Life as a STOR-i MRes Student: Michaelmas Term

Introducing my ‘Life as a STOR-i MRes Student’  blogging thread, starting with an overview of Michaelmas term. I decided to complete a blogging thread on my MRes year because it will provide me with an opportunity to reflect on my time as a student at STOR-i as well inform others about the course. I started the STOR-i MRes programme in October 2019, I have already learnt many new skills and topics and thoroughly enjoyed myself during the term. 

In the first week of term, we started with an introductory day to meet some of the staff and students, as well as to learn what STOR-i is all about and what the programme entails. This was followed by a two-day excursion to the Lake District; this was a great opportunity to build relationships with my peers as well as staff and other students. The Away Day included many team-building activities, from designing a team logo and printing it onto a t-shirt to canoeing across Lake Windermere in an orienteering challenge. By the time we came back to Lancaster to start the term properly, we had really got to know each other and were able to support each other through the rest of the term.

 

The first half of Michaelmas term consisted of four modules to introduce us to the basic knowledge required for the rest of the year. This included Inference and Modelling, Stochastic Simulation, Deterministic Optimisation and Probability and Stochastic Processes. Within each topic, we had lectures, weekly exercises and workshops to assist with our understanding. Alongside these modules, we attended lectures regarding training for research and industry.

In the second half of term, we completed contemporary topic sprints on a weekly basis. This involved attending a lecture on a Monday morning to gain an overview of the topic and our task, then we would research the topic in teams for 4 days and present it back to an expert in the field later in the week. This was a great way to build on our teamwork, research and presentation skills. The topics were

• Statistical Leaning for Decision lead by Professor David Leslie,
• Modelling Paradigms for Complex and Novel Data forms lead by Professor Idris Eckley,
• Computational Statistics lead by Professor Paul Fearnhead,
• Optimising under Uncertainty lead by Professor Adam Letchford.

Following the sprints, we chose one topic to explore further and write a report on our findings. I chose Optimisation under Uncertainty and wrote my report on the Stochastic Knapsack Problem with Random Weights. This is an optimisation problem where we have a set of items with different, unknown weights but known reward. We want to choose a set of items to go in the knapsack (which has some maximum capacity) so that the total reward of the knapsack is maximised. Whilst writing this report, I read a lot of the relevant literature and broadened my knowledge on the topic as a whole.

Outside of my studies, I attended many of the events that STOR-i hosted, including a cheese and wine evening as well as the STOR-i Christmas Meal. This allowed me to meet more students and relax outside of studying. Additionally, I started playing netball for Lancaster University Graduate College, this has been a great way to meet other postgraduate students from different disciplines. I have thoroughly enjoyed the MRes programme so far and look forward to seeing what the Lent term brings.