The Data Science Institute is established to work alongside the academic departments across the School to foster the study of data science and new forms of data. Data Science Institute events focus on this mission, with an emphasis on the social, economic and political aspects of data.
This multi-disciplinary series is shared by partner institutions of the CIVICA network and focuses on the social, economic and political applications of data science.
These seminars allows researchers to share original work, new work or work in progress in order to get comments and suggestions. Recordings of the events are made available on the LSE Data Science Institute YouTube channel.
Next in the series:
Understanding Social Media Censorship with Text Matching
26 January 2022 (15:00 - 16:00 GMT)
Professor Margaret Roberts
Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego.
More information.
Watch recordings of past seminars
27 January 2022, 15:00 - 16:30 (GMT)
Across industries and sectors, machines are increasingly augmenting and replacing human labour. Will machine learning technologies result in mass job losses, a dramatic skill shift in the labour market, or enable people to engage in more fulfilling and creative work?
In this event Professor Leslie Willcocks (LSE) and Angela Sophia Gebert (Celonis) will explore questions such as how hyper automation has taken place, how automation is used in the business world and how it can inject new life into global economies
The event will be split into three sections. In the first section Leslie will review the evidence and report on his research before Angela uses the Celonis Integromat Software, an advanced online automation platform, to provide a hands-on use case and practical application. Following this attendees will be welcome to participate in a discussion session.
LSE students that have an interest in AI and data science will be interested in attending this event, particularly those considering a career in the field. Our speakers will share how future career trajectories will be transformed by AI-driven augmentation and automation, as well as sharing insights on the skills that are important for students to develop in order to work with and benefit from data science and machine learning tools.
Register for this event here. For more information contact dsi.comms@lse.ac.uk.
Wednesday 16 February 15:00 - 17:00
This session will explore SQL, which is fast becoming a fundamental skill when working in Data Science. As such a good working knowledge of the language is often considered essential when applying to many roles.
In this session, you will get a taste of programming in SQL - essentially Excel for Big Data - from Ties Boukema, a Google analyst.
Ties works as a financial analyst, and also contributes to Google's climate science team. He's also the EMEA Data Science facilitator, and co-founder of Cognitas Bootcamps.
Attending this event will enable you to:
- understand the basics of SQL and begin your learning plan
- test out your newly acquired skills on some basic data tasks
- gain an insight into the various applications that SQL has
- learn more about career opportunities in Data Science
- learn from an Senior Financial Analyst at one for the world’s leading big tech firms.
This event will be particularly useful if you:
- are curious about coding or would like to understand the basics of SQL
- are considering a career path outside of consulting & banking
- are interested in finding out about the wide variety of applications SQL has.
This event is part of the Careers in Data and Tech programme which features a diverse range of seminars, networking sessions and panels aimed at students who aspire to work in a data and tech role.
LSE Careers hosts regular coffee mornings that attract employers from a broad range of sectors to meet and interact with LSE's active and highly engaged students and recent graduates.
To allow for more targeted engagement with students and graduates, events are themed by sector. This includes the field of data science and technology.
Information on the coffee mornings can be found here.
This programme offers organisations the opportunity to showcase how academic knowledge can be applied to an industry context and offers students the chance to develop their understanding of different sectors and roles through interactive case studies and group activities.
The programme covers a range of academic disciplines, including data science. For example, a recent session focused on 'The impact of AI on international development'.
For further information contact careers.employers@lse.ac.uk.
Regular seminars hosted across LSE
The active LSE community hosts many events that may be relevant to those with an interest in data science. The DSI works closely with the following Departments and is pleased to promote the following seminars and events:
Past DSI events
This CIVICA Network hackathon took place on Thursday 16 December 2021, 14:00 - 17:00 CET.
How do you think political and social features of countries relate to cumulative COVID-19 deaths? Why does the impact of COVID-19 vary so much, both across and within countries?
This event was the first of our research collaboration events planned in the coming months, where participants will share their expertise and skills to solve a specific but pressing issue of our time: the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across and within different countries. Organised and hosted by the LSE Data Science Institute as part of the CIVICA Research consortium, the event focused on the CIVICA-partner EUI team’s collaborative statistical modelling project, the COVID-19 Model Challenges.
The list of participants at this hackathon included Ken Benoit (London School of Economics), Miriam Golden (European University Institute), Alex Scacco (WZB - Berlin Social Science Center) and Rens Chazottes (European University Institute). Dr Miqdad Asaria (London School of Economics) was invited to address participants on some of the challenges of COVID modelling, with a particular focus on social aspects.
Find more information about the event here. Recordings of the speakers can be found here.
In line with the LSESU Data Science Society objective to provide students with more opportunities to work on data science, interested students are recruited at the beginning of each term to partake in projects. The 2021/22 Michaelmas Term programme of projects was created in academic year 2020/2021 as part of the society's rebranding from the LSESU Machine Learning Society to the LSESU Data Science Society.
The opportunity was open to students regardless of their course or technical background, with successful applicants grouped to work on pre-defined data science problems. In Michaelmas Term twenty six participants worked on six different projects, with each group under the direction of a project lead.
The groups worked on projects in areas ranging from trade agreements, to fake news detection, to securities pricing. A full list of the project briefs can be found here. Examples of past projects done by society members can be found here.
The aim of this structured environment is for each group to partake in a flagship event at which projects are presented to an expert judging panel. The judging panel featured experts such as DSI Director Professor Ken Benoit and as teams were already grouped based on skill levels, judging was holistic. The top three teams won prizes worth £300, £200 or £100 pounds respectively.
This event was recorded and those interested in watching the presentations can express their interest via email.
The Global Disruptors Society was honoured to host Scott McNealy, founder of Curriki and former Chairman/CEO of Sun Microsystems for a virtual fireside chat.
At age 27, Scott McNealy co-founded Sun Microsystems alongside fellow Stanford graduates Vinod Khosla and Andy Bechtolsheim. Under Scott's leadership as CEO, Sun Microsystems grew from a campus startup to one of the most influential tech companies of its time, reaching a peak valuation of $200 Billion prior to the dotcom bubble. During this period, Sun Microsystems created Java and contributed to the evolution of many other technologies, including Unix and virtualized computing.
Since departing Sun Microsystems having been CEO for the past 22 years, Scott went on to found social media intelligence company Wayin (since acquired by Cheetah Digital) and Curriki, a platform that democratizes education and provides open e-learning solutions to millions of users.
This workshop was hosted by the LSE Data Science Institute in collaboration with the University of Exeter College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences.
The aim of the workshop was to connect researchers based in the UK and Brazil who had not collaborated before. Any researchers based in academic institutions in the UK or Brazil with an interest in establishing data science research collaborations were welcome and over 50 researchers were successful in securing a place. These researchers shared innovative ideas for potential projects.
Researchers were grouped according to their topics of interest and facilitators conducted structured brainstorming sessions aimed at proposing small research projects. Topics of discussion were loosely based on DSI research themes.
Find out more about the workshop here. Follow up queries should be sent to Dr Jonathan Cardoso-Silva and Dr Chico Camargo.
The event facilitators would like to thank all those that attended for making this event such an enjoyable experience.
The LSESU Data Science Society organised this panel event to highlight the careers in data science that are available within regulation and the public sector. Guest speakers explored the applications of data science in these sectors and shared their professional experiences.
Speakers:
Chris Spaull - Data Scientist in the UK Ministry of Justice
L’ubos Pernis - Head of Suptech Development at FNA
Yennie Jun - AI and Data Science Fellow at UN Global Pulse
David Floyd - Data Science Lead at Permira and Ex-Data Scientist in UK Home Office
The LSESU Data Science Society organise events, projects and a community platform to introduce members to the applications of data science in different fields and industries, and have built a community for LSE students to learn, accelerate and support each other on their data science journeys.
This panel event was designed to provide students with insights on the exciting roles available within a data-related consulting career and the pathways into this. The panel shared their career journeys and answered questions from attendees.
Speakers:
Leonor Furtado - AI consultant @ Accenture
Hasdeep Sethi - Data Science Consultant @ Strat7
Darius Ansari - Principal Data Consultant @ Newton Europe
This event was organised by the LSESU Data Science Society. For more information and if you have queries, please contact them via email.
The LSESU Data Science Society organise events, projects and a community platform to introduce members to the applications of data science in different fields and industries, and have built a community for LSE students to learn, accelerate and support each other on their data science journeys.
Curious about the future of finance and banking?
This panel event was designed to provide students with information from a range of experienced speakers about how data skills can be applied to the financial world. The panel shared their career journeys, some insights about their role and their views on latest industry trends.
Speakers:
Glen Moutrie
Data Scientist at the London Stock Exchange group.
Glen specialises in the applications of machine learning in finance and economics. Programming languages: Python, R and Java.
Jeremy Turiel
AI Researcher at JP Morgan and PhD candidate in Financial Computing at UCL.
Jeremy has experience in financial services, focusing on risk modelling with Network Analysis and Statistical Physicals Methods.
Ujwal Shreyas
Quantitative Researcher at BlackRock.
Ujwal builds systematic alpha strategies for hedge funds and long-only potfolios by leveraging machine learning alternative data and applying economic and financial theory.
This event was organised by the LSESU Data Science Society. For more information and if you have queries, please contact them via email.
The LSESU Data Science Society organise events, projects and a community platform to introduce members to the applications of data science in different fields and industries, and have built a community for LSE students to learn, accelerate and support each other on their data science journeys.
A recording of this event is available for LSE students here.
This information session represented a chance to find out how to get involved with data science as a student at LSE.
Information on courses, workshops and digital training was provided by speakers from a range of Departments and there was a chance for questions to be asked "on everything from prerequisites to Python".
LSE's exciting data science courses were outlined in presentations from the Department of Methodology, Department of Mathematics and Department of Statistics that explained course content, reading lists and prerequisites. Further opportunities to access training in data science from the Digital Skills Lab were explained as well as information regarding brand new modules from the Data Science Institute.
The DSI was very pleased to contribute to the LSE Festival 2021 through Dr Erica Thompson taking part in the 'Festival Shorts' series.
Given their power to influence the world, Erica discusses how we can ensure that mathematical models are developed in a transparent and accountable way, providing information that is useful and relevant without being over-confident or subject to hidden bias.
A recording of Erica's Festival Short is now available.
This was the inaugural flagship event of the LSESU Data Science Society. As the cornerstone of data science activity at LSE, the DSI part-sponsored this event.
The event took the form of both conference and hackathon to showcase interesting career areas in data science, finance and consulting.
The LSESU Data Science Society organise events, projects and a community platform to introduce members to the applications of data science in different fields and industries, and have built a community for LSE students to learn, accelerate and support each other on their data science journeys.
The DSI was honoured to host this fireside chat with Jacky Wright (Chief Digital Officer and Corporate Vice President, Microsoft US) as our first online public event.
Jacky Wright is widely recognised as a transformational global leader, innovative technologist and recognized STEM advocate. Jacky leads teams to help businesses leverage technology to drive innovation, adopt sustainable and accessible business models, and digitally transform.
The event was chaired by Professor Ken Benoit, Director of the LSE Data Science Institute. The podcast recording of this event is now available.