ASC 2025

Mark your calendars! The Australian Statistical Conference (ASC2025) is coming to Perth, WA, from 1–5 December 2025. This year’s conference promises to be an unmissable event, bringing together leading minds in statistics and data science from across Australia and beyond.

Join us for an exciting week of cutting-edge presentations, engaging workshops, and invaluable networking opportunities with professionals, academics, and industry leaders.

Keynotes:

A/Prof Tanya P. Garcia University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC USA

Collaborations with neuroscientists and biologists, her research focuses on extracting maximal information from large, highly correlated data structures and has led to scientific discoveries in neurodegenerative diseases and the gut microbiome. Her leadership promotes the success of underrepresented groups in (bio)statistics.

Prof Martin L. Hazelton Otago University, Dunedin, NZ, formerly Palmerston North, Perth, and Oxford

Martin Hazelton is a statistician with wide-ranging research interests. He has worked previously at the University of Oxford, University College London, the University of Western Australia, and Massey University in NZ. Martin is editor-in-chief of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics.

A/Prof Sofia S. Villar UK MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, UK

Since September 2020, she has been an MRC Investigator (Programme Leader) working as part of the Efficient Study Design (ESD) theme. Her research aims to improve clinical trial design through the development of innovative methods that lie in the intersection between optimisation, machine learning and statistics.

Sofia Villar’s presentation for ASC 2025:

Title: Recent advances for the design, analysis and implementation of Response-Adaptive Designs: Are We There Yet?

Abstract: Response-adaptive designs, where treatment allocation dynamically adjusts based on observed outcomes, have a rich history dating back to the 1930s, even predating the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) in 1948. While theoretically appealing, their practical implementation in clinical trials has faced significant challenges. This talk will present three recent advances developed by my group that bridge the gap between theory and practice. Each contribution addresses a critical aspect of response-adaptive designs, encompassing innovative design strategies (introducing a new optimal allocation proportion from a finite sample perspective), novel analytical approaches (exact tests and allocation probability tests), and practical implementation solutions (a mapping strategy to facilitate the seamless integration of response-adaptive designs into clinical trial workflows). These advances, while motivated by the context of clinical trials, have broader implications for improving the efficiency and ethical conduct of experiments in various domains, including digital experimentation.

Dr Katharina Schuller Founder & CEO, STAT-UP Statistical Consulting, Germany

Katharina studied psychology at the Technical University of Dresden and then earned a degree in statistics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a PhD from Maastricht University in 2020.

In 2003, while still a student, she founded STAT-UP Statistical Consulting & Data Science Services, of which she is still the CEO. The company supports decision-makers in companies as well as politics and administration in building data strategies and data competence as well as developing data applications and models to make data-based decisions with the help of statistics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. An example of the work done by STAT-UP is the development of risk modelling software for the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. This is the prototype of a programme that supports the risk assessor in creating and documenting quantitative risk models.

In 2020, Katharina initiated the development of a Data Literacy Charter under the sponsorship of the Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany, which was signed by more than 100 representatives from business, politics and science. In 2021, the IEEE Standards Association appointed her to lead an international working group to develop a global standard for Data & AI Literacy.

Katharina was also involved in the development of the app Stadt, Land, DatenFluss by the German Adult Education Association. This was created to strengthen citizens' data literacy by explaining how new data-based technologies work in a playful way.

Joanne completed both her Bachelor of Science (University of Melbourne) and PhD studies in applied statistics (University of St Andrews, Scotland). She has extensive work experience as a statistician within government agencies, academia and private industry.

Since 2012, Joanne has run her own statistical consulting firm, The Analytical Edge Pty Ltd based in southern Tasmania. During this time, she has worked on a variety of nationally and internationally funded projects for state and federal government agencies, NGOs, private industry, and academic researchers, advising on optimal survey design for data collection and ensuring management actions are guided by statistically robust analyses and results. The diversity of her role is vast, having developed statistical methods to estimate density of cryptic species, to methods in biosecurity settings for predicting disease spread….”

Stay tuned for more details, including program highlights, and how you can get involved.