Mathematics and Statistics

Research Area leader: Professor Ken Russell

Overview
Members
Projects
Current Students
PHD/DIT Topics
Honours Topics

Applied Mathematics and Statistics research incorporates the extensive research undertaken by CSU’s mathematicians and statisticians. Members of this research area are involved in a broad cross-section of research as mathematics and statistics are fundamental components of quantitative research.

Members of the group often work collaboratively across a range of disciplines and faculties. This collaboration has strengthened the research output of all its members. Collaborative research provides mutual support and encourages synergistic interaction that leads to higher-quality output.

The group aims to solve theoretical and applied problems of a quantitative nature by developing the theory and methods needed to obtain practical solutions. Where possible, this supports the University’s aim for research to be based around the issues of our region.

The members of the group will target the following five key research areas:

Mathematical modelling and numerical solutions, including hydrology, evapotranspiration, and sparse linear systems;
Data analysis and statistical signal processing for gravitational wave detection;
Integrable systems;
Design and analysis of experiments in agriculture, public health and science; and
Small area modelling.

Each of these research areas makes use of the group’s special expertise in planning the optimal collection of data, and developing mathematical and statistical models to explain the behaviour of the data.

The mathematical and statistical skills of the researchers make an increasingly important contribution to research either in joint applied work or in theoretical contributions to knowledge. The members of this research area add significant rigour to the research that they participate in.

Name	Title/Position	Location
Philip Charlton	Senior Lecturer	Wagga
Dmitry Demskoy	Lecturer	Wagga
Michael Kemp	Lecturer	Orange
Zhenquan (‘Jan’) Li	Senior Lecturer	Albury
Sharon Nielsen	Lecturer	Wagga
Azizur Rahman	Lecturer	Wagga
Ken Russell	Professor	Wagga
Robert Wood	Lecturer	Bathurst

+ Current Projects

Project Name	Brief Description	Funding Body	Investigators
Statistics for the Australian Grains Industry (SAG12), National Variety Trials Services Agreement (NVT)	The SAG12 project will deliver statistical support and training, develop innovative statistical technologies and statistical software for the grains industry of Australia. The objective of the NVT Project is to provide statistical evaluation of field trial data, with the results to be utilised by the GRDC to provide growers and their advisors, State Departments and grains industry researchers with independent information on the performance of new varieties.	Grain Research Development Corporation/University of Wollongong	Chris Lisle
Statistical Methods in NIR Spectroscopy	NIR Spectroscopy uses several statistical methods, which are poorly explained and not necessarily statistical optimal. This PhD thesis investigates these methods, with the aim of improving them and introducing new methods where appropriate.	CSU funding	Sharon Nielsen
Integrated Mapping and Modelling of Water and Carbon Footprints of Agroecosystems	The mathematical component is the modelling of evapotranspiration in wheat, maize and rice crops.	ARC Scholarship	Camilla Vote, Mohsin Hafeez, Andrew Hall and Philip Charlton
An Evaluation of the Nurse Practitioners - Aged Care Models of Care Program	The main objectives of this project are - to determine whether the nurse practitioners projects reached a sufficient level of implementation to allow them to potentially impact on later objectives; to increase the nurse practitioner workforce in aged care; to improve access to primary care for residents and care recipients; and to demonstrate effective and economically viable models of practice. The evaluation will also address the standard areas of process, impact and outcomes, while considering the key questions of efficiency, effectiveness and appropriateness.	Department of Health & Ageing	Rachel Davey, Brenton Prosser, Diane Gibson, John Goss, Rhian Parker, Azizur Rahman, Stephen Duckett and Stephen Campbell
Determinants of Early Childhood Health and Development	Early nutrition and health, social factors and welfare distributions have potential significant impact on childhood health and cognitive development. In this project our motivations are to see the Heckman's theory using Australian UK datasets. "According to Nobel Prize winning economist, James Heckman, investing in early childhood education gives more effective results than investing in education for adolescents or young adults. In other words, earlier is better."	NHMRC	John Lynch, Sally Brinkman, Azizur Rahman, Tess Gregory, Sharon Goldfeld, Magdalena Janus and Clyde Hertzman
Small Area Estimation of Housing Stress in Australia	More than one and half million people in Australia have housing stress. Housing stress statistics vary with demographic and socioeconomic conditions of households and with geography. Due to the unavailability of micropopulation survey date in Australia, small area estimates for housing stress are not readily obtainable. Policy makers need accurate housing stress estimates at local levels to make effective policy decisions on this and related issues such as poverty, social disadvantage, health and various social assistance programs. The objectives of this project are to produce theoretical research and scholarly publications, and to develop a sophisticated modelling technology to address research issues in government and business statistics, such as creating accurate spatial data and measures of statistical reliability. Further aim is to submit an external grant application to the ARC or the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).	Department of Health & Ageing	Rachel Davey, Brenton Prosser, Diane Gibson, John Goss, Rhian Parker, Azizur Rahman, Stephen Duckett and Stephen Campbell

+ Past Projects

Project Name	Brief Description	Funding Body	Investigators
Understanding the Movement of Mobile Nutrients in a Drip Irrigated Vineyard with a Clay Loam Soil	This project involved mathematical modelling of solute transport to test the effect of different dripper rates on propagating nutrients through soil in a vineyard.	NWGIC (Holland) and SCM (Charlton)	Philip Charlton and Jonathon Holland
Comparison of Band-Limited RMS of Error Channel and Calibrated Strain in LIGO S5 Data	This project was concerned with validating interferometer data to ensure that calibration was done correctly, by compaing two methods of calibration.	SCM	Philip Charlton
Microsimulation Modelling and Small Area Housing Stress Estimation in Australia	Reliable small area statistics is very essential for regional and national lovel planning on various major social and economic issues (eg. soical welfare distributions, housing stress, poverty measures, indigenous disadvantage). A range of statisical methodologies are utilised for small area estimation including microsimulation modelling. The key purpose of this PhD project was to construct a new microsimulation modelling (MM) technology for obtaining small area housing stress estimation in Australia and then to develop some methodological capacities in MM for overcoming the lacunas in validation methods as well as measures of statistical reliability of the MM estimates.	An E-IPRS from the Commonwealth of Australia; the ACT– LDA Postgraduate Research Scholarship from the Australian Capital Territory Government, Australia; and the NATSEM Top-Up PhD Research Scholarship from at the University of Canberra.	Aziur Rahman
Childhood Development and Malnutrition in a Developing Country Bangladesh	Protein Energy Malnutrition is wide spread in the developing countries. Ending malnutrition is an agenda for the current millennium. Each year about 13 million infants and children under 5 years of age die in developing countries. Most of these deaths can be attributed to malnutrition and about half of child deaths are directly related to malnutrition’s potential effects. Malnutrition has a multi-factorial aetiology such as significant functional impairment in childhood and adult life, reduces work capacity, and thus affecting economic productivity in a community. This project develops a conceptual model and evaluates the influences of significant socioeconomic, demographic, health system and community factors on the Childhood development and malnutrition in a developing country (Bangladesh).	University of Chittagong, Bangladesh	Azizur Rahman

Name	Award	Topic	Supervisor
Paul Kew	Hons	Evaluation of Krylov subspace methods to solve large sparse matrix systems.	Dr Michael Kemp mlkemp@csu.edu.au 02 6365 7840

Supervisors	Topics
Dr Philip Charlton pcharlton@csu.edu.au 02 6933 4104	A virtual laboratory for gravitational wave data analysis
Dr Dmitry Demskoy ddemskoy@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2704	Methods of constructing exact solutions of non-linear equations Classification of non-linear integrable systems Integrable difference equations Applications of computer algebra to integrable systems
Dr Zhenquan (Jan) Li jali@csu.edu.au 02 6051 9604	Modelling shallow fluid dynamics and their numerical simulations Implementation of a mesh refinement mehod and its applications in fluid flows
Dr Azizur Rahman azrahman@csu.edu.au 02 6933 4744	Modelling childhood vulnerabiliuty of Australian children using AEDI data Maternal and child health of indigenous population in Australia Interaction of housing and spatial factors to population health outcomes Health related behaviours estimates and multilevel modelling Bayesian reweighting technique for microdata generation and mircrosimulation modelling
Professor Ken Russell kerussell@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2948	Efficient designs for Generalised Linear Models (GLM) Improving computations for adaptive designs in clinical trials

Supervisors	Topics
Dr Michael Kemp mkemp@csu.edu.au 02 6365 7840 Orange Discipline: Computing and Mathematics	Krylov Subspace methods for linear ODE systems Multiple-input multiple output systems with Krylov subspace receivers
Dr Zhenquan (Jan) Li jali@csu.edu.au 02 6051 9604 Albury/Wondonga Discipline: Computing and Mathematics	Design and implementation in C of the package importing mesh into CFX-Pre Numerical simulation of two-dimensional lid driven cavity flows in Matlab Numerical simulation of two-dimensionalbackward-facing step flows in Matlab
Professor Ken Russell kerussell@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2948 Wagga Wagga Discipline: Computing and Mathematics	Space-filling designs