2nd Annual ASEARC Research Conference
2-3 December 2008

The Applied Statistics Education and Research Collaboration (ASEARC) held its second annual research conference at the University of Wollongong on December 2-3 2008.

The conference featured keynote presentations from international recognised statisticians including:

• Professor Brian Francis, Professor of Social Statistics and Director, National Centre for Research methods, Lancaster University UK
• A/Professor Jennifer Brown, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Canterbury, NZ
• Professor Stephen Clarke, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology
• Dr Mark Tranmer, Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester, UK
• Professor Kim-Anh Do, MD Anderson Cancer Centre, The University of Texas, USA 

ASERC Conference keynote speakers, L to R: Prof David Steel, Prof Kim Anh Do, Prof Brian Francis, Prof Stephen Clarke, Dr. Mark Tranmer and A/Prof Jennifer Brown.

The conference featured discussion sessions on Industry Research and current research being undertaken by ASEARC members.

Papers presented at the conference included:

Brian Francis: Statistical modelling of conviction data - challenging some criminological concepts in criminal careers

Fatimah Almah Saaid: Fraud data modelling: Time series data mining approach

Stephen Bush: Issues facing young statisticians & Design of Stated Choice Experiments

George Sofronov: Spatial Approaches in Small Area Estimation       

Jennifer Brown: Adaptive survey designs for monitoring animal and plant distributions

David Allingham: DNA Segmentation Analysis using Approximate Bayesian Computation

Stephen Clarke: Quantitative analysis and modelling in sport.

Mark Tranmer: Multilevel modelling of happiness: does it make sense?

John Ormerod: Variational Approximations for some Non-standard Semiparametric Models

Kim-Anh Do: Mixture modelling for bioinformatics applications in cancer research

Louise Gates: Application of Operations Research to improving Business Collection Efficiency

Ross Sparks: Risk Assessment – Should it be a real-time activity?

Eugene Dubossarsky: the gaps in education between what academia produces and what industry needs

Trevor Moffiet: Estimation of green vegetation cover fraction using Landsat spectral imagery: Spectral indices determined by principal components analysis

Neil Coombes: R restricted randomisation using DiGGer for experimental designs

For further information on the conference please email Dallas Burnes at dallas@uow.edu.au .

Attendance at the conference was free of charge. 

The Applied Statistics Education and Research Collaboration (ASEARC) was established to develop effective collaboration between the statistics groups at the Universities of Wollongong, Newcastle, and Western Sydney. The aim of the project is to:
1. Jointly develop and deliver subjects and courses;
2. Form a graduate program to improve the research environment for Higher Degree Research students, through shared seminars, training in research methods, workshops and supervision;
3. Improve research at each institution by operating as a research centre, with shared seminar programs, staff development, workshops and mentoring;
4. Enable increased consulting and training by creating a larger pool of staff and skills available for industry.

For further information on ASEARC and the conference please contact Dallas Burnes (dallas@uow.edu.au).