Welcome to the July edition of the SSA newsletter

Our branches and sections have absolutely outdone themselves over recent months putting on a variety of events, even trying out a new style of events. The workshop “Gaining Skills in Biostatistical Consultancy“ drew much interest and the feedback received afterwards was excellent. The Victorian Branch ventured out to try a “Mentoring Breakfast” which proved hugely popular. The Canberra Branch is hosting a pre-conference trivia night just before YSC2019, where contestants can prove their knowledge while being able to indulge in delicious food – how good is that?  On top of all of this, new workshops are being added to our events page regularly, ensuring an exciting second half of the year.
Hope to see you at one of the many events!

Marie-Louise Rankin,  Executive Officer

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Don't miss out on great discounts for YSC2019

The Early Bird Deadline for our Young Statisticians conference is approaching fast. Register  before  tomorrow to take advantage of the Early Bird discount! For more information about YSC2019 please click here.

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Question of the month:

What one thing would youlike to change about SSA? Have your say here.

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Reflecting on the opinion polls

After last month’s call for volunteers to write a publicly available expert report on the recent problems with opinion polls, we were contacted by some of our members about the ongoing inquiry by the Association of Market and Social Research Organisations (AMSRO). Rather than duplicating any effort, we have decided to join forces with AMSRO to produce one in-depth report. You can see the board members and terms of reference for the inquiry here. We look forward to seeing the results of this important work and thank our members who have agreed to give their expertise.

Adrian Barnett
SSA President

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South Australia Branch June Meeting

Polling for the recentfederal election and the role of statisticians

Owing to the cancellation of the scheduled speaker, the June meeting of the SA Branch was an informal discussion of polling problems in the May federal election. Lan Kelly presented a few slides showing the final poll predictions compared with the actual results. The recent Conversation article written by SSA members Adrian Barnett and Scott Sisson was highlighted. Topics of discussion in a lively meeting included possible sources of error, anecdotal experiences of polling and the potential role of statisticians in reducing bias, including a proposed review of polling problems.

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NSW Branch's  Dunsmuirfest (June 2019)

   William Dunsmuir Retires

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. Read all about this special event here.

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Vic Branch June Meeting

Melbourne Mentoring Breakfast

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?  Read more here. 

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QLD Branch June Meeting

Tutorial on Sequential Monte Carlo methods

This month, SSA-QLD and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) hosted Dr Anthony Lee, from the University of Bristol. Dr Lee gave a tutorial on his work on Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods, at the Queensland University of Technology Gardens Point Campus. He discussed the basic algorithm and properties of SMCs, and innovations to this technique, that has helped improve its performance and impact. Further details are available here. A video recording of the tutorial will be released at a later date.

SSA-QLD Newsletter correspondent
Jeeva Kanesarajah, PhD Candidate
The University of Queensland, School of Public Health
raven17786@gmail.com

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AGM 2019 Notice

The 2019 Annual General Meetings of the Statistical Society of Australia, Inc and the Australian Statistical Publishing Association Inc will be held on Tuesday, 27 August 2019 from 5:15pm, preceded by light refreshments and followed by the Foreman lecture and dinner at a venue in Canberra to be confirmed.

The constitution of the SSA requires that the AGMs take place within five months of the close of the financial year of the society and usually the AGMs are scheduled to coincide with the society’s conference. For 2019 this timing was inappropriate.

The meeting agendas and other documents relevant to the AGMs will be published here as they become available. If you wish to read these in hard-copy, would you please print them yourself, since only limited copies will be available at the meeting.

A quorum of 20 members is required to legitimise any decisions made at the AGMs.

It would be wonderful to see you there.

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Help AFemale Mathematician Inspire Girls To Pursue a Career in Maths

Please lend your support to our member Patricia Menéndez' endeavour in the homeward bound program to connect with other #WomenInSTEM. Patricia wants to tell her story and share her journey to inspire females to pursue careers in STEMM and in particular in mathematics and statistics. You can read more about Patricia's work and the program here. Or check out Patricia's videointerview. We wish you all the best, Patricia!

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Member Publication!

Our member Brenton Clarke, a preeminent expert in the field, explores new and exciting methodologies in the ever-growing field of robust statistics. Used to develop data analytical methods which are resistant to outlying observations in the data, while capable of detecting outliers robust statistics is extremely useful for solving an array of common problems, such as estimating location, scale, and regression parameters. This book addresses a range of well-established techniques while exploring, in depth, new and exciting methodologies.  For more information and to purchase this book, please click here.  See more of our members' publications here.

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SSA Member raises $50,000 on the Millionaire Hot Seat!

Congratulations  to SSA Member Mark Donoghoe for rocking episode 65 of the Millionaire Hot Seat on Channel 9, helping to raise $50,000 in support of the vital work of the SCHFoundation. Mark, you were sensational and the SSA is very proud of you!