Geospatial Retreat 20th & 21st June

On 20th & 21st, June twenty academics from departments and research centres across the university with interests in mapping and analysing geographical data travelled to Low Wood Hotel, Ambleside, for a 2-day research retreat organized by the Data Science Institute. The aims of the retreat were twofold:

1. To get to know each other and identify areas of common interest and expertise
2. To begin to think about ways we could collaborate in exciting new forms of research by exploiting discipline strengths and interdisciplinary connections.

The retreat began with a keynote presentation from David Bodenhamer (Indiana University) on ‘Connecting Matter, Meaning, and Experience: Data Science, Spatial Humanities, and Deep Maps’. Drawing on his extensive experience as both an academic and leader of a highly influential interdisciplinary research centre, David talked with authority about how geospatial technologies have influenced, and continue to influence, humanities research. His presentation had something for everyone in the room, and many notes were taken!

This was followed by a series of informal ‘getting to know’ activities facilitated by Paul Mahony (Countryscape), leading to the formation of embryonic groups representing different discipline strengths and areas of application.

Over the next 12 months we hope to:

1. grow the membership of the group
2. organize a series of events designed to further stimulate the development of exciting multidisciplinary research and scholarship in geospatial data science

If you would like to be part of this group, please do get in touch!

• Duncan Whyatt, Lancaster Environment Centre
• Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Digital Humanities
• Barry Rowlingson, Health and Medicine (CHICAS)

Real-time modelling of nosocomial transmission - 11th June 2024

This one-day workshop brought together infectious disease clinicians, epidemiologists, mathematicians, and statisticians to identify the key barriers to modelling and detecting nosocomial outbreaks in real-time. The day consisted of a series of talks and discussion sessions for each of the workshop themes: Routinely Collected Data, Genomics Data, Modelling and Inference Methodology, and Clinical Insights.

The workshop was attended by 23 clinicians, public health professionals, and academics. Attendee affiliations: Lancaster University, LSHTM, LSTM, MRC Biostatistics Unit, NHS, St Andrews, UKHSA, University of Liverpool, University of Manchester, University of Nottingham and University of Oxford.

This workshop was held at Lancaster University and was organised by Jess Bridgen and Jon Read.

Gender, culture, identity and wellbeing in the digital age: Workshop 2-3 May 2024

The 2-day workshop on Gender, culture, identity, and wellbeing in the digital age aimed to provide an informal discussion forum to explore issues around children’s exposure to gender stereotypes, with a focus on digital materials. Through this, and other work, we are seeking to be build a cross-disciplinary (Education, Psychology, Design, and Computing) research network to address key issues in this area.

• Elisa Rubegni, School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, UK
• Kate Cain, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, UK
• Carolyn Jackson, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK
• Lucie Escasain, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
• Netta Livari, INTERACT research group, University of Oulu, Finland
• Joseph Lindley, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, University, UK
• Alex Baines, School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, UK
• Robin Gruia, School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, UK

Meetings at the Fribourg University with Lucie and his supervisor Pascal have also happened.

T-READS Tracking Reading and Educational Attainment through Data Science - 3rd to 4th June 2024

This workshop brought together interdisciplinary researchers from psychology, education and data analytics to explore how big data sets from educational apps might be exploited to test theoretical models of reading development, and inform educational practice. Our aim was to establish a network to develop a Marie Curie Doctoral Network funding application.

The workshop brought together experts in psychology, education and data analytics. Day One was devoted to presentations of our current ongoing projects on Big Data. Presenters were: Kate Cain, Lancaster University; Yawen Ma, Lancaster University; Jenny Thomson, University of Sheffield; Francisca Serrano, University of Granada; and Njal Folnes, University of Stavanger. Day Two focused on identifying themes, work packages, and additional partners to include for a Marie Curie Doctoral Network. There was a morning presentation from Corina Sas on her experience of developing and running two successful Marie Curie ITNs, the precursor to the Doctoral Networks.

In July, Kate Cain and Jenny Thomson met with Anne Galliot (Academic Angel) to develop the structure of the application. We developed key messages, two strands into which work packages could be embedded, and identified which potential partners to approach for tactical reasons. We would highly recommend the use of a grant-writing consultant to work on a single-focused project.

We have confirmed beneficiaries in 6 participating organisations: Lancaster University, University of Granada, University of Malta, University of Sheffield, University of Stavanger, and Dublin City University covering expertise in psychology, education, human-computer interaction, and data analytics, and up to 4 non-academic beneficiaries (companies) who produce educational apps for literacy.

We are currently on track to submit an application for a Marie Curie Doctoral Network in November 2024.

Ecological and Environmental Statistics - 1st-3rd July 2024

A workshop on Ecological and Environmental Statistics was hosted at Lancaster on July 1st-3rd. Co-organised by academics at Lancaster University and researchers at the Lancaster UKCEH site, the workshop followed on from a similar event held here last year. It was a pleasure to welcome back some faces from the previous event, and also to meet many new ones! It was particularly exciting to welcome people from outside of the academic community, with speakers from the British Ornithological Trust, the Zoological Society London, UKCEH and CEFAS, as well as two speakers who had travelled from the US. The themes addressed by speakers covered data collection, data modelling and data visualisation, with particular focus on how to develop statistical tools that accurately reflect the manner in which the data was collected and the data generating mechanisms. There was much discussion around the challenges of extracting information from both remote sensing data and citizen science data, and how to integrate these data sources with other data sets collected through traditional methods. The long lunch breaks and regular coffee top-ups were put to good use by all participants and, we hope, will have sowed the seeds for some exciting new collaborations. The organisers would like to thanks both the DSI for their funding, and the participants and speakers for making the workshop such a success.

This workshop was run by Emma Eastoe and Paul Smith.

Patterns in biology: mechanisms, analysis and utility - 10th July 2024

This workshop brought together UK and international researchers from a range of disciplines, including Mathematics, Computing, and Developmental Biology, and delivered a mini-symposium covering a variety of topics themed around patterns in biology. These included mathematical insights into how cells divide and move, biological understanding of how cells organise into structures like feathers, and lastly how we can capture and utilize patterns around us for identification or inference on their historical backgrounds.

There was an after-symposium discussion on how the collective expertise can work towards understand spotting in Dalmatians and dairy cattle, forming the intersection between developmental cell biology, genetics, computer vision and mathematics. The networking fostered many insightful discussions and collaborations.

Both sessions were attended by researchers from a variety of disciplines; the talks were attended by 28 participants (Mathematics, Computing, Linguistics and Language, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster Medical School, Biomedical and Life Sciences) and the after-symposium discussion were attended by 9 participants (Mathematics, Computing, Biosciences). Attendee academic affiliations:

• Lancaster University
• Politecnico di Torino
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Bristol
• University of Bath
• University of Glasgow
• University of Manchester

The event took place on 10th July at Lancaster University and was organised by Dr Barbara Shih, Dr Richard Mort, and Dr Jonathan Higham.

Data Science/Data Activism: The Technologies of Everyday Bordering, Past, Present and Future - 5th July 2024

This workshop brought together interdisciplinary researchers from data science, history, criminology and sociology to interrogate the technologies and impacts of everyday bordering and deportations in the hostile environment.

The workshop covered the following topics: everyday bordering, whereby ordinary citizens are required to perform as border-guards in Universities and health care; the use of technologies, including monitoring, tracking, personal profiling and linked data, to identify suspected illegitimates and exacerbate the power of everyday bordering; the use of predictive algorithms which embed the belief that race and social status are linked to illegality and illegitimate citizenship; how predictive algorithms obscure problems such as racial bias and infer skewed patterns in datasets that exacerbate social division; the colonial technologies of traditional and digital archives; and, exploring contemporary everyday bordering as a longer historic trajectory where race intersected with Empire and coloniality.

The event took place on 5 July in the The Storey, Lancaster, and was organised by Dr Zoë Alker [History] and Dr Esmorie Miller [School of Law].

Workshop on time-series analysis of noisy data

The aim of the workshop was to review recent progress in discerning cyclic processes in noisy backgrounds, focusing especially on the widespread case of oscillations with time-varying frequencies.

This took place on 13th -15th September 2023, was attended by 32 participants and fostered many useful discussions and collaboration.

Topics included

• Linear, stationary, non-stationary, nonlinear, chaotic, stochastic, autonomous and non-autonomous processes and systems
• Time series analyses in time and frequency domains: autocorrelation and Fourier transform
• Time-frequency analyses: wavelet transform
• Entropy and information

The updated website now includes a gallery.

Workshop on Ecological and Environmental Statistics

This workshop brought together researchers interested in environmental and ecological statistical modelling to discuss advances in, and the future of, the two disciplines and to investigate potential synergies

We provided a platform for discussion and collaboration between applied and methodological statisticians, data scientists, scientists and policymakers, across all career stages and regardless of affiliation.

Specific statistical methods used, but are not limited to, spatio-temporal modelling, downscaling, time-series analysis, and hierarchical modelling.

This took place 11th - 13th September 2023 in the Postgraduate Statistics Centre

The organisers were Emma Eastoe and Alex Bush

MobiUK -Fifth UK Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Systems Research Symposium

Mobile, wearable and ubiquitous systems have a pivotal role in today’s society and daily life. Research and innovation in these domains has the potential to unlock important new applications and open the door to a better understanding of their use.

Building on the success of the previous symposiums, the venue this year supports discussion and presentation of research within the UK mobile, wearable and ubiquitous systems community.

PhD students from Cambridge University, University of Edinburgh, St Andrews, University of Glasgow, Kings College London, University of Southampton, Lancaster and Manchester all presented papers at the symposium.

This took place at Lancaster University on 3rd and 4th July.

'Data science for public opinion: applications of data science on opinion studies in social sciences'

This workshop took place on July 4^th 2023 at Forrest Hills. It brought together colleagues interested in the applications of data science in public opinion and political communications in cyberspace across the campus, as well as scholars from other institutions. The Society theme at DSI would benefit from the applied side of the data science in social sciences, especially the collective ideas from the perspective of sociology, political science, media and communications, and even industries. The general topic of public opinion in cyberspace involves discussions on agenda setting, political support and voting preferences, polling and forecasting, digital governance, collective identities, platform algorithms, misinformation and disinformation, echo chambers and many others. By gathering brilliant scholars from various social science disciplines, we hope to build the subgroup of practices of data science in addressing the formation, change, and presentation in public opinion in general.

Contact: Yan Wang if you have any questions.

The July 4th workshop was definitely something I'm grateful for during the short time I was in DSI. It helped me connect with people I really like from outside and gather minds that are similar across the campus. We had a really good time discussing the projects we were working on that relate to data science in public opinion studies, and many overlapping interests were further explored. Most of us still maintain connections, and I'm thinking about organizing similar events among us (of course open to others that are interested) to facilitate more substantive collaborations.

Yan Wang

2 Day Research Software Writing Retreat

This workshop took place on 5^th & 6^th July 2023

Research software is often written as a by-product of research, and not given the emphasis or time it needs to be an impactful output in its own right. Indeed, creating such outputs may be difficult for researchers, many of whom are self-taught programmers and do not have the skills or support needed to create high-quality sustainable research software.

This workshop aimed to solve both of these problems by providing researchers with a distraction-free space with dedicated time to focus on software and programming skills, with an on-hand RSE (Research Software Engineer) to provide support and help throughout the session.

It was run by Robin Long, Chris Jewell and Rebecca Killick

Material Passports Data workshop - Orms Architects, London

This workshop took place on 12th July in London

The workshop was run by Ana Rute Costa, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, a.costa@lancaster.ac.uk

How material passport data can accelerate material reuse in construction and enable the measurement of the embodied carbon of materials in a circular economy?

Identify research gaps, research funding opportunities and possible research collaboration projects.

• Workshop PDF with full details and schedule

DSI Society - Inequalities 2 day retreat

On the 19th and 20th May 2022, the Society theme had a fantastic two-day retreat on the topic of Inequalities, marking the kick-off of a new strategic focus within the DSI. Academics from across the university came together for a lively interdisciplinary discussion exploring a wide range of inequalities and discovering connections between fields of health, sociology, politics and policy, economics, environment, computing, and design. We look forward to building on these conversations with further opportunities for members to meet up and collaborate in the months to come.

Day 1 of the retreat offered 4 clusters of lightning talks, interspersed with time for food, quality conversations and some relaxation. Talk topics covered were - Local inequalities: understanding and enriching the region, International inequalities: tackling global challenges, Making sense of inequalities: the value of large-scale datasets and Inequalities: the politics of infrastructure and environment

Day 2 provided information on the current funding landscape and the University’s new Secure Data Science Infrastructure.

Presentations were given by the following people:

• Inequalities research: the funding landscape (Odette Dewhurst, Senior Research Development Manager, RES)
• NIHR North West Research Support and Development Team, Julie Mugarza and James Connolly
• Lancaster’s Secure Data Science Infrastructure: Karen Broadhurst & Geraint Harries (ISS)

Early Career Researchers - Grant Writing Workshop

In December 2021 a group of Early Carer Researchers took a two-day workshop at the Low Wood Hotel in the Lake District

With support from the research support office and more experienced academics, we worked on grants that were in progress and provided support and advice on EPSRC applications. Peer review, networking and time to write were important parts of this retreat held to reinvigorate the grant writing process.

UK Underwater 2020 - Data-Driven approaches to communicating flooding

More than 50 citizens, data and environmental scientists, journalists, and educators from Thailand to the United States gathered for UK Underwater 2020, a virtual workshop through the Data Science Institute.

The workshop was related to flooding analysis and reporting when scientists and communicators are challenged to express the science and solutions surrounding increasingly widespread and dangerous flooding in the UK. Keynotes included Dr Juliet Pinto of Penn State, an expert in science communication, David Caswell, the lead of BBC News Labs, which is using AI in reporting flooding.

Other speakers focused on data visualisation, the use of drones to capture flooding damage and risk, and the role of data in creating a collaboration across the UK to tell digital stories about flood risk, inequalities related to flooding, and solutions in infrastructure and social strains of environmental change.

"All topics at the workshop were very relevant for the project I have been leading to increased flood risk awareness," said one participant in a follow-up survey. "This is really exciting."

UK Underwater 2020 was hosted by Dr Robert (Ted) Gutsche, Jr., Senior Lecturer in Critical Digital Media Practice in Lancaster's Department of Sociology with the assistance of DSI coordinator Julia Carradus and Media and Cultural Studies PhD Student Carolina Estrada.

The effort now is to form a collaboration surrounding these issues and the goals below for public-facing efforts across the UK related to communicating data and environmental science, and storytelling about flooding, the causes for environmental change, and possible solutions to reduce risk.

Please reach out with interest to r.gutschejr@lancaster.ac.uk.

Machine Learning and Radiography for Head and Neck Cancer

On the 10th March 2020 a group of medical professionals and researchers from across the country met to discuss Radiotherapy and Machine Learning (ML) for Head and Neck (H&N) Cancer. Talks included: “The ongoing dialogue: how to combine data research with clinical practice”, “Manchester Radiotherapy ML Network: thoughts, feedback and potential research areas”, “Life as an NHS Data Scientist” and “Managing academic and medical expectations of data science research – A view from industry”. The workshop aimed to provide clinicians with a broad overview of ML and data science tools that could be applied and to give researchers a better understanding of the clinical perspective. Around 20 participants discussed the pains of obtaining NHS data, attempted to predict the survival rate of H&N patients from open source data and learnt why Northwest Cancer Research were keen to keep funding research in this area.

The workshop was funded by the Quality-Related Strategic Priorities Funding and supported by DSI.

Emma Stubington

Further information about the workshop

Activism, Storytelling and Data Science

In January 2020 40 people including academics, activists, storytellers and data scientists from the UK and internationally came together to explore the relationships between data, story and social change. The Activism by the Numbers retreat was a wonderful opportunity for a diverse group of people to share their research, experience and ideas. Participants explored how to find data to bring about positive change, how to make sense of data and stories relating to activism, as well as considering how to make data easier to access and use, and how people with expertise in data, activism and story can collaborate. The event instantiated a network of people who are now working on new ideas and collaborations for a fascinating range of projects and initiatives.

For more information please visit Remembering Resistance,

Extreme Ocean Waves Workshop

In September 2019, a three-day workshop, led by Professor Phil Jonathan, Chair in Environmental Statistics and Data Science with Jenny Wadsworth, Mathematical Sciences - took place in the Postgrad Statistics Centre at Lancaster University. The aim of the workshop was to bring together mathematicians, statisticians, oceanographers and ocean engineers studying extreme ocean wave phenomena.

Topics included:

• experimental studies
• mathematical and statistical modelling of individual extreme wave events and interactions
• extreme value analysis of ocean storms in space and time
• engineering impact of improved characterisation of extreme ocean environments

Further information about the day, including slides and talk abstracts can be on the workshop's extreme ocean wave phenomena website.

Machine Learning and Genomics

In June 2019, a Machine Learning and Genomics workshop took place. Around 60 people came to the 2 day DSI workshop at Forrest Hills. Speakers presented on topics ranging from methods to provide alerts in intensive care through to methods to detect DNA sequencing errors. About 50 people attended – the vast majority from outside Lancaster University with representations from companies including Microsoft and GSK. The second day doubled as a meeting of the North of England Genetic Epidemiology Group (NEGEG).

This event was organised by Dr Frank Dondelinger, Lecturer in Biostatistics - Professor Joanne Knight, Chair in Applied Data Science and Tom Palmer, Lecturer in Statistics

Administrative Data Research and the Real World

In June 2019 DSI supported an early career workshop held alongside our Distinguished Speaker event. About 50 people attend a talk on The Value of Administrative Data for the Family Justice System given by Professor Anna Vignoles and Judge Carol Atkinson. Both talks were extremely interesting and provoked a number of questions and conversions about the value of research data and its effects of influencing social policy and decision making. This event was hosted by Professor Karen Broadhurst and Dr Linda Cusworth and was held in the Charles Carter Building at Lancaster University.

Big Data in the Geosciences

In June 2019, a 2-day workshop on the use of big data and data science across geophysical applications from the depths of our oceans to the boundaries of outer space, and everything in between including the atmosphere and cryosphere. Around 50 academics and scientists came to hear talks from a range of speakers including Professor Sandra Chapman, University of Warwick, Dr Ben Booth, UK Met Office and Dr Neil Massey, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The workshop included interactive working sessions and a poster competition. The event was organised by Dr Adam Sykulski, Paul Young and Dr Amber Leeson.

Data Driven Systems Retreat

In May 2019, the Data Science Institute organised a 2-day workshop at Low Wood, Windermere. Led by Professor Tracy Hall (SCC) along with other Lancaster academics from a range of backgrounds, PhD students, lecturers and senior academics were invited to explore Data Driven Resilient Systems.