Posts tagged awards (2)

Every year, the Department of Statistics offers summer scholarships to a number of students so they can work with staff on real-world projects. Alexander, right, is undertaking a statistics education research project with Dr Marie Fitch and Dr Stephanie Budgett. Alexander explains:

“Essentially, what this project involves is looking at how bootstrapping and re-randomisation being added into the university’s introductory statistics course have affected students’ understanding of statistical inference, such as interpreting P-values and confidence intervals, and knowing what can and can’t be justifiably claimed based on those statistical results.

“This mainly consists of classifying test and exam questions into several key categories from before and after bootstrapping and re-randomisation were added to the course, and looking at the change (if any) in the number of students who correctly answer these questions over time, and even if any common misconceptions become more or less prominent in students’ answers as well.

“This sort of project is useful as traditionally, introductory statistics education has had a large focus on the normal distribution and using it to develop ideas and understanding of statistical inference from it. This results in a theoretical and mathematical approach, which means students will often be restricted by the complexity of it and will therefore struggle to be able to use it to make clear inference about the data.

“Bootstrapping and re-randomisation are two techniques that can be used in statistical analysis and were added into the introductory statistics course at the university in 2012. They have been around for some time, but have only become prominent and practically useful recently as they require many repetitions of simulations, which obviously is better-suited to a computer rather than a person. Research on this emphasises how using these techniques allow key statistical ideas to be taught and understood without a lot of fuss, such as complicated assumptions and dealing with probability distributions.

“In 2015, I’ll be completing my third year of a BSc in Statistics and Operations Research, and I’ll be looking at doing postgraduate study after that. I’m not sure why statistics appeals to me, I just found it very interesting and enjoyable at university and wanted to do more of it. I always liked maths at school, so it probably stemmed from that.

“I don’t have any plans to go away anywhere so this summer I’ll just relax, enjoy some time off in the sun and spend time around home. I might also focus on some drumming practice, as well as playing with my two dogs.”

A huge congratulations to our staff member, Dr James Russell who has been awarded the 2012 Prime Minister’s MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize for his internationally-recognised conservation work.

Dr Russell uses an innovative combination of ecology, statistics and genetics to study how rats and other mammalian pests invade predator-free islands and how to prevent this from happening. His work is helping to protect endangered native species and to maintain New Zealand’s reputation as a world leader in island conservation. With more than 80 per cent of the world’s island groups infested with rats, his expertise is also sought internationally to help eradicate and manage pest species.

His doctoral research examined how far rats could travel to predator-free islands and how they spread once they arrive. It led to greater understanding of how pest invasions occur and to new pest management techniques. Dr Russell is now focusing on the interactions between climate change, native and invasive species and ecosystem linkages, to help conserve native species.

He will spend several months in France next year working on conservation projects, and is involved with the Department of Conservation and philanthropist Gareth Morgan on the “Million Dollar Mouse” eradication project on the Antipodes Islands.

Read more about the awards »