ACEMS Virtual Public Lecture - The Origami of Data Science

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Professor Kerrie Mengersen

Many of us know about origami - where a flat square of paper is folded into a sculpture that inspires appreciation and imagination. In the same way, we might think about origami (or perhaps more accurately 'oridēta') in the context of data science, whereby a data analysis method or computational algorithm is folded into a software product that inspires interpretation and implementation.

In this public lecture, Professor Mengersen will discuss our attempts at the origami of data science. These include folding new methods and computational approaches into products such as an online atlas of cancer (atlas.cancer.org.au), a virtual Great Barrier Reef (virtualreef.org.au), an ethical social discourse platform (betterbeliefs.com.au), and a personalised learning program (qutschoolofmaths.shinyapps.io/uncoursetoolapp/). 

Although the foundations are statistical, our sculptures require a broad team of experts from the mathematical, statistical, and computer sciences, and they need to be appreciated, interpreted, imagined, and implemented by domain experts and users.

This lecture is 45-minute presentation followed by Q & A.

This lecture is part of the ACEMS Virtual Public Lecture Series - click here to view other lectures in the series.

About the speaker

Kerrie Mengersen is a Distinguished Professor of Statistics at QUT, a Deputy Director of ACEMS, and a Director of the QUT Centre for Data Science.

Kerrie is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Academy of Social Sciences, as well as the Queensland Academy of the Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on Bayesian models and computational methods, and their application to challenging problems in health, the environment, and industry.