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Interviews

Deep dives with data scientists on hot topics and burning issues

Photo of Julia Lane, professor at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and visiting fellow at RTI International.

Democratizing Data: Using natural language processing and machine learning to capture dataset usage

AI
Data
Machine learning
Natural language processing

Real World Data Science speaks with Julia Lane, professor at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and visiting fellow at RTI International, about an initiative that seeks to improve public understanding of how datasets are used and the value they provide.
Mar 11, 2024
Brian Tarran
Official photograph of US Census Bureau director Robert Santos, with US flag in background.

‘We absolutely have to transform and modernise our operation’ – US Census Bureau director Robert Santos

Data
Data privacy
Data literacy
Education
Public engagement
AI

Edited highlights from an interview conducted last summer with US Census Bureau director Robert Santos and colleagues, touching on pandemic challenges, the growing use of administrative data, data privacy concerns, data education and literacy, and how large language models might change the way we interact with official statistics.
Jan 15, 2024
Brian Tarran (with Anna Britten)
Photo of national statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond, standing, with microphone, during a talk.

‘I was pretty clear in my mind that we were into a no-going-back situation’

Data
People
Innovation
Data literacy
Public engagement

Real World Data Science interviews UK national statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond about culture change and innovation in the national statistical system post-Covid, building trust through transparency, and using AI tools to empower people to interrogate data.
Dec 15, 2023
Brian Tarran
Portrait photo of Andrea Saltelli, co-editor of 'The Politics of Modelling.'

‘I would like modellers to be less ambitious in developing monster models that are impossible to inspect’

Modelling
Public policy

Real World Data Science interviews Andrea Saltelli, co-editor of ‘The Politics of Modelling,’ about pandemic models, trust in science, and why we must seek to uncover the assumptions that shape model outputs.
Nov 24, 2023
Brian Tarran
Portrait photo of Andrew Garrett, president of the Royal Statistical Society.

‘Statistics and data science are at the heart of the AI movement – we want to be a strong voice in the debate’

AI
Events
Algorithms
Risk

Royal Statistical Society president Andrew Garrett talks AI model evaluation and risk, and why training data and model inputs deserve greater attention in discussions over AI safety.
Oct 25, 2023
Brian Tarran
Photo of Helen Miller-Bakewell.

‘Feelings about sharing data can be context and time dependent – you can’t just do one survey or focus group’

Data sharing
Data linkage
Public engagement

Real World Data Science sits down with Helen Miller-Bakewell of the UK Office for Statistics Regulation to talk data sharing and linkage in government – progress made, hurdles to overcome, the importance of public engagement, and why ‘social licence’ is key.
Oct 16, 2023
Brian Tarran
R-Girls logo layered on top of a classroom scene, rendered in bright pastel colours, created by Bing Image Creator.

‘What if we try to bring R to the classroom? That was our wacky idea’

R
Education
Outreach

R-Girls is a new project aiming to introduce R into secondary school lessons – just not through computer science classes! Real World Data Science meets with one of the project’s founders, Mohammed Mohammed, to learn more.
Sep 25, 2023
Brian Tarran
Portrait photo of Alberto Cairo by JCA Photography

The many ‘dialects’ of data visualization: Alberto Cairo and ‘The Art of Insight’

Data visualisation
Communication

In his upcoming new book, journalist and designer Alberto Cairo explores the idea of ‘data visualization as language’, one with many different dialects – statistical, journalistic, artistic, and so on. These dialects are not mutually exclusive, he says. So, what might they learn from each other?
Aug 1, 2023
Brian Tarran
Photo of London at night, with Big Ben clock tower towering over the city. Photo by Arthur Yao on Unsplash.

London Data Week is almost here. What’s it all about?

Data
Innovation
Events
Communities

The first ever London Data Week runs from 3–9 July 2023. Real World Data Science meets with organisers Sam Nutt and Jennifer Ding to hear about their vision and plans for the week, and a selection of activities to look forward to.
Jun 8, 2023
Brian Tarran
Photo of Stephanie Hare by Mitzi de Margary. Photo supplied by Stephanie Hare, used with permission.

‘I’m way more into prevention than cure’: Stephanie Hare on why we need a culture of technology ethics

Technology ethics
AI ethics
Culture
Regulation

Stephanie Hare, author of ‘Technology is Not Neutral’, talks to Real World Data Science about the ‘wicked problem’ of technology and AI ethics, and why laws and regulations are ‘necessary but insufficient’ to minimise harms. ‘We’re going to have to inculcate an entire new mindset,’ she argues.
Apr 28, 2023
Brian Tarran
Bikers in front of the United States Capitol in Washington DC. Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash.

US legislators get their data science act together

Data science education
Data literacy
Policy

A bill introduced in the US Congress wants to make funds available to develop data science and data literacy education across the United States. We sit down with education and policy experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Mar 6, 2023
Brian Tarran
Photo of Heidi Seibold

Why open science is ‘just good science in a digital era’

Open science
Reproducible research

Real World Data Science speaks with statistician and data scientist Heidi Seibold about open science: what it means, the benefits of it, and how to move towards it.
Feb 3, 2023
Brian Tarran
Photo of Erica Thompson

How to ‘Escape from Model Land’: an interview with Erica Thompson

Modelling
Ethics

Author Erica Thompson talks to Real World Data Science about the ‘social element’ of mathematical modelling, how it manifests, and what to do about it.
Jan 25, 2023
Brian Tarran
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