NicolaThomsonOKG

6 Tips to Make Sure Your Hackathon Runs Smoothly

We love a good hackathon for the purity of the data science. “Here’s the data. Have fun!” It is all the best bits of data science crammed into one session. Here at Oakland, we recently held a successful hackathon with one of our clients. They came with clear expectations, we analysed the data, provided answers…

Growing up loving green

As a woman in tech, I have heard statements such as “girls are better for teaching and social careers, and men are better for science and engineering”. The first time I heard such a statement was only a few years ago by someone who was volunteering for a charity which encourages children to go to…

Why data quality matters

Introduction – Why Data Quality matters and the Great Expectations library Over the last decade or so companies have been striving to make better use of their data. The use cases for such projects have generally fallen under two categories, improve operational efficiency or drive customer sales/behaviour. However, in order to utilise this data it…

‘Big Data,’ Analytics and Statistical Process Control (SPC)

‘Big Data,’ Analytics and Statistical Process Control (SPC) “Poor little old SPC – with ‘big data’ and advanced analytics, we don’t need it anymore.” WRONG, VERY WRONG! Improving product quality by reducing process variation has always relied on data. However, SPC whilst being a long-established and powerful tool was developed over 70 years ago in…

Are we really prepared for AI?

At the end of last year, we visited Big Data London and took the opportunity to listen to Chris Wylie – infamous for his role with Cambridge Analytica – talk about ethics in data science. He explained how unlike medicine or other professions, data science does not have a code of conduct that drives ethics…

A data scientists view of Big Data LDN 2019

Anyone who’s read The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy, or seen the film, will know the seminal quote “Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is.”. Well apparently, space has a new competitor for sheer size, and that’s data! Every year a mass of people descends on…

What’s it like to work at The Oakland Group?

Hey! My name is Kevin and I am a Data Scientist working at the Oakland Group in Leeds. Having recently joined the development team at the beginning of October, I am excited to share my experiences as a new member of the Oakland team. Three facts about me: I have a PhD in Mathematics that…

Murray Leach set to speak at Big Data London

We’re pleased to announce that Murray Leach, Head of Systems and Support at Network Rail Infrastructure will be joining us at BDL at 12.30 pm on 13th November in the Fast Data Theatre, talking about “The key to unlocking the data in your enterprise system – a real-world journey” Murray will take us through his…

Spark + AI Summit Europe 2019 – The Highlights

Last week I attended the Spark + AI Summit Europe 2019 in Amsterdam, whilst a few days in Amsterdam raised mentions of ‘jolly’ and ‘mini-breaks’ with the team this couldn’t have been further from the truth. With over 2,000 avid Spark users from all over Europe gathered together to get the latest updates and detailed…

Building an effective data team

We recently attended the Northern Data Forum where the big issue being discussed was what it takes to build an effective data team. Dave Naylor, CTO of ResearchBods and Heather Dawe, Lead Data Scientist at Hiscox UK talked about their experiences of doing just that. It was really insightful, so we thought we’d share some…

Oakland goes to Pycon

Python is often touted as one of the fasted growing programming languages (https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/07/26/python-is-becoming-the-worlds-most-popular-coding-language), with a myriad of applications such as web development, cybersecurity and of course data science & analytics. Whilst a number of different coding languages are utilised by members of The Oakland Group, depending on the scenario, the majority of the team can…

The key to unlocking your Oracle data

Data is nothing new. Long before the ‘Big Data’ explosion, businesses were producing and storing their data. The problem for those with large enterprise systems still in place is extracting that data so they can get the maximum benefit from it today. It can be a painful process. Having recently been set that challenge by…