Seminar by Dr. TAM Siu Ming (The seminar is funded by Kin Lam Development Fund for Data Analytics)

If data is the new oil, then big data is a vast and rich oil reserve. Just as oil reserves require exploration, extraction, and refining to become useful, big data requires advanced statistical tools and techniques to extract valuable insights for informed decision making. In this talk, Siu-Ming will explore various types of big data that can be leveraged for producing official statistics. He will also discuss an error framework to evaluate the quality of big data and examine the different data structures utilized in big data analysis.

Following this, Siu-Ming will delve into analytic methods for integrating big data with survey data to address the shortcomings of big data, aimed at enhancing the production of efficient national and small area estimates of finite population parameters. Finally, he will present examples using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to illustrate the methodology discussed.

Siu-Ming has a BA in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), graduating in 1973 with first-class honours. He worked at the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department until 1985. After completing his PhD at the Australian National University, he joined the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 1987. Since then, he has held various roles, including Program and General Manager overseeing population censuses, surveys, data management, dissemination, and information management transformation programs. From 2012 to 2019, he served as the General Manager and Chief Methodologist of ABS's Methodology Division.

Siu-Ming has also held leadership positions in the statistical community. He was the Chair of the UN Task Force on Satellite Imagery and Geo-spatial Statistics, Chair of the Paris Micro-data Group at the OECD, Vice-President of the International Association of Official Statistics and chair of the Chief Methodologists Network. Additionally, he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Statistical Journal of the International Association of Official Statistics and served as Applications Editor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics. Since retiring in 2019, Siu-Ming has been consulting for top global management consultancy firms and national statistical offices in Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. He is also an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and ex-honorary professorial fellow of the University of Wollongong, Australia.