Dear {Contact_First_Name},
You may have noticed that the ANZSTAT email list was recently shut down. The ANZSTAT list was a fantastic resource for the Australian and New Zealand statistical community, but, as many are aware, did have some problems. The list was hosted by the University of Queensland for free, however, it had no facility for any oversight of the list or the messages posted on it. While this did allow for a free flow of ideas, it occasionally led to disrespectful and potentially harmful messages. This led to many people leaving the list, so it did not reach the whole statistical community. The list was not “owned’' by anyone, which meant that there was no way to moderate these messages. The SSA is providing an alternative to the email-based ANZSTAT list, which we invite you to join, peruse, and contribute to: the ANZSTAT discussion forum. This service provides special areas for job and event postings, as well as for general discussion, and will be moderated. We have already solved some of the old problems with the ANZSTAT list (such as repeated unsubscribe messages) and are working to fix other issues and suggestions. Please send any thoughts to eo@statsoc.org.au. Jessica Kasza, SSA President and Adrian Barnett, SSA Vice-President
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Fellowship funding support
Are you applying for competitive fellowship funding this year? To help our members in this highly competitive world, we are awarding $3000 to support their applications. We will award up to eight members this year. We will use a panel of senior members and recent fellowship winners to select the best eight applications.
The funding will cover the following early career schemes (please get in touch if you are applying for another relevant fellowship scheme that we have not listed):
- ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)
- ARC Future Fellowship Level 1
- NHMRC Investigator grants EL1 and EL2 (emerging leader)
Successful members will be able to state in their application that they have been recognised by the society and have won $3000 in competitive funding from the Statistical Society of Australia to spend during their fellowship. Receiving the award is conditional on winning the fellowship.
To apply please complete this short application form by 30 September 2020. The scheme is limited to one application per member. The awards will be announced in mid-October. |
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WA Young
Statisticians’ Workshop
The WA branch of the Young Statistician’s Network (YSN) is hosting an online workshop geared for students and early-career professionals who want to pursue a career in statistics and data science.
The workshop will take place online on
30th September and
1st October. |
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Invited speakers will showcase a broad spectrum of statistical applications. Students and early-career professionals are encouraged to submit abstracts for a short presentation (due 9th September) or e-poster (due 23rd September).
This event is free and inclusive - all time zones, ages and skill-levels are welcome!
For more information visit the workshop website, or contact ysmurdoch@gmail.com. |
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Did you see this article by Caitlin Cassidy in the Age (21 April 2020):
Overall death rates are down - now the bad news?
It explains that while the COVID-19 statistics are, of course, devastating, we might actually see life expectancy go up this year because social distancing is stopping other viruses from spreading and the lockdowns have lowered the number of deaths from common causes including flu, motor vehicles and workplace accidents. It makes for an interesting read. |
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Starting week beginning 7 September 2020
The annual International Conference of the Royal Statistical Society takes place every September for anyone interested in statistics and data science. The RSS conference regularly attracts more than 600 attendees from over 40 countries, providing one of the best opportunities for statisticians and data scientists to come together to share knowledge and network. The conference program is now available here.
This year's conference will once again feature top keynote speakers and invited talk sessions but will be slightly different. Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the RSS 2020 Conference is moving online. This is a great opportunity to attend a world renowned event without having to pay for travel and accommodation. You may have to sacrifice some sleep though...
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Previously advertised - places still available!
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The Statistical Society of Australia is pleased to invite you to the following workshop:
Version control using Git and RStudio
presented by the Curtin Institute for Computation (CIC)
over two days on 10-11 September 2020 (11:00 AM-12:30PM AEST each day)
Version control is an efficient method of keeping a record of changes made to your work over time. Each set of changes creates a new commit of the files and the version control system allows users to recover old commits reliably and helps manage conflicting changes made by different users.4 It is extremely useful for collaborating with others and for managing individual projects, and a crucial component of reproducible research.
This workshop will teach version control using Git5, a free and open source distributed version control system. The workshop will be interactive. Participants will learn from a combination of presentation slides, live coding and group learning though break out sessions with fellow participants.
The course is aimed at SSA members who want to learn more about version control and reproducibility of their research.
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The SSA is delighted to invite you to the following webinar (10 September, 1pm AEST)
with Dr Gary Chan:
An application of network meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of electronic cigarette on smoking cessation
Network meta-analysis (NMA) is a technique for evidence synthesis and is used to compare treatment effects of different types of interventions. In this seminar, I will demonstrate the application of NMA on evaluating the evidence for the effectiveness of electronic cigarette on smoking cessation, compared to traditional nicotine replacement therapy and nicotine-free control conditions. Data and analysis script will be available on my Github account.
Dr Gary Chan is a statistician and epidemiologist at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, UQ. |
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Please join us for the following online workshop
Semiparametric Regression with R
to be held from 30 September – 2 October 2020 (11am-1pm AEST each day)
with Professor Matt P. Wand.
Semiparametric regression methods build on parametric regression models by allowing more flexible relationships between the predictors and the response variables. The presenter's goal is to provide an easy-to-follow applied course on semiparametric regression methods using R. This course is intended for applied statistical analysts who have some familiarity with R.
Matt P. Wand is a Distinguished Professor of Statistics at the University of Technology Sydney. |
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Calling brilliant women in STEM:
Are you Superstar material? Science & Technology Australia is on the hunt for the next 60 #SuperstarsofSTEM. The program takes diverse women in science, technology engineering and maths – and helps them to build the skills they need to become media and public speaking stars. Here’s why it works: https://bit.ly/3021a4e.
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Join us for the following webinar:
Random Effects Inference in Linear Mixed Models: The good, the bad, and the misspecified
held on Friday, 25 September 2020 at 12:00PM AEST via Zoom, exclusively for members of SSA and NZSA.
This event is presented by Francis K.C. Hui and Alan H. Welsh (Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies & Statistics, Australian National University) and their talk is a culmination of two projects on the topic of random effects inference in linear mixed models.
For the abstract, for additional information and to register click on the button below. |
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Going to a conference/workshop this year? Check out the SSA Canberra young statisticians "rego" grant!
SSA Canberra is inviting young statisticians from the ACT and regional NSW, 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". SSA Canberra will award an amount up to $200 AUD per successful application. |
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Tired of
surveys but eager to leave feedback? Tell us what you are missing from your
SSA membership. Or let us know what we do well. We will listen.
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Statistical Society of Australia | PO Box 213 Belconnen ACT 2616 Australia 02 6251 3647 | www.statsoc.org.au |
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