Azizur Rahman

Professorial Staff

Professor Azizur Rahman

PhD, MPhil, MSc, BSc (Hons)

Professor in Mathematics and Statistics
Wagga Wagga
001/310

Professor Azizur Rahman, PhD, is an applied statistician and data scientist with expertise in developing and applying novel methodologies, models and technologies. He is the "Data Mining Research Group" leader at Charles Sturt University, Australia. Azizur is an expert in understanding and resolving multi-disciplinary research issues within various fields, including how to model the individual activities that occur within very complex scientific, behavioural, socio-economic and ecological systems. He also founded and runs the 'Data Analytics Lab' at Charles Sturt.

Azizur earned a BSc (Honours) in Statistical Science, an MSc (Thesis) in Biostatistics, and a PhD in Economics and Applied Statistics from the University of Canberra under the supervision of Professor Ann Harding, AO FASSA. He worked as a biostatistical research fellow in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide. At Adelaide, he collaborated with Professor John Lynch, NHMRC Australia Fellow and some other key researchers in Australia, the UK and Canada.

He designs projects to understand multi-disciplinary research issues within various fields with the interaction or adaptation of statistics, data science, AI, and ML. Azizur develops data-centric "alternative computational methods in microsimulation modelling technologies", which are handy tools for decision-making processes in government and non-government organizations, precision estimation, policy analysis and evaluation. He has accrued over $4.03 million in external research funding from the Australian federal and state governments and international agencies. Azizur serves on various editorial boards including the PLOS ONE, International Journal of Microsimulation, International Journal of Community and Social Development, Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, and Sustaining Regions. He has published over 202 scholarly publications, including several books and received various awards, including the SOCM Research Excellence Award 2018, the CSU-RED Achievement Award 2019, the 2023 Charles Sturt Excellence Awards and the ANZRSAI's 2023 Outstanding Service Award.

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, AI, ML/DL, predictive algorithms and data security, early childhood health and development, indigenous health in Australia, malnutrition in developing countries, health related behaviours estimates and outcomes, multilevel modelling, small area estimation, water research and environment modelling, computational statistics and business analytics. He has published various high impact peer-reviewed manuscripts on his research areas.

Research Students:

Active:

  1. Mehedi Tajrian [PhD project; Principal Supervisor]
  2. Kazi Kamal [PhD project; Co-supervisor]
  3. Jennifer Hayes [DIT project; Principal Supervisor]
  4. Anne Chidgey [DIT project; Co-supervisor]
  5. Demogene Smith [DIT project; Co-supervisor]

Graduated:

  1. Md Galal Uddin, 2023
  2. Scott McManus, 2022
  3. Duraid Ali, 2021
  4. Sunita Panday, 2020
  5. Carolina Prihandinisari, 2018
  6. Edith Woo, 2014
  7. Sarah Williams, 2013

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

Grants and Awards

Professor Azizur Rahman’s projects have been received more than $4,032,000.00 external grants for research. Several grants information are provided below.

  • Morrison, D.M., Rahman, A., McKinley, C.A., Ferrill, K.J., Whitten, T. and Bailey, L.K. (2023). Identification and evaluation of potential civil enforcement options. Department of Communities and Justice Grant, $134,549.
  • Rahman, A. (2022). An exploitation of remote sensing CMEMS products for monitoring of transitional and coastal waters. Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland, Grant, $559,901.
  • Rahman, A., Ip, R., Bewong, M., Cassidy, C.A. and Islam, M.Z. (2022). Sharing early insights for more resilient communities. Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Grant, $609,283.
  • Harris, A.J.F., Rehman, S., Islam, M.Z., Rahman, A., Blanchard, L.C., Porker, K. and Hunt, J. (2022). Synthesis of data to optimise yield potential of barley in Australian farming systems. Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) Grant, $750,307.
  • 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

  • ANZRSAI's 2023 Outstanding Service Award
  • 2023 Charles Sturt Excellence 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:
  • Invited Speech on “Developing Hybrid Modelling tools for Policy Analysis" to the 23rd International Mathematics Conference (IMC) at the University Rajshahi, Bangladesh (May 16–17, 2024).
  • Keynote Speech on “Data Science and Cyber Security Systems: A Statistical Perspective”, at the International Conference on Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems (ICPS-2021), Jaipur, India (Jun. 24–26, 2021).
  • The Organiser and Chair of the Organising Committee of the 45th Annual Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Association International (ANZRSAI), on 1-2 December, Wagga Wagga, Australia.
  • 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:

Editor:

  • Australasian Journal of Regional Studies
  • Journal of Environmental Management
  • Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Association International 45th Annual Conference 2022: Dec 2022
  • Sustaining Regions, the Newsletter of ANZRSAI

Member of Editorial Board:

  • PLoS One: 2023 - Present
  • Australasian Journal of Regional Studies: Feb 2022 - Present
  • The International Journal of Community and Social Development: 2020 - Present
  • International Review of Business Research Papers: 2018 – Present

Guest Editor:

  • International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Associate Editor:

  • International Journal of Microsimulation: 2017 – Present

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

For more recent activities please visit https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/persons/azrahmancsueduau