From the start of August to early September of 2019, Ditchley took part in Pivigo's prestigious Science To Data Science (S2DS) programme, which takes exceptional analytical PhDs and MScs and helps prepare them for data science careers through five-week intensive projects. Founded in 2013, Pivigo is a data science marketplace and training company based in London and oversees the largest market of data scientists in Europe.
The Ditchley team consisted of four exceptional individuals: Dr Stephane De Barros, postdoctoral researcher at the Observatoire de Sauverny in Switzerland and expert of spectral energy distribution modeling of high-redshift galaxies; Davide Martizzi, an assistant professor in theoretical physics at the Niels Born Institute, University of Copenhagen; Jenny Woods: who recently received her PhD in volcano seismology from the University of Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences, and Martin Smith, a research professor at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory since 2012. Collectively, they have undertaken research across much of the United States and Europe.
This formidable team spent the five weeks working intensively across the Pivigo S2DS Campus in London and at Ditchley Park to develop new analytical methods to find interesting participants for Ditchley discussions, and facilitate connections across fields - in this case working across politics and computer engineering fields. The team made a mid-term presentation to all Pivigo fellows, partners and stakeholders on 21 August and a final presentation on 4 September. In a short period of time, the team came together across different backgrounds to provide Ditchley with innovative approaches to advance its mission. Cam Raynor managed the collaboration for Ditchley, liaising extensively with the team over the course of the five weeks.
Pivigo CEO Kim Nilsson and CTO Ole Moeller-Nilsson participated in Ditchley discussions over the second half of 2019. Both attended a 26 January gathering of 80 mid-career leaders on trust in society, with Kim also attending the May 2019 conference The rise of populism: a crisis of democracy or noisy renewal? Following the May 2019 conference, Kim wrote a LinkedIn blog post entitled "Wake Up, And Fight For Democracy!" which can be found here.
This project marks an important step forward in facilitating greater connecting ability and common understanding across politics and technology. It is a reflection of the promising relationship between Ditchley and the innovative Pivigo and Ditchley looks forward to future collaboration.