DSSGx Datafest UK 2023
Datafest 2023 took place on 24th August at The Shard, London. The event opened with a welcome speech from Prof. Ram Gopal, Pro-Dean for Research, Engagement and Impact, Warwick Business School, university of Warwick.
This was followed by the keynote talk from Sir Bernard Silverman - “Statistics, Data Science, and the fight against Modern Slavery”, which you can watch below.
Oliver Fiala from Save the Children, who completed a DSSGx UK project with the programme in 2022 provided an update on how the work has developed over the following 12 months.
The projects this year were:
United Learning - Identifying support for children to maximise their potential
With an aim to identify pupils who, despite excellent academic ability, may not apply to university. Schools would then be able to use the predictions to provide targeted support and information to help students make the most of their potential and consider all options. Our project partner was United Learning.
UN-REDD - Predicting deforestation in developing countries
The team were aiming to develop a tool to identify areas at risk of deforestation, to allow better forecasting of climate impact and improving the chance of their protection. This was a collaboration with UN-REDD, the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries.
The Algorithmic Transparency Institute - Identifying potential greenwashing by organisations
The team worked on identifying how to flag potential greenwashing (a growing form of climate misinformation, designed to distract the public from the environmentally harmful activities of companies) by automatically classifying company social media posts based on their environmental message. The Algorithmic Transparency Institute was the project partner.
Bradford City Council and EY Foundation - Identification of children at risk of becoming NEET
Building on the 2022 project, the team further developed a tool to identify pupils at risk of ending up 'Not in Employment, Education or Training' (NEET), a situation that is linked to a higher likelihood of unemployment, low wages, and lower quality of work later in life. Based on the predictions, schools will be able to provide targeted support to those children at risk. This was a collaboration with EY Foundation and several local councils.
To see the whole of DSSGx UK 2023, you can view it below. This includes all of the above, as well as the welcome speech from Prof. Ram Gopal, Pro-Dean for Research, Engagement and Impact, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.