Monthly Seminars

Webinar: Now there are two of them! Why you shouldn't dichotomise your variables

In many fields, it is common practice to dichotomise continuous variables prior to analysis. It may seem like a good idea that makes your life easier, but did you know that your results may suffer? We will take a closer look at the effect that dichotomising variables may have on results and discuss alternatives.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and follow by discussion

Speaker: Peter Humburg, Statistical Consultant, UNSW Stats Central

Date: Thursday 9 April 2020

Time: 2.30-3.30pm

Location: Online click HERE

(access to be received when registration completed)

Regression to the mean is hoodwinking you, come find out how to recognise and outsmart it

Regression to the mean is a statistical phenomenon that can make natural variation in repeated data look like real change due to an intervention. It can make ineffective treatments look effective, and has caught out many well-meaning researchers. It is also deliberately used by snake oil merchants to make sham treatments look effective. Once you know to look out for it, it can found and eliminated with very simple design and analysis methods.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and will be followed by time for discussion. We'll move on after our talk to Hacky Hour (Penny Lane Café, 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm) where people can get help on statistics and bioinformatics, high performance computing and other data-related things.

Speaker: Gordana Popovic, Statistical Consultant

Date and Time:  Thursday, 12 March 2020, 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm

Location:  Civil Engineering Building (K-H20-109) Room 109 | Kensington Campus

Paired Data

Paired data crops up in many contexts. When two measurements are made on the same experimental unit, the data values are paired - for example, pre- and post-activity with the same subjects; measurements from two litter mates; data from each hand of a person. Paired data is clearly not independent and this dependence must be accounted for in any statistical analysis. This talk will look at how to analyse some examples of paired data, including continuous and discrete outcome measures.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and will be followed by time for discussion. We'll move on after our talk to Hacky Hour (Penny Lane Café, 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm) where people can get help on statistics and bioinformatics, high performance computing and other data-related things.

Speaker: Peter Geelan-Small, Statistical Consultant

Date and Time:  Thursday, 13 February 2020, 2.30 pm to 3.00 pm

Location:  Mathews Theatre C (K-D23-303) | Kensington Campus

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

2019 in Graphs

As we come towards the end of 2019, we will look back on the year that was – politics, trade wars, climate change and S25 – through the lens of data visualisation!

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and will be followed by time for discussion. We'll move on after our talk to Hacky Hour (Penny Lane Café, 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm) where people can get help on statistics and bioinformatics, high performance computing and other data-related things.

Speaker: Prof. David Warton, Director of Stats Central, David is a professor of statistics specialising at its interface with ecological & environmental statistics.

Date and Time:  Thursday, 14th November 2019, 2.30 pm to 3.00 pm

Location:  Central Lecture Block, Theatre 2, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

The Odd Thing About Odds Ratios

The odds ratio is a commonly used effect size measure for binary responses, but it has attracted some criticism. This seminar will attempt to demystify odds ratios, discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and present possible alternatives.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and will be followed by time for discussion. We'll move on after our talk to Hacky Hour (Penny Lane Café, 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm) where people can get help on statistics and bioinformatics, high performance computing and other data-related things.

Speaker:   Mark Donoghoe, Statistical Consultant, Stats Central

Date and Time:  Thursday, 10th October 2019, 2.30 pm to 3.00 pm

Location:  Central Lecture Block, Theatre 2, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

The wonderful geometry of regression models, conditional relationships and "controlling for" variables

Have you ever wondered how regression models can “control for” variables when assessing effects? This seminar will attempt to demystify this concept by explaining underlying geometry with pictures and demonstrations.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and will be followed by time for discussion. We'll move on after our talk to Hacky Hour (Penny Lane Café, 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm) where people can get help on statistics and bioinformatics, high performance computing and other data-related things.

Speaker:   Gordana Popovic, Statistical Consultant, Stats Central. 

Date and Time:  Thursday, 19th September 2019, 2.30 pm to 3.00 pm

Location:  Mathews Theatre C, Kensington Campus (D23), UNSW Sydney

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

No difference does not imply equivalence: misuse of P values in equivalence/non-inferiority testing

There has been growing interest in studies to determine if new therapies have equivalent or non-inferior efficacies to standard therapy. These studies are called equivalence/noninferiority studies. This talk will describe the concepts and statistical methods involved in testing equivalence/non-inferiority, and its difference to superiority testing. We will demonstrate with examples the setup of specific margins and null hypotheses, the use and interpretation of confidence intervals as well as how to avoid the misuse of P values in equivalence/non-inferiority testing.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and will be followed by time for discussion. We'll move on after our talk to Hacky Hour (Penny Lane Café, 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm) where people can get help on statistics and bioinformatics, high performance computing and other data-related things.

Speaker:   Zhixin Liu, Statistical Consultant, Stats Central. 

Date and Time:  Thursday, 8th August 2019, 2.30 pm to 3.00 pm  Please note new starting time for our seminars!

Location:  Central Lecture Block, Theatre 5, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

Dealing with missing data in your research

Missing data occurs in almost all research, even well-designed and controlled studies. Missing data can reduce power and result in a biased estimate of your effect of interest. In this talk, I will review the mechanisms that give rise to missing data.  I will also discuss some of the strategies available to address missingness, such as value substitution and deletion and more advanced methods such as imputation and maximum likelihood.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long.

Speaker:  Nancy Briggs, Senior Statistical Consultant and Manager, Stats Central. 

Date and Time:  Thursday, 11th July 2019, 2.30 pm to 3.00 pm  Please note new starting time for our seminars!

Location:  Central Lecture Block, Theatre 1, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

Visualising data - making sure your graph is worth 1,000 words

How can you make a picture of your data to make its message clear? You need good graphs to analyse data well and communicate your results effectively. This talk focusses on principles of effective data visualisation. Graphing principles and different types of graphs will be demonstrated using the R statistical package, but the basic principles apply to making graphs in any software package.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and followed by discussion.

Speaker: Peter Geelan-Small, Statistical Consultant, Stats Central.

Date and Time:  Thursday, 13 June 2019, 3-4 pm

Location:  Central Lecture Block (E19), Theatre 6, Kensington Campus UNSW Sydney

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

Three C's of causal consideration: confounding, collinearity and colliders

A useful talk about deciding on the inclusion/exclusion of variables based on certain causal relationships or large levels of correlation.

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and followed by discussion.

Speaker:  Ben Maslen, Statistical Consultant. Ben works at the interface of statistics and ecology using a wide variety of statistical techniques and has particular expertise in models for multivariate abundance data.

Date and Time:  Thursday, 23 May 2019, 3-4 pm

Location:  Central Lecture Block (E19), Theatre 3, Kensington Campus UNSW Sydney

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

How do you deal with count data?

We will talk about techniques for dealing with data obtained when we count things and various properties that these types of data have. Some topics we will discuss are: mean-variance relationships, overdispersion and underdispersion, as well as a variety of models for data obtained from counts (such as, Poisson and negative binomial models and models for binomial successes).

The talk will be about 30 minutes long and followed by discussion.

Speaker:  Ben Maslen, Statistical Consultant. Ben works at the interface of statistics and ecology using a wide variety of statistical techniques and has particular expertise in models for multivariate abundance data.

Date and Time:  Thursday, 11 April 2019, 3-4 pm

Location:  Central Lecture Block (E19), Theatre 1, Kensington Campus UNSW Sydney

Slides for the presentation are HERE.

What can Data Science do for you?

Ever wonder how investment companies improve investment returns? What tools manufacturers use to improve their productivity? How e-commerce companies can increase their revenue? (Spoiler alert: they use Data Science!)

This is an introductory seminar on Data Science from a Computer Science perspective. Data science is a multi-disciplinary field that requires skills from mathematics, computer science and business. I will cover topics including:

• The basics of Data Science
• How to apply Data Science to your projects and
• Requirements and challenges when using Data Science

The talk will be about 30 minutes long

Speaker: Raymond Wong, Stats Central and Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering. Raymond's research interests include: big data management, XML and semi-structured data, data mining and analytics, mobile technologies and service computing

Date and Time:  Tuesday, 12th March 2019, 3.00 to 4.00 pm

Location:  NewSouth Global Theatre, Webster Building (G14), Room 127 | UNSW Kensington Campus

Slides for the presentation are HERE

Analysis of Pretest-Posttest Data: It’s not as straightforward as you might think!