On 20 December, Professor Way Kuo, President of City University of Hong Kong (CityU), delivered the opening speech at The Ninth International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) International Conference. The theme of this year’s conference was “The Challenges of Statistical Methods for Interdisciplinary Research and Big Data”.

In his speech, Professor Kuo stated that there were very different interpretations of statistics in the media reports on the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and the differences illustrate that data is very complicated and difficult to understand correctly. “You need to go back to the root cause analysis in order to know the meaning of the data behind the statistics”, said Professor Kuo. He also shared his views on “challenges” and concluded by saying “Before we challenge others, we should first challenge ourselves.”

ICSA is an organisation dedicated to addressing statistical needs in education, charity and science. The annual conference is a significant event held to explore various perspectives for the development of statistical science and to help formulate effective strategies and practices in areas related to the advancement of interdisciplinary research.