Data Science Summer School returns in person with great success

60 students took part in the 2023 Data Science Summer School which returned for the first time in person since the pandemic.

Over July and August 2023, the Data Science Institute in collaboration with Imperial’s Centre for Continuing Professional Development hosted the Data Science Summer School for undergraduate students wanting to learn more about data science and its applications.  

Data Science is successfully adding value to all business models using statistics and deep learning tools to make better decisions. A growing number of companies are now hiring data scientists to crunch data and predict possible situations and risk for businesses.

The summer school is designed for undergraduate students, in the final two years of their undergraduate studies, studying IT, computing or any engineering degrees at a well-recognised university in China, with an interest in data science. Students were introduced to the concept of data science, heard from experts on data science applications and worked in teams towards a technical project.

Throughout the summer school, students attended talks from leading researchers and staff members across the Data Science Institute including an Introduction to Data Science from Dr Kai Sun, an Introduction to Natural Language Processing from Dr Jingqing Zhang and sessions on Data Science Entrepreneurship from Professor Mark Kennedy, Data Visualisation from Dr Ovidiu Serban, Data Analysis from Dr Rossella Arcucci and Machine Learning from Dr Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye.

On the final day, the students presented their projects on Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing.

Later at the award ceremony, all 60 participating students was awarded certificates of completion, recognizing their dedication and hard work throughout the programme. The outstanding achievements of our top-performing groups were also revealed as follows:

• Group 2 for The Best Computer Vision project.
• Group 4 for The Best Natural Language Processing project.
• Group 5 for The Best presentation
• Group 1 for The Best overall project.

According to the DSI’s Institute Manager Dr Kai Sun: “These accomplishments truly highlight the exceptional talents and dedication exhibited by our participants. Their hard work, creativity, and perseverance have resulted in impressive projects that have enriched their understanding of data science.”

Betty Yue, Head of Continuing Professional Development Unit, said: “Our students have expressed their sincere gratitude for the invaluable experience they gained during the summer school. Their enthusiastic feedback is a testament to the program's quality and impact. They have not only gained valuable knowledge but have also cultivated essential skills that will undoubtedly contribute to their future endeavors."