Real-World Solutions Meet Academic Excellence: Networks of Influential Voices
UCL Centre for Data Intensive Science and Industry
Research, Training and Knowledge Exchange
UCL Centre for Data Intensive Science and Industry, in partnership with industry partners, offers each physics PhD student a unique 6-month placement opportunity within a company for a host of benefits. With around 40 successful projects, we have raised ￡500,000 of PhD funding through this scheme. Here is one such project:
Mapping public debates and understanding public engagement with machine learning
Autonomy is an independent, progressive research organisation that focuses on tackling climate change, the future of work, and economic planning. They provide economic analyses, advanced data analytics, policy proposals, and on-the-ground solutions to confront the changing reality of our economy and society today.?
During a placement with Autonomy, Andrius Vaitkus a Ph.D. student, developed a framework for scraping, processing, and storing (then) Twitter, Inc. social networks. This tool, designed to handle multiple scrapers running in parallel, saves data in an SQL database using Amazon Web Services (AWS) Relational Database Service (RDS) service. Andrius also created a Twitter network of climate change activists, sceptics, and followers, working around API request limitations to infer user connections based on a small sample.?
"Andrius jumped right into our ambitious mapping project during a pivotal time for us as we were developing advanced capacities for intelligence gathering for action around climate and other areas such as economic inequality.? Andrius gave it a huge boost with his technical skill and added firepower to our efforts. Andrius pushed us to really innovate and ultimately we all learned as a result."
- Will Stronge, Director of Research and Policy at Autonomy
These projects showcase our student's technical skills and their ability to apply machine learning techniques in practical, industry-relevant contexts. We're incredibly proud of Andrius’s contributions to this innovative project!
More information and upcoming events
Check out our webpage for more information about the various types of industry-led projects. Reach out to Gabriel Facini and Sarah Malik for more information.
Upcoming events:
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