Our Deputy Director, Professor Alex Singleton, dedicated a week to running a workshop at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.

Covering the basics of Geographic Data Science (GIS) and Urban Analytics with particular emphasis upon the study of cities through new forms of data, the final day included presentations of independent student projects that focused upon a range of different application areas. Winning projects were awarded with CDRC branded prizes, including a printed 2017 calendar featuring top maps from our mapping portal, maps.cdrc.ac.uk.

Alex’s workshop was received extremely well and proved to be an useful illustration of code based teaching of GIS  to new users of R.

Course Materials.

The CDRC and UK Data Service have enlisted Dr Daniel Arribas-Bel to host a webinar titled ‘Bringing new forms of data to the study of cities’. For more and to book a place.

I recently completed a half-day course at LIDA on Smartphone Application Development for Data Collection purposes, the course was perfectly pitched so that those without a computer science background (most of us) were able to jump straight in. The course was introductory in nature but with enough expertise to give a sense of what you can expect down the line should you be able to develop your own native application. The course itself covered the different types apps from the more technical native apps to some of the more user-friendly app building tools. The technical details such as coding languages and the software packages you’ll need were explained and we were even given brief demonstrations of.

The course was invaluable for giving me the understanding how these applications could be be used in research. The course covered the important aspects of how data could be collected and stored through smartphone applications, and importantly what considerations you need to make given the different functions an app can have. This level of information and detail allowed me to think about how apps could be used in my own research which is looking at how incentives could be used in travel behavior. To this end it has developed a line of thinking in my research methods which might not have been possible without the opportunity to attend this course.

Connor Walsh, PhD Student, University of Leeds

We are currently confirming the details for the next Smartphone Application Development for Data Collection Purposes course.  To register your interest, please contact e.a.pound@leeds.ac.uk

CDRC Data Science Intern, Molly Asher, is currently conducting a pilot study on the effectiveness of the UK Parliament’s e-petitions system with the goal to determine whether e-petitions have led to a rise in trust in parliament, the development of new engagement with parliament and/or policy changes.

The full project will develop a comprehensive analysis of a parliamentary e-petitioning system, which integrates the views of petitioners, the actual processes dealing with petitions, the public debate surrounding the petitions, the views from policy-makers and the outcomes of petitions. The project adopts a mixed-methods and inter-disciplinary approach, incl. Data Science analysis of all petitions (incl. themes, success probability, geographical representation, timing of signatures, nature of the petition & partisanship) and the petition debates on Twitter (incl. themes, sentiment analysis, nature of the debate, e.g. the level of polarization and partisanship, geographical representation, social network analysis of those involved in the debate).

Molly is currently conducting a pilot study on the petition debates on Twitter and potentially linking them in an analysis of the e-petition data.  She presented her findings at a recent LIDA Seminar:

Data

Molly is currently using the following data for the pilot study project:

• Twitter data collected via the Twitter Streaming API
• UK parliament e-petition where JSON data files are available for download with each petition.

On 6 December 2016 the CDRC co-hosted the annual Oxford Retail Futures Conference at the Said Business School (SBS), University of Oxford. The focus of the event was to explore the current uses and challenges of using consumer data in the retail and supply chain environment, and to discuss developments of data analytics for a range of industry and research purposes.

The day consisted of a series of well received presentations and lengthy panel discussions concerning developments in data acquisition and analysis, understanding areas and activities using new forms of data and the implications of big data for the organisational aspects of firms. Interesting discussion surrounded future directions for the CDRC’s SmartStreetSensor project, the prospects of loyalty card data and using big data to inform organisational decision making.

Attendees and speakers included industry experts representing the likes of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the Local Data Company, GI Solutions Group and pgw Ltd. The day was brought to a close by Martin Squires (Global Lead, Customer Intelligence and Data) from Walgreens Boots Alliance, giving an insightful overview of a practitioner’s viewpoint of the uses of their customer loyalty card data and future directions for data analytics.

Professor Michael Batty, co-investigator of the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC), was awarded with the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) highest honour – the Gold Medal.

The Gold Medal is only awarded once every 2 years to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the field of planning.

Mike was presented with the Gold Medal on 8 November by the RTPI Vice President, Stephen Wilkinson, after delivering the annual Nathaniel Lichfield Lecture.  Mike’s lecture was entitled “The Planning Balance Sheet 60 Years On: Evaluation in the Digital Age”. Click here for a downloadable version of the lecture.

We hosted and participated in a series of events for Big Data Week 2016 (24-29 October). Events varied from public exhibitions to lectures and were attended by a range of local, national and international attendees.

Big Data Here
CDRC UCL kicked off their week with ‘Big Data Here’, a week long exhibition of live data providing an alternative, digital view of the physical space around UCL. Data sources included transit feeds from Transport for London (TfL) and demographic information from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Throughout the week a different live data feed projected through the window of UCL’s North Lodge, giving passer by’s an opportunity to view the visualisations culminating from the feeds.

The most popular big screen visualisation proved to be the near live traffic camera feeds from TfL. Members of the public were free to interact with the exhibition each afternoon with a CDRC team member on hand to provide a more detailed overview of the concept behind Big Data Here. This saw an excellent turnout of local, national and international attendees keen to learn more about the exhibits.

Big Data Here was led by Oliver O’Brien, creator of CDRC Maps. Read his summary of Big Data Here.

Big Data for Marketers
The CDRC team, along with a number of students from our MSc Consumer Analytics and Marketing Strategy course, participated in the ‘Big Data for Marketers’ event in Leeds.  Hosted by Alscient, the city sponsor for Leeds Big Data Week, the event focused on the importance of Big Data in Marketing, taking stock of current analytical practices in the industry and looking at ways to improve in the future.  A common theme in the presentations and subsequent discussion was the need for graduates to have solid analytics skills and an understanding of Big Data when entering the industry.

24 Hour Climathon – How can we deliver domestic carbon reduction in an age of austerity?
CDRC students took part in a 24 hour Climathon event in Leeds which aimed to develop new solutions to reduce carbon emissions  The event, held by the Priestley International Centre for Climate, enabled students and stakeholders in Leeds to join citizens in world cities such as Paris and Shanghai simultaneously taking part in the hackathon-style Climathon event.  In Leeds, 28 participants took part from 12 noon on 28 October until noon the following day and focused on an energy efficiency challenge set by Leeds City Council. Read more about the event.

Empty Housing Innovation Lab
The final event of the week took place at the University of Liverpool in London, in conjunction with Student Data Labs. The event, titled ‘Empty Housing Innovation Lab’, took an interactive approach to tackling the housing crisis in the UK, using big data. The event had an excellent turnout of students from local universities including London School of Economics (LSE), Imperial College and UCL . CDRC project manager Sarah Sheppard provided an opening talk, with emphasis on some of the data sources already available to students (and others) via our datastore that can be utilised for research; this was followed by Anastasia Ushakova, CDRC Phd Student, providing a lightning talk on her own research on energy consumption and how this ties in with the housing crisis. A range of interactive activities followed, with the R workshop proving extremely popular amongst attendees.

So you want to be a data scientist?
The momentum continued beyond Big Data Week in Leeds, with the ‘So you want to be a data scientist?’ event falling on the 2nd November.  Organised by Alscient, and attended by students from Leeds Data Science Society and the MSc Consumer Analytics and Marketing Strategy course, the session offered practical advice and mentoring from industry based data scientists, as well as the opportunity to take part in a mini analytics challenge.

Following another successful year of the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC) Masters Research Dissertation Programme, we are now seeking proposals from businesses for new projects due to commence in spring 2017.

The CDRC are aiming to open the application process for masters students in January and to therefore encourage applicants from a wider breadth of disciplines and institutions. The application process will be facilitated on the CDRC website and businesses are encouraged to interview/select successful applicants in early 2017.

This presents a great opportunity to get a Masters student to help you to make progress with:

• Major current issues, such as multi-channel marketing, customer insight, store networks, transport, surveys, social media, brand insight, predictive modelling and many others.
• ‘horizon scanning’ projects that are not of the highest priority in the day-to-day work schedules
• Working with data – both your own in-house data, and also maximising the value to be obtained from Open Data or data from government or administrative sources (available through the CDRC)

It also publicises your company’s interest in students with data skills. Previous experience illustrates the main features of the initiative:

• Excellent summaries of projects from previous years
• Testimonials
• Video of the Masters Dissertation prize giving by Prof Paul Longley at the Demographics User Group Conference 2016

If you have a project in mind, please complete a project proposal form 2017 and email it to Guy Lansley at g.lansley@ucl.ac.uk by the start of December 2016.

All proposals need to be approved before they can be publicised to ensure that the students can maximise the academic potential from their dissertations. Alternatively, feel free to email Guy informally if you would rather discuss rough ideas for projects at this stage.

For more details please visit the Information for Retailers page.

The Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC) are pleased to announce that Jack Dangermond, Founder and President of Esri, will be visiting University College London (UCL) and giving a talk on his vision for how GIS and Geography can help address the global challenges we face today to shape the future for our world. Esri, founded in 1969, are a global leader in GIS software sales and consulting, operating across various public, private and third sectors. Esri’s solutions encompass not only desktop GIS but are continually expanding in web and mobile GIS applications, enabling new applications of GIS in research and beyond.

The talk will take place on 9 November 2016 at 4:15pm at UCL (Pearson Building G22) with a short presentation from key UCL research groups (CDRC, SpaceTimeLab, ExCiteS, CASA) on some of the high profile projects that Esri have helped to support, followed by Jack’s presentation on Esri’s vision as a company. Afterwards, a small reception, sponsored by Esri, will be held in the Pearson Building G07, where people can meet Esri staff and UCL students to continue discussions on future possibilities with GIS.

Places are limited so please book early and if you find you are unable to attend please let us know so your place can be given to someone else.

To make a booking click here.

On 13th October 2016 the CDRC sponsored and supported the 13th annual Demographics User Group Conference (DUG), hosted at the Royal Society.

The conference focussed upon “Empowerment, Enquiry and Empathy – Reducing the soft skills gap” and bought together people from DUG’s 15 member companies, with special attendees from guests in government and universities, to spread knowledge and stimulate new ideas.

There were some great presentations and stimulating audience discussion over the course of the day around the conference’s key questions:

1. ‘What difference would it make to you, if analysts had clear paths along which they could develop their careers?’
2.’ In your own context what is the current balance between organisation and individual needs when considering analytical delivery?’

Presentations

The presentations are now available to watch online:

Chair’s Introduction
Tim Drye, Director of Demographic User Group

Data Science and real science: Narrative and decision making in the academy and the ‘real world’
Seth Spielman, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Colorado

Update on the Consumer Data Research Centre and Master’s Dissertation Prize Giving
Paul Longley, Professor of Geography, UCL

Fishbowls & Fabulous Failures: Are you curious?
Neil Wooding, Director of Strategic Planning and Performance, ONS

A snowball of failures – Workshop
Neil Wooding, Director of Strategic Planning and Performance, ONS

Democracy, Meaning and Negotiation: Empowering analysts both amateur and professional
James Morgan, Director of MI, British Gas

Team building by doing data for good
Fran Bennett, Trustee of DataKind & Pete Williams, Head of Enterprise Analytics, M&S

Panel Discussion: The Opportunities and Challenges of an analytical career within the commercial sector

Chair’s Final Reflections and the DUG Award

The winners of the CDRC’s 2016 Masters Research Dissertation Programme were recently announced at the Demographics User Group Conference.

The CDRC led programme provides the opportunity for students to work directly with an industrial partner and links students’ research to important retail and ‘open data’ sources.  Once again the standard of the projects was extremely high this year, with students working with a range of partners, including Sainsbury’s, Shop Direct, Boots and E.ON.

The Winners

Prize winner: Luis Francisco Mejia and Movement Strategies

Luis’ research used temporal geodata collected from the mobile phones of attendees at a festival to model movements across a festival site. In particular, he looked at using complex machine learning techniques such as artificial neural networks to model and predict and when each participant is likely to visit catering facilities across the festival site. His models were then tested with a random selection of data which were not used in the original analysis and were found to be very successful.

The judges felt that this was a well-executed study with very clear aims and objectives. They also felt that the commercial relevance of the work is well communicated.

View Project Abstract

Runner up: Ffion Carney and E.On

Ffion’s study aimed to identify areas that contain a high proportion of vulnerable households that should be targeted as part of the ECO, by taking into account demographic and property characteristics alongside average annual energy consumption data.

The judges highlighted that this project tackles a very interesting research area and commented that Ffion had devised an appropriate methodology which could clearly address the research questions.

View Project Abstract

Runner up: Mariflor Vega and Sainsbury’s 

The aim of Mariflor’s study was to develop a means to understand the different types of customers based purely on the content of their baskets. She used a range of text mining techniques to harvest the data and group the customers.

The judges felt that this was a comprehensive analysis which was completed, explained, interpreted and presented well.

View Project Abstract

Other projects completed this year included:

• Modelling Multi-Channel Adoption at Sainsbury’s – Sainsbury’s
• An investigation of what triggers customer activiation of credit facilities – Shop Direct
• An analysis of Argos concession store performance located in Homebase and Sainsbury’s stores across the UK – Argos
• How does competitor presence influence the performance of click and collect sites?- Sainsbury’s
• Identifying drivers of full price sales of clothing and footwear for an online retailer – Shop Direct
• The performance of Argos concessions in other stores – Argos
• Can interactive data visualizations enable a retailer to identify new insights about customer purchase behaviour? – Sainsbury’s
• Youths Spending & Geodemographics – goHenry
• Topic extraction and document classification on textual survey data with unsupervised modelling techniques. – CACI
• An empirical study in to Co-op On-the-Go Stores’ turn-in rate using a scorecard approach – The Co-operative Food
• An investigation into the potential of Bluetooth Beacons to monitor the movement of people on public transport: A preliminary case study of the Norwich Bus Network – Movement Strategies
• Customer Segmentation using spatio-temporal data – Boots

 View all previous projects

2017 Retail Masters Dissertation Programme

We are now seeking proposals from businesses for new projects due to commence next spring (2017). Further information.

We hope to advertise the 2017 opportunities towards the end of the year.

Should you have any queries relating to the programme, please contact Guy Lansley.