A series of 10 x one hour webinars covering a wide range of current initiatives and perspectives on how data is making our society better.
Monday 14 June 2021
11:00 - 12:00
Title: Implementing the National Data Strategy
Speakers: Phil Earl, Deputy Director for Data Strategy, Implementation and Evidence - DCMS
Synopsis: Published in September 2020, the National Data Strategy set out the framework for action this government will take on data. This presentation will provide an overview of the National Data Strategy, what it hopes to achieve and our approach to achieving it.
Bio: Phil Earl is Deputy Director for Data Strategy, Implementation and Evidence at the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), leading the team responsible for the National Data Strategy. He joined DCMS in February 2020 after spending three and a half years leading EU Exit negotiations on Goods, Agrifood and Fisheries at DExEU. Before that, he led teams in BEIS and Defra working on a diverse range of issues, from consumer safety to climate change.
16:00 - 17:00
Title: The value of data in reacting to the pandemic and shaping our future
Speaker: Neill Crump, Digital Strategy Director, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust
Synopsis: The ability to use and understand data has been absolutely vital in reacting effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic. In his role as Digital Strategy Director at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Neill and his team have been supporting front line health workers and the Trust’s leadership team by ensuring that they have the best data available to support them in their roles. In this webinar Neill will explain how data has been put to work in support of health care throughout the pandemic and how it will help shape the future in delivering more value to our communities.
Bio: Before joining the Dudley Group NHS Trust, Neil Crump worked at Worcestershire County Council, where, as the first “Chief Data Officer”, he led the Data Analytics function and set-up strategic partnerships to enable integrated service operation, culminating in the delivery of a digital strategy to transform services for 575,000 Worcestershire citizens, partners and c.4000 employees.
Prior to his work in the public sector, Neill worked for the Global Software Company SAP, where he led 'value partnerships' consulting, including a £500m global shared services transformation for Vodafone that delivered multi-billion pound savings. He was also a member of the team who created the world's first business transformation methodology, in partnership with leading MBA schools.
Tuesday 15 June 2021
11:00 - 12:00
Title: The Makers: An holistic view of data skills for society
Speaker: Milly Zimeta, Head of Public Policy, Open Data Institute
Synopsis: ‘Making data good for society' is a great goal. But who are the makers, and what should we be making? This session will offer a critical interdisciplinary exploration of the relevant data skillsets and the consequent benefits to society that can be expected.
It will draw on the history of the concept of 'making' to highlight how soft skills, cultural disciplines and datasets are just as integral to a robust and equitable data ecosystem as traditionally framed 'technical' skills and 'hard' sciences. It will also offer practical next steps for operational Data Managers, C-suite policy makers and professional associations across all industry and government sectors.
Bio: Dr Mahlet (Milly) Zimeta is Head of Public Policy at the Open Data Institute. Prior to joining the ODI in September 2020, Milly was Senior Policy Adviser at the Royal Society, the independent scientific academy of the UK, where she led the Society’s policy programme on Data and Digital Disruption including projects on data governance, data science skills, and privacy enhancing technologies.
Milly was previously Programme Manager at the Alan Turing Institute, Britain’s national institute for data science and AI, where she managed the Turing’s research partnership programmes in Health and in Finance/Economic Data Science. She has also worked at the Medical Research Council, and served on an Advisory Group at Chatham House. She holds degrees in philosophy from Oxford, Cambridge and York (UK).
16:00 - 17:00
Title: The “World Map” is missing a billion people - we can change this!
Speakers: Carly Redhead, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Sam Colchester, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
Synopsis: COVID-19 does discriminate, and maps show you how. Response efforts rely entirely upon testing, contact tracing, identifying vulnerable population groups, knowing where key facilities are and where to distribute vaccines. Without a local map, this is incredibly difficult.
A global community of 22,700 volunteers added 4m buildings and 100,000km of roads to support the needs of Red Cross, UNOCHA & local actors. Map data informed critical decisions - from delivering oxygen tanks to patients at home, overflowing from their hospitals, in Peru, to mapping all functional healthcare and COVID-19 facilities across Liberia to ensure people could locate services. You can join this movement to ensure missing maps are not a factor in human suffering.
Bio: Carly Redhead is HOT’s Head of Partnerships. She joined the HOT staff team in 2020, having volunteered with HOT and Missing Maps since 2015. Carly joined HOT to expand and grow partnerships with impact partners, corporate partners and strategic technology partners globally.
Carly previously worked in innovation at Plan International to advance children’s rights and gender equality. She supported the set-up of ‘Innovation as a Service’ and worked together with teams around the world to develop new products, services and initiatives for social impact, driven by girls’ and young women’s needs. Her thematic experience ranges from youth education and entrepreneurship, to malnutrition and gender empowerment.
She has worked with teams in Latin America, West Africa, South East Asia and Europe. Carly has also worked in digital consulting in the public sector and led on building new cross-sector partnerships for a Corporate Social Responsibility programme. As a volunteer, Carly led a multi-client ‘mapathon’ to engage volunteers across the UK in the Missing Maps project and trained colleagues to lead their own events.
Carly holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Philosophy & Economics from the University of Bristol UK, where she focused on international development. Working with HOT brings together her interests in digital inclusion, cross-sector collaboration, and design for social impact.
Bio: Sam Colchester became a Voting Member of HOT in May 2019. He discovered HOT through the Missing Maps Project in Edinburgh, early 2015. Sam moved to London in late 2015 and has supported the Missing Maps London mapathons ever since. Sam holds a Master’s degree in Geospatial Analysis from University College London.
Wednesday 16 June 2021
11:00 - 12:00
Title: How data helps build back a better environment
Speaker: Karen Alford, UK Environment Agency
Synopsis: Improving infrastructure and its resilience to climate change has never been more important as it is today. “Building back better and greener” calls for different approaches with a particular emphasis on the need for robust data across the asset lifecycle to support decisions and a shared understanding of how infrastructure assets work together to provide a resilient environment.
The Environment Agency has been leading the way in its approach to data to support its own business and providing access to data through Gov.uk. During this session you will get insight to how a large infrastructure owner is approaching the challenge and the value gained in sharing data for the good of society.
Bio: Karen Alford leads the Environment Agency’s whole lifecycle Asset Management digital transformation within the asset management directorate. The Environment Agency department is leading the integration of data management within project delivery and using the capability as a foundation for shaping a digital technology approach within the UK Government’s asset management business.
Karen is involved in a number of cross industry groups including the Government’s Smart Infrastructure Working Group, Centre for Digital Built Britain ISO19650 transition Group and the Digital Transformation Task Group (part of the ICE Client Group). She is a steering member of both the ‘Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction’ and BIM4 Water. She is also a committee member for ISO19650 and ISO55000 standards.
Karen has been instrumental in driving forward improvements to the availability of and access to data internally and externally, including flood risk asset data, maintenance plans and the six-year capital programme. This data centric approach is key to transforming asset management delivery, which supports Digital Built Britain outcomes and efficiencies across the construction industry.
16:00 - 17:00
Title: Data for the public good’ and the National Digital Twin
Speaker: Mark Enzer, CDBB and CTO, Mott MacDonald
Synopsis: The National Digital Twin (NDT) is a huge idea using “data for the public good” at its heart. The NDT promises enormous value for the people of the UK, both in the delivery of new assets and in the performance of our existing infrastructure. The fundamental premise behind the NDT is: Better data + Better Analysis => Better Decisions => Better outcomes for people and society - which is the essential promise of the Information Age. The NDT is not envisaged as one massive model of everything, but as an ecosystem of connected digital twins.
Connecting digital twins requires interoperability to enable secure resilient data to be shared across organisational and sector boundaries. However, interoperability requires a level of data quality and consistency that “the market” cannot achieve on its own; it requires government-level leadership to create the right conditions for “the market” to adopt and deliver to the standards required and in doing so develop and thrive. This presentation will: introduce the National Digital Twin, explain what it is and why we need it, and outline what is being done to deliver it.
Bio: Mark Enzer is a keen champion of innovation through collaborative delivery models. He is particularly interested in transformational change in the infrastructure industry, including: digital transformation, Smart Infrastructure, low-carbon sustainable solutions, platform-based delivery and design for manufacture and assembly.
As Mott MacDonald’s Chief Technical Officer, he is accountable to the Executive Board for technical excellence across the Group. As the Chair of CDBB’s Digital Framework Task Group, Mark is contributing to the leadership of the National Digital Twin Programme.
Mark was the Digital Transformation workstream lead on “Project 13” for the Infrastructure Client Group, which represents the UK’s major infrastructure client organisations, and he was the Lead Author of the Infrastructure Carbon Review, published by HM Treasury.
Thursday 17 June 2021
11:00 - 12:00
Title: Landing the Plane: Data Ethics Where It Hits the Ground
Speaker: Dr Katherine O’Keefe, Director of Training, Ethicist at Castlebridge
Synopsis: Technology enables us to do amazing things with data, but with great power comes great responsibility. If we really are to make data good for society then how do we ensure that we wield that power responsibly? How does "we need data ethics" look in day-to-day business decision making? This session will look at where Information Management and Data Ethics meet, and systems of management to support ethical decisions and actions.
Bio: Dr Katherine O’Keefe is a leading expert in Data Privacy and Information Ethics with Castlebridge. Katherine has worked on a range of projects for clients in sectors as diverse as the non-profit sector, airlines, telecommunications, transport, and education.
She lectures on Information Ethics at the Law Society of Ireland and is a contributor to Information Ethics Research at the Adapt Centre at Trinity College Dublin. She speaks regularly at international Data Governance conferences on practical implementation of Ethics in Information Management, Data Governance, and GDPR.
Katherine oversaw the redevelopment of DAMA International’s CDMP Certification and she is a contributor to the DAMA Data Management Book of Knowledge 2nd Edition. In 2016, one of her essays received a “highly commended” distinction in the Alison North New Professionals Awards, and she was awarded the DAMA International Professional Achievement Award in 2017.
Katherine is co-author of “Ethical Data and Information Management: Concepts, Tools, and Methods”, with Daragh O’Brien.
16:00 - 17:00
Title: Data Science Metrology - Creating a Digital Measurement Infrastructure
Speaker: Stuart Kitney, head of Department - Data Science, National Physical laboratory (NPL)
Synopsis: The UK, like all developed nations, has a national measurement infrastructure that forms an essential component of a global economy providing confidence in measurement across the world. At its core, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the National Measurement System ensure that measurement in the UK is consistent with the global common system of measurement units: The International System of Units - the SI.
The SI represents the result of many years of scientific progress and consensus. It also represents the outcome of cultural, political and historical compromises and has become the only globally accepted system of units. It is now familiar to a global community who make use of its conventions providing the definitive approach and basic language for science, technology, industry and trade.
The SI is unique as it can be used across all scientific disciplines - it is the top level of the measurement chain and there is a role for NPL to play to develop knowledge and skills that support delivery of the SI in a digital world, enabling adoption of tools such as AI into traditional industries such as manufacturing.
Measurement values, data, algorithms, mathematical and statistical procedures as well as communication and security architectures are key enablers of true digital transformation. As the UK’s National measurement institute, NPL’s competencies and capabilities play a critical role in developing and validating measurement procedures that ensure the highest precision, integrity and explainability of data quality, algorithms and data analysis methods, ultimately traceable back to the SI.
This will create impact for UK society and industry, enabling NPL to address Grand Challenges where large and complex data sets will be the norm and the application of AI will be a necessity to aid decision making. NPL is using its knowledge of uncertainty propagation and traceability to endeavour to capture international leadership in the area.
It is achieving this by supporting the development of digital standards and infrastructure technologies (the ‘digital framework for the SI’) for data quality and provenance that will in turn ensure data is fit for purpose, through the development and application of the FAIR principles, improved data traceability and demonstration of best measurement practices and automation to enhance scientific reproducibility.
Bio: Stuart Kitney joined National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in January 2018 as the Group Leader for the Ultrasound and Underwater Acoustics group. In May 2019 he became Department Head for Data Science, and in September 2020 he was additionally awarded responsibility for the Training Unit. He has operational accountability for delivery of research programmes and projects within both these departments.
Previously Stuart spent 9 years as the technical lead/CTO for a University spin-out company working on the development of printed, flexible Organic Light-Emitting Diodes that generate polarised emission through the use of chiral liquid crystal oligomers, as a low-cost, low-information content display technology. Stuart has spent over 20 years in Research and Development and has a number of publications and patents in materials science. He has secured a number of venture capital funding rounds and research council grant projects.
Friday 18 June 2021
11:00 - 12:00
Title: Data Science for the Social Sector
Speaker: Nick Sorros, Datakind
Synopsis: DataKind UK has been supporting UK social sector organisations to make sustainable changes in their use of responsible data science, since 2013. We are a community of data scientist volunteers doing these projects pro bono. Find out what we do and what we've learned from hundreds of projects, and a few specific case uses, that will inspire you to do more data for good!
Bio: Nick has been working as a data scientist for more than eight years. He has spent his last three years working for the Wellcome Trust, initially to set up and lead the data science team and currently as a technical lead for the development of a unified classification system for the organisation. Prior to that, he worked for a couple of start-ups in different sectors. Before working as a data scientist, Nick was studying and doing research at Imperial College.
Nick has been a member of DataKind UK for more than five years and has participated in a couple of Data-Dive projects as a volunteer and Data Ambassador. He is currently helping DataKind UK to scope future Dives and was also a member of their Ethics Committee.
16:00 - 17:00
Title: Panel Debate - Your Questions answered
Speaker: TBA
Synopsis: Webinar attendees have the opportunity to ask the panel members their views on any subjects covered or inspired by the week’s content.
This event is brought to you by: BCS Data Management specialist group and DAMA UK
