15 GMT

Thanks in large part to the travel grant generously provided by the SSA NSW branch, I was able to travel to Canberra for this years YSC2019 event. The conference is a biennial event for students and early career statisticians to talk about what they've been working on, as well as meet their peers from around the country. The program featured a wide range of topics from biostatistics all the way to computer science, and this was my first time presenting in such a formal setting. The venue was a function room in Manuka Oval with round tables and seats facing the stage for the speaker. We had sweeping views of the green grass of the cricket ground through the floor to ceiling windows.

I listened to all the talks first day and left impressed by the variety of the research projects on display, and the engaging way in which they were presented by the delegates. I was able to give my talk on likelihood asymptotics for Normal mixtures on the second day. While I was nervous at first, I took this it as a rare opportunity as it's not everyday having a captive audience listening to limit theorems in statistics. I was able to enjoy my short time on the podium and walked off with a big smile.

The event also featured keynote speakers Dr. Calvin Hung from Quantum Black, who spoke about his experience working in consulting and how the advent of big data has changed the scope of data analytics, citing applications from tracking racers in Formula One to improving efficiency of mining operations in central Australia. Dr. Allison Hill from RStudio spoke about her idea of 'literate projecting', advocating researchers to broadcast their own personal projects in an accessible manner via personal websites and social media.

The conference dinner was held at the Kingston Hotel where we all enjoyed delicious pub food and enjoyed each other's company over drinks. Overall, this was a greatly memorable few days and I'd like to congratulate the SSA for organising such a wonderful event. I'm keenly keeping an eye out for the next SSA event that I can attend!

Haruki Jeremy Osaka

A message from our sponsor: The secret to good debt

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 07:12:08 GMT

It may seem like an oxymoron - however borrowing money may be a key strategy in building a stronger financial future.

While living in the black means your bank accounts are never diminished with debit interest - there is a role that debt plays as we progress through our lives and careers.

Like most Australians, you probably have the dream of one day buying your own home…. which invariably comes hand-in-hand with a mortgage. In today’s market it’s not enough to simply ensure you are able to demonstrate a regular savings commitment to reach a required deposit.

Key to securing the best finance deal is a good credit history - which is built over time and reflects your financial behaviour in meeting bill and loan payments.

Most recent figures show that Australians are burdened by more than $2 trillion in household debt - with the average household owing $250,000. However, research shows that most of this debt is categorised as “good debt.”

What is good debt?

Before whipping out the credit card for a shopping frenzy, first take stock of your needs versus your wants.

The rule of thumb is that good debt is a borrowing that helps you access or leverage financial value or longer term income. For instance, a student loan finances your education which will present longer term professional and higher income opportunities.

Given that student loan repayments are directed through the Australian taxation system, they are not reflected in your credit history. There are however other options you may consider, such as borrowing for a vehicle or for investment.

For most Australians a car is an essential tool for you to reach your workplace destination - therefore helping you secure your income.

What is bad debt?

If your long term goal is to have the financial freedom to choose the life you want, smart decisions about the debt you take on are critical. Bad debt diminishes your financial position over time and is usually not attached to an asset that appreciates in value over time.

Before collecting a deck of credit cards and buying against the full balance available be aware that it is all too easy for the interest payments to cut deeply into your weekly budget. The automation of credit transactions through subscriptions, direct debits and memberships means it’s more important than ever before to keep track of purchases and the outstanding balance you hold each month.

Think carefully before taking on debt and ensure you position yourself for financial success. This all begins with a realistic budget you can stick with.

Bad debt may include taking on debt to buy clothes, gadgets, entertainment, nights out and holidays. Before each purchase ask yourself how it will build your financial future. For instance there’s no sense putting the purchase of a new outfit on your credit card, if you can’t afford to pay for the night out in cash.

Manage your debt and create wealth

Borrowing to build wealth is a solid strategy when you plan well and use the approach to build your credit rating and access purchases that will add to your asset pool.

In some cases - depending on your tax rate - there may be additional benefits in borrowing for property and share market investment - known as gearing. When calculating the overall implications of this strategy, consider the possible tax deductions, interest rate, income risk, fees and charges and the flexibility of the investment should you need to exit.

ASIC nominates 5 steps towards financial security, beginning with having a full picture of your financial starting point. When entering into the lending market, it’s not only important to borrow within your means, but towards something that will add value to your life.

Before committing, make sure to always seek professional advice and to research your lending options - what are the market interest rates, the different terms and conditions, penalties, fees and charges?

Most importantly, borrow to succeed in ways that meet your needs into the longer term.

UniBank is a division of Teachers Mutual Bank Limited ABN 30 087 650 459 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence 238981. Membership eligibility applies to join the Bank. Membership is open to citizens or permanent residents of Australia who are current or retired employees, students and graduates of Australian universities or family members of members of the Bank.

This article provided by an external writer. Tracie Sanim is a former finance editor and senior journalist with News Corporation. With a communication career spanning three decades in private industry, the not for profit sector and all three tiers of government, Tracie holds qualifications across journalism, project management, business management, innovation and entrepreneurship and business research. She is the founder of the award winning agency Splash Marketing and PR - a venture that focuses on strategic communication, business innovation and market engagement.

Interesting Cases from 35 years of Statistical Consultancy

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 05:24:40 GMT

South Australian Branch SSA Meeting Article October 2019

Dr David Baird is a biometrician with 35 years’ consulting experience. David did his MSc in applied statistics at the University of Reading on the nearest neighbour analysis of field trials and a PhD in Statistics at the University of Otago on the design of experiments. David worked with AgResearch for 25 years as a statistical consultant and developed their two-colour microarray analysis suite. David was the statistical consultant on 4 biosecurity eradication programmes and has been the statistical consultant for the NZ Earthquake Commission for the last 8 years. David has been one of the main developers of the Genstat statistical package for over 25 years. So, it wasn’t surprising that David had some very interesting cases to present in a very entertaining way.

One of the first project’s David worked on was a sheep starvation project where sheep were given different levels of food and then killed so their organs could be weighed, and growth rates measured. Such an experiment is unlikely to pass ethics standards of today. Unfortunately, the data was never kept or published. David emphasized the need to include good data management practices and store data in readable formats.

David’s talked about his experiences with experimental designs for animal and field trials, eradication programs on introduced moths, biocontrol program for weevils, impacts of pasture endophytes on animal performance and analysis of two-colour microarrays. Like many statistician’s problems such as lack of randomization, data cleansing, inability to replicate results, differences between statisticians and scientists meant solutions were needed to provide data driven results.

The most interesting work was on financial estimates from the Christchurch earthquakes in order to estimate the EQC Liability so that settlements for damaged houses could be expediated. An initial survey gave an NZ$2.86 billion estimate of total property damage. However, there were multiple earthquakes which meant new surveys, resulting in a final cost estimate of NZ$8 billion. An estimate of the total reimbursement to EQC from reinsurers using nearest neighbour methods was developed and another validation survey was used reach agreement between the two parties.

For more information contact david@vsn.co.nz .

By Paul Sutcliffe

SSA Leads Support for the Introductory Data Science in Schools Project (IDSSP)

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 05:17:45 GMT

Short summary: The Introductory Data Science in Schools Project is an international project aimed at promoting the teaching of and introductory data science course in schools. The project has reached a key stage, and the SSA is delighted to support the project as they move to the next stage of raising funds to develop the course materials.

In the October issue of the SSA newsletter, Nick Fisher provided an update on IDSSP (www.idssp.org), an international project in which the SSA has been playing a leading role. The purpose of IDSSP is to promote and support the teaching of Introductory Data Science, particularly in the final years of schooling, by developing:

a framework for introducing data science including topics, learning outcomes, and sample lesson plans
excellent modular teaching and learning resources and associated assessment rubrics
a moderated portal for ongoing sharing of materials and experience
professional development services for teachers and teacher trainers

The project comprises two phases, the first of which has now been completed:

Phase 1. Develop a curriculum framework as the basis for development of resources to support teaching students a pre-calculus course on Introductory Data Science;
and
a corresponding framework to teach teachers how to teach students Introductory Data Science.

Phase 2. Develop the resources to support courses based on the curriculum frameworks, and devise and implement a course aimed at prospective teachers of Data Science.

In a progress report to the societies supporting IDSSP, a number of options were presented about how to proceed, of which far and away the most ambitious is:

Mount a fund-raising effort to enable the full Phase 2:

· production of high-quality course materials supporting a variety of delivery modes, including self-study;
· appropriate assessment materials; and
· a course to teach teachers, with an associated accreditation process.

The SSA is very pleased to be the first of the societies to support this action.

Adrian Barnett
SSA President

Young Statisticians Conference 2019: A lively and action-packed conference

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 04:08:05 GMT

I was fortunate enough to attend the YSC2019 in Canberra during October 1-2, 2019. I want to gratefully mention the registration scholarship from Statistical Society of Australia (QLD Branch) for supporting my registration to the conference. Also I am grateful to my PhD Supervisor and QUT for supporting my travel, stay and participation in the conference. My time in the conference was immensely enjoyable and filled with lots of knowledge sharing, networking and learning.

This is to mention that I always enjoy presenting my research works in Conferences and also am enthusiastic to learn from others in such wonderful platforms. I have attended few conferences till now in my research career, but I must emphasize that this particular conference, in addition to ticking all the boxes by having some great keynote speakers, having various talks from different fields of Statistics, well organized and planned sessions, it had a touch of freshness and unique elements, which made the learning more fun.

The energetic fellow young statisticians in the organizing committee were very warm and welcoming and they did a tremendous job with organizing such a wonderful event. They brought some elements of surprise to keep us all engaged and involved in the conference. The Trivia night organized on the night before the conference was a great icebreaker, when we got to know some delegates of the conference even before the conference started along with playing the trivia quiz.

The conference Dinner sponsored by ACEMS had some nice activities as well. Professor Adrian Barnett’s game of drawing a perfect normal curve by hand was a fun and enjoyable task to do along with a little contribution made by us to honor the women in Statistics by creating Wikipedia pages for some of them.

The BINGO cards provided in conference satchels really was a fun thing to see how we are interacting with each other, expanding our networks, enjoying talks, asking questions and many other things. There were people shouting BINGO at the middle of conference was making things lighter and fun even when we are listening to significant and important research talks all day long.

Now if I want to talk about my participation in the YSC2019, well, I am the only one who gave two talks (one 12 minute talk and one rapid fire talk scheduled for 5 minutes) in the conference and also had submitted a video talking about my research project briefly (within 3 minutes). Though I didn’t win any of the prestigious prizes given as Louise Ryan Best Presentation Awards or the best two video awards, I enjoyed participating in YSC2019 in every possible way. I hope I will do better next time to win something!

I really enjoyed presenting some parts of my PhD project to a very appropriate audience, who mostly had knowledge of Statistics. Throughout the conference I felt at home to be amongst the fellow researchers or students from the same discipline as mine and sharing our research projects, knowledge and experiences seemed very valuable to me. In this conference I met many old friends from different parts of Australia and made new friends, some of them can be my future collaborators as well.

The scientific program of the conference was very well organized and almost all of the cutting edge topics of Statistics was covered and there were presentations from people of both Academia and industry, which made the talks more interesting. As an academic person, I got to know how industry people are using statistics in their problem solving tasks in a very different environment, which made me feel more proud to be a part of the Statisticians community. The four keynotes were very well suited and informative to learn from. Teresa Dickinson, Deputy Australian Statistician, Australian Bureau of Statistics gave a nice overview of Official Statistics, different policy aspects of data and statistics, roles of ABS, the methodology used in ABS and many more. The second keynote speaker, Calvin Hung Data Scientist, QuantumBlack explained why it is a great time to be analytics using different examples and facts. The second day of the conference started with wonderful keynote speech by Alison Hill, Data Scientist & Professional Educator, Rstudio who taught us about art of literate projecting to be ready to sell our skills to future employers. She also talked about the different benefits of having our own websites. The last keynote to end the conference was from Margarita Moreno-Betancur, Senior Research Fellow, VicBiostats, who talked about their research in causal mediation analysis. There was also a career panel where we learnt important knowledge by hearing from successful Statisticians in different stages in their career. The panel chaired by Professor Louise Ryan also answered many specific questions from the audience and this was a very useful session for all of us, specifically for the PhD students like me, we got many valuable tips to think about our future career paths.

I also have learnt so many things from the presentations from the Young Statisticians, learnt about many new fields of application people are working in. Some of the presentations expanded my knowledge on different types of method development going on for solving different issues.

Long story short, I enjoyed the conference thoroughly and I felt the organization of the conference was brilliant. A huge thanks to the organizers for their diligent efforts.

Farzana Jahan, PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology

Statistics is the Crown Jewel of Data Science (Belz Lecture 2019)

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 01:41:43 GMT

On 31st October, our 51st Belz Lecture, Statistics is the Crown Jewel of Data Science, was delivered by Antony Ugoni, Director of Global Matching and Analytics at SEEK, to large crowd of 200 people.

Antony spoke about the value that mathematics and statistics knowledge can add to data science, how important it is to really understand the problem that you're working on, and the need for passion when teaching students about statistics.

He described the five top statistics concepts applicable to his work: ANOVA, randomness, the Central Limit Theorem, the Bootstrap, and hypothesis testing. Although the Google search algorithm may suggest that "statistics is hard", Antony's breakdown of these five concepts was very accessible and made statistics far less intimidating.

Listening to this very entertaining talk from an accomplished statistician/data scientist, I had no doubt in my mind that Antony is incredibly passionate about statistics and deserves his place among his heroes on the “Honour Board” of Belz Lecturers.

Rheanna Mainzer

LIZ STUART DRAWS BIG NUMBERS AT THE NSW BRANCH (OCTOBER 2019)

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 08:02:49 GMT

American biostatistics professor Liz Stuart, who was born in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, drew an audience of about 60 people on 21st October 2019. After running a full-day and fully-subscribed short-course earlier that day she managed to stay on her feet all the way to the end.

An early example in Liz's talk concerned a health insurer that may be deciding to approve a new treatment for back pain. Of interest is the "population" average of the treatment effect.

Some of the themes of the presentation were causal inference, generalisability. For example, results from randomised trials may not generalise to the population of interest. Liz then projected a rare technical slide, concerning her work on population average treatment effect.

Problems such as biases if participation in a trial is associated with impacts were mentioned. For example, large urban school districts in the United States are more likely to participate in education studies.

Liz said that often one has to deal with the reality of only having a single randomised trial. Remedies based on Bayesian additive regression trees were discussed.

Towards the end of the presentation an example concerning highly active retroviral therapy for patients with human immunodeficiency virus was discussed. A problem was the high proportion of people in the trial being older, white and male and this tended to bias the population average treatment effect. The problem of generalising beyond the study was brought up again.

A closing quote, which summed up much of what Liz spoke about was "You can't fix by analysis what you bungled by design".

Matt Wand
University of Technology Sydney

Betty Allan Travel Award

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 01:34:44 GMT

SSA is pleased to announce the inaugural Betty Allan Travel Award. Named after CSIRO’s first statistician, this award ($3000) will support travel of one early career female Stats Society member and/or CSIRO/Data61 staff member currently working or studying in the field of statistics in Australia, to a suitable location and/or conference anywhere in the world. This award will be available once a year.

It is jointly funded by the Statistical Society and CSIRO. Applications are now open and will close on Friday, 29 November 2019.

For more information about Betty Allan and this award, please go to the SSA website.

MEDICAL RESEARCH DEPENDS ON BIOSTATISTICS INVESTMENT

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 08:00:31 GMT

From: Medical Journal of Australia (MJA)

A LACK of attention to biostatistics as a core scientific discipline threatens the value of the $800 million spent annually on Australian health research investment, in terms of improved health and lives saved, according to the authors of a Perspective published online today by the Medical Journal of Australia.

“The entire Australian medical research enterprise is at considerable risk of ‘drowning in data but starving for knowledge’,” wrote the authors, led by Associate Professor Katherine Lee and Professor John Carlin, of the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Biostatistics “provides the theoretical basis for extracting knowledge from data in the presence of variability and uncertainty”, they wrote.

“It is a critical element of most empirical research in public health and clinical medicine, with the best studies incorporating biostatistical input on aspects from study design to data analysis and reporting. Biostatistical methods underpin key public health research disciplines, such as epidemiology and health services research, a role that reflects the core nature of the discipline of biostatistics.

“Superficial understanding of statistics can easily lead to unscientific practice (recently characterised as ‘cargo-cult statistics’) and may be seen as responsible in large part for the current ‘crisis of reproducibility’ in research.

"The emerging era of big data heightens the need for biostatistical expertise, with more decision makers and researchers aiming to extract value from complex messy data."

In the US, the UK and continental Europe major universities have established departments of biostatistics, or have national centres in biostatistical methodology, as well as dedicated streams of funding for methodological research, they wrote.

In Australia, however, “there has never been systematic investment in the development of biostatistics … either in universities or via national funding schemes”, Carlin and colleagues wrote.

“None of the major universities has a department of biostatistics.”

The authors suggested three potential solutions:

• universities and research institutes need to foster the development of organisational structures with a critical mass of academic biostatisticians working both in methodology and collaborating with health researchers, as well as training opportunities and career development for biostatisticians;

• biostatistical teaching and advanced training must keep pace with the dramatic changes in the data science landscape, to ensure that graduates have the necessary breadth of skills to support medical research in the modern era; and

• funding bodies need to invest in biostatistical research; for example, by the creation and support of graduate and postdoctoral methodological training programs.

Please remember to credit The MJA. The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.

BRAIN FIBRES AND STATISTICS FOR NSW BRANCH (SEPTEMBER 2019)

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 07:30:16 GMT

On 24th September 2019 the New South Wales branch gathered on the

campus Macquarie University in north-western Sydney. Members of

the council with offices in the inner suburbs had their Opal cards

and transport apps kept busy in the race to out to North Ryde for

their pre-talk monthly meeting. The writer of this article was declared

the winner, making it door to door in just 45 minutes.

After some high quality hors d'oeuvres the audience sat down to

listen to Dr Pierre Lafaye de Micheaux of the School of Mathematics

and Statistics, University of New South Wales, deliver a presentation

titled "A notion of depth for curve data", which uses ideas from

Princeton statistician John Tukey from the 1970s concerning, for

example, half-space depth for point clouds.

Pierre's research in this area is motivated by data from the

Older Australian Twins Study. There is strong evidence that the

quality of brain fibres impacts quality of life and, therefore,

high quality analyses of brain fibre data is important. The

data are curves in three dimensions so Pierre has had to

extend data depth ideas to this setting. The presenter made

excellent use of three dimensional graphics to visualise

the data and explain the depth concepts.

Another key idea was the concept of parametrised curves

and this involved some elegant geometry-type mathematics

including, of course, the Frechet metric.

After a theoretical exposition Pierre demonstrated his

breadth as a statistician by telling everyone about his

co-authored R package named curveDepth.

Apart from data from the Older Australian Twins Study the

methodology was applied to cyclone paths in the Gulf of Mexico.

The new methodology leads to better detection of outlier cyclones

and better confidence regarding regions at risk. For the brain

fibre applications, an upcoming challenge is to go from data

on 68 brains to 20,000 brains.

Matt Wand

University of Technology Sydney

SSA statement on climate change and the urgent need for action

Adrian Barnett — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 05:24:57 GMT

The Statistical Society of Australia now has an official statement on climate change and the urgent need for action. You can read the statement here. The statement wording was made in collaboration with our Environmental Statistics Section and other experts, with thanks to David Warton. The statement was approved by the Executive committee in October 2019.

I am happy to discuss this any time.

Adrian Barnett, President

YSC2019 Report

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 01:40:27 GMT

The Young Statisticians Conference 2019 (YSC19) – a forum designed for students and early-career statisticians – was held during 1-2 October in Manuka Oval, Canberra. Presentations were given by invited keynote speakers Teresa Dickinson (ABS), Calvin Hung (QuantumBlack), Alison Presmanes Hill (RStudio), and Margarita Moreno-Betancur (VicBiostat). Each elucidated the current trends in their respective fields, but laced their presentations with stories of experience, highlighting their own career-related journeys while giving little nuggets of wisdom to our enthralled audience. YSC19’s Careers Panel consisted of Louise Ryan (UTS), Teresa Neeman (ANU), Warren Muller (CSIRO), and Smitha Ramaswamy (Teachers Mutual Bank/UniBank). The invited speakers and panellists provided a much-needed insight for YSC19 delegates, with each demonstrating the multiple and diverse career paths available for our young statisticians.

In addition to the excellent presentations by our seasoned professionals, the talent amongst our delegates became evident very quickly, with demonstrated statistical applications ranging from agriculture to computer science. Amid the plethora of excellent works, Sarah Romanes from the University of Sydney won the Louise Ryan Best Presenters Award, the first ever named award in YSC history. The second and third Louise Ryan Best Presenters Award was awarded to Sayani Gupta from Monash University and Laura Cartwright from University of Wollongong. Details of their presentations are available in the above-mentioned website.

A video competition was established for students/early-career researchers who were unable to attend YSC19 but wished to be a part of the action. First prize went to Tan Jing Yi Joshua (Singapore Management University) for his video titled ‘Remember.For.Me’. Joshua and his colleagues conducted surveys to evaluate the degree of misunderstanding regarding dementia among the Singaporean population. The runner-up was Mustafa Shaheer Hamid (Monash University). Mustafa’s video, titled ‘Employing Semantic Segmentation Using Neural Networks’, used the segmentation method on the data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to remove noise from a particle shower, which results in more accurate energy measurements of the particles.

With hard work comes a little bit of play. The YSC19 dinner, held at the Kingston Hotel, was a hit. YSC19’s social media guru, Kylie-Ann Mallitt (UNSW), hosted a Wiki-a-thon. The objective: to create Wikipedia pages for influential women in statistics using our smartphones. SSA President Adrian Barnett (QUT) conducted a mini competition to draw a perfect normal distribution. The winners were Rushani Wijesuriya and Nicholas Tierney.

It was an incredibly productive, engaging, and entertaining conference, to say the least. Special thanks to SSA, particularly Marie-Louise Rankin, whose tireless efforts ensured the success of this amazing conference. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the keynote speakers, panellists, Adrian Barnett, and our YSC19 delegates. We hope to see you all at our next YSC conference.

Janan Arslan

Open Banking – the future of banking is here

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 01:14:05 GMT

What is open banking?

Over the last few years, open banking has been predicted to be the next big thing, giving everyone vastly increased control over how their financial data is used. And it’s here now.

The demand for easier access and better control over our money isn’t new. Recent attempts to bring about this change include the Facebook Payment functionality through Messenger (2015) and the PayPal subsidiary Venmo, which simplifies the process of paying and receiving money from your friends and family.

Introduced last year, the Comprehensive Credit Reporting scheme gives everyone a better indication of their credit history and borrowing power. But the introduction of open banking in Australia offers an even larger shift in how we access and control our financial data.

.Know more.

Having already gained traction in the United Kingdom, European Union, the United States and Singapore, open banking is set to revolutionise the way we manage our finances in Australia.

According to the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA), “Australian consumers are set to gain unprecedented access and control of their personal financial data as the Australian Government and banks continue the roll out of the open banking system.”

So, what is open banking?

In simple terms, open banking is the free flow of financial data from one organisation to another. The data is controlled entirely by the consumer, which means everyday Australians will be able to decide which companies, third party Apps and financial institutions have access to their information and how it’s used.

All authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADI’s) have been part of the rollout. Other companies such as App developers and Fintechs (financial technology) will need to be accredited, adhering to strict security and privacy standards before they can join the open banking revolution.

While the full range of possibilities are still being explored, some early examples of how open banking can benefit you include:

· Comprehensive data sharing with a range of budgeting apps to help you keep on top of your spending

· More complete data sharing with accountants and financial planners to improve the quality of advice and assist in the preparation of your tax return

· Full portability of your transaction history when opening an account at a different bank, creating a lifelong financial imprint

· A more complete understanding of your financial data, helping you to make informed financial decisions and find the products and services that are most suitable for you

· Improved oversight to help banks and other financial institutions create products and services that are more suited to your specific needs

Improved privacy and security

Legislation has recently been passed through government requiring all financial institutions to make your credit and debit card, and deposit and transaction data available. Mortgage and personal loan data will follow in 2020, with data for all banking products being made available by 2021.

This staggered approach is designed to give all affected organisations time to implement policies and procedures so that consumer data is handled correctly and in line with the new, much stricter security guidelines. The recent Consumer Data Right gives consumers the option to choose how their data is shared, and with who. Only organisations that you authorise to access your data will be able to do so, and only for the purpose you specify.

Now that it’s here, do we actually want it?

While certain sectors have welcomed the idea of open banking, a 2016 survey commissioned by COBA found that only 42 per cent of everyday Australians are interested in the benefits of open banking. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed were opposed to the idea, although the younger demographics are much more receptive.

With data privacy dominating the news in recent times with Facebook and others being under intense media scrutiny over leaks and data breaches, there’s little wonder that so many people are sceptical about anything that proposes the free flow of personal information.

Because of the increased access to our own financial data and greater competition among established financial institutions, COBA has spoken out in favour of open banking. COBA has stated that the adoption of open banking by customer-owned banks is “a natural fit” because of the industry’s customer-first approach to developing and delivering financial products and services.

UniBank is a division of Teachers Mutual Bank Limited ABN 30 087 650 459 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence 238981.
Membership eligibility applies to join the Bank. Membership is open to citizens or permanent residents of Australia who are current or retired employees, students and graduates of Australian universities or family members of members of the Bank.

UniBank is a Silver Sponsor of YSC2019.

Update from the Bayes Section

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 01:02:21 GMT

In the ACEMS Public Lecture Series on October 23 at 6pm, the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, Prof. Hugh Durrant-Whyte, will be presenting a talk describing a number of efforts to apply Bayesian methods to the problem of minerals discovery and characterisation. Click here for more details and to register.

The symposium on Data Science and Social Good will be held at QUT, Brisbane, on Friday, November 29. The purpose of this symposium is to promote the merger of data science and social good, share success stories, discuss challenges and potential solutions, extend networks, and explore directions for new research. Click here for more details and to register.

Bayesian Logistic Regression in Practice, using R or Autostats
Clair Alston-Knox,Samantha Low-Choy, Daniela Vasco

Location: Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport

This is a two-part series of workshops:

Part 1: Understanding and communicating the meaning of logistic regression,
including elicitation of regression coefficients for Bayesian priors
Presenters: Samantha (lead presenter & developer), Daniela and Clair (co-presenters, co-developers)
Date: Tuesday, 19 November, 2019; Gold Coast campus, Griffith University

Part 2: Inference for logistic regression – classical issues and Bayesian solutions
Presenters: Clair (lead presenter & developer), Samantha (co-developer) and Daniela (tutor)
Date: Thursday, 28 November, 2019; Gold Coast campus, Griffith University

Further details including abstracts will be posted at
https://www.griffith.edu.au/research/research-services/researcher-education-development/workshop-calendar

Cost:

$150/day for students outside Griffith; $200/day for members of SSA or ASBA; $250/day for others

Colourful Statistics – Monitoring Indigenous Rock Engravings on the Burrup Peninsula, WA

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 06:33:00 GMT

South Australia Branch Meeting, August 2019

The speaker for the August meeting of the SA Branch was a Statistical Consultant Dr Kathy Haskard. Her forty-year career has included statistical consulting work in agriculture, ecology, environment, fisheries, and industry. In particular, Kathy worked for Australian Commonwealth and State governments, Universities, CSIRO, and Australia’s largest commercial specialist statistical consulting company, in locations spanning five Australian states and territories.

Kathy’s talk “Colourful Statistics – Monitoring Indigenous rock engravings on the Burrup Peninsula WA ” is a piece of her consulting work done at Data Analysis Australia jointly with Dr John Henstridge in 2017. Kathy was highlighted a number of statistical issues, practical difficulties and interesting learning from a statistical review of monitoring of ancient indigenous rock art annually over 13 years, including quantifying colour, spectrophotometers (L*a*b* scale) and spectrometers (reflectance spectra), BACI designs, varying design parameters, calibration, structured longitudinal multivariate data with irregularities, and mixed effects models.

In particular, she highlighted the following outlines in her talk

Setting the scene - Burrup Peninsula Petroglyphs. Archeologist Dr Mulvaney has published his research of just some of what is estimated to be over one million rock carvings, known as petroglyphs, on the Burrup Peninsula just 15 minutes' drive from the Pilbara mining town of Karratha
Monitoring by CSRIO Mineral Resources annually from 2004. Seven petroglyphs have been selected with three additional industry sites, 3 spots at each site.
Describing, measuring and quantifying colors by Spectrophotometers and ASD near-infrared spectrometer
Data were hierarchical in nature and explored by dendrograms and Before–After Control-Impact (BACI) design and dimension reduction technique.

The detail of her talk and particularly quantifying colours by spectrophotometers (L*a*b* scale) and spectrometers (reflectance spectra) can be found by contacting kathyhaskard@gmail.com.

A dinner was held right after the meeting at Jasmin Indian Restaurant, 31 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide.

By Shahid Ullah

Partial automation of sampling and data collection to yield better estimates for faba and canola seed emergence projects

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 06:29:10 GMT

South Australia Branch Meeting, September 2019

The speaker for the September meeting of the SA Branch was Peter Josef Kasprzak. The talk mainly discusses his master’s work at the Biometry Hub, Adelaide University which looks at the use of sampling methods in agriculture trials. The ultimate aim is to make robust sampling methods available to end users such as farmers who may have little computational experience. However, first there has to be a proof of concept for a semi-automated sampling protocol in a typical agricultural scenario. The motivating scenario was a seed trial where the emergence of faba bean seedlings was estimated. Automatic data collection using drones was explored and computer vision and machine learning techniques for image processing was compared in a sampling context.

A data collection protocol for sampling is not always conducted in agricultural experiments. An exploration of the literature found that often papers offered no justification for sample sizes used. This exacerbates the issue of non-reproducibility of experiments highlighted by Baker (2016) where more than 70% of researchers failed to reproduce another scientists experiments and 50% failed to reproduce their own. It’s clear that an unbiased random sampling protocol is needed to ensure good study design.

Mcintyre (1952) introduced the ranking set sampling (RSS) method (without theoretical justification). RSS compares the units before the final selection which increases the structure on the measured data, without analysis of all the sampled units (Ozturk and Wolfe, 2000). In common agriculture distributions RSS performs better than other sampling methods for example simple random sampling SRS. Takahasi and Wakimoto (1968) showed the theory behind RSS showing the variance of RSS will always be less than SRS. RSS has the advantage that ranking can be done with auxiliary variable which are highly correlated and easily gathered variables. While the infinite paradigm of RSS is well mapped the finite paradigm is not.

In a field trial scenario the sampling paradigm is finite. In finite sampling there are 3 different levels of replacement. No items returned, all items returned and all items returned except for the selected unit. Simulation is an obvious tool to determine what sort and level of sampling should be undertaken. R Shiny was used to create a web based app which performs a simulation study based on different sampling protocol. Simply load in some data and simulations can be run in real time which robustly select the best sampling protocol. The app outputs a csv file with positions in the field to be sampled.

So how can this be implemented in the faba bean emergence trial? A drone was used to collect images of a field where faba bean seedlings were emerging at the plot level. Manual and automated flights were undertaken with image stitching of footage needed before processing for prediction of individual seedlings could be undertaken. Microsoft ICE and webODM, both free programs, used to stitch the smaller images taken by the drone together to form a composite image were compared. webODM proved to be a superior program for handling changing conditions, but required an intermediate level of computing knowledge to use. ICE was very simple to use, but was far more susceptible to changing conditions, and blurred joins in the final composite. With the final composite image, two approaches for processing the image and predicting the seedling numbers were compared-Computer Vision (CV) and Neural Networks (NN). Python programs for CV and NN were used to obtain an estimate per pre-specified grid area in the field, which was then used in the sampling app as a ranking variable for the RSS protocol. The study found that CV is easier to use but NN were superior as long as there is an adequate training set size which is diverse. In CV there are limited options to deal with false positives in high level stubble and potential over fitting can occur in NN with a greater level of work required to create the training data set. Issues such as seedling stress, nutrient and water stress effect the colours that you get in CV but NN can sort this out. An ideal solution is to use both in conjunction- start with CV to propose positive candidates and then use NN to disqualify false positives to leave only true hits to improve ranking.

The Shiny app sampling coordinates can be matched to the photographic coordinates. This means that images collected and processing by NN can be mapped to sampling coordinate position. Pete presented results from the faba bean study which compared different finite sampling scenarios under SRS and RSS. The results showed that RSS was superior across all finite sampling replacement scenarios with relative efficiencies (variance SRS/variance RSS *100) between 143.1-216.1.

McIntyre, G. A. (1952). A Method for Unbiased Selective Sampling,Using Ranked Sets. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research,(3):385-390.

Ozturk, O. and Wolfe, D. A. (2000). Optimal allocation procedure in ranked set sampling for unimodal and multi-modal distributions. Environmental and Ecological Statistics, 7(4):343-356.

Takahasi, K. and Wakimoto, K. (1968). On unbiased estimates of the population mean based on the sample strati_ed by means of ordering. Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, 20(1):1-31.

The detail of his talk can be found by contacting peter.kasprzak@adelaide.edu.au. A dinner was held right after the meeting at Sukhumvit Soi 38, 54 Pulteney Street, Adelaide.

By Helena Oakey

WA Branch September Meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 01:04:42 GMT

In the September meeting of the WA Branch, Mr Matt Schneider (CEO of Optika Solutions) presented a talk on “Population Sampling a Mixed Method Study”.The talk is available on You Tube and also on this website.

Matt Schneider presented the talk on the 10^th September at the University of Western Australia as part of the WA Branch of the monthly Statistical Society of Australia seminar series.

Optika Solutions is working with Water Corporation in transforming the way we think about urban water use in response to climate change and population growth challenges. H2OME incorporates the technology, data, and approach to determine how much water Perth should be using to preserve the liveability, amenity, and quality of life of the community.

The project aims to achieve this result through a multi-modal approach, using surveys, audits, and the installation of remote digital meters. Through a stratified sampling approach, with subpopulations grouped by region and household land size, the study guarantees representativeness across the Perth population to ensure the accuracy and applicability of these results.

The talk was around the use of a stratified sampling approach, populations and techniques that were looked at in selecting the overall approach.

H2OME has already been recognised, having won the Data Insights Of The Year category of the 2019 iAwards.

The talk brought many questions among other things about the pricing of water, and afterwards a select group attended a local nearby restaurant.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Matt Schneider is a founder and CEO of Optika Solutions. Optika is at the forefront of the algorithmic economy. Matt’s interests embrace the application of technology to innovative ground breaking solutions across a wide range of domains such as finance, mining, energy and health. Matt has orchestrated a wide range of consulting engagements both within Australia and overseas. These engagement have had transformational outcomes for the customers and delivered significant Return on Investment (ROI).

Scribe: Brenton R Clarke

Statistics in the Capital...Student experiences of YSC2019

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 04:54:35 GMT

The Young Statisticians Conference 2019 held earlier this month was a roaring success. As part of this event, SSA Canberra was proud to sponsor two local students, Zhi Yang Tho and Yuehan (Joyce) Zhang, to attend the conference, listen and present their research, and most importantly expand their network and sow the seeds of future collaborations with other early career statisticians around Australia.We are honored to have both present their experiences of YSC, and you can read more about below.

Francis Hui, Warren Muller, Phil Tennant

On behalf of SSA Canberra

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Zhi Yang Tho

The Young Statisticians Conference 2019 (held at Manuka Oval, Canberra) has been a wonderful and eye-opening experience for me as this was my first time attending an academic experience. I am grateful to be able to present my Honours research project to colleagues from a similar field of study. I also received feedback that can certainly help to improve the project. The conference included talks on a diverse range of topics, such as Population and Economics, Mathematical Statistics, Bioinformatics and Computer Science. I learnt a lot about the current trend and new findings in these fields from the presentation of the research projects of the other presenters.

The keynote speeches delivered in this conference were inspiring and helpful. Teresa Dickinson, Deputy Australian Statistician, gave an interesting talk about the role of Australian Bureau of Statistics in providing official statistics to inform Australia’s important decisions. Dr Alison’s speech with the topic “The Art of Literate Projecting” provided insight about good literate projecting practices that are important in accomplishing a successful project. Besides, the careers panel gave useful information about future career pathway for all young statisticians.

The Young Statisticians Conference was not just about talks. We also had two social events, which is the pre-conference Trivia Night on Monday evening and a conference dinner on Tuesday evening. The Trivia Night hosted by Francis, Emi, and Nidhi was fun and entertaining. The conference dinner was held at the Kingston Hotel to celebrate women in Statistics. In this event, sponsored by ACEMS, we created Wikipedia pages for women who had contributed to the field of Statistics. The conference dinner was a good way for delegates to socialise with each other and I had an interesting discussion about robust statistics with other delegates in the dinner.

I would like to thank Statistical Society of Australia Canberra branch for sponsoring my registration to attend the conference, and the organisers of the Young Statisticians Conference for such a wonderful event.

Zhi Yang Tho
03/10/2019

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Yuehan (Joyce) Zhang

It has been a great experience attending the 2019 Young Statisticians Conference as a student supported by the Statistical Society of Australia, Canberra Branch. I got to meet many intelligent young statisticians through this conference. Personally I think this conference was very well organised and very successful. I fully enjoyed the two-day event with so many interesting seminars, presentations, and a career panel.

On the first day, Teresa Dickinson, deputy Australian statistician from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), introduced the work of Big Data that ABS is doing now. I have heard about big data and machine learning when I was a master student in China. After hearing Teresa’s presentation, I am now clearer about the concept of big data and how statistical analysis on big data differs from traditional statistical analysis. I am impressed by the ABS’s statisticians’ enthusiastic attitude on big data and how organised the work has been conducted.

Many PhD candidates presented their work throughout the conference. The models of maths and statistics are sometimes hard to understand, however, I am so impressed by the way they presented their work in a way such that other people can understand easily. Many PhD students explained their models step by step, how they perfected the models, and use data to prove how the models were improved. From their presentations, I deeply feel that statistics is the future. Take epidemiology for example, many of the diseases has been studied by previous researchers, nowadays the hard part is how to look at the diseases in a deeper way. Statistics can help epidemiologists better interpret their findings.

I enjoyed the career panel the most. I really want to thank the organisers was creating such a career panel. As a PhD student myself, I sometimes can be confused about my future. Professor Louise Ryan’s speech in particular was really encouraging.. Like her, I’m also more likely to choose the harder way in life. She let me know that a person can only grow through hard work and experience, that choosing an easier way doesn’t mean life will be easy afterwards, and that it doesn’t matter if you’re not a good planner, as long as you follow your heart, you will learn to enjoy your life sooner or later.

I’m also impressed by the organisers of this conference. They cooperated with each other so well, and they seem really close to each other. I like the atmosphere of the Statistical Society Australia as well, but particularly the Canberra Branch. I appreciate their work and have benefited very much from this conference.

Yuehan Zhang
03/10/2019

Victorian students at YSC2019

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 04:07:52 GMT

SSA Vic was delighted to support six PhD students to attend the recent Young Statisticians Conference in Canberra.

Three of them share their experiences with us:

Ruoxu Tan (University of Melbourne):

It was a great experience at YSC2019 last week. I was delighted and excited to communicate with so many young statisticians and experienced professors. By listening to the presentations, I found that statistics is really an interdisciplinary subject: not only is it based on profound mathematics, but it also combines with computer science, bioinformatics, etc. to be so powerful to really make a difference in our lives. A particular example that interested me was data visualisation by a few presenters. That was beautiful and impressive through the natural way, vision. Besides, it was the first time I gave a formal talk at a conference. I was quite nervous at the beginning, but I believe it went well overall. By the way, the refreshments during the breaks were quite yummy. I appreciate that I've been to YSC2019.

Quoc Duyet Tran (RMIT):

This is the first time I joined Young Statistician Conference in Australia. I spent 4 days to attending YSC2019 in Canberra and I can’t forget this exciting time in my life. In the first day, I learned from the training workshop to learn how to access and build up the data from ABS for contributing in the future research. Then, in the late afternoon, how beautiful and fantastic Floriade festival in Canberra to enjoy and explore with various kinds of tulip flowers. The next two days, I and other delegates presented our topics and learned from each other. I found that lots of topics are very potential keys to figure out and research if we can collaborate with others. I expect to get more feedback and questions from other participants, but my talk duration is only 5 minutes before lunch. So, people don’t have time to ask me and I also don’t have time to explain more on my topic. However, I had share my topic through the break time and discuss with some new friends. The most valuable for me to gain from this conference is that I met some new talented friends and extended my network. Thanks to my supervisors, RMIT and SSA Vic for supporting me to attend the YSC2019. Hopefully, I will go to YSC2021!

Udani Wijewardhana (Swinburne University):

As a postgraduate student reading for a PhD, I was much privileged for the opportunity to participate at the recently concluded Young Statistician Conference 2019. Presenting my research to an academic audience and exchanging and learning new concepts and ideas was a memorable and priceless experience. The R Markdown workshop was extremely useful to me in learning the essential skills of drafting research papers and statistical websites in a more effective and attractive manner. The trivia night and conference dinner were awesome for networking with counterparts with similar interests. The program was well organised, and the committee very friendly and supportive. I definitely hope to attend next year's conference too and would like to sincerely thank SSA Vic for their supporting grant to make the YSC conference a possibility.

YSC2019 was sponsored by

Young Statisticians Showcase 2019

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:35:31 GMT

This month’s event was a showcase of talks presented by three young statisticians from the Vic Branch.

The first presentation was by PhD student Jiadong Mao on methods for analysing streaming data. Streaming data are collected sequentially over a potentially infinite time period requiring real-time data estimation. Jiadong is developing nonparametric estimation approaches for streaming data that are computationally fast (easy to update) and adaptive to nonstationarity. He demonstrated an application of kernel density estimation to satellite data.

Next up was PhD student Rushani Wijesuriya who performed a comprehensive simulation study to compare different multiple imputation methods for handling missing data in three-level data structures (e.g. Naplan data where there are repeated waves of data collection from students clustered within schools). Rushani found that approaches which impute the missing data using a multilevel model performed better than simpler methods that impute data at a single level using a wide format.

Our final presentation was by PhD student Ravindi Nanayakkara who introduced us to cosmic microwave background data, which capture leftover radiation from the Big Bang. The data are complex requiring models to represent random fields on a sphere. Ravindi evaluated model fits using real and simulated data.

Julie Simpson

Making a start on transforming Data Science education in Australian schools

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 07:38:39 GMT

16 years ago, SSA included in its initial (2003 – 2007) Strategic Plan something called Strategic Objective 8:

Promote the development and adoption of a [national] statistics course for Years 11 and 12 at school, based on the best teaching practices that can be utilised, together with appropriate training programs for teachers.

16 years later, some basis has been provided for this.

The International Data Science in Schools Project (IDSSP, www.idssp.org) is a cross-disciplinary project involving an international team of computer scientists and statisticians from the leading professional organizations for both disciplines. Its purpose is to promote and support the teaching of Introductory Data Science, particularly in the final years of schooling, by developing

a framework for introducing data science including topics, learning outcomes, and sample lesson plans
excellent modular teaching and learning resources and associated assessment rubrics
a moderated portal for ongoing sharing of materials and experience
professional development services for teachers and teacher trainers

The project comprises two phases:

Phase 2. Develop the resources to support courses based on the curriculum frameworks, and devise and implement a course aimed at prospective teachers of Data Science.

The online report, Curriculum Frameworks for Introductory Data Science, sets out the frameworks developed under Phase 1.

The impetus for this project was a high-profile workshop, STEMS2016, held in response to the critical shortage of data scientists entering the workforce. It was initiated by the Statistical Society of Australia and involved academia, government and industry. As a consequence, the SSA collaborated with the NZSA to scope an activity targeting school students and their teachers. At first it was confined to Statistics education, but it rapidly became apparent that the great Data Science tidal wave was about to overwhelm everything, hence the broadened scope, and the strong representation of computer scientists, not to mention the strong support of the ACM, the world’s leading Computer Science society.

It is envisaged the Frameworks developed to date will be used not just in schools, but also as a valuable source of information for data science courses in community colleges and universities and for private study.

The supporting societies are now pondering how to build on this work. The most ambitious option is to seek the funding to support a major international project to complete Phase 2.

For further information please send email to idssp.info@gmail.com, or visit www.idssp.org.

Nicholas Fisher

Social responsibility is more than just a buzzword... what does it really mean?

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 07:58:43 GMT

As we begin to understand the impact we’re having, more and more of us are striving to be responsible custodians of the planet we call home. Even simple things like recycling, riding to work instead of driving, or rejecting single-use plastic can go a long way to helping us live a more sustainable life.

But what about those things outside our immediate control? Can we hold the businesses and organisations we support to the same high standards? Great news – there is a local organisation who is doing just that!

The Responsible Investment Association Australasia^

In the world of banking and finance, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia^(RIAA) is the peak body representing responsible and ethical investors across Australia and New Zealand.

With an active network of over 240 members, managing more than $9 trillion in assets globally, the RIAA promotes and supports approaches to responsible investment, helping to achieve a more sustainable society, environment and economy.

Know more about the RIAA and their processes.

What to ask your Bank

With strong scientific evidence that the production and use of fossil fuels contributes to climate change, more and more of us are welcoming the shift to renewable energy. But does your bank share this public sentiment?

Here are some questions you can ask to make sure your bank is acting responsibly:

Are they involved in any activity that contributes to large-scale greenhouse pollution from the production of fossil fuels?
Does your bank lend funds to any business or organisation that participates in the manufacture or distribution of harmful goods such as alcohol, armaments, pornography, uranium or tobacco?
Are they involved in the financing of military activities, deforestation, correctional facilities, cryptocurrency, slavery or any kind of gross environmental damage?
Does your bank sponsor contentious activities such as gambling, or donate money, gifts or employee time to support political candidates or organisations?

If the answer is "yes" to any of these, you can send a strong message that you don’t approve by shifting your accounts to a financial institution that acts in a more responsible manner. But it’s not only the potential damage your bank’s investments can do. Are they active in the community? What percentage of profits does your bank invest in social and environmental programs?

Know more about UniBank’s approach to responsible banking

Socially responsible investments

As a member of UniBank, you can expect your investments to be handled ethically and responsibly. You don’t want your hard-earned money to fund businesses who don’t have our world’s best interests at heart.

All retail mortgages and deposit accounts opened by UniBank are Certified as Responsible Investment. They have been independently Certified by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia^ (RIAA).

Know more about UniBank’s certification by the RIAA.

By Phillip Middleton, UniBank

UniBank is a division of Teachers Mutual Bank Limited ABN 30 087 650 459 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence 238981.
Membership eligibility applies to join the Bank. Membership is open to citizens or permanent residents of Australia who are current or retired employees, students and graduates of Australian universities or family members of members of the Bank.

^RIAA. Retail mortgages and deposits have been certified by RIAA according to the strict operational and disclosure practices required under the Responsible Investment Certification Program. The Responsible Investment Certification Program does not constitute financial product advice. Neither the Certification Symbol nor RIAA recommends to any person that any financial product is a suitable investment or that returns are guaranteed. Appropriate professional advice should be sought prior to making an investment decision. RIAA does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence. Teachers Mutual Bank Limited's $1 billion Debt Issuance Programme has been certified by RIAA according to the strict operational and disclosure practices required under the Responsible Investment Certification Program. www.responsibleinvestment.org

Statistical inference for on-farm experiments with a focus on large strip trials

Vanaja Thomas — Sun, 25 Aug 2019 03:09:13 GMT

The August meeting of the WA Branch has been held as a joint meeting of the Statistical Society of Australia, WA Branch and the International Biometric Society, Australasian Region since 2013. The occasion is used to invite a statistician whose work focuses on biometrics to deliver a presentation. The speaker this year was Dr Suman Rakshit from Statistics for the Australian Grains Industry (SAGI) West who works as a biometrician at Curtin University. Dr Rakshit has a background in research in spatial statistics and the analysis of point patterns. His current research primarily focuses on developing methods for the design and analysis of large-scale agricultural field trials.

Suman’s talk was titled ‘Statistical Inference for on-farm experiments with a focus on large strip trials’. He began by explaining the historical context of field trials in agricultural research, where the questions of interest traditionally involved testing differences in mean yields from applying qualitative or quantitative treatments, such as different cultivars or differing levels or timing of nitrogen application. Field trials of this kind were implemented on small plots on relatively uniform land, and the designs incorporated randomisation, replication and blocking. Much of the early theory of trial design and analysis was developed for this type of application.

New technology has brought new opportunities for agricultural research. In particular, motivated growers can now conduct experiments cost-effectively in their own paddocks by utilising variable rate application technology to vary inputs, and real-time sensors fitted to harvesters to collect vast amounts of data. In these situations, the question of interest changes from a comparison of treatments to working out how to best manage inputs to maximise profit. Rather than trying to answer a question that can be extrapolated to other growers and other farms, inference is local: the questions being answered relate only to the actual paddock on which the trial is implemented. With no knowledge of trial design theory, trials are often implemented systematically and in ways that make life easier, such as in long-strip plots with lengths greater than 200 metres. Statistical methods developed for small plot trials are not appropriate in this context.

Suman discussed an adaptation of geographically weighted regression for use in grower-initiated on-farm experimentation in order to analyse geo-referenced yield monitor data to obtain spatially-varying estimates of treatment effects, and demonstrated his proposed approach on a publically available dataset of corn-field fertilizer trial from Argentina. He concluded his talk by presenting derived maps of spatially varying relationships which could be used to guide grower decisions in paddock management.

Following the talk, further discussions were held at a nearby restaurant. Special thanks to SSAI WA Branch and IBS-AR for the pre-dinner drinks and post-dinner dessert/coffee, respectively.

Dr Karyn Reeves
Karyn.Reeves@curtin.edu.au

Places filling up fast for the Young Statisticians Conference 2019

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 12:08:44 GMT

Not long now until YSC2019 and we are so excited to welcome you to Canberra! To date we have received close to 70 registrations, which means we are able to deliver a solid program, offering fascinating talks on many different topics. Sessions include “Population and economics”, “Applied biostatistics and biostatistics in practice”, “Computer science” and much more. And don’t forget the Career Session at the end of the first day! Hear from first class statisticians how they turned their passion for statistics into successful careers they love.
A tentative program is now available on the conference website.

Our international keynote speaker is Alison Hill. She is busy putting the material together for her keynote address and her workshop “Communicating with R Markdown”. Keep in mind that the workshop, held at Manuka Oval, is available to everyone, not just conference delegates. Alison will demystify how R Markdown works “under the hood”. Participants will learn practical tools and workflows to increase their efficiency and productivity using R Markdown (including RStudio IDE features and templates), while learning how to use some extension packages along the way. You don’t need to be an advanced R Markdown user to be able to take advantage of this workshop.

Another course held in conjunction with YSC2019 is our workshop “Maximising the use of Australian Bureau of Statistics Data Products and Analysis Tools” and we are grateful to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for generously sponsoring this event.The 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. Secondly, part it will focus on how Table Builder can produce data-cubes for a standard analysis in R.

One of the conference highlights, no doubt, will be the Trivia Night, kindly organised by the Canberra Branch. Again, this event is open to everyone keen to show off their trivia skills, not just YSC2019 delegates and it would be great to see lots of members of the Canberra Branch there as well. Being held at Manuka Oval you’ll be in for a real treat, as Manuka Oval will be supplying the refreshments.

If you need another incentive to travel to Canberra to YSC2019 (though why would you?), there is an amazing Dreamworks Animation exhibitionstarting at the National Museum of Australia in September. This Exhibitionexplores the essential ingredients— character, story and world— of the studio’s most popular films. Through interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, original concept art, maquettes, digital interactive displays and more, visitors can follow the creative path from sketch to screen.So if you are a fan of all things animated, or Shrek, Hiccup, or the gang from “Madagascar”, you won’t be disappointed.

Perhaps, though, you are into film-making yourself? Then you should enter this year’s Video-Competition. At this stage we haven’t received many entries so it doesn’t take a statistician to conclude that you’re in with a real chance of taking home the prize! Not only that, if you win, we’ll be tweeting about you, mentioning you on social media and featuring your video at the next YSC in 2021, trying very hard to make you as famous as Shrek in no time! So throw your hat in the ring and be part of this year’s conference, even if you can’t make it to our conference in person.

One thing we are still fine-tuning is the conference dinnerat the Kingston Hotel. We received some really good ideas from our YSC2019 committee members, ensuring that it will be a fun night and not “just” a dinner. Details will be revealed in due course. The registration fee for the dinner is only $20 for conference delegates, but the meal alone will be worth more than that – let alone the entertainment and the drinks- and you can’t put a price on the fantastic company! Please join us for a great night out!

See you in Canberra!

Marie-Louise Rankin
SSA Executive Officer

Conferencing in Darwin

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 10:59:43 GMT

The job of an Association Executive Officer is not without its perks. As we are all counting down the last days of winter, I was lucky enough to escape the chilly temperatures last week, having been invited to “Meet Darwin”, a familiarisation tour of Darwin and surrounds, compliments of the Northern Territory Business Bureau and Darwin Convention Centre. Over four fabulous days I experienced the superb hospitality of the Northern Territory. It didn’t take me long to decide: Darwin would make a fantastic conference destination.

With average temperature highs of about 30C and no humidity at this time of year, all the delegates, including myself, relished in the opportunity to shed a few layers and walk around in short-sleeved shirts and summer sandals. This was the perfect clothing for the excursions planned for us, such as a trip out to Pudakul Aboriginal Cultural Tours area, watching a mesmerising sunset from the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets (of course!) before heading for an unforgettable dinner at Pee Wees at the Point, a visit to the National Critical Care Trauma and Response Centre, a harbour cruise and a scenic helicopter flight -truly a highlight of my visit.

On one of the mornings we were invited to a business session at the Darwin Convention Centre, where we heard inspiring talks about this exciting conference destination. The Darwin Convention Centre itself was impressive. It offers everything we have come to expect these days from a modern conference centre, but on a smaller scale, perfect for an event such as our Australian Statistical Conference. We were treated to the most amazing dinner there, enjoying a “Seven Seasons” dinner, a culinary journey inspired by the “Gulumoerrgin” seasons, the seasons followed by the Larrakia people. The Larrakia people are the traditional owners of the Darwin region. However, the food was fantastic wherever we went in Darwin. An abundance of first class restaurants provided stunning backdrops for what could be a very memorable conference dinner.

For me, having immigrated to Australia in my early thirties, Darwin and its surrounds symbolises quintessential Australia the way people from outside Australia imagine it: a country of akubras, crocodiles, didgeridoos and - of course- tropical sunshine. I found Darwin to be a vibrant town, offering so many delightful cultural experiences and stunning venues to stay at, have a drink or a quality meal.

If you are wondering where I am going with this review of a trip to Darwin, in a statistical newsletter, don’t wonder anymore. This trip raised the important question: Could we hold a conference there? It would certainly be an event to remember, one that would not only be a perfect break from winter weather, but a fantastic opportunity to bring your family along and extend it into a holiday. We might even draw a small crowd from South East Asia? What do our members think? Before you decide, watch this video – it may sway you.

I would love to hear your thoughts – don’t hold back! (eo@statsoc.org.au).

Marie-Louise Rankin
Executive Officer, SSA

August 2019 - Update from the Bayes Section

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 04:17:56 GMT

Prof. Murray Aitkin (U. Melb.) was awarded an honourary fellowship at the International Workshop on Statistical Modelling (IWSM 2019) in Guimarães, Portugal.

Dr Anthony Lee (U. Bristol) recently visited Australia, sponsored by the SSA and the Australian Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS). Anthony visited QUT, UNSW, University of Adelaide and Monash University. He gave an invited talk at the International Conference on Monte Carlo methods in Sydney on likelihood approximations for latent variable models. Anthony presented an SSA/ACEMS sponsored tutorial on sequential Monte Carlo methods at QUT and Monash, both well attended. These talks provided excellent learning opportunities for Australian statisticians.

Anthony had productive discussions with several academics from all visited institutions. This included discussions on sequential Monte Carlo methods, computational Bayesian algorithms and applications. It is very likely that new international collaborations for several Australian Bayesian statisticians will arise from these discussions. Anthony had a very positive impression of the state of Bayesian statistics in Australia:

“Overall, I was most struck by the interplay between methodology and applications in Australia. There is a wide variety of applications that are being tackled with complex models using Monte Carlo methods as the key computational tool. I think that this diversity is critical for driving important algorithmic innovations and pushing the boundary of classes of model and data we can robustly handle.”

Abstracts for contributed talks or posters at Bayes on the Beach are due by August 16. Early bird registration for Bayes Comp closes on August 14. Abstracts for contributed posters will still be accepted up until December 15. Proposals for Member Invited Sessions at the ISBA World Meeting close August 22.

Executive Committee of the Bayes Section of SSA (Chris Drovandi, Clara Grazian, Sophie Zaloumis, David Frazier, Sama Low-Choy & Matt Moores) with additional contributions from Rob Salamone

SA Branch of SSA July 2019 monthly meeting: Quantitative Bias Analysis

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 03:32:33 GMT

On 24^th July 2019 The South Australian branch was pleased to have Dr Murthy Mittinty present at the monthly branch meeting. Dr Mittinty is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at The University of Adelaide and interested in both methodological development and applications of statistical methods. He gave a talk on Quantitative Bias Analysis.

Dr. Mittinty talked about systematic and random errors in both observational or experimental data and how to handle them in observational studies. The systematic error includes aspects such as selection bias, measurement error, confounding bias and unmeasured confounding. In a perfect randomized control trial, one 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. He talked about how these errors should be handled so one can predict better estimates or place more confidence in estimates. He further included three important question to answer before conducting a quantitative bias analysis: (1) when we should conduct one; (2) how we select which bias to address; and (3) how we select a method to model bias. Another question is how we interpret and present these results. He aimed to answer these questions with examples in his presentation. He talked about how to select a method to model biases and how to assign values to parameters of the bias model as well as software that can be used for conducting quantitative bias analysis. There were quite few discussions after the talk.

A dinner was held after the meeting at Jasmine Restaurant, 31 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide.

Aarti Gulyani, SA Branch
University of South Australia

Vic Branch Mentoring breakfast

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 05:08:08 GMT

On 25 June, our members gathered for breakfast. This was an event to connect young and old, share ideas about where statistics can take you, and also provide advice and career guidance. Breaking with tradition for our branch, attendance was members-only and the event was held in the morning. How did it go?

We invited eight statisticians / data scientists from diverse backgrounds to be our mentors for the day.

Our invited mentors. Top row, L to R: Kohleth Chia, Sandy Clarke-Errey, Harry Gielewski, Andy Kitchen. Bottom row, L to R: Stephen Leslie, Margarita Moreno-Betancur, Dennis Trewin, James Wilson

After a brief icebreaker, we formed into small groups around each mentor. The intimate and relaxed setting allowed members to get to know each other and hear about our mentors' experiences first-hand.

We had excellent feedback from those who attended. They particularly liked:

● The diversity of mentors' backgrounds, a good mix of academic and non-academic.

● The morning scheduling, which suited many members with family responsibilities, who find our evening events harder to attend.

● The delicious food, provided by ASRC Catering.

The discussion could have easily gone for longer, if only it weren't a workday...

We are grateful to our sponsors for the event, Eliiza and Bunnings.

Damjan Vukcevic

Getting started in biostatistical consultancy

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 04:58:17 GMT

The SSA Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Section co-hosted their ‘Getting started in biostatistical consultancy’ workshop with the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne on Thursday 4^th July. This long-awaited event attracted a great amount of interest, reaching capacity shortly after the early-bird registration date; perhaps not surprising given the fantastic speakers we managed to attract to speak at this event! Sadly, the morning fog in Sydney caused some issues for our interstate participants planning to attend, although some valiantly made their way on later flights to catch up on the proceedings.

Associate Professor Susan Donath, Senior Biostatistician and Deputy Director of the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit at MCRI, kicked off the morning session with an overview of statistical consultancy from start to finish. Susan stressed the importance of being curious and asking many, many questions with “what is your research question?” being the most critical and often taking the longest to answer! Susan also highlighted the importance of having a network of biostatisticians to discuss problems with.

Next up was Dr Emily Karahalios, Senior Research Fellow at both Monash and Melbourne University, who discussed how to plan, organise and monitor projects. Emily stressed the importance of having face-to-face meetings at the beginning of consultancy projects to avoid confusion that can occur from emails. Emily also provided some fantastic resources for helping project planning and monitoring, noting the need to take time to plan your work and to be realistic with yourself (and others) about what can be achieved within a given timeframe.

After lunch, Professor Julie Simpson, Head of the Biostatistics Unit at Melbourne School of Population and Global Health and leader of the Biostatistics node of the Melbourne Clinical and Translational Science platform at Melbourne University, delivered a presentation on how to reach clients. As well as discussing finance models and modes of operation, Julie talked about how to build a team and work effectively with one another. She led a lively interactive session in which participants talked about the characteristics they bring to a team and what their strengths are.

Our final presenter of the day was Dr Emi Tanaka from the University of Sydney who discussed interacting with different (and difficult!) clients. Emi discussed the emotional impact that difficult clients can have on us and our work as biostatistical consultants and how we can overcome that. She noted that it is important to keep a communication trail so that all have a record of any agreements that were made.

The workshop ended with a lively panel discussion with many questions from our very engaged audience. We thought the workshop was a great success and hope the participants enjoyed it too!

Karen Lamb, Jaimi Greenslade and Sabine Braat on behalf of the Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Section

NSW Branch's DUNSMUIRFEST (JUNE 2019)

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 01:51:13 GMT

Farewell to William Dunsmuir after 25 years at UNSW

On 6th June the New South Wales branch was very pleased to be part of a milestone event held at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New South Wales (UNSW). The event was to celebrate the career of Professor William Dunsmuir, who just retired after around 25 years at UNSW. William has also been a great contributor to the society and served as national president during the late 2000s.

About 100 people attended a drinks and canapes party,followed by a testimonial event. Jake Olivier was the compere and pointed out that William spent most of Jake's eleven years at UNSW "about to retire". Head of school, Bruce Henry, spoke next and summarised William's contributions to UNSW.

Next up was Doug Shaw who told everyone about how William led the response to the Melbourne 2008 debacle, when a conference company ran off with our registration fees and left us to pay the conference bills. Doug pointed out that after this difficult period the branches more congenial to each other.

Then Sue Wilson (UNSW and Australian National University) headed to the podium and delivered a short talk titled "An Irregular 45 Year Time Series". Sue told us that she and William first met at the Australian National University in 1974 when they were PhD students together. Some interesting photos of prominent Australian statisticians when they had a lot more hair than today were projected.

Following Sue was Feng Chen, who has been a departmental colleague with William at UNSW for the last several years. Feng talked about their joint work on generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic models and sequential Monte Carlo algorithms.

William's oldest friend at the event was David Scott of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and he was one of the event's special guests. David told everyone about having known William since 1972 and how they hung out together at the La Trobe University campus in the early seventies getting very excited about "A Course in Probability Theory" by Kai Lai Chung.

After a few more facial hair photographs David talked about their time together at the Siromath consulting company in the mid-1980s and then becoming colleagues at Bond University in the late 1980s.

Towards the end of his presentation he shared some pictures of he and William on the Queen Charlotte Sound walk in New Zealand.

Kylie-Anne Richards was the last of William's PhD students and she delivered a presentation titled "The Impact and Marks of Mentors". She expressed he gratitude for William helping her to achieve her dream of become an academic after starting a family. Hawke's self-exciting point processes and limit order book events were also discussed.

The principal speaker was Richard Davis, who is chair of the Department of Statistics at Columbia University in New York City.
Richard's talk, titled "William and Me", described his close friendship and research collaborations over a period of 40 years. Richard and William first met as assistant professors at Massachusetts

Institute of Technology in the late 1970s. After William returned to Australia in 1980 they did not see much of each other for another decade. But in 1990, a time series workshop in Minnesota reunited them and led to a very successful collaborative partnership that saw them unlocking the mysteries of the moving average unit root problem followed, obviously, by GLARMA(0,1).

As is known in time series circles, this is a generalized linear autoregressive moving average process of autoregressive order 0 and moving average order 1. Later they worked on least absolute deviations, and have been continually publishing together since around 1995. Richard's bottom line was the great intuition that William brought to their research problems.

The pre-dinner part of the Dunsmuirfest finished with William getting up and giving us a short talk tilted "Large sample theory for detecting the impact of marks in Hawkes self-exciting point processes". He told us that out of his career achievements, he gained the most pleasure from proving large sample theorems for time series. He presented a recent central limit theorem-type result and explained the steps. After the technical part, heclosed the event with some words of thanks. UNSW, the Statistical Society of Australia and family and friends were mentioned first.

He pointed out that he had worked with hundreds of people and taught thousands of students over the course of his career. Then he publicly thanked particular people for playing extra-special roles in his career and life: Bruce Brown, Niels Becker, David Scott, Pat Moran, Ted Hannan, Sue Wilson, Herman Chernoff, Doug Shaw, Robert Kohn, Richard and Cathy Tweedie, Richard and Patti Davis, and his wife, Barbara Blanche with whom he celebrates 35 years of marriage in July 2019.

Matt Wand
University of Technology Sydney

News from the Bayesian Section

Vanaja Thomas — Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:22:58 GMT

Dr Anthony Lee will be presenting a tutorial on sequential Monte Carlo methods in statistics. His visit has been partially funded by the SSA and the Australian Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS). Details of times and locations are as follows:

Tuesday, 2 July 2019 at 4:30pm for refreshments (talk starts at 5)
room S301 (S Block Level 3) at QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane, QLD
https://www.statsoc.org.au/event-3415826

Thursday, 18 July 2019 at 6pm (with refreshments and pizza dinner afterwards)
Science S4, 16 Rainforest Walk, Monash University, Clayton, VIC
https://www.statsoc.org.au/event-3426913

The call for abstracts has now opened for Bayes on the Beach, which will be held on the Gold Coast, QLD, from November 25-27. If you would like to present a talk or poster on any topic related to Bayesian statistics, please submit a 250 word abstract by email to bob.admin@qut.edu.au by August 16. Further details are available from the conference website, https://botb2019.wordpress.com/call-for-submissions/

Other Upcoming Conferences

The 12^th International Conference on Monte Carlo Methods and Applications (MCM 2019) will be held at the University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, from July 8-12.
http://www.mcm2019.unsw.edu.au

The 4^th conference of the East-Asian Chapter of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (EAC-ISBA) will be held in Kobe, Japan, July 13-14, 2019.
https://eacisba2019.wordpress.com

The biennial conference on Bayesian Computation (BayesComp 2020) will be held at the University of Florida, USA, from January 7-10 next year.
http://users.stat.ufl.edu/~jhobert/BayesComp2020/Conf_Website/

The next instalment of the popular “ABC in…” series of workshops on Approximate Bayesian Computation will be held in Grenoble, France, from March 19-20, 2020.
https://sites.google.com/view/abc-in-grenoble/home

Matt Moores

On behalf of the Bayes Section of SSA

N.S.W. BRANCH'S BUMPER EVENTS MONTH (MAY 2019)

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 23:21:13 GMT

The New South Wales Branch hosted two seminar events in May, with the one that normally would be in April moved to 2nd May so that we could have a public lecture from Hadley Wickham. Thirteen days later we a seminar from Ian Renner in Parramatta.

Security was tight at a large University of Sydney auditorium for the Wickham lecture since there was a small over-subscription. Council members were employed as bouncers to check tickets and make sure we didn't contravene any fire laws. As it turned out, the auditorium was only about 72% full according to ecologist/ statistician David Warton. With a total capacity of 650 we now had an audience estimate of 468 without having to do any capture or recapture. The demographic was in the youthful direction and t-shirts with slogans such as "CAN {CODE}" were spotted. Hadley Wickham, chief scientist at R Studio, and a U.S.-based New Zealander then delivered a lecture titled "Tidy(er) data". His rules of tidy data were passed on:

1. Each variable is a column.
2. Each observation in a row.
3. Each cell is one value.

We had group exercises with data sets from the Billboard popular music charts and U.S. government agencies, where the speaker asked "What makes your uncomfortable?". Live tidy-ups were done using the tidyr package in R. In summary, it was a very successful and entertaining lecture from the Master of the Tidyverse.

On 15th May the branch caravan rolled out to a different part of Sydney - the Western Sydney University in Parramatta. Ian Renner from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, was our speaker. Ian spoke about species distribution modelling and had a running example involving lynx populations in the Jura Mountains of France. Distinctions were made between presence-only data and multiple visits data. Inhomogeneous Poisson point process models and maximum likelihood were shown to play central roles. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) was shown to lead to improved performance. Dung beetles got a mention as well - which they should given their importance for ecosystems. The main message of Ian's talk was sound conversation decisions based on data analysis, good models and statistical methodology.

Professor Matt Wand, NSW Branch

From the Official Statistics Section

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 09:47:59 GMT

The Official Statistics Section is pleased to forward the following message from the IAOS:

The IAOS is pleased to announce the composition of its new Executive Committee (EXCO) for the period 2019-2021. In the statement below from Mr Mario Palma, IAOS President (2017-2019), you will find the full report.

The term of the new EXCO will begin at the IAOS General Assembly, to be held at the ISI World Statistics Congress in Kuala Lumpur, 18 -23 August 2019. The current President-Elect Dr John Pullinger will take over as President and will form the new EXCO together with the selected candidates.

We wish John Pullinger and his team a very successful tenure.

Warm regards,

IAOS Executive Committee

-----------------------------------------------------------

Dear IAOS members,

I have great pleasure in sharing with you the final composition of the new IAOS Executive Committee for 2019-2021.

Following the IAOS Statutes, the 2018 Nominating Committee, in charge of selecting the candidates for posts of President-elect and four EXCO members, having one candidate for each position and taking into account a proper regional representation and gender balance as much as possible, has come up with the following list:

Members of the EXCO:

1. President: Mr. John Pullinger (UK);

2. President-elect: Mr. Misha Belkindas (USA);

3. Member: Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin (Asia, second term);

4. Member: Mr. Peter Popoola (Africa, first term);

5. Member: Ms. Hasnae Fdhil (Arab Region, second term);

6. Member: Ms. Gemma Van Halderen (Oceania, second term, EXCO lead on 2022 Conference).

7. Member (ex-officio): Ms. Ada Van Krimpen (Director of the Permanent Office of the ISI).

Co-opted Members:

1. Mr. Rolando Ocampo Alcantar (Latin America and the Caribbean);

2. Mr. Jan Robert Suesser (Europe, IAOS representative to the ISI WSC);

3. Ms. Ayush Ariunzaya (Conference Advisor for the IAOS 2020 Conference in Zambia).

Special Invitees:

1. Dr. Kirsten West (Editor in Chief, SJIAOS, until August 2019);

2. Mr. Pieter Everaers (Editor in Chief, SJIAOS, from August 2019);

3. Ms. Teodora Brandmueller (SCORUS Chair);

4. Ms. Nancy McBeth (Special Advisor to the President);

5. Mr. Ronald Jansen (UNSD);

6. Mr. Oliver Chinganya (Programme Chair of the IAOS 2020 Conference in Zambia);

7. Mr. Kees Zeelenberg (Former Programme Chair of the IAOS-OECD 2018 Conference in Paris).

I would like to thank the Nominating Committee members for their work and wish the new EXCO for 2019-2021 the best of luck and success.

Mario Palma

IAOS President 2017-2019

Vic Branch Meeting

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 09:08:20 GMT

A recipe for quantifying the impact of prevention

It was a full house for Professor Tony Blakely’s seminar on quantifying the impact of preventative health interventions, with almost 100 people in attendance.

Tony began with the motivation behind his league tables, the 100 manila folder problem that is faced by government ministers when they need to decide on which health interventions to invest in. Next he demonstrated how they simulate, using multi-state lifetables, projections of mortality, morbidity and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for Australian and New Zealand populations under “business as usual”, or under an intervention of interest, such as taxation of tobacco. This simulation framework can also capture other rewards such as a reduction in health expenditure and productivity costs. He finished his presentation with a demonstration of VIVARIUM, which implements his simulation model in Python (soon available on GitHub), and the BODE league table R Shiny app for New Zealand, a visual tool comparing the impact of prevention interventions for policy makers.

Julie Simpson

WA Branch Meeting - May

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 08:46:34 GMT

Young Statisticians talk – May 2019

Each year the WA Branch offers a scholarship worth $1,000 to a Young Statistician completing honours in that year at a Western Australian University. This year’s 2019 winner was Emily Whitney from Curtin University. The prize comes along with a request to deliver next year’s May address to the WA Branch.

President of the WA Branch, Dr Brenton Clarke, delivers a $1,000 “digital handshake” to Emily Whitney, this year’s winner of the WA Branch Honours Scholarship.

The May meeting of the Western Australia Branch also heard talks from two young statisticians, Michael Dymock and Connor Duffin, both PhD students from the University of Western Australia. Michael talked about his current research with Group Based Trajectory Modelling with Monotonicity Constraints, which aims to better quantify the uncertainty in three-dimensional geological interpolation models and geophysical models through Bayesian inversion. Connor talked about his research on Modelling site-specific Australian daily rainfall with Bayesian mixture models which aims to model monthly rainfall across four different areas in Australia.

Group Based Trajectory Modelling with Monotonicity Constraints- Talk by Michael Dymock

Michael started his undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics degree in 2014 at the University of Western Australia, before completing his honours degree in 2018. Along with being awarded first class honours for his research project, Michael received honours scholarships from both the Statistical Society of Australia and the International Biometric Society (Australasian Branch). Through his work Michael has taken first place in both the 2017 Woodside Hackathon and the 2018 Worley Parsons Hackathon, and second place in the 2017 Visagio Hackathon.

The understanding and modelling of developmental trajectories in longitudinal data are of fundamental importance across many areas of research with applications ranging from the health and social sciences to that of marketing. Group based trajectory modelling, an application of finite mixture modelling, is often the first choice in approaching the naturally complex task of modelling these trajectories. The group-based strategy acknowledges the possibility of a heterogeneous population by fitting several groups to the data and subsequently treating each group as a distinct entity or sub-population.

In his talk, Michael explained that existing methodology for group-based trajectory modelling, implemented through the SAS procedure TRAJ, has been developed over the past two decades with the addition of numerous extensions such as the ability to jointly analyse multiple trajectories as well as the handling of missing data. However, there is no methodology currently in place to impose constraints of any kind on the trajectories, in particular, monotonicity constraints. Monotonicity constraints on polynomials play a role in data analysis, when it is known, from the underlying physical theory that the response behaves monotonically. In other words, if we know that the response must progress in the one direction (either increasing or decreasing) over the explanatory variable, it is useful to constrain the model to represent this trend accurately. However, due to a multitude of possible reasons such as data entry error and missing data, in these situations, sometimes unconstrained models fail to capture the monotone behaviour, and thus monotonicity constraints are required.

In his work, Michael implemented a new methodology for fitting group-based trajectory models with monotonicity constraints by using the Expectation Maximisation (EM) algorithm. The structure of the EM algorithm allowed him to separate the optimisation routine into two smaller optimisation sub-routines (one that computes the group membership probabilities and another that maximises the likelihood function). Furthermore, to illustrate the effectiveness of his methodology, he demonstrated the use of his implementation on a real-world example in the statistical programming language R. In his example he aimed to model the developmental trajectories of individuals' lung function, in particular, Forced Expiratory Volume measurements, over a period of approximately forty years. This example is of particular interest to us because we know from underlying theory that the response trajectories will be monotonically decreasing. However, Michael showed that this unconstrained model fails to capture the required monotone behaviour. After re-running the same analysis under monotonicity constraints, Michael was able to show that the implementation is able to effectively capture and model the required monotonic trajectories.

Modelling site-specific Australian daily rainfall with Bayesian mixture models- talk by Connor P. Duffin

Connor completed an Honours degree in Mathematics and Statistics from UWA in 2018, under the supervision of Edward Cripps. Connors research was in the field of Bayesian computational statistics, on modelling Australian daily rainfall. Having stayed in this field, Connor is currently pursuing a PhD at UWA, focussing on quantifying and explaining uncertainties in numerical oceanographic models.

Daily rainfall has a large impact on the social behaviour of human beings, and also has wide agricultural, biological, and economic effects. Being able to model location-specific daily rainfall, across the country, is therefore of utmost importance. There are three principal complexities in modelling daily rainfall at a single location: temporal evolution, zero and missing days, and extreme tail behaviour.

Connors work aims to investigate models that are able to capture these complexities across 151 individual rainfall measurement locations (sites) across Australia. Connor used the finite mixture model as a framework to model the discrete and continuous data that comprise these measurements. There were four main features of the data that Connor had to work around; the seasonality of rainfall, missing data when no measurements were taken, zero-days when there was no rainfall and fat-tails when there are days with intense rainfall. Taking this into account, Connor used the Finite mixture model incorporating temporal evolution model, which captured data with no rainfall and also for days with rainfall. The varying intensities of rainfall were captured through the gamma distribution.
Some notes:

1. Dirac delta to capture zeroes.
2. Mixture of gamma PDFs to capture non-zeroes.
3. Gamma PDFs analogous to rainfall amounts? Difficult to interpret for K > 3 though.
4. Connors approach: Use variation in K = 2, 3, 4, and 5 gamma densities to see how well the model captures tail behaviour.

Temporal evolution is incorporated through the use of a mixture-of-experts structure on the mixture weights. Connor used the Markov chain Monte Carlo to estimate the model.

The results were then analysed through posterior predictive checking, and optimal models where decided on through formal model diagnostics. Connor is eager to continue working on the model and has plans to further investigate if there are other factors that might affect the choice of the model.

After the talks, Michael and Connor where joined by fellow Statisticians for dinner at Tiamos restaurant, where they talked about their future plans and how eager they are to continue to optimise and implement their research on a more broader scale.

Deneegan Subramanian

From the Official Statistics Section

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 08:41:45 GMT

Statistical Journal of the Assocation of Official Statistics - June preprint edition out

A Pre-press edition of the June issue of the SJIAOS has been released: see https://content.iospress.com/journals/statistical-journal-of-the-iaos/Pre-press/Pre-press,

Kirsten West is retiring as editor after 5 years. Her closing editorial is at: https://content.iospress.com/download/statistical-journal-of-the-iaos/sji199002?id=statistical-journal-of-the-iaos%2Fsji199002 . The incoming editor is Pieter Everaes

Measuring Indigenous Identification

The March Issue of JIAOS is dedicated to this topic; the editor-in-chief reminds readers of past contributions by the journal and the Association on improving statistics of indigenous people. Australian contributiuons to this effort are conspicuous, from then- editor Fritz Scheuren's 2014 editorial leading with an Australian paper "Measuring Indigenous Populations Across Nations: Challenges for Methodological Alignment",by Bradley Petry and Erica Potts, to the three papers in the March issue drawing on Australian experience.

Australian contributors to the topic since 2014 include Kalinda Griffiths, UNSW; Richard Madden and Clare Coleman at the University of Sydney; Ching Choi and Len Smith, Australian National University; Ian Ring Elias, Brenda Lee, Vanessa’ Smylie, Janet Waldon, John Hodge, Felicia Schanche; University of Queensland; and Maggie Walter University of Tasmania. That Australian experience has been prominent in the international debate reflects a foundation in long collaboration between key ABS officers and academic demographers in the enumeration of the indigenous population, against the grain of national collection strategies of the time.

References:

The March Open Access issue of the SJIAOS

https://content.iospress.com/journals/statistical-journal-of-the-iaos/35/1

In particular, its guest editorial by Michele Connolly: https://content.iospress.com/download/statistical-journal-of-the-iaos/sji189008?id=statistical-journal-of-the-iaos%2Fsji189008

Anderson, I, Robson B, Connolly M, Al-Yaman F, et al., “Indigenous and tribal peoples’ health” (the Lancet-Lowitja Institute Global Collaboration), Lancet, London, England. 2016: 388(10040):131–57.

Stephen Horn, Chair Official Statistics Section

SA Branch Meeting, May 2019

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 08:34:15 GMT

Causal inference in epidemiology through Mendelian randomization & Mendelian Randomisation-Phenome Wide Association Studies: Opportunities and Challenges

The two speakers for the SA Branch May meeting were Dr Beben Benyamin and Dr Ang Zhou, both from the Centre for Precision Health, University of South Australia. This was a joint meeting with the South Australian Epidemiology Group. Dr Benyamin uses statistics applied to large-scale ‘omics’ data to dissect the genetic mechanisms underlying human complex traits and diseases. Dr Benyamin’s talk “Causal Inference in epidemiology through Mendelian randomization” described Mendelian Randomization (MR), a statistical method that provides a framework to mimic a randomised controlled trial, providing an estimate of the causal effect of a risk factor on disease. Mendelian randomization analyses (MR) use genetic variants as proxy markers for the risk factor of interest. This approach exploits the fact that the assignment of genotype is random with respect to confounders. MR studies have increased due to the discovery of potential genetic variants from genome wide association studies. The talk covered the origin of the method, basic principles and some applications to infer the causal effect of the risk factor on the disease.

Dr Ang applies methodologies in genetic epidemiology to understand causal associations between modifiable lifestyle factors and health outcomes. His research also involves understanding the gene-environment interplay on health outcomes. His talk “MR-PheWAS: Opportunities and Challenges” followed on from Dr Benyamin’s talk by describing phenome-wide association studies (PheWAS), an extension to Mendelian randomization. MR-PheWAS is a hypothesis-free approach to screen for diseases/phenotypes associated with the risk factor of interest, which has the capacity to capture novel associations and provide insights into disease mechanisms. Dr Ang used the example of BMI genetic associations to highlight the opportunities and challenges of the method.

A dinner was held after the meeting at Jasmin Indian Restaurant, 31 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide.

Lan Kelly

Wanted: Your thoughts on CPD

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 04:53:18 GMT

SSA’s Committee for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has created a survey to find out how the Statistical Society can support you, your work or study and your CPD requirements. Please click here to participate in this five-minute survey and let us know what kind of workshops you’d like us to organise for you, or even what workshop you can present yourself! The deadline for this survey is Wednesday, 27 June 2019.

Thank you in advance!

The Stats Society is your Society!

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 23:50:10 GMT

Remember that the Statistical Society is your society. Your opinions are important to us and your colleagues, and they can help shape national policy and thinking on statistics. For example, our members’ opinions helped us lobby the government to get “statistician” added to the skilled migration list.

There are many ways you can get involved. For example, we recently formed a committee to examine Data Science Courses, and we may soon be looking for volunteer members to write a viewpoint on the opinion polls after this year’s election.

We also love to amplify our member’s successes, such as the recent successful bid to host the 2024 International Congress on Mathematical Education in Australia.

If there’s a statistical issue that you are passionate about but need help with, then please get in touch. We can offer support and advice, and can put you in touch with like-minded members. We know that there’s a power in numbers, literally and figuratively, so let’s use our combined skills to give statistics the national profile it deserves.

Adrian Barnett, President

And the winner is … Sydney!

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 07 May 2019 03:01:21 GMT

CEOs, Presidents and National Leaders of Australia’s major mathematical-based societies* united in a consortium through 2018 to submit (October 2018) a bid for Australia’s hosting of the 15th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME15), 2024, at the International Convention Centre, Sydney, Australia, and then hosted the ICMI delegates’ site visit in April 2019; at the time we were one of two shortlisted locations, the other, Prague.

ICME is run once every four years and was last hosted in Australia in 1984. I have been representing the Statistical Society of Australia in this consortium.

As a member of the national consortium, I’m delighted to share the exceptional news that our collaborative bid for Australia (Sydney) to host the International Congress on Mathematical Education in 2024 has been successful.

A wonderful team effort that united Australia’s leading mathematical and statistical associations* - thank you to those who supported the consortium’s bid.

Please help spread the good news as we continue the cooperative initiative and begin preparing for 2024 and ensuring that the national Mathematical/Statistical and broader STEM agenda are further capitalised upon on the international stage.

* AMSI, AAMT, SSA, ATSIMA, ACHMS, MANSW, MERGA & UNSW, USyd, UoN, UTS, WSU, NESA

Peter Howley, Statistical Education Section – Chair

YSC2019 – Have you registered yet?

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 06 May 2019 08:48:29 GMT

With the Federal Election looming, everyone’s focus is very much on Canberra at this time, but there is another reason our minds should turn tothe nation’s capital: The Young Statisticians Conference 2019 is just around the corner!

There is so much to look forward to! For starters, we are just delighted with this year’s choice of venue: Manuka Oval. With a rich and diverse history, stunning views across the lawns and being close Canberra’s popular restaurant strip Manuka, this iconic meeting place will be sure to impress.

As it happens, this year the conference coincides with Floriade, Canberra’s annual flower show - a colourful celebration of Spring.Click here to see what it’s all about. Be careful though – there will be so much on that you may get too distracted from attending the conference!

The YSC2019 Committee is doing an excellent job of getting everything ready for you and they now have four wonderful key-note speakers lined up:

Teresa Dickinson
Deputy Australian Statistician, Australian Bureau of Statistics

Dr Margarita Moreno-Betancur
Senior Research Fellow, VicBiostat

Dr Felicity Splatt
Lead Consultant, Quantium

and

Dr Alison Presmanes Hill
Data Scientist & Professional Educator, RStudio

Alison will arrive a day early and present a pre-conference workshop.

Not coming to the conference? Don’t worry – you still get to participate if you want to. We are pleased to invite anyone who can’t be there in person to share their research through the YSC2019 Video Competition. This competition ran for the first time at YSC2017 and it was so successful that of course we had to organise it again! Click here to see the winning entries from YSC2017.

To throw your hat in the ring, just present your research in a three-minute video and submit the link through the online registration form.

For those of you who are planning to be there in person, why not combine your trip to the conference with a little holiday? You’ll have the chance to explore one of Australian’s most beautiful cities, and to experience Australian culture and history at superb monuments and galleries. Canberra is a city surrounded by parkland and native bush and Spring is the perfect time for a visit. If this hasn’t convinced you, Channel Nine’s “Travel Guides” might do so.

Some key dates to keep in mind:

Abstract submission closes -1 June 2019

Notification of conference abstract acceptance – 1 July 2019

Early bird registration period ends – 16 August 2019

Three-minute video competition submissions due – 15 September 2019

Conference registrations close – 17 September 2019

Monday 1 July

Saturday 1 June

See you in Canberra in October!

Marie-Louise Rankin
SSA Executive Officer

Vic Branch meeting: Reproducibility and Open Science

Vanaja Thomas — Sat, 04 May 2019 09:05:49 GMT

On 30 April, the Victorian Branch hosted three short talks on Reproducibility and Open
Science, attended by about 40 people.

The evening began with a talk by Hannah Fraser (University of Melbourne) who presented the findings from a survey of 800 ecologists on questionable research practices. About 40% of those surveyed stated that they did add data after analysis, 28% excluded data after analysis, and 64% study more variables than what is reported (i.e. cherry picking of results). Future research Hannah is conducting involves recruiting scientists to analyse two ecology datasets to evaluate how robust the results are to different analysis techniques.

Our second speaker was Fiona Fidler (University of Melbourne) who began with some sobering statistics on the replication crisis; across many research areas less than 50% of results are reproducible. For the psychological sciences, one in a thousand published papers are replication studies, the average statistical power of published studies is <50% and 92% of published studies have statistically significant results. For a solution to this problem, Fiona described the new approach to peer review which has now been adopted by 187 journals. Here at the design stage of a study there is a peer review by a journal of the research questions, study design and planned analysis. And if the study follows very closely the registered report that was peer reviewed than the journal has the obligation to publish the research findings when the study is complete.

Our final speaker was Mathew Ling (Deakin University), who spoke about how individuals still engage in poor behaviours (e.g. people still smoke, scientists still present 3D pie charts). He discussed how we can’t expect researchers to simply change behaviour and practice open science. Instead we need to do more PR activities to promote people doing Open Science and come up with more incentives for researchers to embrace Open Science (e.g. funding bodies).

There was a lively discussion at the end of all 3 excellent presentations. Fiona and Hannah promoted their new crowdsourcing project titled the repliCATS project.

Julie Simpson

Efficient development of clinical-grade prediction models of cancer treatment outcomes

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 01 May 2019 00:28:53 GMT

South Australia Branch Meeting, April 2019

The speaker for the April 2019 meeting of the SA Branch was Professor Michael Sorich. He is a clinical epidemiologist, biostatistician, and pharmacist from Flinders University with a primary research interest in the use of biological, chemical, and clinical markers to guide decisions regarding the most appropriate use of medicines (precision medicine). His current research primarily focuses on evaluation and evidence development with respect to precision medicine approaches informing the use of cancer medicines. This includes analysis of pooled clinical trial data, and evaluation of patient data from routine clinical care.

Michael’s talk “Efficient development of clinical-grade prediction models of cancer treatment outcomes” is a piece of his current research works funded by a Beat Cancer project grant. At the beginning of his talk, Michael described the precision medicine - an approach to improving the practice of medicine based on understanding the individual characteristics that are associated with, and potentially causative of, drug therapeutic and adverse effects. Using a number of example studies, Michael highlighted the significant advances achieved in precision medicine over the last decade that enable understanding of biological differences between individuals. There are many potential benefits of precision medicine including minimizing risk of drug toxicity, increasing benefit from drugs used, contributing to the sustainability of the healthcare system and facilitating drug discovery and development programs. In particular, Michael highlighted the treatment benefit in advanced cancer by showing a classical example of anti-EGFR therapy for advanced colorectal cancer.

Clinical prediction models were mainly discussed in his talk - an option for providing more personalised estimates of prognosis, harms and potentially treatment benefit. Michael’s talk mainly covered the barriers that exist to developing prediction models that may be used to guide clinical practice and decisions, and emerging data platforms that may help overcome many of these issues. The detail of his talk and particularly prediction models of cancer treatment outcomes can be found by contacting Michael.sorich@flinders.edu.au.

A dinner was held right after the meeting at Jasmin Indian Restaurant, 31 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide.

By Shahid Ullah

Latest election news from Science &Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 02:27:59 GMT

Last week, we heard announcements from the major parties around the environment, equity in STEM and defence.

Below we have included relevant links for new announcements and added them to our running tally on our website (accessible by logging on to our members' section). You'll also find key stories and interviews to provide some broader context for how science is being framed in each of the parties' campaigns.

Please also help us spread the word about science, technology and their role in Australia's future - a short clip on science and art conservation is our latest feature (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). A new case study will be released each week, shared online using #SolveitwithScience.

Please find a range of relevant links below, and be in touch if we can support your work to get science on the agenda during the Federal Election.

Kind regards,

Kylie Walker
CEO
Science and Technology Australia

LOG ON TO THE STA WEBSITE

Current Election Commitments:

Coalition

Labor

Information resources:

The Definitive Candidate list (accurate as of 25/04)
Antony Green’s Swing Calculator
Antony Green’s Election Coverage
AEC election Timetable
The Tally Room

Key Stories and Interviews:

Scott Morison’s Election Campaign Launch
Bill Shorten’s Election Campaign Launch
Michael McCormack’s Election Campaign Launch
Richard Di Natale’s Election Campaign Launch
The SBS has published a comparison of education policy
The ABC has published a comparison of Climate Change Policy
The first leaders' debate will be held in Perth and broadcast tonight on Channel 7Two at 7pm AEST (a second debate is scheduled to be held by Sky News)

Latest Polls:

Newspoll: 29^th April. Coalition-49, ALP-51 (updated)
Galaxy Poll: 27^th April. Coalition-48, ALP-52 (updated)
Roy Morgan: 24^th April. Coalition-49, ALP-51 (updated)
Essential: 9^th April. Coalition-48, ALP-52
Fairfax Ipsos: 7^th April. Coalition-47, ALP-53

STA Resources for members

A breakdown of current and past STEM policy from the major parties

Scholarships: Science meets Parliament 2019

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 01:32:34 GMT

Science & Technology Australia is offering six scholarships to the 20th anniversary Science meets Parliament this year, to be held in Canberra on 13-14 August 2019.

Science meets Parliament brings around 200 Australian scientists and technologists to Canberra for professional development, networking, and to meet face-to-face with MPs and Senators. It is a highlight of the annual parliamentary calendar and has enhanced mutual understanding between parliamentarians and scientists as well as fostering enduring partnerships and collaborations.

Two (2) Scholarships are open to STEM practitioners in each of the following categories:

Indigenous STEM Scholarships for people with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage
STEM Pride scholarships for people who identify as LGBTQI+
Regional STEM scholarships for STEM practitioners who work in remote or regional Australia (>150km from a major capital city)

Scholarships will cover full registration including the gala dinner in the Great Hall at Parliament House, as well as travel, accommodation, meals and transfers. Financial assistance for childcare is available upon application.

Please note that to be eligible for these scholarships you must be a member of or employed by an STA member organisation (such as SSA).

The Indigenous STEM Scholarships are proudly supported by the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS).

Applications will close on 15 June 2019, with recipients to be contacted by 30 June 2019 and an announcement made shortly after.

For more information, or to apply, head to https://scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/scholarships-science-meets-parliament-2019/

Associate Professor Jeff Wood, Canberra Branch

Vanaja Thomas — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 02:57:35 GMT

It is with great sadness that we communicate the death of Associate Professor Jeff Wood who passed away last month from Motor Neuron Disease. Jeff was a member of SSA since 1974, a former SSA Canberra president, Honorary Treasurer from 1989 - 1992, Circulation Manager for the Journal from 1995 – 1998, and a regular and enthusiastic meeting attendee.

His contributions to the wider statistical community in Canberra and nationally were substantial to say the least. They were recognised with a Service Award in 1999.

Jeff will be sorely missed. He remained active right up until his death, assisting many post-graduate students with statistical analyses as a Visiting Fellow at the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society. Apart from his research contributions, Jeff will be remembered as one of life’s true gentlemen who graced us with his kindness and humour.

A private funeral will be held in the near future.

Dr Ingrid Aulike wins Women in Big Data – Canberra, data challenge 2019

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 05:37:31 GMT

Dr Ingrid Aulike, a University of Queensland statistician, won the “Women in Big Data” data challenge for 2019. Her presentation was a masterclass in exploratory data analysis and the importance of not making assumptions about data. Participants were given a dataset with a series of numbers with no apparent meaning. By challenging typical assumptions about data e.g. columns are variables or features, and using different visualisation techniques to summarize the data, Dr Aulike uncovered the hidden figure in this dataset of numbers, an image with a message, “Data Should Be Seen”. In her interview, Dr Aulike highlighted the need for statisticians with strong technical background and consultancy skills to meet the challenges in Big Data. She credits online courses such as Statistical Learning with Hastie and Tibshirani, Andrew Ng’s Deep Learning and Bill Howe’s Data Science at Scale courses on Coursera as professional development opportunities for statisticians to upskill to address the needs and challenges of Big Data. Congratulations to Dr Aulike!

Jeeva Kanesarajah, PhD Candidate
SSA-QLD Newsletter correspondent
The University of Queensland, School of Public Health
raven17786@gmail.com

Proteins, Mass Spectrometry and Statistics

Vanaja Thomas — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 00:04:24 GMT

WA Branch April meeting

The April meeting of the Western Australian Branch heard Professor Inge Koch present a talk Analysis of Proteomics Imaging Mass Spectrometry Data. It was a particularly significant meeting as it also celebrated Inge taking up the role of Professor of Statistics and Data Science at the University of Western Australia.

Mass spectrometry measures the weights of charged particles. In this case the particles are fragments of protein molecules from tissue samples and the masses provide signatures for particular proteins. The imaging aspect of the problem is that measurements in the form of mass spectra are recorded over a regular grid of points (or pixels) across the tissue sample. The resulting data is complex, with the spatial aspect of the image overlaid with the need to statistically understand the mass spectra. Effectively each spectrum is a high dimensional vector, typically around 13,000 to 15,000 values so the whole dataset can be thought of as a three dimensional array of data points, with two spatial dimensions and one mass dimension

Inge’s work has come out of a successful collaboration in Adelaide with several biochemists, particularly Lyron Winderbaum and Peter Homann. The aim is to develop methods of identifying features such as cancerous or pre-cancerous cells in a tissue sample without the high cost of an experienced pathologist examining a stained tissue sample under a microscope (the left image below), a process that can take hours.

Inge described several approaches, including images corresponding to the spectra at a single mass (termed feature maps), through to conventional multivariate methods such as principal components, clustering techniques and mixture models. However the feature maps based on a single mass tended to be poor at identifying features in the tissue while the multivariate methods tended to also produce poor images.

The solution was to convert the mass spectra to binary data (presence or absence at each mass), applying a spatial smoothing to the mass data and replacing the Euclidian norm (L2) with the cosine distance. The last is a technique perhaps better known amongst data scientists rather than mainstream statisticians, but its use is growing with high dimensional data. The results are promising in identifying different tissue types as in the central image below.

A final step has been to incorporate knowledge of what actually are cancerous cells to train the methods and select variables (masses) that best distinguish between cancerous and non-cancerous cells. The principle is to find masses that occur predominantly in cancer spectra but not outside, by looking at differences in proportions (DIPPS). The right image below shows the effectiveness of this.

The stained tissue sample with cancerous areas marked (left), the results of cluster analysis (centre) and the prediction from masses chosen by the DIPPS principle (right).

After the meeting a number of members joined Inge for an enjoyable meal at a local restaurant, where the null hypothesis that statisticians are boring and unsociable was firmly rejected.

John Henstridge

Conditional selection for sample coordination

Vanaja Thomas — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:01:29 GMT

South Australian Branch SSA Meeting: March 2019

The speaker for the March meeting of the SA Branch was Claire Clarke, a methodolgist at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Claire gave an engaging talk on the methods being developed at the ABS to improve coordination of samples selected for its household and business surveys.

The ABS conducts a wide variety of sample surveys on social and economic topics. Since different ABS surveys often sample from the same population, sample selection needs to be coordinated in order to manage the survey load placed on individual households and businesses. Also, sample coordination does not always seek to minimise overlap: for surveys which produce estimates every month or every quarter, it is desirable to have high overlap between the samples selected in successive periods. Under the design-based sampling framework used for ABS surveys, a requirement of the sample coordination method is that it preserves each unit’s selection probability specified in the sample design.

For many years the ABS has applied the ‘synchronised selection’ method to achieve sample coordination of its business surveys. Claire explained the method is not particularly flexible, and so the goals of sample coordination are not achieved when units change strata or there are extensive changes to the structure of the sampling frame.

The general ‘Conditional Selection’ method which the ABS has been developing largely addresses the limitations of synchronised selection. Under Conditional Selection, units belonging to the same sampling stratum are selected with different probabilities according to their history of selection across previous surveys. For example, assuming it is desirable to minimise the extent of overlap between the sample for an upcoming survey and the samples of previous surveys, for the upcoming survey the units in the population which have not been previously selected will have highest conditional probability. Claire used an example to explain the calculation of the conditional probability. She illustrated how the probability associated with each potential selection history can be used to ensure each unit is selected with the desired unconditional probability.

In the second half of her talk Claire discussed practical issues for implementation. One such issue is controlling the sample size within each stratum. If it is necessary to control the sample size in each stratum, the selection method needs to be adapted and it is not possible to precisely preserve the desired unconditional probabilities. Another issue is managing the selection history data. Although the selection history (and associated probability the history) must be tracked for every unit in the population, the storage requirements are manageable because the number of possible histories for each unit increases linearly with the number of prior surveys being tracked.

The ABS is in the process of adopting the Conditional Selection method, and it has already been applied for selection for some ABS household surveys.

By Julian Whiting

Demonstrating Impact with Industry and Vic Branch AGM

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 03:46:50 GMT

On March 19 the Victorian Branch held its first meeting of 2019. The Branch’s AGM was followed by Dr Shirley Coleman discussing how she has demonstrated the impact of her work with industry partners.

Dr Coleman’s seminar on demonstrating impact was a great insight into the mutually beneficial relationship between the Industrial Statistics Research Unit (ISRU, Newcastle University, UK) and small to medium enterprises (SMEs). In order to maintain funding, one of the requirements of university departments in the UK is to demonstrate the impact of the research they conduct. Dr Coleman walked us through a few examples where the research unit she directs has engaged industry to apply statistical thinking and methods to help SMEs make sense of their data.

Examples included working with a gas utility company to improve supply forecasting, and analysing auto parts lookup data to determine the average lifecycle of particular auto parts and how this varied by brand. The results of the ISRU’s work with industry partners meant there was a tangible figure to demonstrate the impact of their research – such as the amount of money saved by the utility provider due to the better estimates of supply.

Doing this work with industry was not without its challenges however, as Dr Coleman discussed. Often the industry partners were hesitant when it came to publications, a key requirement of demonstrating impact, voicing their concerns about their operational data and conclusions drawn from it being available in the public domain. Not only does the ISRU have to placate their industry partners, they also have to work within strict rules on which journals can count towards demonstrating impact. Dr Coleman’s seminar was particularly timely with the renewed focus of Australian funding bodies on the demonstration of the impact of research: her lessons on how to do this will surely be heeded by many audience members!

The seminar was preceded by the Victorian Branch’s AGM, at which Dr Damjan Vukcevic was welcomed as incoming President of the Branch, and Dr Rheanna Mainzer and Ben Harrap were welcomed to the council. Prof Ian Gordon and Dr Nick Tierney were farewelled, and we thank them for their hard work on the council.

Ben Harrap

Budget Update from Science & Technology Australia

Vanaja Thomas — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 04:51:38 GMT

Back in the black, but vision for science veers off track

The 2019/2020 Federal Budget has missed the opportunity to invest in solution-making scientific and technological research and Australia’s world-class institutions and agencies that make it possible.

President of Science & Technology Australia, Professor Emma Johnston AO, said the Federal Budget was a mixed result for Australia’s science and technology driven future. Read more here.

2019 President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 21:30:00 GMT

Dr Michael Waller, BCA Program Coordinator at the University of Queensland, accepts the Award on behalf of member universities, from Prof Adrian Barnett

The Statistical Society of Australia has awarded the 2019 President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics to the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia (BCA).

This award is for the BCA’s outstanding contribution to statistics based on their sustained work since 2001 to provide Australia with much needed skills in biostatistics, which includes research in genetics, clinical trials and public health.

The BCA has a great national reputation and its students are highly prized for jobs in health and medical research, an area that has a growing need for statistical skills because of the increasing size and complexity of data.

The President of the Statistical Society of Australia, Professor Adrian Barnett, said, “The BCA has been of enormous national value for the field of statistics. It has brought together some of our most experienced statisticians to pass on their skills to students. I know that other fields have aimed to copy the BCA’s collaborative model, which is the ultimate form of flattery.”

The BCA is a consortium of biostatistical experts from across Australia with representatives from universities, government and clinical practice who have combined to offer a national (and international) program of postgraduate courses via an alliance of six universities, being The University of Adelaide, Macquarie University, Monash University, The University of Queensland, The University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne (affiliate member).

It was established because of the national shortage of statisticians with expertise in the health industry and medical research, and has served to raise the standard of scientific rigour in health and medical research.

The BCA has graduated 552 students since 2001 and at the start of semester one, 2019, there were 387 students enrolled in the BCA program.

“The BCA has filled an important gap in our national skill set, and at the 2018 national Statistical Society conference there was a strong consensus that Australia needs more investment in biostatistics to meet the growing demand.” Professor Barnett said.

Making the most of your curves

Vanaja Thomas — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 02:44:20 GMT

South Australian Branch Meeting, February 2019

Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos is a visiting research fellow at the School of Psychology and casual lecturer at the School of Education, both at the University of Adelaide. From November 2014 to December 2016, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University (Sweden). His research interests include the embodiment of language and emotions, cross-modality, and statistics/methodology. So it was good to have Fernando give an informative and interesting talk about making the most of your curves, with a sub-title towards robust and distributional approaches to data description and analyses.

The goal of Fernando’s talk was to highlight how the shape of the data can be better described by identifying their location, scale and shape parameters. Across many fields it’s canonical to describe data in terms of means and standard deviations. While such estimations of location and scale are appropriate for normally distributed data, more often than not data tend to follow non-normal shapes (e.g. reaction times). Fernando used a range of datasets from different fields to highlight his points. Indeed, most statistical tests assume normality and homogeneity of variance in order to output unbiased results; therefore, biased results occur when data do not meet those assumptions.

For more information contact fernando.marmolejoramos@adelaide.edu.au .

By Paul Sutcliffe

Alan Welsh awarded 2019 Hannan Medal

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 04:15:43 GMT

Outstanding contributions to science have been recognised by the Australian Academy of Science with 20 of Australia’s leading scientists receiving a 2019 honorific award. One of them is our very own Professor Alan Welsh FAA, Australian National University. Read more here.

Global data crunch looms: not enough people to handle it

Vanaja Thomas — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 23:00:00 GMT

Big data is exploding so rapidly around the world, there are not enough skilled operators to handle and interpret it.

The demand for expert data professionals is outstripping supply many times over, an international group of scholars and educators warned today.

Details of a global project to beef up the teaching of data studies in high schools in countries around the world and to train school teachers in data science, as a science of central importance to the human future have been released by the group.

“The last decade has seen spectacular growth in data collection and usage in most areas of human endeavour – from government to business, to health, science and the environment,” a spokesman for the group, Nick Fisher, said.

“The scale and complexity of the data now being amassed are far beyond the ability of single computers or individuals to manage. We need teams of data science experts working together in real time, around the world. That is why we have launching an urgent project aimed at meeting the global shortfall in trained data science professionals.

“At the same time there is an urgent need for ordinary people to be able to understand and use the data now available to them – whether it is about their health, their financial situation, in their job or education.”

“The project is a collaborative activity involving leading computer scientists, statistical scientists, curriculum experts and teachers from Australia, Canada, England, Germany Holland, New Zealand and the USA and supported by several national and international societies, groups and companies.

The aim of the International Data Science in Schools Project (IDSSP) is to transform the way data science is taught the last two years of secondary school. Its objectives are:

To ensure that school children develop a sufficient understanding and appreciation of how data can be acquired and used to make decisions so that they can make informed judgments in their daily lives, as children and then as adults
To inspire mathematically able school students to pursue tertiary studies in data science and its related fields, with a view to a career.

“In both cases, we want to teach people how to learn from data,” Dr Fisher said.

Two curriculum frameworks are being created to support development of a pre-calculus course in data science that is rigorous, engaging and accessible to all students, and a joy to teach.

Framework 1 (Data Science for students). This framework is designed as the basis for developing a course with a total of some 240 hours of instruction.
Framework 2 (Data Science for teachers). As a parallel development, this framework is designed as the basis for guiding the development of teachers from a wide variety of backgrounds (mathematics, computer science, science, economics, …) to teach a data science course well.

Dr Fisher said that the draft frameworks will be published for widespread public consultation in early 2019 before completion by August.

“We envisage the material will be used not just in schools, but also as a valuable source of information for data science courses in community colleges and universities and for private study.”

For further information: idssp.info@gmail.com, or visit www.idssp.org.

Statement of Action on Statistics in Health and Medical Research

Vanaja Thomas — Sat, 18 Aug 2018 02:58:31 GMT

One of the outcomes that emerged from ISCB-ASC2018 held in Melbourne in August 2018 was a Statement of Action on Statistics in Health and Medical Research.

This statement identifies urgent priority areas for action by relevant stakeholders (funding agencies, academic sector, biostatistics research community and professional societies) to protect and grow Australia’s capacity and leadership in the critical field of biostatistics. The statement emerged from a meeting of conference delegates held on Thursday 30 August 2018 to discuss the importance of biostatistical methodology to ensuring the value of health and medical research, and our national capacity and needs in this area. The background to these discussions is summarised and the action points identified here.

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