ODI Fridays: How data science is transforming government

The Data Science Campus at the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) works at the frontier of data science and AI – building skills and applying tools, methods and practices – to create new understanding and improve decision-making for the public good. Its goals are to investigate the use of new data sources, including administrative data and big data, and to help build data science capability in the UK. The talk will show how data science is being used across government to support policy-making, operations, public services and statistics. Along with examples of data science saving over £500 million, the talk will explore how to support data science teams and build their capacity. This talk follows last week’s, from Darren Barnes of ONS and Dr Bill Roberts of Swirrl about their work across the Government Statistical Service to help people find, understand and use government statistical data. About the speaker Tom Smith is Managing Director at the Data Science Campus, joining the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2017. Tom has more than 20 years’ experience using data and analysis to improve public services. Working at the intersection of government, academia and industry, he has led data and research projects with hundreds of local and national public and community sector organisations, including the government’s English Indices of Deprivation. His primary research interests are in using data science to improve public services, machine learning, and assessing non-traditional data sources to improve our understanding of society and the economy. Follow @_datasmith on Twitter.