About Us

Director: Professor David Steel (dsteel@uow.edu.au)
Deputy Director: Associate Professor Robert Clark (rclark@uow.edu.au)

The Centre for Statistical and Survey Methodology (CSSM) undertakes fundamental and contract research, major consulting projects and training in statistical methodology. Our mission is to lift statistical thinking and practice in Australia and the Pacific, through research leadership, teaching, postgraduate supervision and partnerships with governments and industry.

The CSSM is a centre of excellence in design and analysis for complex populations. The Centre has expertise in: survey design and analysis; complex data analysis and estimation methods; experimental design and analysis; data mining; spatial and small area statistics; statistics in quality; privacy and confidentiality; combining and analysing data from different sources, bioinfomatics and statistical education.

The CSSM has research projects in:

• statistical design, including survey design and experimental design;
• analysis of data from complex populations, including survey, longitudinal, spatial and aggregated data;
• data quality and survey methods;
• statistical modeling and analysis, including semi-parametric methods, generalised linear mixed models, estimating equations, Monte Carlo methods, computational statistics and time series analysis
• statistical education.

We can offer research students a range of innovative and relevant statistical research programs. There are currently over 20 Ph.D students in the Centre, and we welcome enquiries from prospective research students.

The School also offers a Research Methods subject (MATH907) specifically designed to help research students with the finding and analysis of statistical and mathematical literature sources, the writing and presentation of research proposals and the design, planning and writing of statistical thesis in LATEX. PhD students are welcome to audit this course and attend those seminars and tutorials which would help them in the preparation and writing of their thesis. Candidates should discuss participation with their supervisors and Professor Ramagge.

We undertake contract research, deliver statistical training courses, conduct statistical projects, advise on tender specifications, and review proposals and reports. We have major partnerships with the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the New Zealand Ministry of Health involving methodological research and development in sample surveys and official statistics.

The centre also includes the University's Statistical Consulting Service, which provides students and staff members of the University of Wollongong with consulting assistance for research.

The CSSM is located within the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, a vibrant and growing academic school with 8 professors including 4 research professors.