The Random Sample

The 2024 WIMSIG Conference celebrates the achievements of women, trans and gender diverse people in the mathematical sciences. WIMSIG stands for the Women in Mathematics Special Interest Group. The group is a part of the Australian Mathematical Society. WIMSIG just wrapped up its third-ever conference with a big gathering in Sydney. In this episode, we’ll explore how WIMSIG came into being, why it...

The Perils of "Publish or Perish". This episode of The Random Sample is the final instalment in our special three-part series on navigating the world of academic and scientific publishing. In it, we dive deep into the dilemma - and what many see as the pervasive mindset - known simply as publish or perish. Our guest is QUT statistician Professor Adrian Barnett. As part of all the research he does,...

The Challenges of Publishing Interdisciplinary Research. This episode of The Random Sample is the second instalment in our special three-part series into the world of academic and scientific publishing. In it, we delve into the challenges of publishing interdisciplinary research with special guest, Professor Xiao-Li Meng, founding editor-in-chief of the Harvard Data Science Review. We explore: How...

We’ve all heard the saying, “publish or perish”. But what does that really mean in today’s world of academic publishing? Scientific publishing has been shaping knowledge since the 17th century. Today, it's bigger, and more complex, than ever. Yet, for many inside the world of science, it remains a maze of confusion. For those outside of it, it’s practically a black box. In a special three-part ser...

Starting Wednesday, 28 August, The Random Sample will bring you a special three-part series exploring the world of academic publishing. Listen to this short trailer so you know what to expect! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here’s something to toast to. Australia’s wine industry is leading the way when it comes to a very important issue: sustainability. And Data Science is helping the industry do that! In this episode, we explore the Data Science project being carried out by the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), how and why it started, and how grape growers and wine makers are coming to embrace these new dat...

Have you heard of, or are you experiencing, eco-grief or climate anxiety? For many STEM researchers, including those in the mathematical and data sciences, this is becoming a very real thing as they explore and tackle problems and questions about the environment and climate. But just how serious of a problem is this for the STEM community? A group of women, who met as part of their involvement wit...

People love stories. That simple fact all too often gets lost by scientists when it comes to communicating research. In this episode, we chat to someone who helps researchers tell their stories. Not with words. But visually, using graphic design. Dr Jess Hopf decided to combine her two passions, science and graphic design, into a business where she helps researchers communicate their work by incor...

It’s only been a few short years since we witnessed the power of bushfires here in Australia. The summer of 2019 and 2020 brought us Australia’s most catastrophic bushfire season ever. The 2019-20 bushfires destroyed more than 3,000 homes, killed more than 30 people, and torched tens of millions of hectares of land and forest. With the effects of climate change, it’s more important than ever that...

Why do some people struggle with maths? In this episode, we chat with Dr Jacob Paul from The University of Melbourne’s School of Psychological Sciences, where he leads the Maths at Human Scale Lab. The focus of his research is to understand maths learning disorders, including something called dyscalculia. Jacob tells us what it means for children and adults with dyscalculia and what that looks lik...

This episode of The Random Sample gives you a glimpse into some of the mathematics and physics that is used to understand the building blocks of the universe. A research program at the MATRIX mathematical research institute earlier this year explored the deep connections between mathematics, quantum field theory, and string theory. One of the organisers of that research program was Professor Aless...

We admit it - even The Random Sample can't resist the hype around the world's biggest music star - Taylor Swift. Almost on a dare from his wife - and to make a point with his students - Griffith University's Dr Nathan Garland decided to open up his mathematical toolkit and explore the music of Taylor Swift. In this episode, Nathan tells us what he used from his mathematical toolkit and what he unc...

In this episode, The Random Sample switches things up a bit. The people who usually ask the questions on this podcast, our hosts, are actually our guests. We explore why these researchers wanted to also become podcasters and what they’ve learnt along the way by hosting this podcast. Our hosts turned guests for this episode are: Rose Crocker is an applied mathematician with the Australian Institute...

It’s hard to imagine a time before Wi-Fi – or what we’d do without it. Especially, if you’re under the age of 25. But thanks to the work of some brilliant Australian scientists, wireless internet is a part of our everyday lives. Our guest for this episode is Professor David Skellern, one of the Australian scientists who won the race in the late 1990’s to get functioning wireless technology to mark...

This episode of The Random Sample introduces you to three brilliant statisticians! The three have been selected to present the inaugural Horizon Lectures at the upcoming Australian Statistical Conference next month. The Statistical Society of Australia established the Horizon Lecture awards for this year’s conference to recognise emerging leaders in Australia’s statistics community, and their cont...

There is still a lot of work to do before Australian girls and women have an equal opportunity to learn, work and engage in STEM. So says the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources. The Department’s 2023 STEM Equity Monitor shows that: Women make up 37% of enrolments in university STEM courses. Only 15% of STEM-qualified jobs are held by women. Only 23% of senior man...

On Saturday, October 14th, Australians head to the polls to decide the Voice to Parliament Referendum. In this episode, we’re not looking at the referendum, but rather the polling around it. Plus, what makes referendum polling different to polling in a regular election. Our guest is Professor Simon Jackman from the University of Sydney. Professor Jackman has three decades of experience researching...

Have you ever seen something on the news or in your social media feed and think, what are the odds of that happening? University of Toronto Professor Jeffrey Rosenthal is the author of the book, “Struck by Lightning – the Curious World of Probabilities”. In it, he explores how we should look at the randomness all around us and in the world, and why we overestimate the chance of some things happeni...

For many of us, we rely on social media to get a lot of the information we’re interested in. But how does all that information move across these different platforms? It’s a question that researchers in the data and mathematical sciences at The University of Adelaide have been studying for years. Included in that research is the study of how misinformation and disinformation spreads on social media...

Here’s something weird to think about. Can fluids think? No, we’re not talking about a liquid metal shape-shifting creature like what we saw in Terminator 2. We’re asking, can fluid systems make computations? In this episode, we chat with Professor Eva Miranda, head of the Laboratory of Geometry and Dynamical Systems at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Spain. She’s on a mission exploring...

Sometimes interesting research starts with a question faced by industry. That question may lead to other questions – and maybe even shine light on a broader research problem not specific to that industry. Collaboration between academia and industry allows researchers to identify and explore these new and interesting problems. One way that’s being done is through Industry PhDs. In this podcast, we...

This is a special edition of The Random Sample! We’re on the road at the World Statistics Congress taking place from 15-20 July in Ottawa, Canada. The Congress is put on by International Statistical Institute (ISI) and is the largest congress worldwide for statisticians and data scientists. In this podcast, we hear from Stephen Penneck, ISI President; Kerrie Mengersen, ISI Vice President; Anil Aro...

Our guest is Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, a Professor in the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University in the United States. Mine’s work is so much more than just educating students about statistics and data science. She’s a big proponent of what she calls ‘open education’, the open source sharing of how stats and data science are taught, and innovating the pedagogy. In this episode, we explo...

For three decades, University of Queensland Professor Hugh Possingham has combined his two passions – mathematics and nature – into a career dedicated to making an impact with conservation efforts around the world. Hugh recently completed a two-year term as Queensland’s Chief Scientist. He served as Chief Scientist of the Nature Conservancy, is the former director of four national research centres...

Ever watch a TV courtroom drama where they question an expert witness? Chances are, you’ve never seen an actor portray an expert witness who is a statistician. But statisticians can have a big impact inside real courtrooms. Our guest is Professor Ian Gordon, Director of the Statistical Consulting Centre at The University of Melbourne. Among the consulting work he does includes being an expert witn...