Wrap my head around
Just got back from an amazing week at the IBS-SUSAN conference at KNUST Kumasi, where I had the opportunity to connect with several like-minded people from Sub-Saharan African Nations (SUSAN). It was an eventful week full of talks and paper presentations, socialization, and, of course, the delicious food. The best part of the conference was meeting fellow statistics, machine learning and Bayesian enthusiasts who shared my passion for these topics. I loved being able to connect with people who were on the same level as me or possibly even better, and learn from their experiences. As a member, attending the IBS conference was an unforgettable experience, and I’m already looking forward to attending again next year, the international IBS conference, this time in the USA.
What is SUSAN?
The SUSAN is a network of national biometric groups of Sub-Saharan African countries that are members of the International Biometric Society. Its goal is to advance life sciences through the development, application, and dissemination of effective mathematical and statistical methods, particularly in my case, through the use of Bayesian deep learning.
The 18th Biennial IBS-SUSAN Conference
The 18th Biennial IBS-SUSAN Conference was hosted by the IBS Ghana region and took place from 10th to 15th September 2023 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. The conference aimed to bring together members of the SUSAN Network to share knowledge, research experience, and provide a platform for fostering interdisciplinary collaborations in promoting the advancement of mathematics and statistics in life science applications.
Highlights of the Conference
While attending the conference, I had the opportunity to attend various contributed papers sessions that caught my eye. Some of the topics discussed were:
- “Weighted Hard and Soft Voting Ensemble Machine Learning Classifiers: Application to Anaemia Diagnosis”
- “Using Machine Learning to Develop and Validate a Prognostic Model for Prediction of Survival Outcomes Among Ugandan Cervical Cancer Patients”
- “Machine Learning Approaches for Handling Imbalance in Health Data Classification”
- “On the Construction of Sequential Initialization Method for K-means Clustering Algorithm”
- “An Optimal Machine Learning Model for Describing Rainfall Probability of Occurrence in Ghana” (presented by our very own fresh graduates)
- “A Hidden Markov Model Approach to Surveilling the Transmission of Lassa Fever Virus in Nigeria” (discussing Infectious Diseases modelling)
One particular work that caught my attention was Luke Ouma’s research on “A Two-Stage Bayesian Adaptive Umbrella Trial Design Borrowing Information Over the Control Data.” I got so engrossed in the theoretical underpinnings of this work, especially the Bayesian information sharing priors. It was truly awesome, awesome, awesome.
Fun and Socialization
In between the sessions, there was plenty of fun and socializing. At the closing ceremony for the conference, every representation of a nation gave a vote of thanks in their unique indigenous dialect and, it was there you could appreciate the beautiful multicultural conference of likeminded people. Even during the final tour of the university, my long self-awarded “tenure” came to bear, and I couldn’t help but enjoy the experience. Directing the attendants through the principal streets of KNUST, to very important places worthy of note on campus. The IBS-SUSAN conference was not just about learning and networking, but also about creating lasting memories and connections with fellow academics and professionals in the field. Generally, the IBS-SUSAN conference was a fantastic experience that combined learning, fun, and delicious food. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have attended and can’t wait to see what the next conference has in store for me, such an international experience.
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