New Zealand Statistical Association Newsletter 67
March 2008
Reports
Palmy Stats DayComing Events
NZSA 2008 - July, 2008
ICOTS8
GenStat2008
A Successful Statistics Forum at Massey University (26/10/2007)
The third Palmy Statistics Forum was held at Massey University, on 26
October 2007, sponsored largely by the Crop and Food Research Centre,
Palmerston North combined with the Institute of Information Sciences and
Technology, Massey University and the Principal of the Turitea campus,
Professor Ian Warrington. The event was held in the Fernwood Room of Bernard
Chambers-A on the Turitea campus which has proved to be an appropriate
venue for this gathering. Photos are available here.
We were privileged to have Professor Robert Anderson (PVC -College of
Sciences) with us who wished us and officially opened this Forum.
Participants attended from diverse research institutions in Palmerston
North which included the Crop and Food Research Centre, Landcare, AgResearch
Grasslands, Hort. Research, the Hopkirk Institute and Fonterra. Within
Massey University there were representatives from INR, IVABS EpiCentre,
the Allan Wilson Centre, IIST of course, and also a representative from
IIMS, Albany. These included not only senior academics but also a healthy
number of postgraduate students, several of whom presented papers at the
Forum. Wellington was also represented by attendees from the Ministry
of Social Development, the Ministry of Defence, and the Department of
Corrections. In all, there were 48 participants enrolled for the day.
There were thirteen paper presentations which covered a wide variety
of applications and a range of problems. The presentations generated stimulating
scholarly discussion on the research problems described. The junior and
the senior researchers in Statistics, who participated in the Forum must
be commended on their contributions to a meaningful and constructive discussion,
which will definitely lead to more collaborative
research in the future
The
keynote speaker, Ian Westbrooke from the Department of Conservation (DOC),
Christchurch, illustrated the diverse problems which arise in the work
of the Department of Conservation and the statistical solutions sought.
It was an inspiring talk and gave plenty of ‘food for thought’
for participants to take home at the end of the day.
Ian, who is a Senior Statistician, described the variety and challenges
in his work which has included the following
• designing a parakeet survey for a remote tropical island;
• assessing the minimum area needed for a self-sustaining population
using matrix population modelling and geometric probability;
• data mining, including a public opinion survey on the popularity
of DOC which was run for 12 years; and
• preparing statistics for the courtroom in a marine poaching prosecution
which involved analysing compositional data on minerals in paua.
Ian also outlined what he sees as key educational needs for DOC staff to undertake formal education which should include studying Massey statistics papers such as Biometrics and Introductory Statistics to further their understanding of methods with which to grapple with conservation problems.
Overall, the Forum was a great success. There is no doubt that this event provides an avenue for promoting new links, and strengthening old ones amongst researchers in and around the Manawatu region.
Ganes S Ganesalingam & Alasdair Noble
Organisers of the Forum.- IIS&T
31 Oct 2007
NZSA 2008
University of Waikato
Hamilton
July 7 - 8
You are warmly invited to attend the 59th Annual Conference of the New
Zealand Statistical Association at the University of Waikato on Monday
and Tuesdy July 7 and 8.
Themes
Papers are invited from any area of probability and statistics. Student
presentations are especially welcome.
Student Prizes and Student Travel Grants
Hoare Research Software will again sponsor $1000 in student prizes. The
NZSA has some funds available to support students at New Zealand Universities
travelling to the conference. For further information contact Jennifer
Brown.
Statistics Education Session
There will be a session on statistics education of interest especially
to high school teachers, with the aim of providing materials and real
data that will be useful in the classroom. A nominal registration fee
will be charged for any teachers wishing to attend only this session.
Conference Website
This is currently in preparation. A link to the conference website will
appear in http://nzsa.rsnz.org/NZSA2008/index.htm.
An email will be sent to members when the conference web goes live.
Abstract Submission
Further details will be given on the conference website when available.
Registration
Details will be appearing on the conference website. An early bird registration
discount will apply. Student registration will receive a 50% discount.
Members of the NZSA and the SSAI will also receive a discount.
AGM
The annual general meeting of the New Zealand Statistical Association
will be held after the last sessions on the first day of the conference.
Conference Dinner
A conference dinner is being planned for the evening of Monday 7th July.
Organising Committee
Currently the core of the committee comprises Judi McWhirter, Harold Henderson,
James Curran, and Rohan Maheswaran. We are interested in recruiting a
few more members. If anyone is interested in helping, please contact Judi
McWhirter.
ICOTS8
The
next International Conference on Teaching Statistics is being held in
Ljubljana, Slovenia 11-16 July 2010. The Conference Theme is data and
context in statistics education: towards an evidence-based society. The
conference topics and committees are named below. Anyone interested in
being associated with or organising a session under one of the topics
can express their interest to any of the topic convenors or to the Chair
of the Programme Committee, John
Harraway. The sessions within each topic will be developed over the
next nine months.
Topics And Topic Convenors:
1. Data and context in statistics education: towards an evidence-based
society
Brian Phillips
Irena Ograjensek
2. Statistics education at the school level
Mike Shaughnessy
Doreen Connor
3. Learning to teach statistics
Katie Makar
Joachim Engel
4. Statistics education at the post secondary level
Elisabeth Svensson
Larry Weldon
5. Assessment
Beth Chance
Iddo Gal
6. Statistics education, training and the workplace
Gabriella Belli
Peter Petocz
7. Statistics education and the wider society
Richard Gadsden
Oded Meyer
8. Research in statistics education
Arthur Bakker
Tim Burgess
9. Technology in statistics education
Deborah Nolan
Paul Darius
10. An international perspective on statistics education
Delia North
Enriqueta Reston
11. Contributed papers
Gilberte Schuyten
James Nicholson
12. Posters
Mojca Bavdaz
GenStat
2008
Preliminary announcement:
The Australasian GenStat Conference, 2008: Biometrics in Primary Industries
and the Environment is to be held at Marylands Country House, Marysville,
Yarra Valley Ranges, Victoria, Australia on 2-5th December 2008.
There will be a pre-conference workshop in Experimental Design, at the
University of Melbourne on 1 Dec 2008.
Further details will be advertised in the next couple of months and will
be available on the conference
website. This site should be active from late February.
This conference traditionally has a friendly atmosphere and attracts a
mix of consulting biometricians and people developing methods for applied
statistics, not all of whom are GenStat users. It is a chance to meet
the GenStat developers and to hear about new features in the package,
but a major focus is on biometrical applications and new developments
in biometrics.