Statistical Society of Australia upcoming events

SSA Statistical Education Section Networking Event: GenAI in Statistics Education: Opportunities, Risks, and Real Practice (5 Jun 2026)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 03:30:00 GMT

The Statistical Education section of the Statistical Society of Australia invites you to an informal online networking session focused on the role of Generative AI in statistics education. This session is designed as a community discussion, bringing together educators to share experiences, challenges, and practical ideas. There is no single “right” approach; rather, the aim is to explore how AI can improve teaching while maintaining academic quality and meaningful learning. We also hope to build a network to support each other in exploring effective teaching practices in this evolving area.

Date: Friday 5 June 2026

Time: 1:30pm - 2:30pm (AEST)

Format: Online via Zoom. Details provided upon registration

Schedule

Short talk (10 mins): Dr Karol Binkowski: What if AI could calm your nerves?

Karol will briefly share how several intentional uses of AI tools (e.g., virtual peer bots, narrative storytelling) have been used in a large first-year statistics service unit to reduce anxiety and increase engagement, along with reflections and limitations.

Discussion

We’ll then open the floor to discussion. You might like to think about:

How are you currently using (or avoiding) AI in your teaching?
How can we improve engagement and learning without compromising quality?
What concerns do you have around assessment, integrity, or over-reliance on AI?
What has actually worked in practice?
How might AI reshape the role of the lecturer in statistics education?

You’re welcome to:

Bring a challenge
Share an idea
Just listen in

Key Learnings from attending webinar

Participants will have the opportunity to:

explore practical uses of Generative AI in statistics education,
hear real examples of AI-supported teaching practices in large first-year classes,
discuss challenges related to assessment, academic integrity, and student learning,
exchange ideas and experiences with other educators, and
reflect on how AI may reshape teaching and learning in statistics education.

Presenter Bio: Dr Karol Binkowski

Dr Karol Binkowski is a Senior Lecturer in Statistics at Macquarie University and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He engages diverse student cohorts through upbeat live lectures that incorporate GenAI-enhanced active learning and Peer Instruction. His teaching focuses on improving student engagement, reducing anxiety in statistics education, and exploring practical ways AI can support meaningful learning in large first-year classes.

Chair Bio - Dr Gizem Intepe

Dr Gizem Intepe is a Lecturer in Data Science and AI at Western Sydney University. She teaches introductory statistics to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She is passionate about designing engaging, practical learning experiences that move beyond rote learning and help students connect statistical concepts to real-world applications.

Tjanpi Award seminar (10 Jun 2026)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT

The Environmental Statistics section of the Statistical Society of Australia proudly presents the Tjanpi Award seminar. Josh Jacobson is the winner of the 2025 Tjanpi Award for best student paper in environmental statistics, and in this talk he will outline the key results of his award-winning paper.

Date: Wednesday 10 June 2026

Time: 9:00am - 10:00am (AEST)

Format: Online via Zoom. Details provided upon registration

Abstract: A Bayesian Hierarchical Model for CO₂ Flux Estimation from Multiprocess Satellite Data

Quantifying the natural components of CO₂ surface flux is key to monitoring Earth's carbon dynamics. Existing inverse methods struggle to isolate the natural components, which cannot be individually constrained using atmospheric CO₂ concentrations alone. However, the advent of solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) satellite data provides an opportunity to improve identifiability by constraining the distribution of gross primary production (GPP), the photosynthetic component of flux. Here, we develop a spatio-temporal hierarchical model linking GPP to SIF and embed it within the WOMBAT v2.0 (WOllongong Methodology for Bayesian Assimilation of Trace-gases, version 2.0) statistical flux-inversion framework. We call the new framework WOMBAT v2.S, and we apply it to multiprocess data from NASA's OCO-2 satellite to estimate natural flux components over the globe during a six-year period. In a simulation experiment that mimics OCO-2's retrieval characteristics, the inclusion of SIF substantially improves posterior prediction accuracy and uncertainty quantification. Comparing real-data estimates from WOMBAT v2.S, v2.0, and an alternative method, we observe a reversal in the inferred trend of global CO₂ absorption.

Presenter Bio: Josh Jacobson

Josh is a statistician whose work sits at the intersection of Bayesian inference, climate science, and large-scale data analysis, with applications to understanding the global carbon cycle and environmental change. He completed his PhD in Statistics at the University of Wollongong late last year, supervised by Andrew Zammit-Mangion, Michael Bertolacci and Noel Cressie, and he is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.

ICOTS -12th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (12 Jul 2026)

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 14:00:00 GMT

The 12th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS 12), to be held in Brisbane, 12–17 July 2026, will be the first time ICOTS will be hosted in Australia.

We are delighted to announce the ICOTS 12 keynote speakers:

• Prof Mine Çetinkaya–Rundel – Duke University

• Prof Dianne Cook – Monash University

• Emeritus Prof Sir Peter Donnelly – Genomics PLC, University of Oxford

• Prof Rob Gould – UCLA

• Dr Elena Proden – UNITAR

These outstanding speakers will bring a wealth of expertise and perspectives to ICOTS 12, setting the stage for an inspiring and thought-provoking program.

Key dates:

• Abstract submission deadline: 31 August 2025

• Notification of acceptance: 30 September 2025

• Optional refereed paper submission deadline: 30 November 2025

• Final papers (refereed and non-refereed) due: 30 April 2026

All accepted abstracts will appear in the official Conference Program and online Proceedings. Oral presenters are encouraged (but not required) to prepare a full paper for the Proceedings. Refereed papers will be clearly labelled as such.

For more information, please visit: https://icots12.oa-event.com

We look forward to welcoming you to Brisbane in 2026 for this landmark event in statistics education!