Tesco Clubcard data pioneer Clive Humby applauds new generation of data scientists from Imperial College London

12.12.2014
An analysis of the impact Transport for London's 'Get Ahead of the Games' campaign had on commuting patterns during the Olympic Games, and the relation of tube stop locations on property prices have won three data scientists a top prize from Imperial College London, it announced today.

The University's Summer Data Competition, in partnership with analytics company Purple Seven and Starcount, was judged by Clive Humby, the data scientist behind the Tesco Clubcard loyalty card.

It was aimed at higher education students, in particular those studying maths, statistics and computing.

The winners, Alvis HT Tang and James Clough for their Olympic Games analysis, and Jason Cole for his property price dataset, will receive £3,500 and mentoring from Tesco Clubcard pioneer Clive Humby.

Humby, who is currently chief data scientist at Purple Seven and Starcount, said: "Through this initiative we have been able to champion the next generation of data scientists, many of whom will go on to shake up industries through their ability to analyse information. I look forward to seeing what they achieve in the future.

Datasets for entrants to play with included Purple Seven's theatre ticket sales data, TfL entry and exit data counts and tweets of Londoners and London theatres.

An Imperial College London study into personal data recently found that an alarming proportion of the UK public would sacrifice personal privacy to get more from a wearable.

The university partnered with Chinese telecom Huawei for a data science lab including cloud computing servers, a research and innovation fund, and operational costs for the new lab this year.

(news.techworld.com)

Margi Murphy