On Monday 26 October, The Data Lab hosted the latest edition of the Scotland Data Science and Technology Meetup, in collaboration with MBN Solutions. We were lucky to have Emma Prest, General Manager at Data Kind UK as our guest speaker for the night. It was a great event, and the most attended meetup so far.
DataKind is all about bringing like-minded data lovers together. They bring together top data scientists with leading social change organisations in the UK and across the world to collaborate on cutting-edge analytics and advanced algorithms to maximize social impact. Their projects are designed to provide social organizations with the pro bono data science innovation team they need to tackle critical humanitarian issues in the fields of education, poverty, health, human rights, the environment and cities.
During the meetup, Emma talked about the amazing work that DataKind UK and their volunteers are doing to help charities benefit from data science, as a private company would. She presented two case studies that illustrated the benefits that can be delivered to charities, and demonstrated the great interest and good will of the data science community accross the UK to contribute towards this goal. We believe this is also the case in Edinburgh and Scotland. Proof of this was the impressive turn-out to this meetup, the best attended yet, and by the amount of questions Emma got form atendees. This was followed by a successful networking session and further discussion over pizza and beer.
After a successful evening of discussion and examples of how data science can be applied for social good, we are now exploring the possibility of running future “Data for Good” events in Scotland. If you are interested in volunteering, or you are a charity that would benefit from such events, please register your interest by completing this short survey. Your input is much appreciated, and will help us shape these event for our community.
Thanks to everyone who came to the meetup and contributed to make this an outstanding night of networking and discussion about the possibilities of doing good with data. We look forward to seeing you again next time!
DataKind UK
DataKind enables charities to take advantage of data science techniques that are normally used by companies to make higher profits. They use those same techniques to make a greater impact. They believe that data can have a transformative effect on the way that charities make decisions and create social change. They know that it is difficult for charities to recruit and fund analytic posts, and at the same time we know that data scientists want to help to make the world a better place. They bring these two groups together to work on data-for-good projects in the UK and around the world. Emma is the General Manager at DataKind UK. She spends her time explaining what data science is to charities and nurturing the influx of data science volunteers looking to donate their time and skills.
Scotland Data Science and Technology Meetup
The Scotland Data Science and Technology Meetup is a group for anyone interested in Data Science, Big Data, Analytics and Technology trends. The aim is to build a community to discuss general insights into the market and share personal experiences of working and operating in this area. You can join the group here.
The next meetup will take place on 19 November at The Data Lab. We will hear form Dr. Malcolm Fairweather from SportScotland Institute of Sport, who will talk about how data science can be applied to improve sports performance.
We look forward to seeing you there!