Speakers

  • SE

    Sebnem Er

    Geographical Distribution and Statistical Analysis of Traffic Accidents in City of Cape Town

    Sebnem holds a PhD of Quantitative Methods in 2009 at Istanbul University focusing on Dynamic Panel Data Analysis. I worked as a research assistant in Istanbul University School of Business Quantitative Methods Department between 2003-2013. In January 2013, I joined University of Cape Town Statistical Sciences Department as a lecturer. I am currently a senior lecturer and the program coordinator for MSc Data Science degree at UCT, Statistical Sciences Department. My academic interests consist of spatial statistical models and machine learning algorithms applied in different areas such as agriculture, ecology and health sciences.

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  • SV

    Sean van der Merwe

    Simulation is fun

    Sean is coordinator of the UFS Statistical Consultation Unit and has consulted on over 250 projects. He does research and teaching in Bayesian statistical modelling and has a knack for simulation studies.

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Presentation 1

The research focuses on the road traffic accidents that occurred at road intersections in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality between 2015 and 2019, specifically in Cape Town. The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is the main source of South African RTC data used by researchers. This database includes the attributes of each accident such as the severity, time and alleged cause of the accident. The dataset provided also contains the road and node descriptions of the traffic accidents which allows the accidents that happened at an intersection to be highly precisely geocoded compared to the accidents that happened along a road segment. The main aim of this research is therefore to model the accident counts at road intersections using road level characteristics such as speed limits, speed bumps, traffic lights, intersections, etc. This will guide the policy makers in providing solutions for reducing traffic accidents and improving the overall road safety.


Presentation 2

After introductions, a quick demonstration of neatly simulating data for assignments will follow.

Slides: https://seanvdm.co.za/files/presentations/statsnetsa_svdm.html#/title-slide​

Event Details

This 2024 seminar series aims to highlight the experiences of emerging researchers in our Statistics community across tertiary institutions in South Africa, thereby opening a channel for moving into a period of sustainable academic statistics.


This research group and seminar series aims develop the early career doctoral supervisor in Statistical Sciences to be more effective in graduating a doctoral candidate, as well as providing a more holistic and understandable journey for the student, aiming to initiate their movement into academia. This project aims to develop 1) effective and efficient doctoral supervisors in Statistical Sciences; 2) more equipped doctoral students for both corporate and academic paths, 3) strengthen collaboration between various departments in South Africa, including operations research, data science as well as the role of universities of technology. Most importantly, the project will reach doctoral candidates in Statistical Sciences within South Africa, building a base of expertise widely spread and creating networks between young supervisors/researchers across South Africa.