Big Data – Social Data: 10 December 2015
Sessions Details
9:30 – 9:45 - Welcome – Dr Emma Uprichard
9:45 - 10:45 - BIG DATA AND CITIES
Professor Rob Kitchin
Rob is professor and ERC Advanced Investigator in the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis at
Maynooth University, for which he was director between 2002 and 2013. He is principal investigator for the
Programmable City project, the All-Island Research Observatory, and the Digital Repository of Ireland, and is
the author of 'The Data Revolution' (Sage, 2014). He was the 2013 recipient of the Royal Irish Academy's
Gold Medal for the Social Sciences and the Association of American Geographers ‘Meridian Book Award’ for
the outstanding book in the discipline in 2011.
Discussant: Professor Jon Coaffee. Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick. Director of the
Resilient Cities Laboratory (ResCity Lab), a lead partner in the Warwick Institute for Sustainable Cities (WISC)
and a visiting professor at New York University’s Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP).
10:45-11:15 - BREAK
11:15-12:15 - BIG DATA AND HEALTH
Dr Nathan Lea
Nathan is a Senior Research Associate at the UCL Institute of Health Informatics (IHI) working on projects in
clinical care and research. His research interests include the role of information systems in supporting
healthcare delivery and empowering patients, and Information Governance in the use of genetic, health and
social care records in clinical research, particularly in the Age of Information and Big Data
Discussant: tbc
13:15-14:15 - BIG DATA AND ADMINISTRATIVE DATA
Judith Knight.
Judith Knight joined the Public Engagement and Communications team at the Administrative Data Service,
the coordinating body for the Administrative Data Research Network, when the Network was being formed
in 2014. Initially Judith concentrated on establishing and building internal communication links with the
centres to foster working relationships across the Network. She is part of the small team who were initially
responsible for rolling out and applying the ADRN ethos and key messages for the Network internally and
forming the Network wide Public Engagement and Communication strategies in readiness for the launch of
the Network in November 2014. With the Network in operation, Judith is now involved with external facing
communications working to highlight the potential public benefits that research using administrative data
can offer, a vital element of this role is to determine public concerns and to gain public trust in the
service. Judith came to the Administrative Data Service from the Secure Data Service at the UK Data Service
where she was involved with helping to set up the service and subsequently handled their external
communications.
Discussant: Dr Roxanne Connelly. Assistant Professor, Sociology, Warwick Q-Step Centre, University of
Warwick. Before coming to Warwick she was a research fellow at the Administrative Data Research Centre Scotland.
14:15-15:15 - BIG DATA AND THE ECONOMY
Dr Ana Gross
Ana Gross is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies working on the ESRC funded
project Interrogating the Dashboard: Data, Algorithms and Decision-Making. Her doctoral thesis, Data Types
and Functions: A Study of Framing Devices and Techniques, drew on the public disclosure and leak of two
databases as a means of studying the mechanisms that serve to contextualise different data units as related
to particular entities and phenomena. Her research interests are on the social organisational effects of
information disclosure and secrecy; the function and agency of public and private numbers and measures; reidentification demonstrations through data; and on data ethics, protocols and regulatory frameworks.
Discussant: Dr Philippe Blanchard. Associate Professor, Politics and International Studies, Warwick Q-Step
Centre, University of Warwick. Director of the MA in "Politics and International Studies: Big Data and
Quantitative Methods". Steering committee member of the Standing group on Political Methodology
15:15-15:45 - BREAK
15:45-16:45 - BIG DATA AND EDUCATION
Dr Ben Williamson
Ben is a Lecturer at the School of Education, University of Stirling, where he leads the ESRC-funded Code Acts
in Education project to explore how software and digital data interact with educational institutions,
pedagogic practices, and governing processes. His forthcoming articles are on big data and education in
smart cities, and on the rise of educational data science in academic and commercial settings.
Discussant: Dr Michael Hammond. Associate Professor, Centre for Educational Studies, University of Warwick
where he has led several projects investigating the use of technology for teaching and learning. His research
interests focus on policy and practice and his work has covered both informal and formal use of computers;
the concept of collaborative learning; information technology as a subject; and professional development.
His work has offered a critical review of claims made about the impact of technology.
16:45-17:00 - CLOSING REMARKS – Dr Emma Uprichard
17:00 - CLOSE