QStep Advances - Quantitative Methods in Practice
In this seminar series undergraduate students are introduced to professionals using quantitative methods in public life, business and non-university research.
Seminars will be held: Tuesdays at 3pm (Zoom)
Details below.
Seminar 1: Careers in Data Science: Politics & Government (Dr Andrew Therriault)
Dr Andrew Therriault
12 Oct 2021, 3pm (Zoom link below)
Please join us for the inaugural session of the Q-Step Advances series to be held on 12 October 2021 at 3pm (London Time).
Dr. Andrew Therriault will lead a discussion on the topic of "Careers in Data Science: Politics & Government". Dr. Therriault has held many exciting positions in this field, such as the Chief Data Officer for the City of Boston, the Director of Data Science for the Democratic National Committee (in the United States), and Infrastructure Data Science Manager for Facebook.
The session will be held at the following Zoom link:
https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/95620352525?pwd=cHFsUG9qYmtGNGl3SVNuRTFQRnV4QT09
Bring your own tea and biscuits.
Seminar 2: Statistical careers in government (Prof. Roger Halliday, Chief Statistician Scottish Government)
Speaker: Professor Roger Halliday, Chief Statistician for the Scottish Government
30 Nov 2021, 3pm (Zoom link below)
The session will be held 30 November 2021 -- 3pm-4pm London Time.
https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/91711167222?pwd=SnBtZlJQM3hlQkNTSzZPZi9ISkNDZz09
Professor Halliday qualified with a degree in statistics in 1993 from St. Andrews University and joined the Government fast stream as an assistant statistician. He worked for various UK Government Departments and at the Scottish Government in a number of statistical and policy making roles. His areas of expertise are around transforming services with data, and has experience working in the fields of health, children, learning, skills and the economy.
Seminar 3: Information Technology Careers in Government (Francesca Kay, Central Statistics Office, Ireland)
Speaker: Francesca Kay, Chief Information Officer Central Statistics Office in Ireland
18 Jan 2022, 3pm (Zoom link below)
Francesca Kay is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and is responsible for the Technology and Statistical Services Directorate at the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Ireland. She will speak about information technology careers in government and the nature of her work at the CSO.
The session will be held 18 January 2022 -- 3pm-4pm London Time.
Please join us on Zoom:
https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/93487471517?pwd=aGVlcTVlSTY3OGlseGVJSHNERW9sZz09
Bring your own tea and biscuits.
Seminar 4: Using Statistics in Consulting Careers (Tera Allas, McKinsey)
Speaker: Tera Allas, Director of Research and Economics at the London office of McKinsey & Company
15 Feb 2022, 3pm (Zoom link below)
Q-Step Advances will host Tera Allas, who is the Director of Research and Economics at the London office of McKinsey & Company, which is one of the world's premier consulting companies. She is also a Trustee at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. She will speak about using statistics in consulting careers, as well as other work that she has done over the course of her career.
The session will be held 15 February 2022 -- 3pm-4pm London Time.
Please join us on Zoom:
https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/98815532183?pwd=WkZaV0cyMzZYUXdkUUdMZk5DTklTZz09
Ms. Allas helps complex organisations make the right strategic decisions through innovative, insightful, and incisive analysis and communications. Her specialties include economics, economic growth, productivity, economic policy, science and innovation; corporate and business unit strategy, valuation; multi-disciplinary analysis and synthesis. Her interests include systems thinking, individual and collective behaviour and behaviour change, neuroscience, well-being, nutrition, and singing.
Bring your own tea and biscuits.
Seminar 5: Careers in Data-Driven Journalism (Marc Ellison, BBC Scotland)
Speaker: Christian Arnold, Senior Lecturer in Politics. School of Law and Politics
30 Mar 2022, 1pm (Zoom link below)
Christian Arnold of Cardiff University will speak on “The Politics of the Psychological Distance” at the Workshop in Quantitative Methods today Wednesday (30 March) 1pm at the following Zoom link:
https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/95972572693?pwd=eXlneUM3bDE1V0lkODB6bUVZSEVadz09
Christian Arnold, Hannah Bechara, Slava Jankin
Abstract:
Rhetoric has been at the core interest of all those who study politics for literally millennia. Despite the long-standing interest in the issue we still lack a systematic understanding of how exactly politicians strategically use their language in the political arena. We show that politicians adapt the displayed psychological distance to future events to systematically change the attention to policy issues of their interest. But the different psychological distances of speakers not only affects the political agenda, it also has tangible consequences for public policy. Proposing measures for event horizon, event resolution and construal directly from language, we investigate our claims using speeches from the opening ceremony at COP26 and also electoral pledges in Scotland and Sweden. We not only offer computational tools to study political rhetoric directly from language at scale, but our findings also have broader theoretical implications for all those who try to understand the strategic character of rhetoric and the role of time in politics.
Past Events
EXCEL spreadsheet basics
Professor John McColl
Professor of Learning and Teaching in Statistics
A spreadsheet package, such as EXCEL, provides an excellent platform for recording data, editing and organising them, and running basic queries. It is also possible to carry out many standard statistical analyses within EXCEL. When a more powerful statistical system is required, data may be exported from EXCEL in various formats that are compatible with specialist software packages such as R. This short workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to data entry, manipulation and plotting in EXCEL.
Topics to be covered include:
• Entering and exporting data
• Working with different types of data (numbers, text, dates)
• Conditional formatting
• Formulas and functions
• Absolute and relative addressing
• Summarising data appropriately (mean or median, standard deviation, etc.)
• Plotting data appropriately and editing plots
• Pivot tables
The next training session will be:
Wednesday 3 April 2019, 10:00 – 12:00, Adam Smith Building Room 912A
Please register to reserve your place.
Using EXCEL for data management and analysis
Professor John McColl
Professor of Learning and Teaching in Statistics
A spreadsheet package, such as EXCEL, provides an excellent platform for recording data, editing and organising them, and running basic queries. It is also possible to carry out many standard statistical analyses within EXCEL. When a more powerful statistical system is required, data may be exported from EXCEL in various formats that are compatible with specialist software packages such as R. This short workshop will provide a hands-on introduction to data management and analysis in EXCEL. Participants will be assumed to have experience of EXCEL at least equivalent to the skills covered in the EXCEL Spreadsheet Basics workshop.
Topics to be covered include:
• Sorting and filtering data
• Creating and formatting tables
• Databases and database functions
• Combining datasets
• Univariate tests and confidence intervals
• The chi-squared test
• Scatter plots, correlation and regression
The next training session will be:
Friday 5 April 2019, 10:00 – 12:00, Adam Smith Building Room 912A
Please register to reserve your place.
What is R?
Professor Adrian Bowman
Head of School/Professor of Statistics
R is an open source statistical computing system which has facilities for a very wide range of statistical methods but which is also a very flexible programming environment. There is now a very large user community and a considerable collection of additional packages is available for specialist topics. This short course aims to provide a broad introduction to the system. The topics covered will include examples of standard analyses, including linear (and logistic regression) and multivariate data. There will be a strong emphasis on graphics. The course will be based around a number of case studies and there will be an opportunity for practical use of the system. The course will not involve a detailed exposition of syntax, as prepared scripts will be available as a starting point for examples and practical work. The broad philosophy of R and the very wide range of facilities offered by the environment will be outlined. The course is primarily aimed at staff and postgraduate students in the social sciences.
This training will run again in the academic session 2018/2019
What is R Again?
Professor Adrian Bowman
Head of School/Professor of Statistics
The aim of this short course is to explore some of the more advanced aspects of R as a environment for the exploration and analysis of data. Participants will be invited to express interest in particular topics and this will have an influence on those chosen as the focus of the examples. Possibilities include random effect models, flexible regression models, spatial analysis and the use of R as a programming environment. There may be an opportunity for participants to bring their own data, depending on the size of the group. The target audiences for the course are research students and staff in the social sciences who have an introductory-level knowledge of R. This includes those who have attended the 'What is R?' session.
This training will run again in the academic session 2018/2019