Tuesday 23 May 2017
The RSS Graduate Statistician (GradStat) mentoring scheme – how to benefit from participation as a mentor or mentee Download slides 1, Download slides 2, Download slides 3, webcast (YouTube)
Presenters: Sarah Barker (Royal Statistical Society), Paul Baxter (University of Leeds) and Apostolos Fakis (Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
The RSS mentoring scheme was set up in 2008, with the aim of providing help and advice to GradStats on how to progress their careers and document their professional experience and development, with the aim of making a strong application for Chartered Statistician (CStat) status. Over 100 mentees and over 50 mentors have participated in the scheme to date.
Sarah Barker will provide an overview of the scheme and how it operates, including how to apply and mentor-mentee matching process.
Paul Baxter and Apostolos Fakis will give an account of their experiences from the mentor and mentee perspective, including how participation in the scheme has been of benefit to them, what challenges they have faced and what advice they would offer to existing and potential mentors and mentees.
This webinar will be of interest to mentors and mentees who have already joined the scheme, Chartered Statisticians who are considering volunteering as a mentor and Graduate Statisticians who want to find out more about how the scheme could benefit them.
Wednesday 26 April, 2017
Excellence and Innovation in Official Statistics – engaging and communicating with users - Slides1, slides2, webcast (Youtube)
Daryl Lloyd and David Mais, Department for Transport
Baljit Gill, Cabinet Office (formerly DCLG)
The RSS Official Statistics Awards, jointly awarded by the RSS and by the UK Statistics Authority, recognise and celebrate developments in Official Statistics. In this meeting the winners and runners-up of the 2016 Awards will describe the work which led to the awards: the Department of Transport, whose winning entry on Road Safety Statistics used innovative methods and clear and engaging communication, and the Department for Communities and Local Government, whose work with the Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion was Highly Commended, being praised for its quality assurance methods and clear communication. Speakers will reflect on the way the work arose, was supported and was taken forward, and what was and might be learned from that. There will be opportunity for discussion and questions.
Monday 30 January 2017
CStat revalidation – your questions answered - Slides (PDF), webcast (Youtube)
Trevor Lewis (RSS Professional Affairs Committee)
This meeting will outline the Chartered Statistician (CStat) revalidation processes being carried out in 2017 for professionally active Chartered Statisticians who have a revalidation date of 1st January 2018. The process for those CStats who do not also hold the Chartered Scientist (CSci) award will be covered, as will the process for those CStats who also hold the CSci award. The presentation will also summarise the outcome of the revalidation process in previous years and will clarify the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirement that underpins revalidation. The meeting should be of interest to all Chartered Statisticians and to all Graduate Statisticians who are on the pathway to CStat status. There will be an opportunity to raise any outstanding questions.
Monday 21 November 2016, 2pm-3pm (GMT)
Working as a Data Scientist in sport: are empirical models good enough and how do we measure good enough? - Slides (PDF), webcast (YouTube)
Dave Hastie (Sporting Data Science)
In this webinar Dave will discuss his consultancy work within the sports industry as a data scientist at Sporting Data Science. Having started in this area in 2003, Dave has worked with professional sports teams and confederations, broadcasters, companies building fan engagement products and organisations linked to sports betting. To date his work has focussed on football, tennis and cricket but the approach can apply to many other sports. The talk will provide a flavour of Dave’s work, giving examples covering the whole data science pipeline, including data wrangling, data analysis, visualisation and statistical modelling. The webinar will cover some of the challenges working within the industry. Specifically, Dave will focus on communicating complex ideas and receiving buy-in amongst traditional sports executives and fans, who rarely have a statistical background but are considered to be experts in their domain. The final part of the talk will look at the specific question of how empirical based models developed by domain experts compare to the parametric or non-parametric models that are the basis of the statistical modeller’s toolbox. As part of this question, Dave will also address the issue of model assessment and some of the difficulties in comparing models within this domain.
Monday 31 October 2016, 3pm-6pm (GMT) at the RSS, Errol Street, London
CStat applications – The How? and Why? questions answered (face-to-face meeting) - webcast (YouTube), slides1 (PDF),slides2 (PowerPoint), slides3 (PDF), slides4 (PowerPoint)
Rob Mastrodomenico (Global Sports Statistics), Matt Sperrin (University of Manchester), Trevor Lewis (RSS Professional Affairs Committee), Sarah Barker (RSS Professional Affairs & Examinations Manager)
This meeting is aimed at individuals who are considering or in the process completing their Chartered Statistician (CStat) application and is intended to offer some insight into the benefits of CStat and the process for completing the CStat application. The first talk by Trevor Lewis will give an overview of the CStat award and the benefits of holding the award. Matt Sperrin will then offer his personal perspective as an academic of completing the CStat application outlining his experience. Rob Mastrodomenico will then offer much the same but this time from the perspective of someone in industry. By looking at the application process from the perspective of individuals from both academia and industry it is hoped that attendees will be able to gain insight to help them with their own applications. Following this there will be a talk from Sarah Barker who oversees the CStat application process for the Society and will describe the support the Society gives to those seeking chartered status (CStat).
The event will finish with a drinks reception where you will be able to network with other individuals who are in the CStat process. On top of this the event can be considered as a professional development activity and so can feature in support of your own application.
Tuesday 6 September 2016, 2pm-3pm (BST) at the RSS International Conference in Manchester, UK.
A Journey into the Uncertain: Identifying and Modelling Risk in Financial Services - webcast (YouTube)
Ashley Kanter (Analytics Manager, Aviva)
In this presentation Ashley will describe his experience working in the finance sector at Legal & General. In particular, he will describe how uncertainty features strongly in the structure and pricing of pensions - and how statisticians are well-placed to tame it. The focus of Ashley’s presentation will be on both the use of statistical techniques in this setting and also on how he has influenced his organisation to implement his work. Thus his presentation will cover the range of technical and non-technical skills and knowledge that he has found necessary to make an impact. The presentation will be suitable for a non-financial audience. Issues will be introduced generally at a high level, although some basic financial concepts will be covered.
Wednesday 15 June 2016, 2pm-3.30pm (BST)
The state of and prospects for professional accreditation for statisticians - webcast (YouTube), slides
Ron Wasserstein, Executive Director (American Statistical Association)
The ASA has been accrediting statisticians for just over five years (PStat and more recently GStat). Some things have gone very well. Others have been disappointing. In a rapidly evolving, high demand field, how will credentialing keep up. What will its purposes be in the future? Ironically, accreditation is needed by the profession but perhaps not required by many members to practice as professional statisticians. This webinar will review the current status of accreditation, and reflect on what may need to change. The perspective is that of the ASA, but in the Q&A we will be able to generalize to include the RSS perspective with CStat, CSci and GradStat.
2pm-3.30pm (BST), 20 Wednesday April 2016
Innovation and Development in Official Statistics: communicating for users - webcast (Youtube), slides 1 , slides 2 (PDF)
Luned Jones (Welsh Government) and Michael Hardie (Office for National Statistics)
The RSS Official Statistics Awards, jointly awarded by the RSS and by the UK Statistics Authority, recognise and celebrate developments in Official Statistics. In this meeting the winners and runners-up of the 2015 Awards will describe the work which led to the awards: the Welsh Government, whose winning entry on the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation made major innovations in presentation, and the Office for National Statistics who were runners up with their engaging "digital day". Speakers will reflect on the way the work arose and was supported, will describe the work and how it is being taken forward, and what others might learn from that. There will be opportunity for discussion and questions.
2:00pm-3:30pm (GMT) 8 February 2016.
CStat revalidation – your questions answered - webcast (YouTube), slides (PDF)
Trevor Lewis (RSS Professional Affairs Committee)
This meeting will outline the general CStat revalidation process, the experience with the process over the past 2 years, and discuss the specifics of the process for those undertaking the revalidation activity in 2016. There will be an opportunity to raise any outstanding questions.
2:00pm-3:30pm (GMT) 27 January 2016.
Statistics on the economy, jobs, immigration, crime, travel and so much more fill the airwaves and news channels every day. Where do they come from? - professional statisticians, of course - webcast (YouTube) slides (PowerPoint)
John Pullinger (National Statistician)
In this lecture John Pullinger will discuss how his role as President of the RSS was perfect preparation for his current jobs as UK National Statistician and Chair of the United Nations Statistical Commission. He will also talk about how other professional statisticians can contribute to the urgent task of capability building in the world of official statistics.