Last October 2019, The Jean Golding Institute teamed up with the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research to bring the latest research in Data Science to our community as part of an exciting series of data science talks and seminars. Over the past few months we have welcomed an array of internationally recognised speakers from Harvard, Tokyo and the London School of Economics, to name a few.
As we look to the year ahead, we speak to our colleagues from the Heilbronn Institute to find out more about this unique series of events and what is in store for the coming months.
What are the main objectives of the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research?
“The Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research is a national centre supporting research across a range of areas of mathematics in the UK. The Institute is engaged in both classified research, which is directed by GCHQ, as well as an extensive external research programme.
The University of Bristol is the Institute’s principal academic partner and together we run a highly successful programme of events, which includes conferences, focused research groups, visitor programmes and workshops. These activities are designed to enrich the research environment in the mathematical sciences, both in Bristol and across the whole country. More generally, the Institute is also increasingly involved in advocacy for mathematics in the UK.” – Tim Burness, Reader in Pure Mathematics
Next we spoke to Dan Lawson, Senior Lecturer in Data Science, one of the main event organisers.
Can you tell us a bit about the Bristol Data Science Seminars?
“The Data Science Seminars are an avenue for data-intensive researchers to meet and exchange ideas. By teaming up JGI with the Heilbronn Institute, we have been able to bring expert data scientists from institutions around the world to Bristol, from both academia and industry. These seminars cover a range of areas of data science, spanning statistics, machine learning, algorithms and applications including energy, bioinformatics and more.”
Who have you got lined up to talk in this year and what are the main themes to look forward to?
“Confirmed speakers in the next 12 months include Pierre Jacob from Harvard, who is an expert in Bayesian Statistics and Taylan Cemgil from Google DeepMind. One key theme is the link between academia and industry which is only set to grow in importance as Machine Learning becomes an essential part of more businesses.”
Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
“The Data Science Seminars are always looking for suggestions of speakers with connections to Bristol, from methodology, science application or industrial application backgrounds.” If you’d like to make a suggestion, please get in touch with Dan Lawson.
Thanks to Dan and Tim for speaking with us.
Join us for the next event in the series, a talk by Pierre Jacob from Harvard University on ‘Unbiased Markov chain Monte Carlo with couplings’, Wednesday 11th March, 15.30 – 16.30. Register on Eventbrite today.
Click here for the full list of upcoming Data Science Seminars.
Sign up to the Jean Golding Institute mailing list
Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to hear about new events and updates from the Data Science Seminar Series, as well as wider JGI and data science related events.
