Start of S2DS 2015!

03 Aug 2015

Yesterday S2DS 2015 officially kicked off! Over the next five weeks, I and a cohort of about 80 other PhD students and postdocs will be immersed in the world of data science. For a couple of weeks, S2DS will put on lectures about coding, big data and statistics, but the majority of our time here will be spent working on a real data science project with a company sponsor. This hands-on component was what really drew me to this scheme; it’ll be my first experience of working on a real commercial data science project. This project will likely be more involved than any I’ve done before (it spans multiple weeks, and I expect to be using techniques that are new to me), and for the first time I’ll also be working within a team of two other scientists. I expect the reality of this - the things that I’ll find challenging and what it will really be like managing a data science project - will be quite different from what I predict at this point. I’m looking forward to finding out what those differences are.

Yesterday we had a full day of introductions, lectures about good coding practices and meetings with our company mentors, all rounded off with a great welcome dinner in Euston square. Here’s a picture of my teammate David enjoying a white wine on the roof deck:

At the end of the evening, we had a silly competition to find out which team could make the most creative lego sculpture. Unfortunately, our lego fire-breathing dragon did not garner adequate favour to claim victory:

So far, I’ve really enjoyed meeting such a friendly and smart bunch of people. I’m excited for what the next few weeks have in store!