Digital

Data Science Accelerator – It’s about the journey not the destination

August 26, 2024 by Stewart Hamilton No Comments | Category Data, Data Science Accelerator, Digital Scotland

Guest blog post by Lilly Herridge, Senior Assistant Statistician, National Records of Scotland.

Next week sees the launch of the 2024 Data Science Accelerator, a public sector programme that supports innovation in the use and analysis of data. I’m now part of the judging panel that selects projects for this programme but back in 2018, I was a participant on the very first cohort.

The project that I took to the 2018 accelerator related to text data in forms. Being on the programme gave me the opportunity to explore machine learning supported by a mentor. With their guidance over the 12 weeks I learned how to train a machine learning algorithm known as a Random Forest with sample data. This protected development time coupled with the support of my mentor allowed me to progress my understanding much more quickly than if I’d been trying to carve out time in amongst my day to day work.

In the end, the approach I’d explored wasn’t adopted but as anyone reading this who is familiar with working with Agile development approaches will know, there’s always valuable learning that comes from testing our ideas even if we don’t deploy the solution. So I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our 2024 participants every success on their accelerator journey and to remind them that it’s about the journey not the destination.

And if you are reading this and thinking you’ve got an idea that you’d like to dedicate more time to then this might offer you a way to take your idea forward. It won’t be long before recruitment begins for 2025 so drop a line to the programme team at DataScienceAccelerator@gov.scot and hopefully I’ll see your application next year.

Tags: Data Science Accelerator, National Records of Scotland, public sector data

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