Announcing the Annual General Meeting of the Statistical Society of Australia, W.A. Branch.
5:15 ᴘᴍ on Tuesday 10th March 2020
BLAKERS LECTURE THEATRE
SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS
UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Followed by a seminar at 6:00 ᴘᴍ
Statistical Methods to Survey Hidden Networked Populations
Dr. Mark S. Handcock
Professor of Statistics
University of California - Los Angeles
ABSTRACT:
In many situations, standard survey sampling strategies fail because the target populations cannot be accessed through well-defined sampling frames. Typically, a sampling frame for the target population is not available, and its members are rare or stigmatized in the larger population so that it is prohibitively expensive to contact them through the available frames. We discuss statistical issues in studying hard-to-reach or otherwise "hidden" populations. These populations are characterized by the difficulty in survey sampling from them using standard probability methods. Examples in a demographic setting include unregulated workers and migrants. Examples of such populations in a behavioural and social setting include injection drug users, men who have sex with men, and female sex workers. Hard-to-reach populations are under-served by current sampling methodologies mainly due to the lack of practical alternatives to address these methodological difficulties. We will focus on populations where some form of social network information can be used to assist the data collection. In such situations sophisticated statistical methods are needed to allow the characteristics of the population to be inferred from the collected data.
We review adaptive network sampling, including respondent-driven sampling. We develop model-assisted methods and capture-recapture ideas.
This is joint work with Krista J. Gile, Katherine R. McLaughlin and Brian Kim.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Mark S. Handcock is Professor of Statistics at the University of California - Los Angeles. His research involves methodological development, and is based largely on motivation from questions in the social and epidemiological sciences. He has published extensively on models for social networks, network inference, and network sampling methods. For details, see his web page http://www.stat.ucla.edu/~handcock/
Members and guests are invited to enjoy wine and cheese from 5:15 ᴘᴍ. The Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held during this time in the Blakers Lecture Theatre. Non-members of the SSA WA branch may be present but cannot vote on AGM matters. The AGM agenda will be provided to the SSA WA Branch email list.
Following the meeting you are invited to dine with the speaker at a nearby restaurant. Visitors are welcome.
The Blakers Lecture Theatre is located on the ground floor of the Mathematics building at UWA. The entrance is on the outside of the building. Map links: Google Maps, Open Street Maps (Mathematics building).
Parking is free on the UWA campus after 5pm. We suggest using car park 18 from Fairway entry 1.
For further information please contact the Branch Secretary, Rick Tankard, Murdoch University.
He can be reached by email at rick.tankard@murdoch.edu.au or by phone at (08) 9360 2820.
@StatSocAus
