RI Masterclasses

What are the Royal Institution Masterclasses at Warwick?

Ri masterclasses at Warwick are an exciting opportunity for young people to explore the fascinating worlds of data science, mathematics and engineering. Through hands-on, interactive workshops we aim to raise students' enthusiasm and nurture their continued engagement with STEM disciplines.

What are the Ri Masterclasses in Data Science?

The Warwick Ri masterclasses in data science are a new series for 2025. Whatever we do, from online shopping and social media to using music and podcast services or browsing the internet, data is collected. Data science is concerned with turning this data into actionable knowledge, improving decision making and solving real-life problems.

Each masterclass consists of an interactive workshop that explores an aspect or method in data science including modern statistics and probability theory and is delivered by academics and students from the Department of Statistics.

Inspiring talks
Subject experts
Labs and hands-on sessions

Can students from my school get involved?

Local schools (within easy transport to Coventry) are invited to nominate up to 3 year 10 pupils, ensuring a mix of genders in the group of nominated students. For informal enquiries please e-mail .

Within the mathematical science and STEM in general, there are under-represented groups, such as females, people from lower socio We would like teachers to bear this in mind when selecting their students to nominate.

Successful students will attend the Saturday morning Masterclasses at the Department of Statistics, at the University of Warwick in the spring term. These classes commence on 25th January 2025 and finish during British Science Week with a celebration event on 15th March 2025. Teachers and families are invited to this celebration event.

When are the Masterclasses?

The dates for the Ri Masterclasses 2025 Series are:

Saturday mornings January 25th, February 1st, February 8th, March 1st, March 8th and March 15th.

Please note there is a two week break over the February half term.

What will each Masterclass be about?

The sessions that have provisionally been organised for Spring 2025 are listed below (note there may be some changes to the final plans):

Session Title	Led by	Date
Simulate me, if you can! Dive into the art of recreating real-world phenomena through simulation, explore how to build models and estimate real-life parameters from data.	Francesca Basini	25/01/2025
*Monte Carlo: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favour* Monte Carlo is a powerful maths technique that uses random numbers to solve problems and make predictions. Imagine trying to find the best solution to a tricky question by rolling dice—Monte Carlo does something similar, but with way more precision! It's used in everything from predicting weather, to designing video games, to improving cancer treatments. By running thousands (or even millions!) of simulations, Monte Carlo helps us find answers when things are too complex or uncertain to solve directly.	Dr. Emma Horton	01/02/2025
*How many visual stimuli can you recognise if briefly observed?* What is the capacity of your short term memory? And would you be able to recognise a visual stimulus appearing for 20-50 milliseconds? Come along to challenge yourself and learn how, where and why stochastic processes and probability theory are used in (cognitive) psychology.	Dr. Massimiliano Tamborrino	08/02/2025
*Graph Theory and Its Applications in Computer Science* Graph theory explores how things are connected: like how websites link to each other or how friends are linked on social media. In computer science, it helps solve problems like finding the quickest route or recommending content based on what you and others like you enjoy. It's also key to understanding how data can be sorted efficiently, which help organise information for faster access.	Dr. Sam Olesker-Taylor	01/03/2025
*Introduction to Data Analysis and Exploration with Python* Join us for an exciting, hands-on journey into the world of data analysis and exploration, tailored for young minds! Using Python as our tool, we'll dive deep into the meaning and significance of data variables, uncovering their secrets and importance. Get ready to clean, manipulate, analyse, and create eye-catching visualisations, all while having fun and gaining valuable skills!	Dr. Busola Oronti	08/03/2025
*Mini Masterclass: Introduction to Classification* Classification is the practice of assigning data to different categories, and is a fundamental question in data science across multiple domains. For example, how do financial institutions decide whether they should loan money to an individual or not, based on the person's financial credentials? How does automated handwriting recognition software decide what letter of the alphabet you have written? Judging from a patient's medical record, at what point should doctors decide the patient is at risk of a heart attack in the next twelve months, and so medical intervention is necessary? In this mini masterclass, we will discuss some of the common mathematical techniques applied to all of these problems, and how the effectiveness of various classification algorithms is evaluated.	Dr. Paul Skerritt	15/03/2025
Celebration Event (Families welcome)

More interested in Maths or Engineering?

Royal Institution Mathematics and Engineering Masterclasses are held at Warwick on the same dates as above.

Click the links on the right to find out more about the other streams.

Mathematics stream of the RI Masterclasses at Warwick.

Engineering stream of the RI Masterclasses at Warwick.