My First Term as a STOR-i MRes Student

I recently completed my first term here at STOR-i and I wanted to share my experience with you.

The term began in October with an away day, where the STOR-i staff, new MRes students and 1st year PhDs traveled to the Lake District for a two day team building retreat. This was an enjoyable trip where we got to know the other students and staff whilst competing in a variety of physical and mental challenges including: building a mini-golf course, creating a team t-shirt, kayak orienteering and yachting.

On our return to Lancaster, we spent the following five weeks undertaking lecture courses. We covered Probability theory, Inference, Optimization and Simulation in depth over that period. This gave us all a background in Statistics and Operational Research that will aid us throughout our time at STOR-i.

Following from that we began our topic sprints. This is a new element in the MRes programme here at STOR-i, in which we were given a 2 hour lecture on a stats or OR topic at the beginning of the week and then sent away to research the topic as a part of a small group. At the end of the week we presented back our findings. These were a very challenging few weeks where we covered a lot of new and cutting edge topics. However, it was a very rewarding experience where I learnt a lot both in terms of mathematical knowledge, as well as, team working, research and presentation skills.

Throughout the term I also attended several STOR-i forums where PhD students discussed their research projects, experienced our first problem solving day with Elsevier, had computing and website building sessions and got stuck in with the social side of things.

Overall, my first term here at STOR-i was a rewarding one and I look forward to what’s coming up this term, including the 2020 STOR-i Conference which will be the focus of my next blog post.