Seminar series of the Department

2021(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2021
12 March	David Rodwell (Capitec, Stellenbosch) Categorical CVA biplots
26 March	Hassan Sadiq (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Model based approach to inferring episodic directional selection in codon sequences
23 April	Delia Sandilands (Capitec, Stellenbosch) Exploding biplots with density axes in Plotly
14 May	Dewald Muller (Root, Cape Town) The API economy: how Software as a Service (SaaS) is changing the insurance sector
28 May	Hans-Peter Bakker (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Explorations in independent component analysis

11 June Manne Bylund and Robyn Gerghoff (Department of General Liguistics, SU)

Experimental approaches to language in the mind

Seminars will be linked through Microsoft TEAMS. Link available from Danie Uys. Face to face also possible in room 2058. Time of seminar is at 13:00.

Enquires: Danie Uys

Telephone: 021 808 3879

Fax: 021 808 3830

e-mail: dwu@sun.ac.za

Archive of Seminar Series

2020(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2020
31 July	Adriaan van Niekerk (Centre for Geographical Analysis, SU) The use of machine learning for making sense of satellite imagery
14 August	Gerrit Grobler (Department of Statistics, North West University) An empirical analysis of currency jumps based on realised hi-power variation
28 August	Francois van der Bank (Department of Industrial Psychology, SU) Using structural equation modelling to explain psychological mechanisms at work
11 September	Kristian Muller-Nedebock (Department of Physics, SU) Disorder in polymer networks
2 October	Carel van der Merwe (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Classifying yiels spread movements in sparse data through tri-plots

16 October Musa Malwandla (Differential Capital, Johannesburg)

Issues in consumer credit risk: from regulatory capital to economic value

2020(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2020
24 January	Tim Verdonck (Department of Mathematics, University of Antwerp) Fraud detection in Analytics
14 February	Johane Nienkemper-Swanepoel (Department of Genetics, SU) Visualisations for multivariate missing data
28 February	Ingrid van Keilegom (Research Centre for OR and Business Statistics, KU Leuven) On semiparametric modelling, estimation and inference for survival data subject to dependent censoring
13 March	Zander Wessels (NMRQL Research, Stellenbosch) Machine learning applications in investment management

2019(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2019
26 July	Humphrey Brydon (Department of Statistics and Population Studies, UWC) Exploration of missing data imputation methods
16 August	Stefan Britz (Department of Statistical Sciences, UCT) Computer vision applications: from Cedar tree counting to precision farming, GTA simulations and going ballistic(s)
30 August	Rulof Burger (Department of Economics, SU) An Econometric method for estimating population parameters from non-random samples: an application in clinical case finding
27 September	Daan le Roux (Department of Information Science, SU) Technology use effects: current evidence and challenges
4 October	Ian Louw (Explore Data Science Academy, Cape Town) Water network management: a data driven appraoch
18 October	Martin Coxon (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Identifying the utilisation trends of diabetic beneficiaries in the South African private health care sector

2019(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2019
8 February	Peter Filzmoser (Vienna University of Technology, Austria) Robust and sparse classification in high dimensions
22 February	Adriaan Rowan (Analytics consultant, Cape Town) Using and understanding non-linear predictive models
8 March	Etienne Roussouw (Munich RE, Cape Town) The rapidly developing world of (re)insurance
12 April	Piet Maree (Discovery Health, Johannesburg) Incentives, physical activity and absenteeism: investigating the impact of Vitality on employee wellbeing and how an Apple Watch can prevent absenteeism
26 April	Mark Nasila (FNB, Johannesburg) Why Statisticians are key in harnessing the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution'
10 May	Loamie Kotze (Isimo Health, Cape Town) Markov modelling of disease progression in the presence of missing covariates

2018(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2018
27 July	Joseph Ngatchou-Wandjil (University of Lorraine, France) Testing nonstationary absolutely regular nonlinear models
3 August	Johan Louw (Department of Logistics, SU) Visual data analytics: your visuals providing clarity and insight or more confusion?
24 August	Hanjo Odendaal (Bureau for Economic Research, SU) Digital age economics: applications of statistical learning for economic indicators
31 August	Guus Balkema (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Linear regression for heavy tails
7 September	Hélène Nieuwoudt (Institute for Wine Biotechnology, SU) Modelling the sensory space of varietal wines: mining of large, unstructured text data and visualisation of style patterns
28 September	Francois Kamper (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Regularised Gaussian belief propagation
12 October	Rousseau Lötter (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Implementing smart beta: the untold story
26 October	Monica Matthews (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) The South African investor: a year in review (NOT PRESENTED)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2018

27 July

Joseph Ngatchou-Wandjil (University of Lorraine, France)

Testing nonstationary absolutely regular nonlinear models

3 August

Johan Louw (Department of Logistics, SU)

Visual data analytics: your visuals providing clarity and insight or more confusion?

24 August

Hanjo Odendaal (Bureau for Economic Research, SU)

Digital age economics: applications of statistical learning for economic indicators

31 August

Guus Balkema (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Linear regression for heavy tails

7 September

Hélène Nieuwoudt (Institute for Wine Biotechnology, SU)

Modelling the sensory space of varietal wines: mining of large, unstructured text data and visualisation of style patterns

28 September

Francois Kamper (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU)

Regularised Gaussian belief propagation

12 October

Rousseau Lötter (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU)

Implementing smart beta: the untold story

26 October

Monica Matthews (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU)

The South African investor: a year in review (NOT PRESENTED)

2018(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2018
16 February	Martin Coxon (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) A decade in the regulatory orphanage - comparing the health of the medical schemes industry between 2007 and 2017 (NOT PRESENTED)
2 March	Francesca Little (Department of Statistical Sciences, UCT) A potpourri of time to event and longitudinal analyses
16 March	Luca Steyn (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Extreme value-based novelty detection
13 April	Rademeyer Vermaak (Fairtree Capital, Bellville) The factors of investing - smart beta and beyond
4 May	Jacobus Eksteen (Scoresharp, Stellenbosch) The use of psychometric data for modelling risk
18 May	Pieter Botha (Department of Actuarial Science, UCT) Funding end-of-life care

2017(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2017
21 July	Allan Clark (Department of Statistical Sciences, UCT) Bayesian species richness and occupancy models
4 August	Charl Pretorius (Nedbank, Johannesburg) Bootstrap confidence bounds: a new construction method based on sample splitting
18 August	Nicolas Dierick (Department of Financial Economics, Ghent University, Belguim) Financial attention and the disposition effect
1 September	Simon du Plooy (Corion Capital, Cape Town) Portfolio risk decomposition
15 September	Etienne Pienaar (Department of Statistical Sciences, UCT and MenteNova Risk Solutions) Likelihood inference for non-linear jump diffusions with state-dependent intensity with applications to risk management
29 September	Michael Greenacre (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain) Selection of ratios in compositional data analysis
6 October	David Hofmeyr (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Finding optimal linear cluster separators using projection pursuit. Some theory, methodology, and an R package
20 October	August Carstens and Carl du Toit (Capitec, Stellenbosch) - Demystifying data science in practice - A machine learning application in business intelligence

2017(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2017
10 February	Linke Potgieter (Department of Logistics, SU) An overview of insect population based and agent based simulation models developed for decision support in pest management in sugarcane
24 February	Mari van Reenen (Centre for Human Metabolomics, Statistics and Bioinformatics, NWU) Variable selection and classification in the presence of observations below the detection limit
10 March	Warren Brettenny (Department of Statistics, NMMU) Parametric and nonparametric approaches to efficiency analysis using examples from South Africa
24 March	Hannes van Rensburg (Dynamo Analytics, Stellenbosch) With the rise of the machine, is there room for actuaries and statisticians?
7 April	Ian de Beer (zenAptix, Stellenbosch) Dealing with time and place: spatio-temporal analytics and big data
21 April	Sugnet Lubbe (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Functional data analysis: an application to pneumonia in infants
5 May	Retha Luus (Department of Statistics and Population Studies, UWC) Statistical inference of the multiple regression analysis of complex survey data

2016(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2016
5 February	Victoria Goodall (Department of Statistics, NMMU) Application and extensions of hidden Markov models to animal movement data
26 February	Jaco Visagie (Department of Statistics, UP) On the interchangeability of barrier option pricing models
11 March	Frans Koning (Department of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science, UFS) Long term care, the South African outlook, pricing and viability
8 April	Riette Nel (Department of Biostatistics, UFS) Inter-professional team, ethics and biostatisticians
22 April	Erin Bromley-Gans (UTi, Port Elizabeth) Demand forecasting for inventory planning
6 May	Soon Nel (School of Accountancy, SU) Market-based valuations

2016(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2016
29 July	Neil Watson (Department of Statistical Sciences, UCT) Performance analysis in rugby union - validation study of previous key performance indicators
12 August	Carl du Toit and August Carstens (Capitec, Stellenbosch) Application of statistical models and techniques at Capitec bank
26 August	Julia Keddie (BSG, Johannesburg) Application of data science in business consulting
16 September	Johané Nienkemper-Swanepoel (Department of Genetics, SU) Visualisations of multiple imputations using generalised orthogonal Procrustes analysis
30 September	Carel van der Merwe (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) A fair valuation framework for IFRS 13 within the context of sparse data
14 October	Margaret de Villiers (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Predicting tomato crop yield from weather data using statistical learning techniques

2015(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2015
6 February	Warren Brown (School of Business and Finance, UWC) Investment portfolio transition management: The smoke and mirrors to profits
20 February	Jan Beirlant (Department of Mathematics and LStat, KULeuven, Belgium) Extreme value statistics for truncated Pareto-type distributions
6 March	JD van Heerden (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) The effect of adding a liquidity-related risk factor to the Fama and French four-factor model: The case for South Africa
20 March	Johan de Kock (Libfin, Liberty Life, Claremont) Liquidity models for funds
24 April	Stephen Burgess (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Lapse experience in the life insurance industry

2015(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2015
31 July	Nelmarie Louw (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Dimension reduction in Multi-label problems where there are more variables than data cases
14 August	Lidia Auret (Department of Process Engineering, SU) Unsupervised machine learning methods for process monitoring
21 August	Renier van Rooyen (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Compounding a class of Rayleigh distributions: an objective Bayesian approach
28 August	Marieta van der Rijst (Agricultural Research Council, Stellenbosch) Characterisation of product profile by considering the relation between different sets of variables in multi-block data - an application to SA Rooibos and Honeybush tea
18 September	Bruce Watson (Department of Information Science, SU) Lattice techniques in pattern matching algorithms
2 October	Marena Manley (Department of Food Science, SU) Non-destructive characterisation of cereal grains with near infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging and principal component analysis (PCA)
16 October	Stephan van der Westhuizen (Compuscan, Stellenbosch) Statistics at the Credit Bureau - a data analyst's viewpoint
17 November	Gregory Levitin (The Israel Electric Corporation, Haifa, Israel) Merging game theory and risk analysis in optimal defense of complex stochastic systems

2014(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2014
14 February	Hendri Uys (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch) Statistical methods for opponent modelling in simplified poker
28 February	Jef Teugels (Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven) Change point methods in extreme value analysis
14 March	Michael McCaul (Biostatistics unit, Stellenbosch) Pre-hospital versus in-hospital thrombolysis for ST-elevation myocardial infarction: A Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis
28 March	Jürgen Möller (Quantivation, Durbanville) An overview of big data and analytics
11 April	Vince Micali (Eskom, Johannesburg) Application of statistical sciences in electrical utilities
25 April	Hugo Fourie (Stellenbosch) The auction process within a normalised distribution world
9 May	Roelof Coetzer (SASOL, Johannesburg) The analysis of compositional data

2014(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2014
1 August	Nico Katzke (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University) Multivariate volatility modeling
15 August	Sarel Steel (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University) Multi-label classification
29 August	Daniël van Zyl (Sanlam, Bellville) Latest trends in the South African retirement industry, results from the 2014 Sanlam benchmark survey
19 September	Dan Jacobson (Institute for Wine Biotechnology, Stellenbosch University) PCA-GSA and strolling through a (random) forest. Creative solutions to statistical challenges in omics datasets
3 October	Alex Welte (SACEMA, Stellenbosch) Estimating chronic disease incidence. Dynamics or statistics?
24 October	Edward Alant (GRS Actuarial Consulting, Stellenbosch) A statistical method to predict the highest school grade of a learner in South Africa

2013(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2013
15 February	Delson Chikobvu (Department of Statistics, University of the Free State) Application of Bayesian statistics in process capability indices
1 March	Lucette van Niekerk (Paul Roos Gimnasium, Stellenbosch) 'n Oorsig van Wiskunde en Statistiek onderrig op skoolvlak
15 March	Manie Geyer (Centre for Regional and Urban Innovation and Statistical Exploration, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, SU) Trends in South African metropolitan morphology
12 April	Zurab Janelidze (Department of Mathematics, SU) Mathematics today: form and function
26 April	Francois van Graan (School of Computer Science, Statistics and Mathematics, North-West University) Application of copulas in time series analysis
10 May	Janette Larney (Centre for Business Mathematics and Informatics, North- West University) Market consistent models for valuing investment guarantees: the case of implied volatility

2013(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2013
2 August	Johan Hugo (Department of Statistics, NMMU) Bayesian tolerance intervals for the univariate normal model
16 August	Wesley Pretorius (Old Mutual, Cape Town) Non-parametric regression modelling of in situ fCO2 in the Southern ocean
30 August	Micheal von Maltitz (Department of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of the Free State) The implementation and testing of a robust model for sequential regression multiple imputation
20 September	Stéfan van der Walt (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch) A random walk in image processing
27 September	Michael Greenacre (Universitat Pomeu Fabra, Barcelona) Effect sizes and tests of significance in unconstrained and constrained biplots
4 October	Inger Fabro-Rotelli (Department of Statistics, University of Pretoria) Statistical Image Processing
18 October	Derrick Roper (Novare Asset Management) Title to be announced
1 November	SASA Western Cape Chapter lectures: Peter McCullagh (Department of Statistics, University of Chicago) Statistical issues in specific scientific applications Part A: Phonemic diversity and the "Out of Africa" hypothesis Part B: Allergy prevalence and environmental biodiversity Bradley Jones (SAS Institute, Raleigh) Tailor-made design of experiments using SAS JMP

2012(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2012
17 February	Makarand Ratnaparkhi (Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio) Certain properties of weighted lognormal distributions and related applications in statistical inference
2 March	James Allison (School of Computer Science, Statistics and Mathematics, North-West University) On the joint distribution of the ranks associated with bivariate data with application to the empirical copula estimator
16 March	Lizanne Raubenheimer (Department of Statistics, Rhodes University) Bayesian estimation for linear functions of Poisson rates
30 March	Roelof Coetzer (SASOL) Design and analysis of mixture experiments: physical and computer experiments
20 April	Monique Zaahl (Department of Genetics, Stellenbosch University) Statistics in biology: challenges and opportunities
11 May	Chris Muller (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SU) Bayesian multi-state modelling

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2011
11 February	Tchilabalo Kpanzou (Department of Statistics, Stellenbosch University) Semi-parametric estimation of inequality measures
25 February	Howard Gabriels (The Statistics Council, Pretoria) Towards the National Statistical System: The role of official statistics in South Africa
11 March	Justin Harvey (Centre for Statistical Consultation, Stellenbosch University) Bayesian confidence intervals for the mean of a lognormal distribution: A comparison with the MOVER and generalized confidence interval procedures
1 April	Sonali Das (Logistics and Quantitative Methods, CSIR, Pretoria) Investigating structural breaks in groundwater level from Limpopo WMA
15 April	Nic Labadorios (Sentigol, Brackenfell) Using statistics to fight corruption: A discussion forum
6 May	Frederik Scholtz (Department of Physics, Stellenbosch University) Noncommutative statistics

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2011
29 July	Carel van der Merwe (Ernst & Young, Johannesburg) Calculation aspects of the European rebalanced basket option using Monte Carlo methods
12 August	Mohammad Arashi (Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran) Bayesian statistical inference in elliptical models
26 August	Theo Pepler (Department of Genetics, Stellenbosch University) Common principal components
16 September	Tiaan van der Merwe (SPSS South Africa, Tokai) Predictive analytics: Real world applications
30 September	Gavin Miller (Department of Social Development, Provincial Government of the Western Cape) The use and abuse of statistics in decision making
14 October	Davy Corubolo (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, Stellenbosch University) Financial crisis – cause and effects

2010(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2010
5 February	Jef Teugels (Department of Mathematics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) Change point methods in extreme value analysis
19 February	Eugene Visagie (Novare Holdings, Bellville) Africa as an investment destination and its unique risks
5 March	Schalk Human (Department of Statistics, Pretoria University) Nonparametric Shewhart-type control charts with runs-rules
26 March	Martin Kidd (Centre for Statistical Consultation, Stellenbosch University) Analysis of Likert scale data: A new proposed ordinal discreet distribution
16 April	Gunther Jager (Department of Statistics, Rhodes University) Prediction of secondary structure of proteins
23 April	Robert Schall (Department of Statistics, Free State University) Parametric and nonparametric characterization of QT prolongation

2010(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2010
30 July	Stephen Reid (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University) LICSA: Leading indicators of currency crises in South Africa: A comparison of three machine learning techniques
13 August	Barry Green (AIMS, Muizenberg) On the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the opportunities it offers
27 August	JD van Heerden (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University) The relationship between cross-sectional volatility, tracking error and active positions: The case for South Africa
17 September	Mark Freed (CoZero, Johannesburg) The price of carbon
8 October	Retha Luus (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University) Confidence intervals for welfare indices under complex sampling
22 October	Ivona Contardo (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University) Designing Phase I control charts

2009(No1)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: FIRST SEMESTER 2009
13 February	Machiel Kruger (Centre for Business Mathematics and Informatics, North-West University) Calculating economic capital for low default portfolios
27 February	Delia North (Statistics Department, University of KwaZulu-Natal) Optimizing the probability that the new breed of students will understand the concept of probability
13 March	Anthony la Grange (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University) New-look biplot axes and software to construct them
27 March	Samuel Manda (Medical Research Council, Pretoria) A Bayesian survival model using weighted observations from non-proportionally sampled strata
17 April	Kevin Kotze ( Economics Department, Stellenbosch University) Formulating a macro econometric model for the South African economy
8 May	Tom Berning (Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University) An empirical Bayes estimate of the extreme value index in an ANOVA setting

2009(No2)

SEMINAR PROGRAMME: SECOND SEMESTER 2009
31 July	Olapade Kehinde (Department of Mathematics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria) On generalizations and characterizations of the logistic distribution and their applications
14 August	Yuri Goegebeur (Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark) Kernel estimators for the second order parameter in extreme value statistics
4 September	Cay van der Merwe (Information Management, Central University of Technology, Free State) The statistician in higher education institutional research
18 September	Stan du Plessis (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University) A wavelet analysis of South African macroeconomic time series
2 October	Vincent Micali (Corporate Services Division, Eskom) Sequential random sampling for corona and hot-spot detection on transmission lines
16 October	Wickes Robbertse (Department of Statistics, Johannesburg University) On the estimation of the Hurst exponent in long-memory time series