It  is  a  promising  year  for  Ms  Seite  Makgai  of  the Univeristy  of  Pretoria.  One  of  her  PhD  supervisors (Prof Daan de Waal from the University of the Free State) has just visited and has left her with exciting new parameter  estimation  techniques.  The  visit  was  quite an exciting learning experience for the Pretorian born statistician.

Seite was born on the 2nd of December 1991 and finished her high school career at Iona Convent in Pretoria, South Africa. She pursued her tertiary studies at the University of Pretoria (UP), where she is currently appointed as a lecturer in the Statistics Department. She graduated in September 2015 with an MSc in Mathematical Statistics and is currently working towards a PhD in the same field. Seite was kind enough to answer some questions about her journey to becoming a statistician as well as her plans for the future.

When and why did you join the University of Pretoria?

I completed Grade 12 in 2009 and I always knew that I would do something in the mathematical field. I was very good at high school mathematics and my older sister told to consider studying Actuarial Sciences. I did not know exactly what Actuaries did or where they worked. I just knew they did mathematics. So I applied for a BSc degree in Actuarial and Financial Mathematics at the University of Pretoria.

My dearest mother passed away during my matric year and so I chose UP because I wanted to be closer to home. It was the best decision ever!

Why did you change from Actuarial Sciences to Statistics?

My first year of Actuarial Sciences was smooth sailing. I  did  not  suffer  too  much  from  “1st  year  syndrome”. I managed to pass all my modules and get a few distinctions. I grew a lot that year. I learnt that the high school mathematics (that I was a master of) could not help me much in Actuarial Sciences. In fact, it was a totally new mathematical language that I did not know.

My world turned upside down in my second year. It was a very challenging year. I was horrified by words and concepts like supremums, the Cramer-Rao theorem and contingency tables. The mathematics that I knew was completely different. I felt like I did not belong in the Actuarial field because I just did not enjoy calculating premiums and annuities. I then decided to focus on the modules that I enjoyed and excelled at.

I enjoyed all of the statistics  modules.  I  understood the statistical language.  That  was  when  I  knew  I  had to pursue a BSc  (Hons)  in  Mathematical  Statistics.  I fell in love with statistics during my honours year. My honours essay, based on Statistical consultation,  won me a publication in the journal of the “Suid Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns” (SAAWK). Later on, my MSc dissertation, based on Extreme value statistics won me the international StatsSA Young Statisticians competition. The StatsSA competition gave me the great opportunity to present my MSc dissertation at the ISI conference in Rio de Janeiro in 2015. This indicated to me that I belonged to an elite group of people; I belonged to the statistical field.

Why did you decide to become an academic?

It was never my plan to be part of academia. I got drawn to it and started loving it when I first became a tutor at the Department of Statistics. I started developing mentor-mentee relationships with my students and enjoyed following their academic progress. This gave me a larger purpose; to guide and mentor undergraduate students.

Do you have a mentor?

I am fortunate to have two highly esteemed professionals as my mentors. The first person who guided my academic career was Prof Andriette Bekker. She helped to shape and improve my career as a postgraduate student and now as a lecturer.

I started to work with Dr Frans Kanfer in my Honours year. I was a tutor for the module that he taught at the time. He played an integral part in my academic career and currently acts as my mentor in an official capacity. We have regular meetings to discuss my PhD progress, the module that I’m lecturing, and to have general conversations about anything.

What subjects do you teach and do you enjoy teaching?

I started lecturing STK110 which is a first year course taken by more than 1600 first year students registered in the Commerce Faculty. Teaching a first year module takes you back to the basics of statistics. I found myself re-learning and solidifying my foundation knowledge about statistics. I focused on teaching statistics and not so much “lecturing” statistics. There is a difference. Teaching enables a student to follow every step as you write it in class. I find that it is important to ensure that the students understand the reasoning behind the theory that they are taught.

I then moved to lecturing BME210/biometry, which is a module for third year animal sciences students. This module focusses more on the application of techniques rather than the theoretical building blocks of statistics. I like lecturing modules that give attention to application.

What are your research interests?

I am currently involved in extreme value statistics and distribution theory. My PhD thesis is based on developing new distributions that will be flexible enough to model multivariate extreme value datasets. I am beginning to appreciate the challenges and complexity of the topic. The application part of this type of statistics is very exciting for me. I believe that the application is where the true power of the research is easiest to glimpse.

What are your passions?

I love education. I like making students aware  of how relevant statistics is, and how they can see it everywhere they go. I was recently involved in of one of the UP-with-Science’s 2016 projects as a project leader. The projects are aimed at enriching Grade 11 learners, across the Gauteng province with mathematical and scientific knowledge. The focus of the project that I was involved with was to make people aware of statistics; its uses, its challenges and how it makes sense of numerical values. The project won the 2016 Gauteng Regional Expo and also received a certificate for the best mathematics project at the expo.

I also started my own initiative to motivate learners at township schools. My wish is to have a country with people that can understand, analyse and create new knowledge that can solve small or big problems.

In conclusion

Seite is a passionate lecturer who cares deeply for the well-being of her students and those around her. It is important to her that her students see the big picture and that they learn to truly appreciate the information that they encounter. Seite strives to make her students aware of all of the possibilities that life has to offer them. She goes out of her way to help people and to give advice and encouragement. She is a worthy role model for her students.