A post by Compass student Samuel Perren.
Introduction
We were delighted to welcome partners, colleagues and alumni to the Bristol Avon Gorge (Hotel du Vin) in October, for the Compass Conference 2025. This year’s event focused on ‘Data Science for Social Good’, a topic our students are deeply passionate about. The day provided a fantastic opportunity to consider the positive role data science, computational statistics and AI can play across social, cultural and industrial fields.
It was wonderful to see Compass partners and alumni returning to join us, representing a wide variety of supportive organisations from across the private and public sectors – and to reflect on a year filled with notable achievements for our students, including a high number of papers accepted by prestigious conferences such as ICLR, ICML and NeurIPS.
Compass CDT Director, Professor Nick Whiteley, opening the Conference proceedings.
Student Research Talks
The morning started with four research talks from Compass students, showcasing the breadth of work being undertaken in the CDT. Samuel Perren opened the session with his talk on “Network Meta-analysis with Class Effects“, proposing a systematic approach to model selection. Following this, Ollie Baker presented “Rates of Convergence for Entropy Limits of Soft Random Geometric Graphs”, discussing the effects of node distribution and underlying geometry.
Yuqi Zhang then spoke on “Multiscale Detection of Multiple Change Points in High-dimensional Factor Models”, demonstrating a method that recovers change points even in dependent, high-dimensional data. Finally, Kieran Morris explored “Benamou Brenier Optimal Transport on Discrete Domains”, looking at how fluid flow interpretations of Optimal Transport adapt to discrete spaces.
Yuqi Zhang presents her research to an audience of Compass partners, alumni, students and colleagues.
Student Lightning Talks
The lightning talks session challenged students to present their work in a concise and engaging format. The topics were diverse, highlighting the versatility of our cohorts. Emma Tarmey discussed “Confounder Handling in Real-world Epidemiology”, using the OpenSAFELY NHS data platform. Ben Anson posed critical questions about resources with his talk “Matmul at Scale”, asking if AI could have converged on operations other than matrix multiplication.
Sherman Khoo provided an intuitive overview of “Fun with CLIP Embeddings”, exploring their practical applications. We also heard from Rachel Wood on “How to Help Others Use Data Science for Social Good”, sharing insights from a summer project helping qualitative researchers use data science.
Sherman Khoo presents his lightning talk: “Fun with CLIP Embeddings”
Guest Speaker Presentations
We were privileged to host an exciting line-up of spotlight and guest speakers, who brought a range of expertise to the conference theme. Colm Connaughton, Director at the London Mathematical Laboratory, discussed his time co-organising the Data Science for Social Good summer fellowship programme. Kevin Parry, Director of Data at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), discussed leading the ICO’s Enterprise Data Strategy and responsible innovation.
Later in the afternoon, Marc Sarazin, Senior Data Scientist at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) spoke on modernising statistical production using Generative AI , followed by Kiran Dhanjal-Adams, Future Leader Fellow at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who illustrated how deep learning tools can answer questions about biodiversity conservation.
Finally, Alex Bowring, Senior Mathematical Consultant at the Smith Institute, delivered a talk on managing economical, green and reliable energy grids, and the use of dynamic reserve models, and Alice Kendal, Senior Data Scientist at ethical AI company Trilateral Research, presented case studies about her work in using predictive risk modelling to improve safeguarding, mapping organised crime, and taking a data driven approach to tackling exploitation and violence.
Alex Bowring from the Smith Institute, delivered an interesting talk on energy grids.
Discussion Panel
The day featured a robust discussion panel, chaired by Compass CDT Director, Professor Nick Whiteley, and featuring all six guest speakers, focused on the theme “Data Science for Social Good”. The discussion explored the influence of data science on the modern world, considering both successes and lessons learned. The panellists provided insights into how projects can deliberately set out to have a social good angle, and how policy and practice help shape the world in which we conduct data science.
Discussion panel (left to right): Colm Connaughton, Kevin Parry, Marc Sarazin, Alex Bowring, Kiran Dhanjal-Adams, Alice Kendal and Nick Whiteley (Chair).
Concluding Remarks
The conference concluded with remarks from Nick, who summarised the day’s talks and discussions. The event successfully highlighted the broad opportunities presented by the theme and stimulated further exploration into how AI and computational statistics can have a positive social influence. We would like to thank all the speakers, partners, alumni, and students who joined us to make the Compass Conference 2025 a success.