This March, STOR-i hosted it’s first Spring School event – a newly-created programme of hands-on research activities and networking opportunities. Occurring between Monday 24^th and Friday 28^th March, and hosted primarily at Lancaster Conference Centre, this event was open to both internal STOR-i students and external PhD students with research interests in statistics and operational research (OR). We also welcomed academic Professor Brendan Murphy, members of STOR-i alumni, former Chief Statistician of Shell, Phil Jonathan, and members of one of our charity partners, Nesta.

The Spring School joins STOR-i's already strong calendar of research events, with a typical academic year consisting of three masterclasses, an annual conference, problem-solving days, research seminars, and training workshops. What makes the new Spring School event stand out is its combination of multiple of these events into one purpose-driven programme, where students can give their full attention to the activities of the week and network with participants outside of their usual cohort.

Monday and Tuesday saw a masterclass, titled ‘Statistical Modelling of Network Data’, hosted by Professor Brendan Murphy of University College Dublin. The course introduced networks and their properties, and went on to cover a range of network models including the Erdos-Renyi model, exponential random graph models (ERGM), and the stochastic block model (SBM) and latent space models (LSM) and their extensions. With feedback including, “the Masterclass was my favourite of those which we have had so far; the content was interesting and the speaker was very engaging”, it was an energizing way to start the week.

We also welcomed STOR-i alumni to join us on the first two days of the week: Hankui Peng, Alex Armstrong, Tom Grundy, and Srshti Putcha. The aims of these talks were to give current PhD students a realistic look into their different career journeys, covering topics such as what our alumni are doing in their current roles, how statistics/OR may differ in industry opposed to in academia, and what part the STOR-i programme may have played to get them to where they are.

These career talks were closed with a talk from Lancaster University’s own Phil Jonathan (formerly Chief Statistician at Shell); an incredibly entertaining talk about “what one person, who could never really decide what they wanted to do, actually ended up doing!”. Based on his experiences in Shell over the past 37 years, Phil discussed his career journey, the pros and cons of a statistical career in industry, and advice on how to grow your career in the way you want it to grow.

STOR-i is committed to developing and sharing research of direct relevance to industry, and Wednesday to Friday of the Spring School involved attendees collaborating on a real-world data challenge alongside Nesta, one of our charity partners. Nesta is a charity organisation that works to design, test, and scale solutions to society’s biggest challenges. The data for this data dive came from a recent Nesta study on the nutritional content of meals sold by independent out-of-home (OOH) food businesses across the UK, tackling projects analysing the data from angles such as ‘portion sizes and impact on calorie intake’, ‘price elasticity and the potential impact of price changes’, and ‘regional patterns in nutritional content’.

We were joined by members of the Nesta team who supported our groups throughout the data challenge, from introducing the data, partaking in discussions on its content, and giving feedback on each group’s final presentations of their findings. The data dive challenge was a great way for our students to work on a real-world problem, that for most was outside of their usual research area, and develop skills in team collaboration. There was also positive feedback stating that the activity being charity-focused helped participants feel more invested in the purpose of the work, leading to high satisfaction across the event.

Outside of the main research activities, participants were also invited to multiple informal networking events throughout the week. The purpose of these were to create chances for attendees to meet and make connections with new people, and stimulate discussion and the pooling of ideas.

Gabriel Wallin, STOR-i executive committee member and Spring School co-organiser, said of the event, “The Spring School was an exciting week where we were able to bring together our Statistics and OR PhD students across all years. Between the masterclass, alumni talks, and data dive with Nesta, it was an intense and fun week that also gave the opportunity to socialise in a more informal setting.”

After the success of this year’s event, STOR-i hopes to continue the Spring School programme in future academic years, including extending event invitations to more Lancaster University PhD students in relevant fields of study and to external PhD students as part of our National Associates network. Another of the Spring School's co-organisers, Keilah Chambers-Turner, stated, "Bringing all of these different activities into one cohesive programme has allowed many students to feel much more focused and invested in the content, with some feeling like they've gotten more out of the event than if each activity were hosted separately. This positive impact will hopefully have long-term effects and benefit their research in the long run. We've greatly appreciated all the positive and constructive feedback we've gained on how to make this event even better, and hope for an even higher turn out next year."

To learn more about STOR-i, it's other events, and the benefits of joining the programme, visit the STOR-i website.