PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

The use of the O.C.E.A.N model and Big Data

The use of Big Data is becoming increasingly evident in the world around us. It was even

used in the recent elections held in the USA which resulted in the startling outcome of Donald

Trump becoming the new president. The company behind Trump’s online campaign was

Cambridge Analytica ― a Big Data firm. This is according to an article published by Hannes

Grassegger and Mikael Krogerus entitled: “The data that turned the world upside down”. The

article appeared in 2016 in Das Magazin, a respected German magazine. An English

translation of their article (a very interesting read) can be found at

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/how-our-likes-helped-trump-win. I give a short

summary here.

Cambridge Analytica used a psychometric model that measure five psychological traits of

personality. The model is known as O.C.E.A.N. which is an acronym for the personality traits

of Openness (how open are you to new experiences?), Conscientiousness (how much of a

perfectionist are you?), Extroversion (how sociable are you?), Agreeableness (how

considerate and cooperative are you?) and Neuroticism (how sensitive are you?). Measures

of these traits were collected from people who completed online personality tests. These

measures were then correlated with demographic variables such as gender, age and

location, as well as the person’s online behaviour, such as what the person “liked”, shared

and posted on Facebook (many online quizzes demand access to private information as a

prerequisite for the user taking the personality test).

Read more and decide whether or not Big Data has the ability to change the world ―

for good or for bad.

Danie Uys - President of SASA

Editorial

The year is in full swing! Welcome to all.

In the president’s column Danie Uys addresses the concept of Big Data. This issue has

information on the 2017 SASA conference to be hosted by the University of the Free State in

November this year. The Department of Statistics at Stellenbosch University shares their 70th

birthday celebrations. WD Schutte sent a report on the 4th African International Conference

on Statistics held in Limpopo.

The post graduate competition from the Education Committee is announced. Meet Stefan

Britz, a young statistician. A tribute to Nico Laubscher is also included.

Also take note of the calls for the Sichel medal, fellows and honorary members, and a

thought leader Deadlines: 15 August 2017. The seminar program of the University of

Stellenbosch for the second semester is included. Please take note of the vacancies on the

SASA EC from 2018. Nominate someone if you think he/she would like doing the job.

Welcome to a record number of new SASA members!

Mardi

jankomd@unisa.ac.za

https://www.facebook.com/SASAstatistics/.

Contact details, submissions and advertising

Thought Leader Award

SASA will once again award a Thought Leader Award in 2017 to one of its members due to

the generous sponsorship from SAS South Africa. A Though Leader is a person who has

made an impact within the South African statistical community across a wide range of

activities and has made significant contributions in academia, industry, government and

elsewhere. Contributions and activities are evaluated over the last 10 years for the nominated

person. Deadline: 15 August 2017

Read more

Welcome - new members!

Our community is growing - click here to see the list of our new members. Especially welcome to our new

student members.

See who the new members are

Vacancies on the EC: call for nominations

We need your help: please nominate SASA members for Vice-president, Sponsorship, Treasurer and

Managing Editor of the Journal

Nomination form

Call for nominations and submissions: the Herbert Sichel

Medal

We need your help: please nominate SASA members for Vice-president, The Herbert Sichel Medal is

awarded annually to the member (or members) of the Association who has (have) published the best

statistical paper during the previous year. Accordingly, members are invited to nominate or submit papers

for consideration for the 2017 Herbert Sichel Medal.

More information

Stellenbosch Seminar Programme Semester 2

Programme

Spotlight on Prof Nico Laubsher

Nico Francois Laubscher was born in Paarl, 1934. His childhood was spent on a farm near

the small town of Tadcaster at Vaalhartz in the Northern Cape, where he matriculated in 1951

at the Vaalhartz High School. Between 1952 and 1960 he studied at Potchefstroom

University, completing BSc (Applied Mathematics), BSc (Hons) (Mathematics), MSc

(Mathematics) and in 1960 DSc (Mathematical Statistics). His supervisors were HS Steyn

and JM de Wet. His dissertation was titled "On transformations for the stabilization of

variance and the normalization of distribution functions".

Read more

Feedback on the 4th African International Conference on Statistics

Left: Discussions during the poster session. Middle: Dr Barry Nussbaum

(President of the American Statistical Association) giving his address.

Right: Awarding of prizes during the gala dinner

The 4th African International Conference on Statistics was hosted on 20-23

March 2017 by the University of Limpopo in collaboration with the University of

Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), USA. The conference was held at The

Ranch Resort just outside Polokwane with the central theme being “New

Methods of Data Analysis & Statistical Applications to Big Data”.

The conference had a wealth of international experts that presented keynote

addresses during the 4-day conference. As chief guest, Dr. Barry Nussbaum -

President of the American Statistical Association - delighted the delegates with

his very interesting address titled “It’s Not What We Said, It’s Not What They

Heard, It’s What They Say They Heard”. As main argument, he highlighted the

importance of conveying clear and understandable messages to any audience

based on thorough statistical analyses. In addition to Dr Nussbaum, 21 other

international experts (from the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Cameroon, Portugal,

Germany, Belgium and the Philippines) gave keynote addresses during this

thought-provoking conference.

An important panel discussion took place (led by Dr. Malick Mbodj from the

Bowie State University, USA) regarding the retention of African Statisticians in

Africa. The focus of the discussion centred on establishing greater collaboration

between African and international universities in terms of the training of

statisticians on tertiary level. It was agreed that Dr. Mbodj, Prof. Yehenew Kifle

(University of Limpopo) and Prof. Loyiso Nongxa (Wits/NRF) will be the driving

forces of this initiative.

During a splendid gala dinner, a number of prizes were awarded to the student

poster competition winners, sponsored by SAS and the UMBC. Furthermore, Dr

Sinha (UMBC) entertained the delegates with a few (more) card tricks and too

soon it was time to say farewell to all the delegates and the plethora of

international experts.

The 4th African International Conference on Statistics was a great success and

presented an exceptional opportunity to rub shoulders with distinguished

international Statisticians. It is highly recommended that SASA members should

attend the 5th African International Conference on Statistics. We hope to see

many SASA members there.

70th Anniversary of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Stellenbosch

Speakers at US 70 birthday

Front (left to right): Dr Wiesner Vos, Prof Michael Greenacre, Prof Niel Le

Roux, Mnr Dirk Jooste, Prof Stan Du Plessis.

Back (left to right): Proff Trevor Hastie, Paul Mostert, Willie Conradie en Mnr

Wynand Louw.

The seventieth anniversary of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the

University of Stellenbosch was celebrated on Saturday, 26 November 2016. It was a beautiful

spring day in Stellenbosch. The seminar covered technical and popular topics which were

presented by young, well- known alumni of the Department, as well as international

academics with a South African connection. About 100 alumni, staff, colleagues from

Universities in South Africa and abroad, donors and friends of the Department attended the

festivities.

Read the full story

Call for nominations for Honorary Members and Fellows of the Association

According to the constitution of the South African Statistical Association individuals can be

elected to the status of Honorary Member or Fellow of the association. These are described

as follows:

Honorary Member:

Life-long honorary membership of the Association can be bestowed on an individual who has

made an exceptional contribution to the knowledge of statistics or to the advancement of the

Association and who has retired from his/her ordinary position.

Fellow:

Any enfranchised member who has made outstanding contributions to the advancement of

statistical science may be nominated and elected Fellow of the Association. In the selection

of Fellows, the nature and quality of the candidate’s contribution to the advancement of

statistical sciences shall be taken into consideration.

Nominations for Honorary members and Fellows, appropriately motivated, and put forward by

at least two enfranchised members of the association, should be submitted confidentially,

before 15 August 2017 to the Chair of the SASA Fellowship Committee, Francesca Little,

Francesca.Little@uct.ac.za

Young statistician: Stephan Britz

Photo: Stephan Britz

Stefan Britz is a promising young statistician employed at the University of Cape Town. He

teaches Statistics at various levels and he is supervising postgraduate students with

interesting research questions, ranging from cricket research to statistics in forensics. Stefan

is a proud member of SASA; he was the brains behind the pub quiz at the most recent SASA

conference. I recently had the opportunity to ask him some questions relating to his career;

read about his passion for stats.

Education News

2017 SASA Postgraduate Paper Competition,

sponsored by Stats SA

It is with great excitement that the SASA Education Committee hereby

announces the 2017 SASA Postgraduate Paper Competition! This competition

is open to all students enrolled for Masters or PhD’s in Statistics at South

African tertiary institutions. Both full and part-time students are eligible.

Stats SA will be funding the competition as part of their drive to provide financial

assistance to deserving students who show promise and diligence in their

statistical work. A person entering the Postgraduate Paper Competition may

submit their paper to a journal but only after the competition i.e. only papers

that have not previously been submitted to a journal may be entered in

the competition. Note however that this restriction does not apply to the SASA

Conference Proceedings, i.e. a paper entered for this competition may

simultaneously be submitted to the SASA Conference Proceedings.

Where can I find out more about SASA and the various competitions? SASA

website: http://www.sastat.org.za

Click here for the student invite: Competitions | Scholarships | Job

Opportunities | Conferences

SASA Education Committee

Contact person: Karl Huang

E-mail: chun-kai.huang@uct.ac.za

Announcement:

A pdf version of this newsletter will be available on the SASA webpage.

Last date of submission for news items are as follows:

May newsletter: 1 April

September newsletter: 1 August

December/January newsletter: 1 December