MDataGov Symposium 2020
The Masters in Data Analytics for Government (MDataGov) Symposium is an opportunity for former, current and prospective MDataGov students to showcase data science research and projects conducted within government, and to share experiences. The Symposium is organised by students and funded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Data Science Campus.
Latest news
12 March 2020
Event postponed
In light of concerns raised by participants and delegates about attending engagement events at this time, a decision has been taken to postpone the MDataGov Symposium in Birmingham on 25-26 March.
Alternative options to deliver the event as planned were investigated. However, as it would not be feasible to deliver the Symposium via online channels, we now intend to offer an alternative MDataGov showcase later this year.
We will contact you once we have further details of this.
We would like to thank all speakers, participants and organisers for all their efforts in the planning of the event to date, and appreciate their understanding and support of the decision that has been taken.
Kind regards,
MDataGov organising committee
Event information
| Date | 25 – 26 March 2020 |
| Venue | The Studio, Birmingham, B2 5EP |
| Contact the organisers | MDataGovSymposium@ons.gov.uk |
Programme
Day 1 – Wednesday 25 March 2020, Room Innovate
| 1pm to 1:30pm | Registrations and refreshments |
| 1:30pm to 1:50pm |
Session 1 – Welcome and overview Solange Correa-Onel, ONS Data Science Campus |
| 1:50pm to 2:50pm |
Bayesian methods and data analytics for government Dr Jason Hilton, University of Southampton |
| 2:50 to 3pm | Break |
| 3pm to 4pm |
Session 2 – AI ethics and ethical AI in the age of machine learning Dr Matthias Rolf, Oxford Brookes University |
| 4pm to 5pm |
Dimension reduction – visualisation and analysis of high-dimensional data Dr Tengyao Wang, University College, London |
| 5pm to 7pm |
Networking (speed mentoring sessions available – please sign up with Liz Scopel on the day) |
Day 2 – Thursday 26 March 2020, Room Innovate
| 9am to 9:50am | Registrations and refreshments |
| 9:50am to 10am |
Welcome The organising commitee |
| 10am to 10:55am |
Session 3 – Keynote speaker Introducing Data Science to International Development Tom Wilkinson, Data Science Hub Site Lead (East Kilbride) and Head of Data Science, Department for International Development |
| 11am to 11:20am |
Session 4 Presentation 1: Seeing trees in a forest: modelling, aggregating and individuals Dean Gordon, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency |
| 11:20am to 11:40am |
Presentation 2: Robust text analytics using information retrieval tools: using traditional information retrieval (IR) algorithms and tools to query and summarize a corpus Martin Wood, ONS |
| 11:40am to 12pm |
Presentation 3: Cross government collaborative working to improve the coherence of adult social care finance data Sarah Liley, NHS Digital |
| 12pm to 1pm | Lunch |
| 1pm to 1:20pm |
Session 5 Presentation 4: The application of computer vision and machine learning linking to data science Li Chen, ONS |
| 1:20pm to 1:40pm |
Presentation 5 (joint talk): Becoming a Data Analyst, Lucy Gwilliam, ONS Insights from a first year MDataGov student, Ingrid Bukirwa, HMRC |
| 1:40pm to 2pm |
Presentation 6: Learning to predict unseen views Edward Bartum, PhD student, University College London and Alan Turing Institute |
| 2pm to 2:20pm |
Presentation 7: Implementation of big data technologies in the Civil Aviation Authority Panagiota (Giota) Pantazopoulou, Civil Aviation Authority |
| 2:20pm to 2:40pm | Coffee Break |
| 2:40pm to 3:40pm |
Session 6 – Workshop on ‘Managing a data science project’ Led by: Rajni Sandhu (ONS), Sarah Liley (NHS Digital) and Jazz Grimsley (ONS) |
| 3:40pm to 4pm |
Session 7 Presentation 8: Assessing data science capability across the public sector Harrison Davies, ONS |
| 4pm to 4:05pm |
Best Presentation voting Wei (Tony) Guo, HMRC |
| 4:05pm to 4:10pm |
Winner announcement and closing David Johnson, ONS Data Science Campus |
More information on the Eventbrite page.
About the Symposium
In 2020, the Symposium will take place over two days. On day one, there will be bite-sized courses from MDataGov providers and a networking event. On day two, Masters students will present on how they have applied their new-found skills to data science challenges within government. Guest speakers from government, industry and academia will also address students.
Delegates will be able to network with representatives from the three MDataGov providers (University of Southampton, University College London and Oxford Brookes University) and with a team from the ONS Data Science Campus.
The 2019 event brought together more than 80 delegates from 16 government departments and 6 universities.
More information about the MDataGov programme and our academic partners is also available.