Emilio Romero (Ask-JGI Data Science Support 2023-24)
Over the past year, my experience helping with the Ask-JGI service has been really rewarding. I was keen to apply as I wanted to get more exposure to the research world in Bristol, meet different researchers and explore with them different ways of working and approaching data.
From a technical perspective, I had the opportunity to work on projects related to psychometric data, biological matrices, proteins, chemometrics and mapping. I also worked mainly with R and in some cases SPSS, which offered different alternatives for data analysis and presentation.
One of the most challenging projects was working with chemometric concentrations of different residues of chemical compounds extracted from vessels used in human settlements in the past. This challenge allowed me to talk to specialists in the field and to work in a multidisciplinary way in developing data matrices, extracting coordinates and creating maps in R. The most rewarding part was being able to use a colour scale to represent the variation in concentration of specific compounds across settlements. This was undoubtedly a great experience and a technique that I had never had the opportunity to practice.
ASK-JGI also promoted many events, especially Bristol Data Week, which allowed many interested people to attend courses at different levels specialising in the use of data analysis software such as Python and R.
The Ask-JGI team have made this year an enjoyable experience. As a cohort, we have come together to provide interdisciplinary advice to support various projects. I would highly recommend anyone with an interest in data science and statistics to apply. It is an incredible opportunity for development and networking and allows you to immerse yourself in the wider Bristol community, as well as learning new techniques that you can use during your time at the University of Bristol.