Tom Smith: Data Science for Public Good

Tom's presentation centred on the new data science campus and the role it plays in using data analysis to grow the economy. He includes examples of their work and a call to arms for anyone using ons data to get in touch. This deck supports the talk Tom gave at Swirrl's 2017 data conference. To see this, and other, talks from the day head to http://power-of-data-2017.swirrl.com/

Transcript

1. ONS Data Science Campus
   SYG Campws Gwyddor Data
   Tom Smith
   MD, Data Science Campus
   @_datasmith
   

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2. Economy
   GDP
   Inflation
   Labour market
   People
   Population
   Census
   Incomes
   The world
   Trade
   Sustainable
   Development
   

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3. “Although better use of [data] has the
   potential to transform the provision of
   economic statistics, ONS will need to
   build up its capability to handle such
   data.
   This will take some time and will
   require not only recruitment of a cadre
   of data scientists but also active
   learning and experimentation.
   That can be facilitated through
   collaboration with relevant partners –
   in academia, the private and public
   sectors, and internationally.”
   Independent Review of Economic Statistics
   Professor Sir Charles Bean, 2016, p.11
   The Elvetham, Hampshire
   

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4. London Transport workers manually examine over 4 million
   tickets to identify most and least popular routes, March 1939
   Gerry Cranham/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
   “The 21st Century has brought new
   challenges in the analysis of data,
   and it is increasingly apparent that
   solutions to these are both statistical
   and computational. This has led to a
   great demand for people both in
   industry and in research who are able
   to draw upon the mathematics of both
   computation and probability to make
   sense of the large amounts of data
   that are collected in order to solve
   major problems.
   Data science is an interdisciplinary
   response to this demand”
   - University of Warwick
   

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5. “The 21st Century has brought new
   challenges in the analysis of data,
   and it is increasingly apparent that
   solutions to these are both statistical
   and computational. This has led to a
   great demand for people both in
   industry and in research who are able
   to draw upon the mathematics of both
   computation and probability to make
   sense of the large amounts of data
   that are collected in order to solve
   major problems.
   Data science is an interdisciplinary
   response to this demand”
   - University of Warwick
   Transport for London 2016 pilot, assessing journeys by WiFi access
   

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6. UKSA Chair Sir Andrew Dilnot tours the Campus with
   Scott Howell, Jason Ryan and Tom Smith, March 2017
   Building the Data Science Campus
   • Funding approved in Mar 2016
   • Start-up team in place in Jul 2016
   • 1st Data Scientist in Aug 2016
   • 1st Academic Manager in Sep 2016
   • Research commenced in Sep 2016
   • 1st Apprentices in Nov 2016
   • 1st Business Support in Dec 2016
   • MD joined in Jan 2017
   • Headcount reached 26 FTE in Mar 2017
   • Projected Headcount to reach 50-60 FTE
   by March 2018
   

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7. Data Science Campus data scientists collaborating
   with colleagues at the Alan Turing Institute, Jan 2017
   Data Science for Public Good
   Research activities commenced in
   September 2016 under five core themes:
   Economic Statistics
   • The Evolving Economy
   • UK in a Global Context
   Social Data
   • Urban and Rural
   • Society
   Sustainable Development Goals
   • Sustainability
   Six research projects are underway and two
   rapid prototyping data dissemination tools
   have been built for partners
   

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8. Mapping urban trees
   Natural Capital – urban tree & foliage coverage
   

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9. Mobile phone data and daytime population
   GDP and Road Traffic
   • Road Traffic predicts GDP
   by 1 quarter
   • Correlation
   82% from 2010-Q3 until 2014-Q4
   91% from 2011-Q2 until 2014-Q4
   

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10. Mapping poverty using mobile phone and satellite data, Steele et al (Feb 2017), Journal of the Royal Society
    Interface, 14:127. http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/14/127/20160690
    

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11. Growing Data Science Skills
    Apprenticeship in Data Analytics
    • Developed with ONS Learning Academy
    • Two-year vocational programme
    • 2 rounds - 280 applications, 23 apprentices
    (Campus, ONS and Welsh Government)
    MSc Data Analytics for Government
    • Developed with ONS Learning Academy &
    GSS Professional Support
    • Dedicated Data Science pathway
    • Multiple Academic partners
    • First intake in September 2017
    Data Science Accelerator
    • Government Data Science Partnership with
    GDS and GO-Science
    • 3-month programme
    • Open to all Public Sector staff
    • South & West Hub @ Data Science Campus
    London Transport workers manually examine over 4 million
    tickets to identify most and least popular routes, March 1939
    Gerry Cranham/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
    

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12. ONS  Data  Science  Campus  
    SYG  Campws Gwyddor Data
    email datasciencecampus@ons.gov.uk
    web datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk
    twitter @DataSciCampus
    Tom Smith @_datasmith
    

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