A friendly work rivalry out at ABS House in Belconnen has seen two Canberra men take home prizes in a prestigious international statistics competition.
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Statisticians Nicholas Husek and Andreas Mayer, who both moved interstate to Canberra in recent years to work on "big, exciting projects" at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, took out second and third places respectively in a recent competition held by the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS).
![Nicholas Husek beat fellow statistician and work 'rival' Andreas Mayer with a paper on tracking truck movements. Photo: Karleen Minney Nicholas Husek beat fellow statistician and work 'rival' Andreas Mayer with a paper on tracking truck movements. Photo: Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/1f043ca5-9d61-4662-b081-ce7863427b60/r0_0_2000_1330_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The competition challenges professionals to bring solutions and innovation to methods of data collection.
Second-placed Husek developed a method of applying telematics data (GPS location recorders) for trucks as a new way to collect information on congestion, and other freight statistics. The data, which tracks truck travel between states, can assist with infrastructure decisions, ensuring new projects deliver the best value.
![Nicholas Husek beat fellow statistician and work 'rival' Andreas Mayer with a paper on tracking truck movements. Photo: Karleen Minney Nicholas Husek beat fellow statistician and work 'rival' Andreas Mayer with a paper on tracking truck movements. Photo: Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/9666a306-fe98-44d9-9bb5-65d0d320cde2/r0_0_2000_1113_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"There are many practical benefits of telematics, especially as paper forms no longer need to be filled in by the truckies, reducing that extra burden on the drivers," Husek said.
"Telematics data is collected autonomously which makes it a lot easier to collect and then analyse the data."
Mayer's third prize-winning paper presented innovative methods of improving seasonally-adjusted and trend estimates by accounting for the relationship over time in sample selection for ongoing sample surveys. This technique could be applied to various economic measures.
"Having a knowledge of statistics means I can use data to solve real problems for people," Mayer said.
"Statistics provides a really useful framework for defining your problem, determining what data you need to answer it, and then actually getting that answer and knowing how good it is."
Husek said he was inspired to enter the IAOS competition after learning of Mayer's previous first prize win in 2015. In fact, Mayer's work more generally inspired Husek to move to the ACT from Victoria last year.
"The motivation to move to Canberra was definitely to work on some of the big exciting projects at the ABS," Husek said.
"After seeing what Andreas was working on and saying 'wow, all the stuff he did on the semantic web was really really interesting' - I wanted to join his team."
But the two self-confessed data 'nerds' never got the chance to work together, with Husek effectively replacing Mayer in the emerging data methods team at ABS.
As part of their recent wins, both men received cash prizes, membership to the IAOS and the potential for their papers to be published in academic journals internationally.
The friendly rivalry out at the ABS will continue, both men agreed, with Husek aspiring to one day be Mayer's boss.
"Hopefully that will happen," Husek laughed.
"But just to work in a team with him at this point would be enough."