Last week at POST!

I just can't believe this is my last week at POST. I guess that shows just how interesting it's been, as the time has flown by. After this week I'm flying out to South Korea for the World Hydrogen Energy Conference (WHEC) so this will be a quick post about the activities in my last week, and then when I get back I'll write an overview of my time here.

Mon/Tues

I spent these two days finalising the note: making sure all the comments from the reviewers had been incorporated, and then deciding which other bits to cut to make room for the extras! It's amazing how obsessed you can become with shrinking paragraphs so that more can fit on a page... By Tuesday afternoon the note was ready to send to the director Chris (@cptyler) ahead of the final sign off on Thursday afternoon. I then made sure all the reviewers were entered into the POST database and that all their comments were recorded. On Tuesday evening, along with one of the other fellows, I went to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies' meeting on "Scottish independence: What would it mean for UK energy?". This showcased the difference in what the UK government and the SNP would expect would happen to the energy markets on devolution - there is quite a discrepancy!

Wed
With my note sent to Chris, I had today free to do some much needed planning for my conference trip - including going over my presentation to try and re-familiarise myself with my own research!

Thurs
Today was the day of the final sign off! In the morning I finished a draft of a scope for the board on e-skills and cybercrime - the idea that increasing the level of basic online skills should protect people from malicious behaviour online.

My sign off was in the afternoon - almost 3 hours going over the note with Lydia and the director, Chris. The feedback was overall positive, but there were a number of changes and re-shuffles that I tried to get done straight away before I forgot what my scribbled notes meant! I did manage to get most of them done before heading off to meet a friend for dinner and then staying up late to finish my packing for Korea. I got a nice view on my walk to Waterloo though...

Fri
Last day! I can't believe it...
I finished off the changes that Chris had recommended, and then sent it back to him so he could have a final glance over it. I then spent a while formatting the references so they are all the same and adding hyperlinks where needed. Then lunch with the fellows in the sunshine and some admin things: expenses, tidying, e-mail forwarding etc.
I had a final coffee meeting with Lydia, just chatting about the POST process and whether it could be improved. For me, once i was down here everything went to plan, so it was all good from both sides!
One final iteration with Chris and the note was done! Perfect timing - finishing at 4:30 on the last day :-)

Penultimate Week at POST: Space, cycling and the Queen!

 Mon
After yesterdays BUCS triathlon (below) and the drive back from Birmingham, I was glad of my lie in until 7 am this morning! I had a few replies from reviewers when I got in, although thankfully nothing drastic, so I continued to scope out the proposal for a note on space for the board.



In the afternoon, I headed to the Olympic Velodrome to try out track cycling! Anyone who can ride a bike can register for one of these sessions here and I would highly recommend it. They provide bikes and helmets, and you can hire shoes if you want. The coach was very accommodating for all levels of cycling ability and fear levels. It seemed terrifying at first, but it no time all of us were speeding around on the banked circuit. As it is the state opening of parliament on Wednesday, I managed to get a photo of the palace without the usual security barriers in the way.



Tues
Today I started to write the proposal for the board based on all the information I've been collecting. There is a lot of activity out there and my challenge will be getting it all in one page, as always seems to be the case with POST....!

Wed
Today is the state opening of parliament, and so most of the roads around Westminster are closed off, with the police starting to make an appearance even on my way in from the pool at half 8. After doing some work collating the reviewer's comments, a few of us headed out in the drizzle to see if we could spot the Queen - and we did! We then all went back into the office to watch her speech. In the afternoon a couple of us went over to the House of Commons and sat in the Strangers' Gallery to watch the Prime Minister "commend the Queen's Speech to the House" which was quite exciting, and a good opportunity for some MP spotting. In the evening, I tried out a road bike only time trial at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit with my friend Ellie, which was fun despite the weather turning apocalyptic - and as there were only us two girls there we both won prizes!



Thurs
So today was the Evening Standard's #run2workday and I thought: why not? It turns out there are a lot of answers to that question! Despite the lack of breakfast and a lot of bugs inhaled, I made it! 10.5 miles along the river from Mortlake to Westminster: and once I'd stopped worrying about how slow I was going, I quite enjoyed it.

 

I spent today collating all the responses from the external reviewers and making changes to the note accordingly. All the feedback has been very positive, and most of the comments are suggesting things to add in if I have space. Unfortunately, I don't, and many of the topics they'd like added in were in the note at one stage of the draft but were removed to make space for something else.
I had a pretty bizarre evening - I caught the commuter boat to Canary Wharf where there was a cycling race happening! It was very odd to watch racing between the high rise buildings, but really good fun at the same time.


Fri
Another few e-mails in from reviewers today, so some more editing of my note to accommodate the changes they have suggested. We also had another big data team meeting, looking for areas of overlap in the notes and discussing what the main themes for POST's big data event in the Autumn will be.
It's crazy to think that I've only got one more week at POST!

Week 11 at POST: feedback and scoping

The benefit of sending my note off to external review last Friday meant that I was able to extend my bank holiday weekend and take Tuesday off too. I had a great 4 days: played basketball with some friends from Oxford on Saturday; ran the BUPA 10k (with the elites!!) and then made the most of the sunshine in Kew gardens on Sunday; got soaked on a 15-puncture day cycle to Brighton on Monday and was a lady of leisure brunching, shopping and having afternoon tea on Tuesday.

Wed

I came in to some e-mails from my external reviewers. So far, all very positive and not recommending any major changes which is great! 

I then had an interesting meeting with the Physical Science team discussing possible future POSTnote topics. Last week I had had a look myself at what I thought might be interesting, and it was good to see there was some overlap. Before a topic becomes a note, it is put forward to the board in meetings that are held quarterly. It is put forward in the form of a one page scope detailing the relevance, timeliness and parliamentary activity surrounding an issue. Before this is written, a lot more topics are considered and some "pre-scoping" is done to see if a subject has the potential to be an interesting and relevant note. As I have some time left before I finish, I am going to have a go at doing some pre-scoping for some of the physical science topics. This should be really interesting as it gives me an opportunity to look into some more interesting research in a completely different area to what I am used to.

Thurs
Today I carried on scoping out for some possible new topics. A varied day reading about space, diversity in STEM, basic IT skills and biometrics! We met as the physical sciences team to discuss what we had found and which notes we thought could be interesting and topical to expand into notes.
An evening of preparation for my race on Sunday with a sports massage for me and a service for my bike!

Fri
I spent the morning working from home in London before heading back up to Birmingham to meet with my research group and discuss a paper I am writing with my supervisor. It was a useful meeting, although meant that it gave me lots to do! Because of this, I spent all of Saturday at my desk in Birmingham making changes and new figures. 

Week 10 at POST: making my Dad proud and external review preparation

Mon
After an extremely sunny weekend visiting my favourite bakery Cookies and Scream and having a go at my first cycling time trial I arrived in on Monday and made the last few changes to my note that had come out of the internal review. I also (maybe a bit late?) wrote my summary for the website: which you can read here. Parliament have a group called ParliAble which aims to increase awareness and appreciation of disability issues on the Parliamentary estate. I attended one of their British Sign Language workshops at lunchtime which was great! I now feel I could at least begin a conversation using BSL, although I'm not sure how fast the conversation would flow...

Tues
Today I did some sorting out: adding my contacts to the POST database and making sure the correct files were loaded into the right places on the shared drive. I also looked at who I had spoken to and thought about who best to send my note to for external review. It's important that any business who is mentioned explicitly can view the note before it goes out, and also that people from government and the third sector are also involved.

Wed 
This morning I had to spend some time editing a paper relating to my PhD - it felt like looking back at a different world. I think it's going to take some time to adjust back from Big Data to Chemistry when I go back! By the afternoon, Lydia had had a chance to look over the changes I'd made after the external review and we spent the afternoon discussing the details around wording, and the effect of some of the re-structuring.

The evening was fun - my Dad used to run for Thames Hare and Hounds running club, and realised a few weeks ago that while I'm here I live near where they train and so forwarded me some of their newsletters. They were organising an event called the Parkland relays - an opportunity for teams of 3 women or 4 men from local clubs to compete over 5k laps. I was welcomed as a member of a THH team, and we went on to win the women's race - I also came 10th out of the 101 women! They also have a spare number for the BUPA London 10k this weekend, so that's my Sunday sorted! I was really pleased, as I managed to speak to someone who was captain of the club when my Dad was there, and winning under my Dad's 'colours' felt pretty good. The photo below shows the winning team and one of my Dad's old running partners.

Thurs
I spent today making the changes Lydia and I had discussed yesterday before heading off early to give blood.

Fri
Back with another iteration this morning, I made what I hoped to be the last changes before sending it off the external review. I drafted all the e-mails to reviewers and the board, as most of them needed to be individually personalised. After one final check over the changes with Lydia, I sent off the note to external review! Big sighs of relief all round and a perfect start to the bank holiday weekend.

Week 9 at POST - a familiar Lord and some internal reviews

Week 9

Mon
As I mentioned in my last blog post, I was aiming to get my note ready to send out for internal review by the end of today. After discussion with Lydia and some last minute re-structuring I made it! After smug-ly sending it off before 5:30 I raced to the train and back home to my bike to celebrate with some laps of Richmond park in the sunshine. Which rapidly disappeared and was replaced by torrential rain, leaving me soaked and freezing! On the plus side, after the downpour this beauty appeared:



Tues
It was on Tuesday morning that I realised how many things I'd left "until after I've sent my note off". I spent the morning writing up interview notes and events I've attended in the last few weeks.

My Dad met me in the afternoon after he'd had a meeting in London and we had coffee in the Jubilee cafe just off Westminster Hall: it was good to relax and I think both of us needed the break! We'd had a pretty hectic weekend at my cousin's wedding. Let's just say I'm going to buy my sister a handbag big enough for her to fit her car keys in...
After our coffee, we decided to go and see if we could get in to watch a debate in one of the houses. After consulting the Parliamentary timetable (and the fact you don't have to sit behind a glass screen) we went for the House of Lords. It was easy to get into the strangers gallery - we just went to the chamber and filled in a form with our names and addresses before being given a ticket. It was interesting to see the difference between the every day working of the Lords and Prime Minister's Questions. On the one hand the Lords seemed far more civilised, but that's only until someone wants to speak... Because there is no speaker to order proceedings in the same way, they speak until everyone else gives up and that dictates who goes next! We also played a bit of "Lords spotting" - I got Alan Sugar and Dad spotted some I'd never heard of...

After dropping Dad off at the secret parliament entrance to Westminster tube station I decided to go back to the Lords, but this time to the Moses room to a debate on scientific infrastructure: Lord Krebs was reporting back from the Science and Technology Committee. As he is the principal of the college I went to at Oxford (Jesus), and it was a topic that I thought might be interesting I went along. I had to be guided by a (very nice) policeman because I didn't know where to go. The Moses room is quite small and I'm almost certain he spotted me on my arrival but couldn't work out where from! Maybe the Jesus College alumni team might be interested in me working for POST... (Lord Krebs sits on the POST board).

Once I'd listened for about an hour, I went back to POST to collect my things and then headed to the British Library to see their Beautiful Science exhibition. This was great - some really inventive ways of presenting scientific results: not just recent ones but also going back into history. I also went to their permanent exhibition and saw some really interesting pieces.

Despite a lightning strike delaying my train home, today was a pretty good day!

Wed
I had my last interview today, with someone working on the "Building Information Modelling" taskforce at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. This was incredibly interesting, but I'm going to struggle to fit it into my note! As part of the big data theme at POST there is going to be a conclusion note - so I think this may fit well in there instead. After the interview we had another one of our big data team catch ups, to see what progress has been made with the other notes and identify any areas of overlap.

I then spent the afternoon writing up my interview notes and following up on points that had come out of it.
My evening was spent in Ham Lake - my first open water session of the year! Glorious sunshine combined with my new neoprene hat and socks meant that the temperature was tolerable and I had a great time.

Thurs
Internal Review day!
This morning I had the internal review for my note and it was less scary than I thought it might be! In general the feedback was good, with most of the comments being about re-ordering rather than re-writing, which was nice. It was interesting to hear different perspectives and a bit odd realising that in just 2 months I've picked up some jargon...
So the internal review process comprises of one advisor from each of the 4 areas (Energy and Environment, Social, Physical and Biological) and for me one of the other fellows, Daniel, who is working on a Big Data note. Each of them read and make comments to the note beforehand which then bring along. Apart from the reading out loud, it actually works quite a lot like a ClimateSnack meeting! (see previous post)

After my review, I started to make some changes before going along to Daniel's internal review. Again, similar to ClimateSnack as it became my turn to give feedback. Sometimes this experience is just as useful as receiving it.

I began to make some of the structural changes before I headed to the gym, but it was a pretty exhausting day being in reviews...

Fri
Today I spent looking out at the gorgeous weather implementing the recommended changes to my note. You can tell the advisors have been doing this for a while: one is especially good at spotting where you can take words out to save space.

I also decided this morning that it was about time I started making the most of being in London, and booked tickets to see Wicked tonight and to try out track cycling at the Olympic Velodrome on 2nd June - nothing like a bit of spontaneity!

Weeks 7 and 8 at POST- busy, busy, busy...

Most of the last two weeks has been drafting my POSTnote, interspersed with my last few interviews and some events. Combined with fighting off a cold, it's been pretty hectic, but I've sent my note off to internal review now, so I can finally write up what I've been doing!

Week 7
I spent most of this week putting the initial draft together and reading about the new EU data protection regulation. I went up to York for a big data masterclass with the intention to interview the speaker after the event, but he became unavailable at the last minute. Luckily the talk was useful, and gave me some good case studies. I also managed to meet my sister for lunch and filled the gap when the interview would have been with coffee with a friend, so it wasn't all bad!

It also appears big data is seeping into everyone else's consciousness too, as one of my friends posted a link about someone trying to avoid companies finding out about her pregnancy. An interesting article and illustrates a lot of what I have discovered during my time here.

When a new group of fellows starts, POST hold meetings where each fellow gets the chance to speak for 5 minutes on the topic of their note and what they will be covering, with 5 minutes afterwards for questions if people have them. These are good for pointing out areas that might have been overlooked, or duplicated. With only 4 pages, the last thing you need is to duplicate information written in someone else's note! Because of this, I have spent a while working out the best way to link the "Big Data in Social Media" note with mine.

Week 7 finished with a trip to the city (my first) with an interview in the Willis building followed by a late finish discussing my first draft with Lydia.

Week 8
Mon
Another bank holiday Monday spent on my bicycle was a great start to the week.



Tues
I went to an event at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council on the topic of big data in business. This was a great opportunity to hear from the research councils about what they are offering businesses to help them use their own data or access research data. I spent most of the breaks re-working the comments Lydia and I had discussed into my draft.

Wed
My day of re-drafting was broken up with an opportunity to go to Prime Minister's Question time - this was a great experience! The commons is much smaller than it seems on television, so the atmosphere can get quite rowdy and it seems like a school teacher calming the student down when the speaker has to get involved. If you want to go, you just need to write to your MP for tickets, but they are usually booked months in advance.
In the afternoon, Lydia and I had a really useful interview with a data protection lawyer, hearing his perspective on businesses' use of personal data.

Thurs
I went to a Westminster e-forum on the topic of data protection in the UK and EU - I learnt a lot about the new EU regulation that has been proposed and views from businesses and regulators on the effects of it coming into force. I then spent the afternoon trying to re-shuffle the structure of my note to introduce all the information on data protection that I had learnt about over the past few days.

On Thursday evenings, the fellows tend to head for the sports and social bar in the palace of Westminster. With training, I never seem to end up there, but today I made my first trip! I went from this to a "Women in the Media" event organised by Jesus College celebrating the introduction of women into the college 40 years ago. It was interesting to hear views on how things have changed (or not!) in the industry over the that time, as science in the media is a possible future option for me...

Fri
Today I finally had my tour of Parliament! It was really informative: I learnt so much about the history that I didn't know before. I would encourage people to go on one: you just need to contact your MP and they can book you on to a free tour. We then had our second session of fellows talks and then I spent the rest of the day working on my draft, getting it into a reasonable state ready to send to internal review at the end of Monday.

Week 6 at POST: time to start drafting!

Tues
After an excellent Easter weekend making the most of the sunshine and going back to Birmingham for a fencing competition, I came back to POST motivated to start writing my note!
The interview I was scheduled to have this afternoon was cancelled and so I had the whole day to set up the template and spend a long time staring at the blank page before starting to get some words down...
I collected some references together, so that when I come to put statistics in I can find where I found them easily. This is when I wish I was able to use my usual combination of Mendeley reference manager and LaTeX, as I'm not used to battling with Microsoft Word!

Wed
I came in this morning to be almost immediately greeted by a phone call from one of my interviewees saying that they had changed their mind about being interviewed: apparently their use of big data is not something they want to talk about publicly yet. This is slightly annoying, but hopefully I have spoken to enough people in the same industry that it shouldn't leave too much of a hole.

I then had two telephone interviews in the morning, and rewarded myself with some millionaire's shortbread from Ravello's! I then spent most of the afternoon writing up the interviews and investigating whether any organisation has looked into developing an accreditation scheme for data scientists.

Thurs
Lydia and I were supposed to start our day with a phone interview, but our interviewee ended up stuck underground on a hot tube train with three fainters! Instead we had a useful meeting between the two of us - sorting out the timetable for me drafting my note and it going through the internal and external review process. We decided to schedule the internal review for the 15th May, so before then I need to have drafted it and discussed it with Lydia a number of times - better get writing!

When the notes are put together, it's important that we speak not only to relevant parties in industry and academia, but also those from the third sector, so I investigated consumer groups who may have opinions on the use of big data by businesses. I also looked through the interviews carried out for the Social Media and Big Data note, which asked similar questions.

I finished the day by making sure that I was fully prepared for my two interviews the next day - opportunities to learn about the financial services and insurance industries, as well as speaking to someone from the market research society.

Fri
Starting off the day with a 9:30 interview seemed like a good idea, until I realised this did not give my goggle marks time to go away after swimming! In combination with my now very obvious cycling short tan lines, I may aswell have the word "Triathlete" tattooed across my forehead... Luckily my interviewees either didn't notice or were too polite to comment, and we had a really interesting and productive conversation about how the financial sector is using big data currently and what the future might hold in this industry. I'm not a regular coffee drinker and Portcullis house must have been using a particularly strong blend, as I was pretty much knocked sideways by my Mocha... Although this did mean that I was super-speedy writing up my notes from the interview!

My late afternoon interview had been cancelled, so that gave me more time to speak to the market research society and learn more about the data protection act and it's effect on businesses using personal data.

Today was a day of learning - showing just how useful it is to speak to people rather than spending hours trawling books and papers. I wonder whether this is why I found the modules in my Doctoral Training Centre course so useful for writing the literature review for my PhD.