The Random Sample

Do you ever stop and think about how much time you spend on your mobile phone, or binge-watching your favourite TV show? Not surprisingly, tech companies and apps actually make those predictions - and they also sell those predictions. In this episode, we look investigate the disturbing possibility that companies might take it a step further by also getting us to do what they were predicting - or a...

One of the biggest issues we face is the deliberate spread of false information over platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Because of the network properties of those platforms, it’s not hard to see how wrong, or even dangerous, information can end up in the news feeds and the minds a lot of people. In this episode, we explore what a team of researchers is doing to tackle this pr...

Bayesian statistics help decide what email you get is spam. It can assess security and medical risks, decode DNA, enhance blurry pictures, help explain stock market volatility, predict the spread of an infectious disease, and its methods were even used by Alan Turing in World War 2 to crack the secret of the Nazi enigma code. In this episode, we explore the history of Bayes' theorem, the ideas beh...

It’s one of the fastest growing areas of mathematics, and for good reason. Mathematical biology tackles problems involving things like genetics, diseases, epidemics, ecology, population growth and extinction. The list could go on and on. In this episode, we explore the field of mathematical biology as we chat with one of Australia's rising stars in the field, QUT Professor Matthew Simpson. The Ran...

Professor James McCaw is one of the leaders of the pandemic modelling group advising Australia's National Cabinet. In this episode, Professor McCaw talks about the role mathematical modelling played in Australia's response to COVID-19, and we explore how this crisis has given many people a glimpse into how maths and stats can play a key role in tackling problems they wouldn’t expect. The Random Sa...

The closest thing to a crystal ball that many organisations and businesses have to look into the future is what’s called a forecast. Not for weather, but for so many other things like product sales, or unemployment figures, or energy usage. In this episode, ACEMS Chief Investigator Professor Rob Hyndman gives us a glimpse into how forecasting works and how it continues to develop. The Random Sampl...