Page 1SASA Newsletter

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Successes and Challenges: Where are we now?

by Prof Maseka Lesaoana, SASA President

My fellow SASA members: new and old, as well as our visitors, I thank Nelson Mandela University (NMU) for hosting the 61st Conference of the South African Statistical Association (SASA). I recall very well that the 2012 SASA Conference was also hosted by NMU since they handed over the crown to the University of Limpopo for hosting the 2013 Conference. Organising a national conference is not an easy task, and maybe we should consider giving special recognition to those institutions that hosted the most SASA conferences. Being the President of SASA is much tougher, especially when one never expected a successful nomination. Stepping into Danie Uys’ shoes has not been easy, however his presence in the Executive Committee of SASA became a learning curve for me.

Nonetheless, SASA President is the Chief Volunteer working together with other members of the Executive Committee (Exco) who are also Volunteers. Exco members sacrifice their time to fulfil the Mission of the Association (i.e. to foster the study and knowledge of statistical theory and its application towards improving the quality of life of all South Africans), with no financial compensation for the work they do. I commend the Exco members over the years, who have contributed immensely towards the achievements of SASA to date. The noteworthy contributions include: the establishment of SASA Chapters and Interest Groups, and partnerships with SAS, NRF (National Research Foundation)/DST (Department of Science and Technology (now Department of Science and Innovation or DSI), Statistics South Africa, Human Sciences Research Council, etc., which provided support towards our activities.

The National Graduate Academy for Mathematical and Statistical Sciences document (or simply The Academy)

which was officially approved in August 2019, has already benefitted many of our graduate academics who will be entrusted to train the next generation of statisticians. Several young staff members at institutions of Higher Learning have been participating at SASA and related Conferences since 2017 through The Academy’s Teaching Development Grant (TDG), currently known as the University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP). In The Academy’s Strategy and Steering Committee (SSC), which is chaired by Prof Loyiso Nongxa, SASA is represented by Freedom Gumedze (UCT), who is also the Chairperson of the Statistics Academic Committee; Renette Blignaut (UWC); Jaco Visagie (NWU); and myself (UL). Since nominations to the SSC require a SASA member to be in the Statistics Academic Committee (SAC), Jaco Visagie has now been included as a member of SAC. The UCDP is thanked for the continued support towards our SASA graduate academics and other

Newsletter of the South African Statistical Association • Nuusbrief van die Suid-Afrikaanse Statistiese VerenigingPostal Address: SASA, PO Box 3341, Matieland, 7602 South Africa

SASA NEWS/SASV NUUSWebsite: www.sastat.org.za ISSN 1011-8039 Nr 1 2020

Prof Maseka Lesaoana, SASA President

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President’s corner

beneficiaries. The NGA document will be presented at this 2019 Conference hosted by NMU in the next day. The TDG/UCDP funds are administered through the University of Pretoria. The Exco is in the process of nominating members to the Advisory Committee of The Academy.

A lot has been achieved and yet new challenges emerge. My gratitude goes to the 2018/19 Exco members who worked tirelessly in their respective portfolios. Their constant support and the contributions they have made to SASA during the year have not gone unnoticed. New members on the Exco in 2019 are: Trudie Sandrock (SU) who has replaced Mardi Jankowitz as Newsletter Editor; and Humphrey Brydon (UWC) who has replaced Jaco Visagie in the Young Statisticians portfolio. We thank both Mardi Jankowitz and Jaco Visagie who have been active in their respective portfolios. The new incumbents (Trudie and Humphrey) have exercised their responsibilities vividly since the beginning of the year. The following members have continued to serve in their respective portfolios: Chantelle Clohessy (NMU), co-opted as administrative secretary; Yoko Chhana (Wits) as ICCSSA (Institute of Certificated and Chartered Statisticians of South Africa) representative to SASA; Lizanne Raubenheimer (NWU), finances; Sonali Das (UP) for Sponsorships; Lizelle Fletcher (UP) for Education Committee; Freedom Gumedze (UCT) for Funding Initiatives; and Charl Pretorius (NWU) as managing editor of the SASJ (South African Statistical Journal). James Allison (NWU), assisted by Lizanne Raubenheimer, continued as editor of the Journal. Danie Uys has served as past President, advising on a range of activities and taking responsibility for SASA Chapters and Interest Groups.

The NRF/SASA initiative under the Grant: Crisis in Academic Statistics, which started in 2015 is still ongoing, but will be phased-out soon. SASA is indebted to the NRF for having enabled the statistics community to access this funding which benefitted both academic departments and industry in South Africa. In particular, we thank Paul Mostert, Andriëtte Bekker and Francesca Little for their hard work in administrating this fund. The knowledge share is under revision and will, in the near future, be administered by the NRF.

The vulnerability of statistics as a discipline was voiced from different angles in 2008. Firstly, the results of the survey emanating from the SASA Exco meeting of 25 April 2008 on the “Status of Statistics Departments” at universities nationwide found, inter alia, that within “the next 5 years” then, “the country will lose more than 50% of its statistical research capacity and post-graduate supervisors” due to retirements and demand for statisticians by industry (SASA News, December 2008). Secondly, Botha and Prinsloo (2008) published an article titled: The crisis in academic statistics: an exploration. The aforementioned 2015 NRF/SASA initiative is one of the interventions undertaken by SASA in trying to contain the situation. Another intervention led to staff members of some Statistics departments receiving scarcity allowance. Besides AIMS (African Institute for Mathematical Sciences), some universities have been offering advanced courses and workshops that strengthen the know-how of our young and emerging statisticians, for example, the University of Stellenbosch’s recent courses on Bayesian statistics and biostatistics.

Statistics as a discipline, working in close collaboration with industry, continues to make relevant strides, now taking advantage of the Big Data philosophy to develop Data Science-related programmes, dubbed as the most sought-after career (sexiest) by industry. We seem to be back to square one, by making statistics more and more attractive to industry, thus, ensuring the employability of our graduates, yet at the same time creating more challenges for academic statistics. This calls for stronger collaboration with industry and decent rewards for statisticians, and hence a need for new solutions to retain and attract academic staff that will train the next generation of statisticians. It also calls for more measures to be undertaken at school level (beyond Maths for Stats programmes) to attract more students into our statistics programmes.

At school level, statistics gets hidden behind mathematics, and it is only much later at university level when students get introduced to statistics, when most qualifying matriculants would have already made commitments to mathematics and other well-known careers visible or well-advertised at schools. These arguments call for a repeat of the 2008 survey by SASA to update and determine the current status of statistics at institutions of higher learning and come up with appropriate (or revised) interventions.

“A lot has been achieved and yet new challenges emerge.”

Page 3SASA Newsletter

I am proud to report that the Statistics Education Research Group (SERG), launched in May 2018 and spearheaded by Delia North, show-cased one of the most talked-about Statistics Education Think Tanks and Workshops at Salt Rock Hotel in May 2019. At these events, industry was clearly visible, as evidenced in the video clip that formed part of their report. Prior to this, the Gauteng Chapter had collaborated with industry in one of their events.

At each annual SASA Conference, we continue to attract experienced statisticians from other countries worldwide, and in various areas of expertise informed by our Interest Groups and specific needs at the time. These experts also offer workshops that are attractive to our next generation of researchers and establish collaborations and networks with some of our departments. We thank these friends of SASA for honouring our invitation.

During the year, the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) shared their report titled: A scientometric assessment of Statistics in South Africa, with Exco members. This report, which was summarised in our latest Newsletter (September 2019), was also e-mailed to our SASA members. At the 2019 SASA Conference, the DSI will present this report to mainly Heads of Departments of Statistics countrywide.

The BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] Mathematics and Statistics Conference will be hosted by South Africa in 2021. In this regard, there was urgency to establish a BRICS2021 Planning Committee (BPC), comprised of both SASA and SAMS (South African Mathematics Society) members. Lizanne Raubenheimer and I represented SASA in the BPC. The implication is that the BRICS2021 Conference will combine SASA and SAMS conferences. More details regarding this conference would be communicated in due course. It should be noted, however, that Stellenbosch University won the bid to host this BRICS Conference.

In conclusion, I would like to convey my sincere appreciation and gratitude to everyone in SASA who made my first year as President of the Association a conducive one, especially Danie Uys who was always willing to come to my rescue. On behalf of SASA, I again thank Danie for the years he has dedicated to the activities of the Association. I also thank all other members of the Executive Committee for their dedication, competence and commitment.

You are all wished an enjoyable conference and a peaceful festive season.

Maseka Lesaoana (November 2019)

President’s corner

I am both humbled and honoured to have been entrusted with the role of vice-president of SASA. The nomination came as something of a surprise, but that certainly does not diminish my enthusiasm for the role and my excitement for the years ahead. Although my journey into the field of statistics has not been a long one, I have been fortunate to be involved with SASA in a number of roles.

I first joined SASA as a member of the Education Committee and served the association in this capacity for a few years and more

recently have served as Chair of the Eastern Cape Chapter. Added to this, through passion for the association (as well as perhaps a considerable lack of any better judgement) I served on the local organizing committees of the SASA conferences in both 2012 and 2019. Through these experiences I have learnt that the statistics community in South Africa is a close-knit, friendly and professional group of academics, industry professionals and students who are passionate about our discipline and community. So,

Incoming president – Warren Bretteny

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President’s corner

when I was nominated for the position of vice-president I could not refuse.

I have spent my career as an academic at the Nelson Mandela University. In this time, I have seen a group of young forward-thinking staff grow to make a notable impact both within our university and within our professional community. As the current head of the Department of Statistics, I take great pride in what we have achieved with a predominantly young but vibrant staff. I hope to bring this energy to the role in order to shape the short- and long-term future of the association.

In the short time that I have served I have not had sufficient opportunity to truly consider which initiatives and contributions I wish to make to the association. However, I am encouraged by the support provided to academics and students through the CoE-MaSS, the NRF-SASA Crisis in Academic Statistics and the UCDP-MSS. These are important funding instruments for academics in our discipline and I would seek to grow these so that there is far-reaching support for staff and students who seek higher qualifications, as well as opportunities to promote their research.

In addition, and no matter how you may perceive it, the emergence of so-called buzzwords of “data science” and “big data” has highlighted the need for skilled analysts and statisticians. SASA is ideally placed to play an important role in the development of such skills through active collaboration with industry and academia. I intend to focus on attracting and fostering close relationships with partners in both of these domains.

Lastly, it is important to grow the SASA brand. We are a diverse community of talented professionals and we should be growing in number year on year. I intend to focus on efforts and strategies to attract new members and enhance the reputation and standing of our association.

In closing, my predecessor in this role, Prof Lesaoana – with a wealth of experience in both academia and industry – leaves very big shoes to fill. However, I am confident in both the community and the Executive Committee and we will work together to bring fresh and new ideas, collaborations and opportunities to our members.

SASA 2020North-West University, Potchefstroom

Dates: 23 – 24 November 2020 (workshops)

25 – 27 November 2020 (main conference)

Contact person: Lizanne Raubenheimer (Lizanne.Raubenheimer@nwu.ac.za)

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News

Western Cape Chapter

Johané Nienkemper-Swanepoel (nienkemperj@sun.ac.za) is the new Western Cape Chapter representative.

There will be four chapter events in 2020 hosted by the different institutions in the region (Stellenbosch University, South African Medical Research Council, University of Cape Town and University of Western Cape).

The first chapter event is planned for March/April 2020. More information will follow.

Chapter news

Dear SASA members

All the best for 2020! It was fantastic to see so many of you at the SASA conference in Port Elizabeth last year, and this edition of the newsletter is packed with news, photos and feedback from the very successful conference. Thank you to Prof. Gary Sharp and the rest of the LOC at Nelson Mandela University for hosting us. I particularly enjoyed reading the feedback from Prof. Tim Swartz, one of the invited guests and amongst other things he commented on the comradery he experienced within the South African statistics community.

The 2020 conference will be hosted by North West University and dates can be found in the newsletter.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Potchefstroom this year!

As usual, we report on news and events from the SASA community all over South Africa. Many local chapter events are planned for this year so please watch your inbox for details of these.

SASA also welcomes a new vice-president, Dr. Warren Bretteny from Nelson Mandela University and you can read more about Warren in this newsletter. We also publish the presidential address our president, Prof. Maseka Lesaoana, gave at the 2019 SASA conference.

As always, please get in touch if you have any interesting news you would like to share with the SASA community.

Regards,

Editorial

Free State Chapter

The Department of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science of the University of the Free State hosts about 10 SASA Free State Chapter Research Seminars per semester. Speakers include not only members and students of the institutions in the Chapter but also the occasional guest from industry and other universities in South Africa and abroad. We also plan to be well represented this year again at the National SASA conference, with many of our members attending the conference and giving presentations.

New members of SASA

• Dr K Ababio, Senior Lecturer, Kumasi Technical University

• Ms T Adeniji, Student, University of Fort Hare

• Dr TA Diriba, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of South Africa

• Mr T Molise

• Mr A Odeyemi, Lecturer, University of Fort Hare

• Ms G Osuji, Student, University of Fort Hare

• Dr C van der Merwe, Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch University

• Dr S Vilakati, Senior Lecturer, University of Eswatini

• Mr CG Viljoen, Senior Data Scientist, 22seven Digital Pty Ltd

Welcome!

Page 6SASA Newsletter

The Department of Statistics, in the Faculty of Science, of the Nelson Mandela University played host to the 61st annual conference of the South African Statistical Association (SASA) and associated workshops from 25 – 29 November 2019. The local organising committee, comprising of Gary Sharp, Warren Brettenny, Chantelle Clohessy, Sisa Pazi and Rae Vincent-le Roux and ably supported by SASA Treasurer Lizanne Raubenheimer (finances) began preparations for the conference early in January 2019 as they looked to showcase the Department to the rest of the local statistics community whilst combining the event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Department. The annual event which attracted 260 delegates from South Africa as well as several delegates from around the world included two SASA invited guests and three plenary addresses from world leading discipline experts. The event with platinum sponsor, SAS, kicked off with two days of workshops offered by Prof Emmanuel Lesaffre (KU Leuven, Belgium), Prof Tim Swartz (Simon Fraser University, Canada), Prof Deborah Nolan (Berkeley University, USA) and a specialist workshop for the Multivariate Data Analysis Group (MDAG) which had several South African based presenters.

The workshops were followed by the conference which was formally opened by the Dean of the Science Faculty, Prof Azwinndini Muronga who welcomed all

to Nelson Mandela University and wished them a successful conference. During the opening ceremony, several awards were presented by SASA, which included Mr Romelon Chetty for the SAS sponsored best honours project for 2018, Mr Lionel Yelibi for the best post-graduate paper, Dr Charl Pretorius and Prof Jan Swanepoel for the prestigious Sichel medal, Profs Paul Mostert and Gary Sharp for association Fellowship certification, Profs Daan Nel and Carl Lombard for Honorary membership awards and Prof Paul Fatti who received the association’s Thought Leader award.

The formal academic programme started with a plenary address by Prof Tim Swartz introducing delegates to the topic of sports analytics followed by a series of parallel presentations by students, academic colleagues and industry specialists. The first day of the conference

concluded with a welcome function which included a celebration of the Department’s 50th anniversary. The second day of the conference included the plenary address of Prof Deborah Nolan, whose presentation to the audience highlighted the benefits of data science in the teaching of statistics – a topic which has received extensive exposure the last few years, as statisticians, computer scientist and other disciplines grapple with the explosion of data science programmes in academia. The day culminated with the gala dinner at the Willows conference centre where delegates had an opportunity to relax

Report: 61st Annual Conference of the South African Statistical Association

Hosted by the Department of Statistics - Nelson Mandela UniversityDate: 27 November - 29 November 2019 Venue: Port Elizabeth, NMU, South Campus

Outgoing president Prof. Danie Uys formally opening the conference

NMU staff and students celebrating their department’s 50th birthday

2019 SASA Conference

Page 7SASA Newsletter

and enjoy the company of friends, colleagues and meet fellow statisticians from elsewhere. An interesting activity during the conference whereby delegates had an opportunity to enter a quiz which required them interacting with fellow delegates resulted in six delegates winning prizes for completing the quiz correctly.

The third day of the conference saw delegates convene to attend the last of the parallel sessions before the final plenary address by Prof Jennifer Priestley (Kennesaw University, USA) who introduced the audience to the ethics of data. The presentation was extremely interesting whilst simultaneously disconcerting in that the audience were made aware of how analytics is

used to extract information about individuals who are unaware of the data collection. The presentation highlighted how data is analysed and the results used to target individuals without their knowledge. It was a fitting end to a memorable conference. The closing ceremony followed the plenary with competition prizes awarded to students who took part in the poster and oral competitions.

Thanks go to the SASA EC who entrusted us to host the conference, Profs Danie Uys and Maseka Lesaoana, your support during the preparation and hosting phase is appreciated. Good luck to North-West University as they begin the preparations for the hosting of the 62nd SASA conference in 2020.

Members of the 2019 Local Organising Committee passing the baton to members of the 2020 Local Organising CommitteeSASA 2019 Local Organising Committee

2019 SASA Conference

The 2019 SASA Executive Committee

Page 8SASA Newsletter

2019 SASA Conference

At the conference...

Page 9SASA Newsletter

SASA Conference

I have been asked to write a short article on my reflections regarding SASA 2019. As a plenary speaker, my most lasting impression concerned the hospitality. In North America, when one is invited to speak at a conference, you say “thank you very much” and then add the speaking engagement to your CV. Basically, you are on your own. By contrast, at SASA 2019, I was met at airports, driven daily to the conference venue, taken on excursions, wined, dined and treated like royalty. I was touched by the generosity of the SASA Executive. Thank you.

SASA 2019 ran smoothly and the conference had many special touches. For example, the conference bag had gifts that were not the standard fare (e.g. the re-usable metal straw, the water bottle and the zippered gym bag). The sporty nature of the gifts had all of the earmarks of Dr. Chantelle Clohessy’s influence. Socializing at SASA 2019 was great fun with live entertainment at both the Thursday conference dinner and the Wednesday mixer. The Wednesday mixer also had a wildly popular ice-cream bar.

The conference itself was enjoyable. During most times at the meeting, there were four simultaneous sessions where you could always find presentations that suited your interests. It was encouraging to see that young

statisticians were well-represented and that there was typically a concurrent session in the program devoted to their work. Clearly, young statisticians are the future of Statistics. It was also encouraging to see diversity along many lines. It seems to me that SASA values the importance of statistical applications, especially those that have a direct impact on South Africa. For example, I particularly remember a talk from Lulama Kepe in Dr. Johan Hugo’s group at Nelson Mandela University. He spoke of issues concerning optimal planting techniques in orchards so as to produce maximal economic yield. From a quick look at the conference program, one can also see talks related to important societal problems such as malaria, infant mortality and health, alcohol consumption, HIV/AIDS, education and water consumption issues.

It also seems to me that the SASA organizers thought carefully about their invited guests. Both Deborah Nolan (Berkeley) and Jennifer Priestley (Kennesaw State) had terrific talks that concerned data science. These topics are shaping the future of the discipline of Statistics and also have an impact on our daily lives. Specifically, Priestley spoke of confidentiality and the ethics involved in the unsuspecting data collection resulting from our internet usage. Nolan spoke of practical ways of integrating data science in our teaching programs.

As a plenary speaker, I also had the great honour of visiting various South African universities. In particular, I had opportunities to spend considerable time with the statisticians from North-West University in Potchefstroom, Nelson Mandela University in Port

At the conference

Tim Swartz & Gary Sharp

My Thoughts on SASA 2019 by Prof Tim Swartz, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Page 10SASA Newsletter

Elizabeth and Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch where we were able to share research ideas and exchange thoughts on statistical education. My takeaway from these wonderful times was that the Statistics units had a comradery that one does not often see in North American universities. I had the feeling that everyone was working together for the common good. As academics, I think we are all better individually when we are better collectively. During these visits, I gave my obligatory talks, and although people were busy in the middle of the exam period, they made their way to listen to me to talk about statistics in sport. I am sure that I talked about some things (e.g. dance, ice hockey) that held little interest, yet people were truly attentive. People were not only professionally generous, but were also personally kind. My wife accompanied me and always felt welcomed. Thank you to many (especially Cathy Sharp and Dr. Trudie Sandrock) for listening at length about her Harry Potter excursions.

We also had the opportunity to explore the great natural beauty of South Africa, particularly on our trip along the Garden Route. The warm people, the climate, the mountains, the sea, the animals – paradise on Earth is how I describe it now that I have returned to chilly Canada. In the greater Johannesburg area, we had a great excursion to The Cradle of Humankind

(with Professor Leonard Santana and his wife). This was followed by a hearty meal at Carnivores where we had the opportunity to sample wild game. For those who have not tried, I recommend against the zebra dish. Another fabulous part of our trip was an overnight at Addo Elephant Park. This is a magical place, and I can’t thank the Nelson Mandela Statistics group enough for this adventure. I especially thank my friend Dr. Gary Sharp for this, and moreover, for his invitation to serve as a plenary speaker at SASA 2019. We also immensely enjoyed Stellenbosch (thanks to Professor Danie Uys), a pretty little town with great food and great wine, and then the majesty of Cape Town, one of the great cities of the world.

We also had a wonderful day with Dr. Inger Fabris-Rotelli (University of Pretoria) at the Apartheid Museum. Although the museum experience was sobering, it provided me with a much better understanding of South Africa. In particular, I gained even greater appreciation for Nelson Mandela and his struggle. Sitting on my bedside table right now is his autobiography ``Long Walk to Freedom’’. I find it inspirational, and I hope that the lessons from his humble yet powerful approach will help me in a small way in my personal life and also with respect to my duties as Chair in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Simon Fraser University.

Visiting Addo Elephant park

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SASA News

Contact details for the newsletter editor: Trudie SandrockDepartment of Statistics and Actuarial ScienceUniversity of StellenboschPrivate Bag X1Matieland 7602Tel: 021-808-9959 (w) Fax: 021-808-3830trudies@sun.ac.za

Please send all Newsletter matters to the Editor at the above address, and all other SASA matters to

The Secretary, P.O. Box 3341, Matieland, 7602, South Africaemail: Chantelle.Clohessy@mandela.ac.za

• The Newsletter is an informal collection of news items and short articles of interest.

• The Newsletter will appear in January, May, September

Submission deadlines: •Januarynewsletter:1January

•May newsletter: 1 April

•Septembernewsletter:1August

The views expressed in this Newsletter are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the policies of the SA Statistical Association or the editor of the Newsletter.

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Advertising in the NewsletterAdvertise the Statistics programmes offered by your institution in the quarterly issued newsletter of SASA.

The costs for advertising in the newsletter are:

• Half A4 page Black and White R1000+Vat•   Full A4 page Black and White R2000+Vat• Half A4 page Colour R2500+Vat• Full A4 page Colour R5000+Vat

Contact the newsletter editor, Trudie Sandrock

trudies@sun.ac.za if you are interested.

This year’s award of the Herbert Sichel Medal represents the twenty-second since it was instituted by the South African Statistical Association in 1997 in memory of Professor Herbert Sichel, one of South Africa’s statistical pioneers, who made seminal contributions to Statistics in fields ranging from mining to statistical linguistics, and including a distribution named after him. Except for one year (2001), the medal has been awarded annually to a member (or members) of the Association whose paper appeared (in print or online) during the previous calendar year and was judged best by a panel of judges appointed by the Association. A list of Winners of the Award since its inception in 1997 appears on the SASA website.

Disappointingly, only three papers were submitted for this year’s award, but this was made up for by the high

quality of all of them. The panel of judges, comprising Doug Hawkins (University of Minnesota), Linda Haines (University of Cape Town), Freek Lombard (University of Johannesburg) and Paul Fatti (Wits University), used the four criteria of Impact, Innovation, Relevance and Quality of Writing to rank them.

As always, the task of ranking the papers was difficult, and the judges did not always agree, but one of them did emerge as the clear winner. We would like to congratulate Charl Pretorius and Jan Swanepoel, both from North-West University, on their excellent paper entitled: “On the asymptotic theory of new bootstrap confidence bounds”, which appeared in Volume 46 of the Annals of Statistics.

THE HERBERT SICHEL AWARD FOR 2019

We would like to encourage everyone to go like The South African Statistical Association — SASA Facebook page for announcements on competitions, bursary or other related statistics education news.

Page 12SASA Newsletter

MDAG presented a full-day workshop for 24 attendees on Tuesday, 26 November 2019, prior to the annual SASA conference. The presentations focused on the application of multivariate data analysis on various topics:

• Visualisation of continuous multivariate data (Sugnet Lubbe – Stellenbosch University)

• Categorical data: Visualisation and missing values (Johané Nienkemper-Swanepoel – Stellenbosch University and Michael von Maltitz – University of the Free State)

• Piecewise Structural Equation Modelling (Sebnem Er – University of Cape Town)

• Auxiliary variables in Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) and methods to estimate a distal outcome model (Esme Jordaan – South African Medical Research Council)

MDAG plans to host similar workshops every year.

Prof. Sugnet Lubbe has been re-elected as the chairperson of MDAG for 2019-2023. We look forward to another successful term.

Workshops

The Department of Statistics at Stellenbosch University hosted a very successful workshop on Bayesian Biostatistics in November, presented by Prof Emmanuel Lessafre. The workshop was well attended by SASA members, and was held during the week prior to the SASA 2019 conference. Prof Lessafre is an emeritus professor from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven who regularly visits South Africa. His visit to Stellenbosch University was partly sponsored by the UCDP grant of the DST and the NRF. The participants came from a

number of Departments of Statistics in South Africa, such as University of the Western Cape, University of Kwazulu-Natal, North West University, University of Zululand, University of Pretoria, University of the Free State and Stellenbosch University. Young academics were fully sponsored by the UCDP to attend this workshop. The funding application to secure their attendance was done by Dr Chris Muller and Prof Paul Mostert of Stellenbosch University’s Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. Pictured here is a group photo of all the delegates with Emmanuel Lessafre.

MDAG News

Workshop on Bayesian Biostatistics

Page 13SASA Newsletter

Congratulations to the following SASA members

SASA Awards

Prof. Paul Fatti, who received the SAS Thought Leader award

Prof. Daan Nel and Prof. Carl Lombard who were elected as Honorary Members of SASA

Prof. Gary Sharp and Prof. Paul Mostert who were awarded Fellow Membership of SASA

Prof. Carl Lombard receiving honorary membership Prof. Daan Nel receiving honorary membership

Gary Sharp being congratulated by Danie Uys

Paul Mostert being congratulated by Danie Uys Prof. Paul Fatti with Murray de Villiers from SAS

Page 14SASA Newsletter

It is the SASA Education Committee’s pleasure to announce the winners of the 2018/2019 SASA Postgraduate Paper Competition. A total of 10 entries were received from North West University (NWU), University of Cape Town (UCT), University of Fort Hare (UFH), University of Johannesburg (UJ), University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and the University of Pretoria (UP) respectively. There was a tie between the second and third places, hence the prize is shared.

Congratulations to the following entries:

First Prize:

Mr Lionel Yelibi from UCT with the title Fast Super-Paramagnetic Clustering

Shared second prize:

Essodina Takouda from the UJ with the title Ruin Probability in the Delayed Renewal Risk Model perturbed by Diffusion Process

and

Shawn C Liebenberg from NWU with the title A New Test for the Rayleigh distribution using the lesser-known Mellin Transform

The SASA Education Committee is grateful to the following judges for their time and effort: Prof Paul Mostert (US), Prof Jacky Galpin (UJ) and Dr Sibisiswe Khuluse (IBM).

Winners of the 2019 SASA Postgraduate Paper Competition

Education News

It is with great excitement that the SASA Education Committee hereby announces the 2020 SASA Postgraduate Paper Competition! This competition is open to all students enrolled for masters or doctoral degrees in Statistics at South African tertiary institutions. Both full and part-time students are eligible.

A person entering the Postgraduate Paper Competition may submit the paper even if it has already been submitted to a journal, but on condition that the paper has not been reviewed yet.

The SASA Education Committee will handle the adjudication process. The judges’ decision will be final and there will be no correspondence regarding the decision.

A maximum of five papers may be submitted by a tertiary institution (merged institutions may only submit five papers in total). A title and 1 page abstract along with the entry form should be submitted by 31 July 2020 by the HOD (or HOD nominated representative) of the

university, with the full paper submitted by 31 August 2020. The full paper should be submitted electronically using PDF format, accompanied by a Turnitin report. Please submit two PDF format copies of the full paper, one copy should NOT show the student’s name and affiliation. The guidelines for the full paper (a total of 8 pages, including all figures, tables, and references) are the same as for the South African Statistical Journal (SASJ) and can be accessed via the SASA website (http://www.sastat.org.za).

Note: The submissions are not restricted to the thesis work of the candidates and should show an application of material presented.

I am looking forward to receive your University’s postgraduate papers!

Enquiries: Fransonet ReynekeE-mail: fransonet.reyneke@up.ac.za

Tel: (012) 420 3863

Fax: (012) 420 5185

2020 SASA Postgraduate Paper Competition

Page 15SASA Newsletter

The Young Statisticians Competition at the annual SASA conference in 2019, once again attracted many entries from students with a wide variety of interesting topics. The competition again featured both a poster and oral presentation stream.

Prizes were awarded to the top three student presentations in each of the streams. The final winners of the poster and oral competition were:

Poster Competition

First Prize: Carlyle McCready (University of Cape Town)

Second Prize: Lee Watchurst (Nelson Mandela University)Third Prize: Enrike Le Roux (North-West University)Oral CompetitionFirst Prize: Johané Nienkemper-Swanepoel (Stellenbosch University) Second Prize: Priyanka Nagar (University of Pretoria)Third Prize: Miguel Rodo (University of Cape Town)

Young Statisticians Student Competition – 2019

Congratulations

The Cortex Analytics Simulation game, developed by SAS® and HEC Montreal was hosted for the first time at the SASA 2019 conference. Eight student teams representing 6 universities took part in the competition. With a prize allocation of $1000, sponsored by SAS®, a great deal of friendly competition amongst the different teams ensued.

It was however the all ladies team from UKZN, consisting of Danielle Roberts, Nombuso Zondo and Nina Grundlingh, who eventually ended up taking the top spot on the leader board and winning the

competition. Pictured below is the team from UKZN with André Zitzke from SAS®.

Enrike Le Roux Lee Watchurst Carlyle McCready

Johané Nienkemper-Swanepoel Priyanka Nagar

Page 16SASA Newsletter

EXCO 2020

President Prof. M Lesaoana (Maseka) Department of Statistics and Operations ResearchUniversity of Limpopolesaoana.maseka@ul.ac.za

Vice President Dr. W Brettenny (Warren) Department of StatisticsNelson Mandela Universitywarren.brettenny@mandela.ac.za

Secretary Dr. C Clohessy (Chantelle) Department of StatisticsNelson Mandela UniversityChantelle.Clohessy@mandela.ac.za

Treasurer Prof. L Raubenheimer (Lizanne) School of Mathematical & Statistical SciencesNorth-West Universitylizanne.raubenheimer@nwu.ac.za

Managing Editor of Journal

Dr. C Pretorius (Charl) School of Mathematical & Statistical SciencesNorth-West Universitycharl.pretorius@nwu.ac.za

Editor of Conference Proceedings

Prof. L Santana (Leonard) School of Mathematical & Statistical SciencesNorth-West Universityleonard.santana@nwu.ac.za

Newsletter Editor Dr. T Sandrock (Trudie) Department of Statistics and Actuarial ScienceUniversity of Stellenboschtrudies@sun.ac.za

Funding Prof. F Gumedze (Freedom) Department of Statistical SciencesUniversity of Cape Townfreedom.gumedze@uct.ac.za

Sponsorships Prof. S Das (Sonali) Department of Business ManagementUniversity of Pretoriasonali.das@up.ac.za

Education Committee

Dr. L Fletcher (Lizelle) Department of StatisticsUniversity of Pretorializelle.fletcher@up.ac.za

Youngs Statisticians’ Network

Dr. H Brydon (Humphrey) Department of Statistics and Population StudiesUniversity of the Western Capehbrydon@uwc.ac.za

ICCSSA Board Chair person

Mrs. Y Chhana (Yoko) School of Statistics and Actuarial ScienceUniversity of the WitwatersrandYoko.Chhana@wits.ac.za

SEMINAR PROGRAM: FIRST SEMESTER 2020Stellenbosch University, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science

14 February Johané Nienkemper-Swanepoel (Department of Genetics, SU)Visualisations for multivariate missing data

28 FebruaryIngrid Van Keilegom (Research Centre for Operations Research and Business Statistics, KU Leuven)On semiparametric modelling, estimation and inference for survival data subject to dependent censoring

13 March Zander Wessels (NMRQL Research, Stellenbosch)Machine learning applications in investment management

3 April Adriaan van Niekerk (Centre for Geographical Analysis, SU)The use of machine learning for making sense of satellite imagery

17 April Francois van der Bank (Department of Industrial Psychology, SU)Using structural equation modelling to explain psychological mechanisms at work

8 May Kristian Muller-Nedebock (Department of Physics, SU)Disorder in polymer networks

Lectures start at 13:00 and are held in room 2048 of the Van der Sterr Building, c/o Victoria and Bosman streets, Stellenbosch.Enquires:ProfTertiusdeWet,Telephone:0218083242e-mail:tdewet@sun.ac.za

SASA EXCO 2020