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Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 1 Art of the Possible 9 th January, 2019 Ceri Regan Academic Manager Data Science Campus
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 1
Art of the Possible
9th January, 2019
Ceri ReganAcademic Manager
Data Science Campus
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 2
Government Data Science Conference, London, 2017
• What is Data Science and why do
we need it?
• Example Showcase
• Discussion
• Support & Building Capability
Overview
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 3
Government Data Science Conference, London, 2017
But first…
… What words come to mind when
you hear ‘Data Science’?
• Positive
• Negative
• Not sure?
“Work that takes more programming
skills than most statisticians have and
more statistical skills than most
programmers have”
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 4
David Taylor, http://www.prooffreader.com
What is Data Science?
Dara
Domain
expertise
Machine
learning
Data
science
The Data Science Venn Diagram, designed by Drew Conway
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 5
What is Data Science?
“Data Scientists solve complex
business problems using a
combination of domain
expertise, coding knowledge,
machine learning and statistics
skills on large and varied
datasets.”
Government Data Science Partnership
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 6
John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the UK Civil Service, Sprint 18, London, 2018
Why do we need Data
Science?
• “Getting data right is the next
phase of public service reform”
• Deliver more insight from the
data we hold
• Drive more insight through use
of new data sources
John Manzoni – Chief Executive of the UK Civil Service
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Making Better Use of
Data
Prof. David Hand
Imperial College London
The world of data is changing:
• Survey data is what people say
they do
• Modern types of data show what
people actually do
➢ Modern data are closer to
social reality
Data Observatory, , Data Science Institute, Imperial College London,
London, November 2017
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 8
Government Data Science Conference, London, 2017
Opportunities for Gov
• Automating processes which are
currently done manually
• Making operational efficiencies (eg. In
survey collection)
• Combining lots of different data
sources to:
• Improve timely production of
statistics
• Quality assure existing statistics
• Fill in gaps (e.g. in geographical
granularity)
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @DataSciCampus
Making Better Use of Data
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Challenges Ahead
• Size of modern data sets
• Quality
• Rate of Acquisition
• Ethics
Prof. David Hand, Imperial College London
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @DataSciCampus
Making Better Use of Data
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Opportunities
• Size of modern data sets
• Quality
• Rate of Acquisition
• Ethics
• Scope of new data
acquisition methods
• The rate of acquisition
• Insight from linking and
merging datasets
Challenges Ahead
Prof. David Hand, Imperial College London
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 11
Dawn Duhaney and Gareth Llewellyn from GDS at the Government Data Science
Community of Interest Meet-up London, November 2017
Examples of
Data Science in
Government
London Transport workers manually examine over 4 million
tickets to identify most and least popular routes, March 1939Gerry Cranham/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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Predicting Viral Outbreaks
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 15
£120mEstimated cost to the country in lost working
hours due to Norovirus
£20kTotal cost of the project, including publicity
campaign
2.8mCases of Norovirus per year in the UK
Fig 1. Wordcloud of Norovirus Keywords Fig 2. Norovirus Keywords in Tweets compared to reported incidents
Early Indicators of GDP
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 16
Length of time from 2008 for the UK
economy to return to pre-recession size
Fig 2. ONS National Accounts Publication Timetable
Fig 1. UK GDP Growth Rate Early
Intervention
Early
Indicators
-6%Change in UK GDP between first quarter of
2008 and second quarter of 2009
5 years
£12bEstimated value for earlier identification of
2008 downturn
Early Indicators of GDP
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 17
Length of time from 2008 for the UK
economy to return to pre-recession size
-6%Change in UK GDP between first quarter of
2008 and second quarter of 2009
5 years
£12bEstimated value for earlier identification of
2008 downturn
VAT turnover
returns
HMRC VAT Data AIS Ship Location
Road Traffic Broadband Traffic
Reproducible Analytical Pipeline
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 18
SolutionThe Challenge
• Producing official statistics for publications is a
key problem: as it is a time consuming
meticulous process
• It is time consuming as the analysis has to
pass through multiple systems and multiple
individuals
• The systems are diverse and do not always
conform to good software engineering practice
• Use of software engineering
tools and techniques such as
version control.
• Automated generation of
tables/charts and statistical
verification
• Process from data storage to
report generation
£8.8kEstimated average annual saving per
publication
Data
Store
Statistical
SoftwareSpreadsheet
Word
Processorpdf
Data
StoreR Markdown £118m
Estimated annual efficiency savings across
government stats publications
Efficiency Savings
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @DataSciCampus
Web Scraping and High Frequency Indices
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86
88
90
92
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98
100
102
104
Comparison of the web scraped and published CPI item indices for food and non-alcoholic
beverages
CPI (Published)
Web scraped
Consumer Prices Index
• Field Interviewers collect Prices around
UK
• Webscraped - 33 items from 3 retailers
(Tesco, Waitrose & Sainsbury’s)
• Daily collection of prices (June 2014 +)
• High frequency and timely indices
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 20
Data Scientists from across the public sector at the
Government Data Science Conference London, April 2017
• How could data science transform
your work?
• What impact could this have?
• What are the barriers?
• How could you overcome these?
Discussion
Capability Building & DS
Community
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 21
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @DataSciCampus
Building Data Science Capability
AwarenessBig Data & Data Science Explained; Awareness of New Coding Tools; Art of the
Possible
Working
(Undergraduate)Trainee Data Scientist
Junior Data Scientist
Level 4 Apprenticeship in Data Analytics; Level 6 Apprenticeship in Data Science;
Data Science Accelerator Programme (GDS)
Learning Academy/Campus Training Programme
Intro to R; Intro to Python; Intermediate R, Python; Machine Learning, NLP, etc
Practitioner
(Graduate)Data Scientist
Masters in Data Analytics for Government; CPD modules; Internal (ONS) Seminar
Series
Expert
(Post-Graduate)Senior Data Scientist
Alan Turing Institute intensive workshop programme; External Seminar Series
Modular programme – supports Analysts who want to upskill in
data science without becoming dedicated data scientists
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 22
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @DataSciCampus
• DS Apprenticeships – contact [email protected] for more info
• Data Science Accelerator Programme –
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-science-accelerator-programme
• Learning Academy/Data Science Campus training offerings – contact
[email protected] for more info
• Online learning – DataCamp portal (www.datacamp.com/courses)
Building Data Science Capability
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 23
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @DataSciCampus
• MSc in Data Analytics for Government and CPD modules – contact
[email protected] for more info
• Alan Turing Events - https://www.turing.ac.uk/events
• External Seminar Series – contact [email protected]
Building Data Science Capability
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 24
Developing a DS Community
• Slack - https://govdatascience.slack.com. Can also be set up for your
department/branch for internal discussions
• Seminars – sharing across Dept what is going on
• Coffee and Coding – regular friendly space to chat about coding
• Internal Accelerator Programme - offer internal DS projects for staff to work on
• Sharing of code via Github
• Community of Interest meets – also via Google Hangouts http://bit.ly/2gMvvvF
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Developing a DS Community
Slack
• Can be used at various levels (across Gov, Dept, Directorate, team, etc)
and used to discuss DS issues and help to develop and support the
community – www.slack.com
• Cross Gov Slack channel - https://govdatascience.slack.com.
• MDataGov slack channel - https://mdatagov.slack.com/ (to be added to this
channel, please contact [email protected])
• GSS Slack channel - https://gov-stats-service.slack.com/
Support/Mentorship
from the DSC
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Support Available
Data Science Campus support
• Joint projects – working collaboratively with the Campus
• Mentorship – have a dedicated Data Scientist assigned to your
project work
• Advice and guidance on building capability through training offerings
• https://datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk/
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DSC - Joint Research Projects
What will we learn?
• data sources & techniques
• building campus capability
• building ONS / Govt capability
Can the learning be applied to other problems?
Deal breakers
• Is it ethical?
• Is it possible?
• Does it have an owner?
Does it add value?Does it increase our understanding of the UK’s economy and society?
Is it a stakeholder priority?
Criteria
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Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @DataSciCampusONS Data Science Campus, October 2017
Data Science Campus | datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk | [email protected] | @datascicampus Public | 29
Image credits: ONS stock: (Dave Johnson); GDS pp2,3,9,13,18; FSA p14,15;
Gerry Cranham / Fox Photos / Hulton Archive / Getty Images p6; drawnalism p14
ONS Data Science Campus
Email: [email protected]
Web: datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk
Twitter: @DataSciCampus
Ceri Regan
Academic Manager
