Home » Archives for July 2016

Jaywing, announces new partnership with CDRC

Marketing and data science specialist, Jaywing, recently announced a new partnership to support the delivery of the new MSc course in Consumer Analytics and Marketing Strategy.  The course, which launches in September 2016, will develop students’ practical application of data analysis in a commercial environment.

Bringing together world-class researchers, the course, developed and delivered jointly by the University of Leeds Business School, School of Geography and the ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre is a first for the UK.  Through advanced training using emerging data analytics techniques, including Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Text Analytics, the collaboration aims to unlock the potential value of consumer-related data to benefit researchers in business, government and society.

As part of the agreement, Jaywing, which has around half of its 600 employees based in its Leeds office and Sheffield headquarters and specialises in marketing and heavyweight data analytics, will be providing a number of guest lectures covering the use of analytics within a commercial environment.  These lectures will give the students insight into the practical application of analysis, and an introduction to the skills and technologies that are needed to engage today’s customer most effectively – increasing their prospects to help fulfil the economic demand for Big Data analysts.

Jaywing’s MD of its Data Science arm, Ben O’Brien said, “This partnership is a great fit for Jaywing.  The MSc course gives students strong insight into the way that data analysis can transform brands’ understanding of the customers they deal with, and the use of the latest analytical techniques.  At the same time, we can give students practical knowledge of the way analytics is used in a commercial context, and show them how what they’ve learned on the course can act as a springboard into a career in data analytics.  Our hope is that by working with one of the UK’s leading Universities, we can further enhance the relevance of the course, as well as potentially extending some employment opportunities, particularly with the recent launch of our analytics hub, which will be in our new Sheffield HQ.”

Professor Matthew Robson of University of Leeds, Programme Director for the new MSc course, said, “Jaywing is an extremely impressive, forward thinking business with obvious ambition for the specialist fields it works in. The course we’ve designed combines academic rigour with real world thinking, much as Jaywing does itself, and provides a clear path to employment for its students.”

Find out more about the course.

Find out more about Jaywing.

ASDA customers save money by reducing food waste

Asda is the first UK supermarket to prove savings for customers, as two million reduce food waste at home following a campaign with the University of Leeds

Asda has become the first UK supermarket chain to confirm how much customers have saved after launching a campaign to tackle food waste.

Working in partnership with the University of Leeds and researchers within the School of Earth and Environment, the business has revealed that customer bank balances were, on average, £57 better off a year as they committed to cutting food waste in their own homes.

Announced at a parliamentary reception, hosted by MP Hilary Benn, Asda explained that the positive customer behaviour change was driven by a series of actions developed in-line with its customer insight, combined with research conducted by the University of Leeds.

The multi-channel campaign focused on providing customers with advice on everything from food storage and labelling, to creative recipe inspiration for leftovers. Meanwhile, in-store events encouraged customers to pledge to make changes in their own homes.

Since the launch:

· 81% of customers said they planned to follow the advice provided

· Two million customers are making changes in their homes as a result of the campaign

· Customers have saved £57 by keeping these changes in their home

Asda’s Chief Customer Officer, Andy Murray, said: “As a major food retailer, we have a responsibility and the ability to bring about large scale change when it comes to tackling food waste. By partnering with the University of Leeds, the team has been able to take our insight and really explore this area, meaning that we now have a greater understanding of customer attitude and behaviour, helping shape the way we communicate with our customers and ultimately the way we do business.

“However, our commitment to food waste doesn’t end here. While helping our customers live more sustainably is a step in the right direction, we understand the importance of addressing this issue throughout our entire supply chain. This is just one of many initiatives we are undertaking as we aim to tackle the issue in collaboration with everyone from our customers and suppliers, to our colleagues’ in-store.”

The findings were revealed in front of an audience of suppliers, food waste experts, and stakeholders, and featured guest speakers including Director of WRAP, Richard Swannell and University of Leeds Professor, William Young.

Dr Richard Swannell, Director, WRAP, said: “Food waste is one of the biggest challenges of our time, it’s bad for the environment, economy and to society as a whole. WRAP has a track record of reducing waste and at the heart of this work is collective action, which is pivotal to this success.

“We therefore welcome Asda’s work with the University of Leeds to help customers waste less and save money, and encourage more of this type of work to ensure food waste reduction continues.”

University of Leeds Professor and Consumer Data Research Centre Co-I, William Young, said: Working with a large scale retailer like Asda, and its millions of customers, has been an invaluable experience. Not only have we come away with real, measurable insight from shoppers but we’ve also seen the direct correlation between our recommended actions and tangible behavioural change. While our formal partnership is coming to a close, the legacy of this project will certainly live on in the benefits passed to customers and of course the environment.”

The results of the partnership between Asda and the University of Leeds coincides with the publication of Asda’s 2016 Green Britain Index – a study conducted by the supermarket to understand the views of 20,000 customers from its ‘Everyday Experts’ panel.

The research, which focused on the importance of matters surrounding food waste and sustainability, found that 93% of Asda customers care about ‘being green’. Furthermore, 85% said they looked to retailers to help them reduce food waste at home, while 72% admitted they had stopped buying a product altogether because they found it would often go to waste.

A copy of the 2016 Green Britain Index can be found here: sustainability.asda.com

Ever wondered what the top jobs across the UK are?

Our popular interactive visual maps the most popular employment for each of the 220000 statistical small areas* within the UK.

Put together by our senior research associate Oliver O’Brien, this map re-uses the “top result” technique utilised in all other CDRC Maps.

Explore it yourself – Top jobs across the UK.

For background information on the map, read Oliver O’Brien’s blog post. 

We’d be interested to hear your feedback, connect with us on twitter:@cdrc_uk or facebook.com/cdrcuk. Alternatively, email: info@cdrc.ac.uk.

* Known as Output Areas in Great Britain and Small Areas in Northern Ireland.

CDRC Interns 2016

We welcomed the first cohort of CDRC Interns earlier this month, we met with them on their first day to find out all about them and will be providing regular updates on each of their internships as they progress.

Dr Ilan Fridman Rojas

Ilan

Education: University of Manchester (MPhys Physics), Durham University (PhD Theoretical Particle Physics)

How I became interested in data: Towards the end of my PhD I attended the Science 2 Data Science (S2DS) workshop and this piqued my interest in data analysis and machine learning algorithms.

What I hope to get out of the internship: More experience and expertise, and interesting new data sets to work with.

Where I hope to be in 3 years: Continuing to do research at increasingly higher levels into applying established data analysis methods to new data sets, or new methods to both old and new data sets, with an outcome which either improves the method or provides new insights from the data.

Rebecca Atkinson

Rebecca Atkinson

Education: I have just finished my 3rd year of a 4 year integrated masters studying maths and physics at Durham University.

How I became interested in data: Last year I did an internship in industry at a company that provides personal credit to the non-standard market. I became aware there that there is a growing interest within businesses in the masses of data that is produced about everyone and its power to help make business decisions and inform businesses of customer trends. I found this very interesting and did some reading about machine learning and its potential use in attempting to analyse the huge volumes of data produced in our information age.

What I hope to get of the internship: I hope to gain some experience and understanding of some machine learning techniques and their advantages and disadvantages when compared to more traditional methods of data analysis. I hope to gain experience working in an academic team and contributing to a research paper and I hope to discover whether this is the area I would like to do a PhD in.

Where I hope to be in three years: In three years’ time I hope to be doing a PhD potentially on a data related project.

 

Samuel Sheen

Sam Sheen

Education: I’ve just completed an Integrated Masters in Maths at the University of Leeds.

How I became interested in data:    I became interested in data through studying for my integrated masters degree in mathematics at the University of Leeds. I specialized in statistics modules and particularly enjoyed studying linear regression, generalized linear models, Time Series etc. I found the practical components to these modules really interesting and was able to apply the techniques studied in these modules  to real data sets.

What I hope to get out of this Internship: I hope to gain experience in working with Big Data, which is something I have been interested in for a while. I also hope to gain skills in machine learning and further develop my knowledge and understanding of statistics. These are all relevant skills which will help me with my PhD starting later this year.

Where I hope to be in three years time: In three years time I hope to be coming towards the end of my PhD project (titled Extracting knowledge from Longitudinal Data.) Following the PhD, I have not yet decided whether I would like to pursue a career in academia or in industry (e.g as a data scientist).

 

Dr Jen-Hsien (Lucas)

Lukas

Education: I have just completed a PhD in Marketing at Leeds University Business School

How I became interested in data: As a consumer behaviour researcher, I am highly interested in the behavioural data and am eager to learn the analytic skills to get consumer insights.

What I hope to get out of the internship: I am aiming to learn the basic analytic skills for Big Data during the internship as well as advanced data mining and screening skills for big data sets.

Where I hope to be in three years: I aim to be an experienced consumer behaviour researcher either in the academia or in the industry.

 

We currently have a number of internship opportunities available, find out more.

 

We’re hiring! Business Development Manager

We are seeking to appoint a talented and highly motivated Business Development Manager to join the Consumer Data Research Centre, to be based at the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics.

You will provide a vital bridge between the Centre and the business sector, maintaining relationships with data providers and encouraging new data partners to work with the Centre. In this capacity, you will carry significant responsibility for building the Centre’s business and data portfolio upon which the Centre’s core services depend. You will also be responsible for working alongside professional service teams at the University of Leeds to articulate and execute the legal agreements and data sharing agreements which underpin consumer data operations.

You will work directly with the Centre’s Director and Deputy Director on implementing the Centre’s data acquisition strategy and work closely with the Centre’s Public Engagement and Communications Officer to ensure that the Centre achieves impact.

You will be educated to degree level and have experience in business engagement, preferably working with commercial organisations. You will have excellent communication and negotiation skills and be comfortable working with minimal supervision and as a part of a team. A knowledge of the Big Data agenda and its impact on organisations in commerce and the public sector, as well as academia, would be considered desirable.

For further information please visit the vacancy page.