Information School News

Starting a business is inherently challenging and risky. Entering a world of experienced competitors where you have no standing or reputation means that it’s always going to be an uphill battle to gain recognition and start to be financially viable. What often makes this even harder is that the systems and processes that support businesses are largely modelled around companies that have a track record, not those just starting out. “When a startup is in its early stages - the first five years or so - it’s very difficult to have financial indicators that are above zero to show their funders that they are productive and are experiencing growth”, says Dr Efpraxia Zamani, Senior Lecturer at the Information School and one of four co-investigators engaged in research to address this problem. Dr Efpraxia Zamani With Anastasia Griva (from the National University of Ireland Galway, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme), Dr Dimosthenis Kotsopoulos and Dr Angeliki Kara...

Data Science knowledge provides you with a set of skills that is very much in demand by large and small organisations, and can land you a lucrative job. However, it does not need to be all about the money. There are also opportunities to use these skills to help other people. One such opportunity is provided by the group Sheffield Data For Good . They recently organised a data hack to help Roundabout , a Sheffield charity that tackles youth homelessness, and have already scheduled a second event for the 9th of March. I was at the first data hack on the 26th of January. Around 25 people, a mix of academics, data professionals and charity workers, came to the event. Amy Evans, data and finance coordinator from Roundabout, was at the event to explain the data that we were going to work on and what Roundabout was trying to understand about their data. I cannot provide details about the data due to data protection regulations, but what struck me the most was the atmosphere and the energ...