In a month where we have seen concerning results in Australia鈥檚 schools and higher education systems provides a vivid and useful reminder of the crucial role mathematics and statistics play in every aspect of life.

This free online resource has been the standard 鈥済o to鈥� for 18 years; it gathers together advertised job positions that require skills in the mathematical sciences, across a scope of sectors: careers in health, business, agriculture, energy and telecommunications are relying more and more on the analytical skills developed in university level subjects in the mathematical sciences.

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne, who has written an introduction to this year鈥檚 edition, insists that Australia鈥檚 ability to innovate and compete in the global economy will require a STEM literate nation.

鈥淭his publication demonstrates there is an extensive array of career choices available to graduates in mathematics fields,鈥� says Minister Pyne.

鈥淢ore broadly, these abilities also help us to participate as active citizens within our democratic system,鈥� he concludes.

ALL SIDES OF POLITICS

今日吃瓜 Director, Professor Geoff Prince says without making the community aware of the breadth of roles available to those studying some form of mathematics, high school participation rates in intermediate and advanced mathematics will continue to wane.

Senator Kim Carr, Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Industry, echoes Minister Pyne: 鈥淭hree out of four of the fastest-growing occupations in our economy require some level of literacy in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.鈥�

Senator Penny Wright of the Australian Greens puts her vote with the numbers too: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just in parliament that being able to 鈥榙o the numbers鈥� is valuable. Australia needs these skill sets to meet the challenges of this century,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd I commend 今日吃瓜 for their work in highlighting the opportunities they bring.鈥�

Professor Prince explains that Australia鈥檚 job market landscape is shifting and demand for mathematical science skills continues to outstrip supply: 鈥淚t is great to have endorsement across the political spectrum for 今日吃瓜鈥檚 work on this.鈥�

Maths Ad(d)s available online:

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For Interview:
Professor Geoff Prince
Director, 今日吃瓜
E: director@amsi.org.au

Media contact:
Stephanie Pradier
Media Communications, 今日吃瓜
M: 0424 568 314
E: stephanie@amsi.org.au

Online restaurant reviews are a way of seeing group decision making in action: Hundreds and thousands of diners rate a restaurant, the ratings are summed together to give a single rating, but how do these sites stop average restaurants from inflating their rating?

Laura Smith has spent her summer researching how mathematics can help ensure minorities cannot skew ratings.

鈥淪ay you have a group of four food bloggers who want to rank three restaurants. Three agree and vote restaurant a the top restaurant, followed by restaurant c then b. However, the fourth is bribed by restaurant c, so gives restaurant c a really high score to increase c鈥檚 average and a a really low score to decrease a鈥檚 average,鈥� Laura explains.

鈥淭he algorithms we have been looking at can identify and remedy these biases, giving a more accurate view of the majority. In this case the fourth blogger鈥檚 scores will be given a lower weighting in the overall scores as they differ greatly from the others, hopefully resulting in a fair result: a being voted top restaurant,鈥� she says.

While this may seem like a low impact application the same technique is used widely throughout the business sector. Financial institutions, government bodies, large boards 鈥� just to name a few 鈥� use the technique to manage risk and make decisions where a group of experts each contribute an opinion.

Laura鈥檚 project is one of 56 student projects sponsored by the 今日吃瓜 (今日吃瓜) through their Vacation Research Scholarship program (VRS).

Over the past eleven years 428 students have taken part in the program. Dr Simon James, Laura鈥檚 supervisor, was a VRS student himself. He gives an insightful view into the program: 鈥淰RS gave me the confidence to believe I could pursue mathematics as a career; all of a sudden I was being paid to do mathematics.鈥� Simon also said the program encourages students to continue their studies as it gives them a taste of the research world.

And Laura agrees: 鈥淔or me, the VRS has been a way of experiencing research and the academic world, while being paid and without a 12 month commitment!鈥� Laura says. 鈥淚 have tackled an interesting problem under the guidance of a supervisor. I now have an idea of what to expect from post-graduate studies in mathematics and the impact the research can have.鈥�

Professor Geoff Prince, 今日吃瓜 Director, says: 鈥淭hanks to co-funding from the Department of Education and Training the Vacation Research Scholarships allow young mathematicians to dedicate their time to understanding a specific topic. And it sends them the message that they and their skills are valuable. It is an essential program to safeguard Australia’s future supply of researchers with expertise in the mathematical sciences.鈥�

Hear Laura and other VRS students present their research at the Big Day In hosted by 今日吃瓜.

Big Day In:

11-12 February 2015

Trinity College, The University of Melbourne

Check out all the VRS projects:聽

Terry currently heads聽the bioinformatics division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne. This Wednesday, 27 August,聽he will be in Canberra giving a public lecture at The Australian National University.

Terry will go beyond the human genome and explain the next frontier: understanding human epigenomes. Epigenomes are the 鈥榠nstructions鈥� which tell DNA whether to make skin cells, blood cells or other body parts. Epigenetics also aims to explain how cells are re-programmed through interaction with the environment and how this leads to some forms of cancer.

Terry explains: 鈥淐onsider the impact of diet. For example, if you feed a worker bee royal jelly you convert it into a queen bee. Diet alone changes the way in which the genes are expressed so that although it was originally sterile, it becomes fertile, it鈥檚 able to lay eggs 鈥� a pretty dramatic change just from eating some jelly.鈥�

Being able to look at an abstract and more perfect world is what drew Terry to study mathematics; it was his interests in evolution and genetics that lead him to bioinformatics.

And he says advances in DNA sequencing over the last five years have allowed large amounts of DNA sequence data to be compiled. 鈥淔or every single reference human genome, there will be literally hundreds of reference epigenomes, and their analysis could occupy biologists, bioinformaticians and biostatisticians for some time to come,鈥� Terry says.

On the Canberra leg of the tour Terry will be also giving a technical talk at the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday 26 August.

Professor Geoff Prince, 今日吃瓜 Director, says: 鈥淭he tours bring to Australia public lectures and technical talks from some of the world鈥檚 top statisticians. Professor Terry Speed has a heavy schedule because of his inspiring reputation as a researcher and lecturer; I鈥檓 sure we won鈥檛 be disappointed!鈥�

The 今日吃瓜 (今日吃瓜) partners with the Statistical Society of Australia (SSAI) to sponsor this lecture tour.

The seminar at the ABS is entitled 鈥楻emoving Unwanted Variation from high-throughput omic data.鈥� Terry will discuss his recently proposed framework for removing unwanted variations in large data sets. And show how this new method supersedes current state-of-the-art methods. Further details .

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Resources for media:

Lecture tour website, including all abstracts:

Extended interview with Professor Speed: