Azizur Rahman

Professorial Staff

Associate Professor Azizur Rahman

BSc (Honours), MSc (Thesis) Chittagong, MPhil Qld, PhD Canberra, GCL THE CSU

Associate Professor in Mathematics and Statistics
Wagga Wagga
001/310

Profile

Associate Professor Azizur Rahman, PhD, is an applied statistician and data scientist with expertise in both developing and applying novel methodologies, models and technologies. He is the Leader of “Statistics and Data Mining Research Group” within the Data Science Research Unit in the Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences at Charles Sturt. He is able to assist in understanding multi-disciplinary research issues within various fields including how to understand the individual activities which occur within very complex scientific, behavioural, socio-economic and ecological systems.

Azizur earned his PhD from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) at the University of Canberra in 2011. His doctoral project was supervised by Professor Ann Harding, AO, one of the prominent researchers in Australia, and in that project he developed "alternative methods in microsimulation modelling technologies" which are very useful tools to socioeconomic policy analysis and evaluation. Before joining Charles Sturt as a lecturer in 2012, Azizur was a Research Fellow in Biostatistics and Population Health in the Adelaide School of Population Health and Clinical Practice. At the University of Adelaide he collaborated with Professor John Lynch, NHMRC Australia Fellow and some other key researchers in Australia, UK and Canada.

His 2020 and 2016 books have contributed significantly to the fields of “data science and policy analysis” and “small area estimation and microsimulation modelling” respectively. Azizur’s research interests encompass issues in simple to multi-facet analyses in various fields ranging from the statistical sciences to the law and legal studies. He has more than 100 scholarly publications including a few books. His research is funded by the Australian Federal and State Governments, and he serves on a range of editorial boards including the International Journal of Microsimulation (IJM) and Sustaining Regions. He obtained several awards including the SOCM Research Excellence Award 2018 and the CSU-RED Achievement Award 2019.

Teaching

Undergraduate:

  • MTH105 Introductory Mathematics
  • QBM120 Business Data Analysis
  • STA201 Scientific Statistics
  • STA308 Experimental Design and Analysis

Postgraduate:

  • STA401 Postgraduate Scientific Statistics
  • STA404 Statistical Data Analysis
  • STA427 Advanced Statistical Modelling
  • STA448 Multivariate Statistical Analysis
  • STA501 Scientific Data Analysis
  • STA502 Spatial Statistics
  • STA508 Postgraduate Experimental Design and Analysis

Research

Research Focus:

Azizur's research interests span statistics and data science including Bayesian modelling and data mining. He has a particular interest in big data analytics, predictive algorithms and data security, early childhood health and development, indigenous health in Australia, malnutrition in developing countries, interaction of housing and spatial factors to population health outcomes, health related behaviours estimates, multilevel modelling, small area estimation, computational statistics and business analytics. He has published various peer-reviewed manuscripts on his research areas.

As an interuniversity level research team Azizur and his colleagues from UC, ANU, AIHW, NATSEM and Oxford together have received a grant from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging (DoHA) to undertake "an evaluation of the nurse practitioners – aged care models of care program" research project in Australia.

Research Students:

  • Jennifer Hayes [PhD project; Principal Supervisor]
  • Sunita Panday [PhD project; Co-supervisor]
  • Scott McManus [PhD project; Co-supervisor]
  • Saleh, Samer. [PhD project; Principal Supervisor]
  • Reza, Ravaonbod [PhD project; thesis submitted in 2020; Co-supervisor]
  • Prihandinisari, Carolina. [DBA project; Graduated in 2018; Principal Supervisor]
  • Woo, Edith. [Masters project; Graduated in 2014; Co-supervisor]
  • Williams, Sarah. [Honours project; Graduated in 2013; Co-supervisor]

Potential research students are encouraged to contact A/Prof Rahman via email on azrahman@csu.edu.au.

Grants and Awards

A/Prof Azizur Rahman and his collaborative teams have been received more than $1,978,000.00 external grants for research. Several grants info are provided below.

  • Rahman, A. (2020). Health modelling with big data from Southeast Asia. Australian Government Department of Education Grant, $5,000.
  • Rahman, A. (2019). Applied Statistics and Policy Analysis, Australian Commonwealth Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities Grant, $6,000.
  • Rahman, A. (2019). Applied Statistics and Policy analysis, Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) Grant, $3,000.
  • Rahman, A. (2019). Applied Statistics and Policy Analysis, Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) Grant, $1,000.
  • Rahman, A. (2019). Applied Statistics and Policy Analysis, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis (IGPA) Grant, $750.
  • Rahman, A. and Islam, M.R. (2016). Protecting Sensitive Data against Cyber Threat using Multivariate Classification Analysis, CSU’s Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences Compact Grant, $6,734.
  • Burmeister, O. and Rahman, A. (2014). Citation analysis and journal ranking in ICT Ethics, Charles Sturt University's Faculty of Business Compact Grant, $9,434.
  • Rahman, A. Russell, K. and Gong, K. (2014) Applied Statistics and Public Policy Analysis Conference 2014 (ASPPAC2014), 11th & 12th December, 2014 Charles Sturt University, The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute Events Grant, $3,000.
  • Rahman, A., Harding, A. and Russell, K. (2013) Small Area Estimation of Housing Stress in Australia, Charles Sturt University's Faculty of Business Compact Grant, $11,956.
  • Davey, R., Gibson, D., Goss, J., Rahman, A., Hungerford, C., Parker, R., Phillips, C.,  McRae, I. and Anderson, P. (2011) Evaluation of the Nurse Practitioners – Aged Care models of care program, Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging (DoHA) Grant, $1,869,432.
  • Harding, A., Tanton, R. and Rahman, A. (2007) Small Area Housing Stress Estimation in Australia: Microsimulation Modelling and Statistical Reliability, The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) Research Grant, $90,000.

Awards

  • CSU-RED Achievement Award 2019
  • Charles Sturt FOBJBS Research Fellowship, 2019
  • Charles Sturt SOCM Research Excellence Award 2018
  • Charles Sturt FOBJBS Research Fellowship, 2018
  • Conference support grant from the University of Washington for attending the 2011 Seminar on Bayesian Inference in Econometrics and Statistics (SBIES), April 29 – 30, 2011 the University of Washington, St. Louis, USA.
  • An Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) travel grant for attending the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Postgraduate Scholar's Symposium, November 14 – 17, 2010 The University of Auckland, New Zealand.
  • The CRiSM Young Academic Award from the Centre for Research in Statistical Methodology at The University of Warwick for attending the Subjective Bayes – 2009 Workshop, December 14 – 16, 2009, Warwick, UK.
  • Student travel grant from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for attending the 2009 International Workshop on Objective Bayes Methodology (O-Bayes09), June 5 – 9, 2009 Philadelphia, USA.
  • Postgraduates travel funding from the ARC research network in "Spatially Integrated Social Science (SISS)" for attending the ARCRNSISS/ANZRSAI Annual Conference, Nov 30 –Dec 03, 2008 The National Wine Centre of Australia, Adelaide.
  • An Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) travel grant for attending the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Postgraduate Scholar's Symposium, November 14 – 17, 2008 The Rydges Hotel, Melbourne.
  • Selected PhD scholars' workshop grant from the University of Queensland for participating the ARC Research Network in Spatially Integrated Social Science (ARCRNSISS) Summer School workshop, February 3 – 13, 2008 The University of Queensland, Brisbane.
  • An Endeavour – International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (E-IPRS) from the Commonwealth Government of Australia (2007 to 2010).
  • The ACT – Land Development Agency (ACT-LDA) Postgraduate Research Scholarship from the Government of Australian Capital Territory, Australia (2007 to 2010).
  • The NATSEM Top-Up Scholarship from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra, Australia (2007 to 2010).
  • PhD offer at the University of Melbourne with an "Endeavour-IPRS" and a Research Assistantship position (2007 to 2010, not availed).
  • PhD offer at Macquarie University with part-time Associate Lectureship position and an "international Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship (iMQRES)" (2007 to 2010, not availed).
  • PhD offer at the University of South Australia with the "University President Scholarship (UPS)" & a "Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) scholarship", and a prospective statistical consultancy position (2007 to 2010, not availed).
  • Merit Scholarship for being achieving excellent academic results throughout an MSc (Thesis) and a BSc (Honours) programs at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh (1997 to 2002).

Professional Activities

Membership to the following organisations:

  • American Statistical Association (ASA).
  • Statistical Society of Australia (SSA);
  • International Indian Statistical Association (IISA);
  • International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA);
  • International Microsimulation Association (IMA)
  • International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA)
  • Australia New Zealand Regional Science Association International (ANZRSAI)
  • International Statistical Institute (ISI)
  • ARC research network in Spatially Integrated Social Sciences (SISS), Australia.
  • Australia Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Australia.
  • ANZSOG Institute for Governance at the University of Canberra, Australia.
  • Centre for Research and Action in Public Health (CeRAPH) at the University of Canberra, Australia.
  • Statistical consultant within the "Quantitative Consulting Unit (QCU)" at the Charles Sturt University, Australia.

Conference organising committee:

  • Keynote Speech on “Microdata versus Big Data: Computational and Inferential Challenges in Data Science”, at the 7th International Conference on Cloud Computing, Data Science and Engineering (Confluence2017) at Amity University, India (Jan. 12–13, 2017)
  • Invited Speech on “A novel Bayesian matrix analytic approach for small area estimation” at the 62nd International Statistical Institute (ISI) World Congress, Kuala Lumpur (Aug. 18–23, 2019).
  • Invited Speech on “An intelligent system based microsimulation modelling for estimating and mapping of small area agricultural data” at the NATSEM and Commonwealth Treasury Workshop on “new directions in microsimulation” at University of Canberra, Canberra (Feb. 8, 2018).
  • Organising Committee Member of the 2020 Asia-Pacific Conference on Applied Mathematics and Statistics (AMS 2020) on 17-19 February, Sydney.
  • Chair of the Organising Committee of the 2019 Applied Statistics and Policy Analysis Conference (ASPAC2019) on 5-6 September, Wagga Wagga.
  • Panel Discussion on “Global Opportunity for Higher Education and Research” at Confluence2017 (Jan. 12 – 13).
  • Panel Discussion on “International Collaboration and MOU Signing” at Confluence2017 (Jan. 12 – 13).
  • Special Track Chair on “Statistics for Data Science” of the 16th Australasian Data Mining Conference (AusDM2018) in Bathurst.
  • Chair of conference sessions at the 7th Asian Business Research Conference, 2012 in Dhaka, at the 2013 International Indian Statistical Association Conference in Chennai, and at Confluence2017 India.
  • Co-Chair of the Organising Committee in the Applied Statistics and Public Policy Analysis Conference 2014 (ASPPAC2014), 11-12 December 2014, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. This is an int’l conference sponsored by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute and the first of its type in Australasia.
  • Organiser of the Workshop on “Big-Data and Statistical Sciences: Challenges and opportunities” at CSU (Aug. 7, 2018).
  • Organiser of a regular two-day Workshops on “Introduction to SPSS data analysis” and “Statistical methods and its applications in data analysis using R” at GC and NSW-DPI, CSU (since 2016).
  • Scientific/Program Committee member of:
    • the 17th, 16th, 15th and 14th Australasian Data Mining Conference in Adelaide, Bathurst, Melbourne and Canberra respectively,
    • the 32nd International Business Research Conference in Melbourne,
    • the 5th European Business Research Conference in Italy,
    • the 5th, 4th, 3nd and 2rd Asia-Pacific World Congress on Computing Science & Engineering in Fiji; and
    • the 8th, 6th, and  5th Annual International Conference on Computational Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research in Singapore.

Scholarly Activities

Editorial memberships:
  • International Journal of Microsimulation, Associate Editor
  • Science Journal of Public Health, Editorial Board
  • International Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health, Associate Editor
  • Science Technology and Development, Associate Editor
  • International Review of Business Research Papers, Associate Editor
  • Sustaining Regions: The Newsletter of ANZRSAI, Co-editor
Reviewer of many journals including:
  • Communication in Statistics – Simulation and Computation
  • Place and Health
  • BMC Nutrition
  • BMC Public Health
  • Economic Development and Cultural Change
  • Journal of Business and Policy Research
  • Science Journal of Public Health
  • International Journal of Public Health
  • Science Journal of Public Health
  • Statistical applications of decision theory (Book: Springer)
  • Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health
  • International Journal of Microsimulation
  • Journal of Multimedia
  • Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health
  • Demography India

Selected Publications

Azizur Rahman has published more than 100 research papers which contribute to increase the flow of knowledge into literature and have been cited by many researchers as demonstrated by his Google Scholar citation: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=VxYeDjYAAAAJ&hl=en

Some selected publications are provided below:

Books:

  • Rahman, A. (2020). Statistics for data science and policy analysis. London: Springer.
  • Rahman, A. (2020). Malnutrition: Prevalence, risk factors and outcomes. NY: Nova Science Publishers.
  • Rahman, A., & Harding, A. (2016). Small area estimation and microsimulation modeling. Florda: Chapman & Hall/CRC Press.
  • Rahman, A. (2008). Bayesian predictive inference for some linear models under Student-t errors. Saarbrucken: VDM-Verlag.

Journal articles:

  • Azizur Rahman & Md Abdul Kuddus (2020) Cost-effective modeling of the transmission dynamics of malaria: A case study in Bangladesh, Communications in Statistics: Case Studies, Data Analysis and Applications, DOI: 10.1080/23737484.2020.1731724
  • Rahman, A. (2019). Statistics-based data preprocessing methods and machine learning algorithms for big data analysis. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, 17(2), 44-65.
  • Rahman, A. (2019). Geospatial, socioeconomic, demographic and health determinants of childhood mortality in Bangladesh. Demography India: population - society - economy - environment - interactions, 48(2), 74-85.
  • Das, S., Rahman, A., Ahamed, A., & Rahman, S. T. (2019) Multi-level models can benefit from minimizing higher-order variations: an illustration using child malnutrition data. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, 89: 1090-1110. https://doi.org/10.1080/00949655.2018.1553242
  • Pandey, S., Rahman, A., & Gurr, G. M. (2018) Australian native flowering plants enhance the longevity of three parasitoids of brassica pests. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, 166: 265-276. https://doi.org/10.1111/eea.12668
  • Rahman, A., & Asaduzzaman, M. (2018) Statistical modelling of seed germination and seedlings root response of annual ryegrass (lolium rigidum) to different stress. Agricultural Research, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-018-0379-6
  • Rahman, A. (2017) Small area housing stress estimation in Australia: Calculating confidence intervals for a spatial microsimulation model. Communications in Statistics Part B: Simulation and Computation, 46: 7466-7484. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610918.2016.1241406
  • Rahman, A., Harding, A., Tanton, R., & Liu, S. (2013). Simulating the Characteristics of Populations at the Small Area Level: New Validation Techniques for a Spatial Microsimulation Model in Australia. Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, 57(1), 149-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2012.06.018

Conference papers:

  • Rahman, A., Nimmy, S. F., & Sarowar, G. (2019) Developing an automated machine learning approach to test discontinuity in DNA for detecting tuberculosis. In J. P. Davim (Ed.), Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management (pp. 277-286). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93351-1_23
  • Thevaraja, M., Rahman, A., & Gabirial, M. (2019). Recent developments in data science: Comparing linear, ridge and lasso regressions techniques using wine data. In F. Hidoussi (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Image & Signal Processing (1 ed., Vol. 1, pp. 1-6). [217] UK: University of Oxford.

A list of publications can be found at https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/persons/azrahmancsueduau/publications/

Back to Staff listings