A panoramic view of Real World Data Science
The Mike Hudson Foundation has developed an LLM-powered ‘answer engine’ for non-profits. Our recent conversation with them surfaced some valuable insights for practitioners…
A structured approach for testing Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and some key questions to start you thinking critically about how your systems may be working.
Data science is a blend of both data and science. A data scientist with too much focus on data may do work with little impact while a data scientist with too much focus on…
Mike Hudson on the challenges and opportunities of deploying AI in nonprofit settings, and the lessons learned from building responsible, high-impact technology during…
If AI is to genuinely assist professionals, it must go beyond quantification. More than simply accurate, it should be appropriately uncertain.
Data serves as the foundation of our work. So why isn’t its quality given the prominence it deserves?
Dr Sophie Carr of the RWDS editorial board chairs a free public talk at the RSS International Conference in Edinburgh.
AI in Veterinary Medicine and what it can teach us about the data revolution.
AI scientist and researcher Francis Osei investigates what happens when Agentic AI systems are used in real projects, where trust and reproducibility are not optional.
An excellent read for an organisational leader seeking inspiration to automate
The UK has a rare opportunity to lead, not follow, by building a sovereign AI model trained on NHS data to accelerate the transition from treating disease to preventing…
Contribute to our new editorial sections
After a brief hiatus, we’re back with a new Call for Submissions.
RSS: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence is now open to submissions. It offers an exciting venue for your work in these disciplines with a broad reach across…
Learn about researchers’ plans to develop the Curated Data Enterprise through a use case research program.
How does the Curated Data Enterprise Framework work? Take a look at our demonstration use case on the resilience of skilled nursing facilities.
The US Census Bureau faces the challenge of addressing complex questions requiring novel datasets and sources to answer. Official statistical agencies and public- and…
In this article, we introduce a new approach for the US Census Bureau to produce statistical products using survey, administrative, procedural and opportunity data. This is…
Machine learning using apparently different architectures bagged the 2024 Nobel Prizes for Physics and Chemistry. Anna Demming reports on what the prizes were awarded for…
Anna Demming reports on recent insights into the interplay between gender disparities on and offline and what might help to close the gap.
The Royal Statistical Society is launching its new fully open access journal, RSS: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence with a remit to publish research on statistics…
Atmajitsinh Gohil describes a recently devised 3 step framework that improves the accuracy of nowcasting.
This AI article series has highlighted a number of areas where AI can offer genuine benefits, as well as flagging how best to dodge the pitfalls and cultivate models and…
Working with AI in real world conditions can be quite a different proposal to the idealised settings often discussed “in theory”. Guest editor Anna Demming speaks to a panel…
Expanding the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various sectors has been widely touted as a significant threat to jobs but so far data to justify these fears…
The real world can be a dangerous place for an AI algorithm, full of unforeseen data, evolving behaviours and significant human consequences. Isabel Sassoon highlights some…
While AI algorithms can pose a number of challenges in terms of the size and sophistication of the algorithms, ethical issues can be the hardest and most important aspect to…
Taking NHS usage of the 1 million people in and around Bristol, then combining with population forecasts into a modelling framework has created a sophisticated but…
Even “correct” data can cause all manner of mischief when fed indiscriminately into AI training and test data sets. Here the various issues that can arise and possible…
Diego Miranda-Saavedra explores some of the merits and limitations of modern machine learning models, and considers where these ‘intelligent’ systems might sit in the…
AI has become a hot topic of debate but these discussions can circulate fears and fantasies more than a meaningful analysis of real world data. In this special issue we…
Penny Holborn, head of faculty for the Office for National Statistics Data Science Campus, talks to Jonathan Gillard about keeping up with new developments, the value of…
Matthew Jones, head of decision science and analytical innovation at building society Nationwide, talks career path, data science tools and skills, and the role of AI in…
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…
I’ll be leaving Real World Data Science and the Royal Statistical Society in a month’s time. Before I go, I want to say a big thank you to all the contributors, readers…
Two popular data science algorithms – naïve Bayes and eigen centrality – are used to examine the difference between data scientists, statisticians, and other occupations.
It’s been a busy seven days for AI news in the UK as two major government reports were published, millions of pounds of new investments were announced, and warnings rang out…
Government says staff need to understand what generative AI is, its limitations, and how to deploy the technology lawfully, ethically and securely.
The 2024 International Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition will open for entries on February 1. There’s cash and prizes on offer for the best entries, including having…
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…
This is the story of how a Royal Statistical Society editor discovered an open source publishing system called Quarto, learned how to code (a bit), and built an online…
Real World Data Science interviews UK national statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond about culture change and innovation in the national statistical system post-Covid…
The programming language R is capable of creating a wide variety of geometric shapes that can be used to construct high quality graphics – including festive images. In this…
Inspired by Nicola Rennie’s excellent tutorial on making Christmas cards with R, we’ve had a go at putting together our own design – especially for you, the wonderful…
At techUK’s Digital Ethics Summit, experts looked back on a year in which AI chatbots dominated debates, helped shape legislative agendas, and opened our eyes to the dangers…
How can we help organisations to deploy AI in a responsible way? Why have evaluation metrics trailed behind advances in AI technology? And, are data inputs receiving the…
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…
Robin Linacre introduces an open source tool, developed by the UK Ministry of Justice, which uses probabilistic record linkage to improve the quality of justice system data.
When body-worn cameras were rolled out to juvenile correctional officers in Texas in 2018, senior leaders hoped proactive analysis of camera metadata could be used to…
As a university lecturer, Isabel Sassoon made frequent use of open data resources for teaching and research. But it was only recently that she fully learned to embrace and…
At the Royal Statistical Society Conference this September, Real World Data Science brought together data scientists, statisticians, and policy experts to discuss the urgent…
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…
Public funding is needed for an ‘AI for humanity’ project, modelled on the Human Genome Project, argues Martin Goodson. How else can we ensure the benefits of AI are spread…
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…
An introduction to Real World Data Science as part of RSS Members’ Week; a keynote talk at the NHS-R Community Annual Conference; and a panel debate on AI evaluation…
A passion for solving mathematical problems led Niclas Thomas to a PhD in machine learning and then a career in data science in the retail sphere. Now head of data science…
We’re thrilled to have ASA on board as a Real World Data Science partner and look forward to working with ASA members, groups and sections to further grow and develop the…
This year’s posit::conf has come to a close, and we had a great time in Chicago learning about data science software, ideas, and applications. Read on for key takeaways from…
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…
In organisations, data scientists are not the only players who get to influence how data and data science are presented and used – so they need to be on their guard for…
The ‘RWDS_post_template’ repository, created by Finn-Ole Höner, demonstrates various Quarto features and helps site contributors to create content using our house style and…
In his new book, ‘Is Artificial Intelligence Racist?’, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam explores the relationship between various forms of racism and sexism and artificial…
Heading to RSS Conference in Harrogate this September? Here’s a selection of sessions to add to your schedule.
From structure to setup, to metrics, results, and lessons learned, Zheyuan Zhang and Uyen Le give an overview of the design of the Food for Thought competition.
Andrea Carlson and Thea Palmer Zimmerman outline the policy issues driving the development of the Purchase to Plate Suite of data products and why linking retail scanner…
Brian Tarran and Julia Lane introduce a collection of articles telling the story of the Food for Thought Challenge, which sought to use machine learning and natural language…
Yifan Hu and Mandy Korpusik of Loyola Marymount University describe their solution to the Food for Thought challenge: binary classification with pre-trained BERT.
Auburn University’s team of PhD students and faculty describe their winning solution to the Food for Thought challenge: random forest classifiers.
The Food for Thought Challenge attracted new eyes from computer science and data science to think about how to address a critical real-world data linkage problem. And, in…
PhD students and faculty from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Indiana University Bloomington describe their solution to the Food for Thought challenge: an ensemble of…
Alice-Maria Toader and Liam Brierley report on two recent talks that explore the role of AI and data science in video game development.
We’re in Toronto for this year’s Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM). Over the next few days, we’ll be sharing key takeaways from a selection of talks and sessions. Check back…
In his upcoming new book, journalist and designer Alberto Cairo explores the idea of ‘data visualization as language’, one with many different dialects – statistical…
Open University professor Rachel Hilliam calls for data science outreach in schools, to build skills pipeline and plug gaps: ’There is absolutely no reason why we can’t…
OpenAI’s latest plugin turns ChatGPT into a tool for data cleaning, preprocessing, analysis, visualisation and predictive modelling tasks, among other things. Some have…
Calling all summer conference delegates! If you’re heading to one of this year’s big statistics and data science events, consider writing about your favourite paper or…
Practitioners often select forecast methods based on averages of scores from many probabilistic forecasts. But this is not without its difficulties. A recent paper by Bolin…
Our editor shares his personal highlights from the first ever London Data Week, including an art exhibition about AI, a panel discussion on the benefits of open source, and…
Data scientists can act as critical enablers of ethical AI when they have the right knowledge and toolkits at their disposal. Maxine Setiawan and Mira Pijselman review three…
Claire Morton is an undergraduate student at Stanford University. In this Q&A, Claire explains how a high school job in a cell biology lab led to college studies in…
Albert Lee, the founding partner at Summit Consulting, describes his career journey – from mathematics and economics at university to the birth of data science and building…
Chanuki Seresinhe is head of data science at Zoopla and Hometrack. This is her career story so far – from researching beautiful places to helping web users buy, sell and…
The road to reproducibility can be a tricky one to navigate, as Davit Svanidze discovered when he set about making his bachelor’s thesis reproducible. If you are thinking of…
A new survey from the Ada Lovelace Institute and the Alan Turing Institute finds broadly positive views towards AI use cases in healthcare and border security, among others…
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…
Last week, outlets around the world were plastered with news of yet another open letter claiming AI poses an existential threat to humankind. Michael Timothy Bennett argues…
Osama Rahman, director of the Data Science Campus at the UK Office for National Statistics, shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of data science at an event…
Jasmine Holdsworth ‘fell in love’ with data science while employed as a data analyst at Stack Overflow. Now working as a data scientist at Expedia Group, she explains how…
Do we need to understand the inner workings of large language models before we use them? Or, is it enough to simply teach people to recognise that model outputs can’t always…
We sit down with the Royal Statistical Society’s Data Science and AI Section to hear how large language models are becoming part of the data science toolkit, and to consider…
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…
Sami Rahman, head of data engineering and data platform at Penguin Random House, parlayed a psychology degree into a data science career – inspired by a talk on machine…
Funding decisions, particularly for projects in the public sector, should be informed by data on what works and what doesn’t. But performance assessment is rarely…
The day a flower blooms is one of the earliest phenomena studied with systematic data collection and analysis. The prediction rule developed nearly three centuries ago is…
Data science means different things to different people. Former RSS president Sylvia Richardson has described it as ‘a rainbow of interconnected disciplines’. What’s your…
Tamanna Haque, lead data scientist at Jaguar Land Rover, shares her route into data science: from pursuing a maths degree at Manchester to analysing vehicle data for a major…
Educators are worried about ChatGPT being used by students for homework assignments, so OpenAI has released a tool to classify whether text is human- or AI-written. But…
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…
Purchase suggestions – e.g., “if you are buying that, you might also want this” – are, to a large extent, informed by the concept of complementarity: that certain products…
A ‘digital skills’ gap is harming employer productivity and growth, according to a survey by engineering body IET. But the ‘digital skills’ that are needed sound a lot like…
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.
ChatGPT represents a next step in the evolution of large language models, says Detlef Nauck. However, there are still major challenges - and concerns - to overcome.
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.
Large volumes of data are pouring in every day from scientific experiments, so much so that it is now commonplace to perform dimension reduction in order to reduce a large…
Join us at the RSS International Conference 2023 in Harrogate, 4-7 September.
We’re starting the year with a new addition to the site: a page dedicated to the excellent RSS Data Science & AI Section newsletter.
A/B testing is often used to evaluate the impact of design ‘treatments’ — for example, are people who see advert A more likely to buy something than those who see advert B?…
Today we’re launching DataScienceBites – a new member of the ScienceBites family – offering bite-sized summaries of data science papers.
We’re back discussing large language models after two weeks of ‘breakthrough’ announcements, excitable headlines, and some all-too-familiar ethical concerns.
’Hello there! I’m a large language model trained by OpenAI, so I don’t have the ability to experience emotions or have a physical presence. I’m here to provide information…
Can data science save the world? What is a data scientist? What statistical ideas do data scientists need to know? And, what’s happening in the world of data science?
The outputs of LLMs seem impressive, but users need to be wary of possible bias, plagiarism and model ‘hallucinations’.
Introducing the editors of Real World Data Science.
