Third Sector

Presentation covering practical data science with the third sector on behalf of DataKind UK. Showcasing specifically the case study of the Companies We Keep project in partnership with Global Witness.

A practical case study detailing the design and delivery of a data science system tailored for non-governmental organisations facing volatile or undefined computing environments, specifically focusing on forecasting mismatches between tutor availability and student demand.

A case study analysis highlighting the building of machine learning capacity in the third sector. Breaks down a low-cost serverless dependency risk model designed for a regional UK food bank.

The Brilliant Club supports less advantaged students to access and succeed in the UK’s most competitive universities. They do this by mobilising the PhD community to support students in schools via their courses and tutoring programme. A challenge they face is being able to anticipate the tutor supply they need to meet the increasing demands of their programmes as they expand nationally. A team of six DataKind UK volunteers worked with The Brilliant Club to develop a way to forecast and visualise the mismatch between tutor supply and demand across the UK. This is a talk about how we collaboratively explored their data and built a valuable, new tool for them and, crucially, how we did so in a flexible, scalable way that provides them with immediate value but also will fit into their future use of digital and cloud-based tools.

DataKind UK is a charity which puts into practice this year’s theme: Data, agent for Change. Datakind’s stated mission is “helps social change organisations use data science to have more of an impact” and they do this by connecting them with some of the UK’s best data scientists for free. Dr Adam Hill talked about the sort of projects that he and others from the University have been involved in.