TakeAIM, organised by the Smith Institute, celebrates the innovative work of the next generation of researchers. This year, the competition received entries from across Europe, spanning various disciplines, including medicine, manufacturing, security, and the digital and creative industries – all of which competed for a place in the final, held at Imperial College London.
Daniel’s research, undertaken during his time as a student in the Compass CDT, with his supervisors – Professor Andrew Dowsey from the Bristol Veterinary School, Dr Levi Wolf from the School of Geographical Sciences, and Dr Jim Hammond from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) – was one of only eleven projects selected this year.
Jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the ILRI, and conducted in Bristol, Kenya and Ethiopia, his work was concerned with the challenge of malnutrition, the world’s leading health risk.
“We focused on smallholder farmers, of which there are around 600 million globally,” explains Daniel. “These people are among the most affected by malnutrition, and yet they are the most difficult to monitor. Their consumption patterns are non-linear, shaped by seasonal production and volatile markets, and their remote locations make continuous measurement infeasible.”
“Our research closes the gap between costly surveys and satellite-based data, by combining open-source data with a statistical approach that reveals how environmental conditions shape household decision-making, consumption and nutrition. The results show that it is feasible to develop near real-time food security monitoring.”
A commitment to delivering real-world value was a similarly important aspect of Dominic’s competition entry, which summarised research he also carried as a Compass CDT student, alongside his supervisors Professor Nick Whiteley, Director of Compass, and Head of the Institute for Statistical Sciences, and Professor Robert Allison.
“Modern data-driven decision making promises powerful insights, but advanced AI capabilities are often limited to organisations with large computing resources, attracting significant time, financial, and environmental energy costs,”Dominic explains. “Our models can be trained much faster, cutting energy consumption and lowering the financial barrier to sophisticated analytics.”
“Instead of requiring access to data centres or specialist hardware, organisations can work directly with compressed datasets that run efficiently on standard machines. This could help to democratise these technologies, placing powerful modelling tools within reach of smaller and under-resourced organisations, and supporting a more sustainable and inclusive AI.”
Commenting on Daniel and Dominic’s success in reaching the finals, Professor Whiteley said:
“We are delighted that Daniel and Dominic’s research was recognised by a renowned organisation like the Smith Institute. It’s representative of the fantastic work undertaken by all Compass students and the continuing achievements of our alumni.”
“Statistics and data science have important contributions to make across diverse sectors and academic fields. Daniel’s work is a great example of this, as it spans environmental, geographical and health-related disciplines. His educational background was in economics, geography, and environmental policy and management, and so he brought interesting questions, and a different perspective, into our CDT. This benefitted Daniel, his peers and the Centre as a whole.”
“Dominic’s work could also have wide-reaching applications, as smaller organisations, and those involved in public-interest research, independent evaluation, and community-led innovation, look for ways to overcome some of the constraints associated with accessing advanced data modelling.”
“It’s been a rewarding few days for Compass, the Institute, and the wider School of Mathematics, with Daniel and Dominic’s success coming after our current PhD student, Ollie Baker, reached the finals of the STEM for Britainscientific poster competition. Ollie’s submission was focused on wireless communications – another example of our CDT’s diverse research applications."
The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Computational Statistics and Data Science (Compass) is a 4-year PhD programme, which exposes students to the insights of collaborators from across the University of Bristol, as well as to the work of government agencies, and industry and third sector partners operating across various sectors.
“The Compass CDT, and the mathematical sciences in general, have an important contribution to make to a wide range of distinct and interdisciplinary research areas,” says Professor Oliver Johnson, Head of the School of Mathematics and Professor of Information Theory.
“This work being selected for the final of the TakeAIM competition is a brilliant example of this, and of the valuable outcomes that can be realised through collaboration across different Schools and Faculties here at the University. It also demonstrates the real-world impact, and societal benefits, that can emerge from projects that are co-funded with external organisations.”
“Most importantly, it shows the quality and importance of the work that Daniel, Dominic, and their supervisors and partners have carried out in recent years. We look forward to more University of Bristol mathematics students undertaking similar interdisciplinary research in the future.”
Established in 2011, the Smith Institute's annual TakeAIM competition provides an opportunity for university students to showcase their work on the industrial stage. This year’s winner was Nicholas Harbour, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, for his research into how mathematics and data science can support advances in brain cancer treatment.