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Associate Professor Michael Bulmer is a faculty member at the School of Mathematics and Physics within the Faculty of Science at The University of Queensland. He holds the academic rank of Associate Professor and has been actively contributing to teaching and research in statistics and mathematics education. His contact information includes email m.bulmer@uq.edu.au and phone +61 7 336 57905, with his office located in Priestley Building (67), Room 652.
Dr. Bulmer's educational background includes a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), and Doctor of Philosophy, all from the University of Tasmania, plus a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from The University of Queensland. His research has significantly impacted statistics education, particularly through the Islands simulation which is used to support teaching and learning statistics at numerous institutions in Australia, overseas, and increasingly in high schools.
Michael Bulmer's research interests span mathematical education, operations research, scientific computing and numerical modelling, and statistics, probability and data science. His work demonstrates a strong focus on innovative teaching methods, particularly in large class settings, and the development of virtual environments for statistics education. He has made substantial contributions to understanding student beliefs about statistics and developing approaches to overcome conceptual difficulties in learning statistics.
His publications reveal a consistent focus on statistics education, with recurring themes including virtual populations for teaching, student beliefs about statistics, and technology-enhanced learning environments. The Islands simulation project represents a significant contribution to statistics education that has been widely adopted. His more recent work shows increasing interest in synthetic data for teaching and interdisciplinary applications of statistics.
- Carrick Associate Fellowship (2007-2008) for 'Technology for nurture in large classes'
- Carrick Competitive Grants (2006-2008) for 'A new enabling technology for learning and teaching quantitative skills'
- Apple University Development Fund (2004) for 'Automated Generation of Virtual Humans Based on Anthropometric Data and Models'
- UQ New Staff Research Start-Up Fund (1999) for 'A symbolic/numeric hybrid approach to data mining'
Associate Professor Bulmer has been actively supervising graduate students since at least 2003, serving as both principal and associate advisor for numerous PhD and Master's theses. His supervision spans diverse topics from statistics education to optimization problems in telecommunications and electricity markets. Current supervision includes projects on vehicle routing, university timetabling, and resource allocation in protected area management.
His work has established him as a significant contributor to statistics education methodology, particularly in the development of virtual learning environments and approaches to teaching statistics in large classes. The Islands simulation remains one of his most impactful contributions, providing a widely adopted tool for statistics education.
