PREREQUISITES Ian Chubb, Alan Finkel, Deb King, Geoff Prince, Scott Ryan & Terry Speed
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2nd ed. THE CLOCK TICKS ON MATHS PREREQUISITES Ian Chubb, Alan Finkel, Deb King, Geoff Prince, Scott Ryan & Terry Speed HIGH-RISE SECURITY Minimising crime risk with maths & stats TERRY TAO Q&A with Fields Medallist & friend of AMSI Professor Terry Tao COMPLEX NETWORKS Are YOU in control of your network or is your network in control of YOU? AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE WELCOME TO AMSI GROMOV-WITTEN THEORY GAUGE (MISG) ANZIAM MATHEMATICS AMSI Membership THEORY 2016 Full Members IN INDUSTRY The Australian National University & DUALITIES La Trobe University STUDY GROUP Monash University Queensland University of Technology RMIT University The University of Adelaide 4 - 29 JANUARY 6 - 16 JANUARY 1 - 5 FEBRUARY 7 - 11 FEBRUARY The University of Melbourne The University of New South Wales RMIT UNIVERSITY THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA QT CANBERRA HOTEL The University of Newcastle The University of Queensland The University of Sydney The University of Western Australia Associate Members Australian Defence Force Academy AMSI'S Curtin University of Technology AMSI RESEARCH CAPITAL Deakin University Federation University Australia Flinders University NUMBER James Cook University Macquarie University Swinburne University A DOOR HAS THEORY The University of New England University of South Australia OPENED FOR University of Southern Queensland University of Tasmania MATHEMATICS SCIENTIFIC University of Technology Sydney University of Wollongong 10 - 11 FEBRUARY 8 - 9 APRIL Victoria University AND STATISTICS THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Western Sydney University PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL SHAW EVENTS Societies & Government Agencies Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Mathematics Trust Australian Mathematical Society omentous times! New Prime This issue of The Update is bursting with features. Australian and New Zealand Industrial Minister, New Chief Scientist! Both Ian Chubb and Alan Finkel tell us what they MATHEMATICAL and Applied Mathematics And the departure of Ian think about the burning issue of the moment – maths Bureau of Meteorology METHODS FOR Chubb, a great friend of the prerequisites for university science and engineering CSIRO M mathematical sciences who has exercised courses; along with Assistant Cabinet Secretary Defence Science and Technology Group enormous influence on government and Senator Scott Ryan, Terry Speed and Deb King. Fields APPLICATIONS Statistical Society of Australia on the public perception of science. medallist Terry Tao talks about his life in mathematics and tells us why collaboration makes his world go ANZIAM - ZAMA A door has opened for mathematics and statistics, round. We highlight a pilot project, delivered by AMSI JOINT MEETING Director to grow our research capacity and to start turning Intern that investigates the factors influencing the risk Prof. Geoff Prince FAustMS around some of the chronic problems in our education of crime occurrences in high density housing and also [email protected] au 2016 pipeline. But it is not a time to relax. Australian feature a report on the 4th South Pacific Continuous Marketing & Communications Manager governments are grappling with a national strategic Optimisation meeting held at Adelaide’s University of Mari Ericksen [email protected] plan for Science, Technology, Engineering and South Australia in February of this year. 4 - 15 JULY 11 - 14 NOVEMBER Mathematics (STEM). Of course planning is one thing, I hope you enjoy this second edition of our new WWW.AMSI.ORG.AU/SCIENTIFIC Program Manager (Schools) sticking with a STEM plan through multiple electoral look bulletin. Of course the latest news about our THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND HANGZHOU, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA Janine McIntosh [email protected] cycles is another thing altogether. AMSI has played program areas of Schools, Research, Higher Education a significant part in raising awareness through its and AMSI Intern can be found at amsi.org.au Program Manager (Research & Higher Ed) Simi Henderson advocacy and policy building and we won’t be letting [email protected] up any time soon. Most recently we have made submissions to three major government reviews National Program Manager (Intern) Dr Hannah Hartig (which you can find at amsi.org.au), all of which will AustMS [email protected] have a major impact on education and research. We Marketing & Communications Co-ordinator will continue to pursue transformative change and its Kristin Marriner support from Malcolm Turnbull and Alan Finkel. 2016 [email protected] Multimedia Manager Michael Shaw [email protected] 5 - 8 DECEMBER Subscribe to E-news at www.amsi.org.au/subscribe Graphic Designer THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CANBERRA CANBERRA Paul Murphy [email protected] +613 8344 1777 www.amsi.org.au /DiscoverAMSI @discoverAMSI COVER IMAGE: JUSTUS KINDERMANN [email protected] 28 NOV - 2 DEC 28 NOVEMBER 16 DECEMBER THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE The Update 1 INDUSTRY INTERNSHIPS efore stepping down as Chief build a computer model to identify weaknesses Dr Giovanni Di Lieto came on board to assist Commissioner of Victoria Police, in buildings and then give them comparative with merging crime prevention literature from Ken Lay urged a move away security scores,” says Dr Davide Ferrari from The criminology in with the statistics. The big challenge, B from traditional policing to more University of Melbourne’s School of Mathematics according to Dr Di Lieto, lay in exchanging the sophisticated approaches. With the changing and Statistics. different research paradigms. “When we managed lifestyles and demographics of Victorians and Working with master’s student Puxue Qiao, to blend our approaches, the significance of this the rapid growth of high-density dwellings, Dr Ferrari has taken a step closer to achieving project became not only its substance, but also such a move is critical. Victoria’s love affair this after building a generalised mixed-effect its methodology. We are able to demonstrate with high-rise apartment living is creating model. These are useful in the social sciences how to effectively interlink industry and different new challenges for law enforcers with a because they are able to take into account both domains of research,". staggering 63 per cent of property related random and fixed effects. For this particular Qiao described the number of crime occurrences offences recorded study, where measurements were to be made on by using a zero-inflated Poisson regression model by Victoria Police clusters of related statistical units repeatedly, with mixed effects. A combination of predictors in 2014. were selected using information theoretical So, how can homebuyers "THE MAIN CONCERN IS THE criteria for model selection and renters be sure their (Akaike and Bayesian property is safe? information criteria). The “Security systems have LACK OF A STANDARD METHOD TO prediction accuracy for the become a very important best two selected models and integral part of both were then assessed using residential and commercial EVALUATE SECURITY LEVELS OF independent samples by living,” says Andrea cross-validation techniques. Baratta, Managing Director Using the selected models, at Epsilon Security. Dr Ferrari and Qiao first “We have identified a BUILDINGS FOR COMPARISONS. TO developed classification gap in how the security of methods for the crime these buildings is managed,” risk rating based on the Andrea says. “The main DO THIS WE NEED TO DEVELOP A Poisson mixture approach. concern is the lack of a This offered the most SECURING A STANDARD IN standard method to evaluate accuracy when predicting security levels of buildings DATA-DRIVEN COMPUTER MODEL the response due to the for comparisons. To do this complexity of the fixed and we need to develop a data- variable factors. driven computer model to TO ASSESS THE SECURITY RISK “The inspiring women HIGH-RISE LIVING assess the security risk and industry internship enabled potential crime exposure of us to collaborate with a building." AND POTENTIAL CRIME EXPOSURE Dr Ferrari and masters As changing lifestyles and demographics of urban populations Andrea proposes a student Qiao to devise a global risk measure be given statistically sound model fuel the rapid growth of high-density housing understanding to all new buildings. He OF A BUILDING." for this project. Qiao also believes this will provide gained valuable industry factors influencing the risk of crime occurrence in such a good starting point for residents seeking to choosing a mixed-effect model was natural. Dr experience – she was able to solve problems understand how their property compares with Ferrai explains that this type of model allowed and produce tangible results that have an actual buildings has become a vital tool for law enforcers. Through others, as well as identify key risks and implement them to make predictions of crime occurrences business context,” says Andrea. “Something safety improvement solutions. while also obtaining security ratings for each not nearly enough Australian students have the an inspiring women industry internship, supported by veski Epsilon Security accessed funding through individual building. opportunity to do.” an initiative by veski and the Victorian State “The data collection was done using an original Universities are drivers of innovation; and and the Office of the Lead Scientist, Epsilon Security and The Government to support Victorian female honours survey through telephone interviews. In the they play a key role in projects like