If you want to take statistics education where young people are, you need to go to the blogosphere. That's part of the motivation behind statschat.org.nz, a new blog (the word blends 'web' and 'log') run by the Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland.

The blog was set up in April to foster discussion of data around us, particularly in the media, and build an archive of resources for the general public, journalists and teachers, says Head of Department Professor Chris Triggs.

Recent posts have looked at how the risk of accidental injury can be interpreted in wildly different ways, explored the claim that women take more sick leave than men (they don't to any degree that explains a 12% pay gap), discussed the unreliability of crowd estimation and even, ahem, commented on what one Richie McCow brought to Rugby World Cup predictions.

Statistics department staff post regularly, but anyone can with an interest in statistics is invited to get involved. Readers can subscribe to blog updates via email, Facebook, Twitter or an RSS reader.

One Department staff member who has become something of a star blogger is Professor of Biostatistics Thomas Lumley. "We want New Zealanders to be more aware of statistics and the role they play in the media," he says. " We see numbers in the media every day and we want people to think carefully about them - what they actually mean and whether or not they make sense."

In August, the blog launched its interactive Stat the Week competition. Anyone can nominate a statistic quoted in New Zealand media, explaining why it is noteworthy, says blog moderator Rachel Cunliffe, a former lecturer in the department.

"We're looking for bad, exemplary or fascinating examples of statistics," she says. "All people need to do is quote the statistic, when and where it was published, and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week."

2011 NZSA Conference

The 2011 NZSA conference was recently held in Auckland. James Curran, chair of the local organising committee, writes:

Thanks from the organizing committee to all the members who attended this year’s conference in Auckland. You made it a great success. I look forward to seeing many of you again next year in Dunedin. I would also like to formally thank our invited speakers; Nick Fisher, Robert Gentleman, Trevor Hastie, Xihong Lin, and Alan Welsh and our sponsors; University of Auckland, SAS, Hoare Research Ltd. and BNZ.

The local organising committee and invited speakers.

A fantastic collection of mug-shots from the conference are now up on the conference website (Thanks Harold!).

Congratulations Megan, Jack and Mitchell!

Congratulations to Megan, Jack and Mitchell of Cashmere Primary School (Christchurch) for their recent success in the International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) Poster Competition. Their poster, "Can you predict the weather at midday by looking out your window in the morning?", won third prize in the intermediate (age 12-15) section.

This international competition, which attracted 4793 students from 17 countries, aims to promote statistics learning and education at school level. The theme of the competition this year was Environment. More information on the competition, and a full list of winners, can be accessed here [pdf, 270 KB].

The NZSA supported the New Zealand league of the competition with a Campbell Bequest Fund grant of $500 towards the national prizes.

2011 AGM: New Executive

The 2011 Annual General Meeting of the New Zealand Statistical Association was held Tuesday August 30, 2011. The agenda, and Executive/Committee reports are available online.

Information on members of the NZSA Executive elected and endorsed at the AGM of 2011 can be found here.
President: James Curran (University of Auckland)
Secretary: Beatrix Jones (Massey University, Albany)

The New Editor of the Newsletter

The Newsletter now has a new Editor: Steven Miller (University of Waikato) has taken over from Esther Meenken. Esther has been Editor since 2009 (#69), and produced 5 editions. Thanks Esther for all your hard work!

Esther and Steven discussing the Newsletter.

NZSA Honours for 2011
For the first time in NZSA history the Campbell Award was awarded jointly. The recipients of the 2011 award were Roger Littlejohn (AgResearch) and Alastair Scott (University of Auckland). Congratulations! Citations for both winners will appear in the next Newsletter. Sadly Roger was granted the award posthumously. However it was lovely that his wife, Annette, and children, Tabitha and Jeremy, were present at the NZSA conference dinner to accept the award on Roger's behalf.

Congratulations to the winners of the student prizes, which were generously sponsored by Hoare Research Software:
First
Jing Liu (University of Auckland)
Diffusion approximation and maximum entropy
Second
Adam Smith (Massey University)
Linking zeros to abundance in zero-inflated models of species count data
Third =
Sam McKechnie (University of Auckland)
The potential of life-history models of Coho salmon dynamics
Third =
Peter Green (Otago University)
Sequential analysis of the Moran Process

2012 NZSA Conference

The 2012 NZSA conference is to be held at the University of Otago (Dunedin) from 29th to the 30th of November.

To contact the local organising committee email Austina Clark.

If you have "New News" to share with members please do email the Webmaster.

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Updated 19 September 2011