From Surveys to LLMs: The New Era of Social Data – with Professor Frauke Kreuter

Technology is transforming how we understand society. For decades, researchers relied on surveys to learn about populations. But today, data comes from everywhere - administrative records, social media, and even fitness trackers. In this episode, we explore this shift with Professor Frauke Kreuter…

Multi-Source Data & the Evolution of Official Statistics - with Dr Anders Holmberg

For decades, surveys have been the backbone of official statistics - helping us measure everything from population trends to economic activity. But response rates have been falling dramatically across the world for the past few decades. This decline is forcing statistical agencies to rethink how th…

Making the Invisible Visible: The Global Hackathon Against Modern Slavery

Modern slavery is often hidden in corporate supply chains, making it hard to detect and eliminate. Countries like Australia now require companies to publish annual reports on their efforts to combat slavery - but with thousands of reports, no government can read them all. That’s where Project AIMS…

Data We Can Trust

We recently celebrated World Statistics Day on 20 October. To mark the occasion, the Statistical Society teamed up with the Australian Data Science Network for a lively online panel discussion on a topic of growing importance: trust in data. The expert panel brought together a wealth of experienc…

ReefCloud: Connecting Scientists to Save Coral Reefs – with Dr Manuel Gonzalez-Rivero

Coral reefs are among the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth – but they’re also among the most vulnerable. Thanks to climate change, pollution, and other human impacts – coral reefs are in crisis.  The need for fast, coordinated action has never been greater. One of the biggest challen…

Taylor Swift, Pesto the Penguin, and… Statistics?! - with Heather Lansdowne

The art of engagement for the Australian Bureau of Statistics  How do you make statistics and complex data not just understandable - but engaging? For the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the answer is simple: meet people where they are - on social media. From pop culture and sports to qui…

Patterns in Chaos: Exploring Complex Systems - with Professor Michael Small

What does it really mean for something to be complex - and how can mathematics help us make sense of it? In this episode of The Random Sample, our guest is Professor Michael Small, leader of the Complex Systems Group at the University of Western Australia. Michael’s research uses mathematics to un…

Indigenous Data Governance & Sovereignty - with Levi-Craig Murray

In today’s data-driven world, questions around who controls data, how it’s used, and who benefits from it are more pressing than ever. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, these questions carry even deeper significance—rooted in histories of exclusion, marginalisation, and misrepresen…

Bridging the Interdisciplinary Gap with Stats & Data Science - with Prof Galit Shmueli

The Random Sample steps into the dynamic world of interdisciplinary research—viewed through the lens of data science and statistics. Our guest is a true leader in collaborative science: Professor Galit Shmueli. Galit is the Tsing Hua Chair Professor at the Institute of Service Science at National …

Driving Change: The Maths Behind Autonomous Vehicles - with Prof Michael Milford

A few short years ago, it was one of the most hyped technology fields around. But after all that excitement, where are we now with autonomous vehicles — or driverless cars? In this episode, we go under the hood to explore how AVs gather and use data, and the complex mathematics that helps them nav…