17 Sep 2014
New Centre will examine data more intelligently
We now rely on ever larger and more complex data to make the right decisions, use technology, to shop, drive our cars, do profitable business, manage and optimise healthcare, advance research, govern society, and more. Data reaches nearly every corner of modern life.
From delivering perishable food to supermarkets, to the flow of numbers shaping and changing financial markets, to trend data tracking the spread of infectious disease, gene-sequencing that lets scientists decode life, and educational observations which improve learning… all depend on collecting and interpreting information in new and better ways.
This information needs to be managed efficiently, measured, queried and modelled using the right techniques. Although access to information is growing, with multiple connections between data sets, statistical abilities may not be developing fast enough to keep pace with demands.
Loughborough University’s new Centre for Data Science aims to develop more effective ways to unlock insights from rich, complex information. As it prepares to launch in early 2015, applications for new researchers close this Friday, 19 September.
Steven Kenny, Professor of Mathematical and Computational Modelling and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Science at Loughborough University, said: “The amounts of data collected continue to grow hugely. We live in an age of networks of sensors which capture valuable information that helps us improve systems and processes. Intelligent Transport Systems, such as New York’s ‘Midtown In Motion’ project, link patterns in anonymous localisation data from switched-on mobile phones within a defined area to traffic light operations. This improves urban traffic flow.”
The new Centre will look at varied types of data in new ways. “This is not just about massive data,” says Professor Kenny, “but also more moderate data analysed innovatively.
“The researchers we’re assembling and recruiting to create the Centre for Data Science will combine the latest knowledge and skills in data analysis and data modelling to realise improved methods that can be applied to projects with academic and industry partners that tackle real-world research challenges.”
Members of the Centre for Data Science will form a multi-disciplinary team spanning applied mathematics (mathematical and computational modelling), computer networks, artificial intelligence (including machine learning and pattern recognition), applied statistics and mass spectrometry for personalised healthcare in the Departments of Computer Science, Mathematical Sciences and Chemistry at Loughborough University.
The Centre will also contribute teaching within applied mathematics, mathematics for engineers, internet computing (protocol design and security), artificial intelligence, statistics and analytical science and chemistry. Appointments in Applied Statistics will also assist the University’s Statistics Advisory Service, supporting researchers across the University in statistical analysis.
“This Centre aspires to attract really interesting, difficult and useful data research challenges,” says Professor Kenny. “It will be outward-looking, working across the institution and beyond, with a wide range of business partners. However, it will not simply be a data analysis service. It will concentrate on data analysis problems to collaborate on research that matters.”
The Centre for Data Science is making 11 new academic appointments: two Professors, one Senior Lecturer and eight Lecturers in the School of Science to complement existing staff expertise. This Friday 19 September 2014 is the closing date. More information on all roles, with details about how to apply, is here: www.lboro.ac.uk/science/centrefordatascience/