Data Science Institute summer schools a great success

Over 100 students took part in two different summer schools run by Imperial’s DSI, to learn more about data science.

Over July and August 2022, the Data Science Institute in collaboration with Imperial’s Centre for Continuing Professional Development hosted two summer schools for students to learn more about data science or to understand more about artificial intelligence and data science in relation to healthcare innovation.

Over 100 students took part and successfully received a verified digital certificate from Imperial College and prizes were awarded to the best team project.

Data Science Summer School

In the first online summer school, 83 students studying IT, computing or any engineering degrees at well-recognised universities in China, with an interest in data science took part.

Through 40 hours of live lectures, workshops, tutorials, project work and self study, the cohort were introduced to the concept of data science, and got to hear from industry experts on data science applications. Some of the talks included an introduction into ‘The world of artificial intelligence’ by DSI Co-director Professor Yi-Ke Guo, ‘Data Privacy & Ethics’ by Senior Lecturer Dr Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye and 'An Introduction into Blockchain Technology by Operations Manager Dr Kai Sun.

The students also completed a computer vision project centred around medical imaging for modelling brain tumours, or a natural language processing project where they used a COVID-19 dataset to discover the relationship between different biomedical entities.

For the first time this year, students also undertook a peer review challenge in order to develop their critical thinking skills, science communication skills and to improve their knowledge of data science. Peer review is the independent assessment of scientific knowledge by experts in the field, which serves as a quality control mechanism.

Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Healthcare Innovation Summer School

Drawing on the success of the Data Science Summer School, the DSI launched a new summer school with a focus on the health industry.

In the healthcare industry, data science and artificial intelligence play a pivotal role in bringing together innovation and patient care and they have the potential to transform how healthcare is delivered.

In this summer school, 31 students from muti-disciplinary backgrounds with an interest in data science and the healthcare industry took part.

During the two-week long summer school, students heard various talks from the DSI. Dr Jingqing Zhang spoke about AI-assisted electronic health records, Dr Ovidiu Serban gave a talk on presenting data using data visualisation tools and Dr Benny Lo from Imperial’s Hamlyn Centre, presented an insight into cutting-edge innovations in medical robotics.

“Very useful and inspiring”

Overall, the feedback from the summer schools was extremely positive. Below is a selection of comments from students who attended the Data Science summer school:

“I really appreciate Professor Guo’s lecture. It’s very useful and inspiring."

“It's fun and interesting. I have heard of blockchains but I have never joined activities based on blockchains.”

“This project has improved our English skills, such as oral English, writing and reading. In addition, I learned some knowledge about artificial intelligence in this project. The final project also enabled us to put PL and CV projects into practice.”

The feedback from students who attended the inaugural AI & Data Science for Healthcare Innovation Summer School was equally positive:

"This programme is good for beginners in data science to gain a first-hand experience in programming."

"The programme gives me the chance to know the current and future of the healthcare industry, especially the application of AI within it."

"This is a valuable experience. I’ve improved my English skills during the course. Cooperating with new teammates is also very challenging. Also, I gained more knowledge about data science and AI."

"Wonderful programme, rich in content and benefits us greatly."

"Professors are enthusiastic and lessons are of high quality."

The DSI looks forward to hosting the next cohort of students in the summer of 2023.