partial rankings and aggregate ranks

When interviewing impressive applicants from a stunning variety of places and background for fellows in our Data Science for Social Good program (in Warwick and Kaiserslautern) this summer, we came through the common conundrum of comparing ranks while each of us only meeting a subset of the candidates. Over a free morning, I briefly thought of the problem (while swimming) and then wrote a short R code to infer about an aggregate ranking, ρ, based on a simple model, namely a Poisson distribution on the distance between an individual’s ranking and the aggregate

a uniform distribution on the missing ranks as well as on the aggregate, and a non-informative prior on λ. Leading to a three step Gibbs sampler for the completion and the simulation of ρ and λ.

I am aware that the problem has been tackled in many different ways, including Bayesian ones (as in Deng et al., 2014) and local ones, but this was a fun exercise. Albeit we did not use any model in the end!

Data science for social good fellowships [DSSGx UK 2023]

Warwick is (again) running a 12-week summer programme bringing together some of the top student talents from data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence, all over the World, to work on real-world data science challenges and deliver positive social impact. Applications for DSSG 2023 are now OPEN! Click here for the application form (please read the information carefully) and click here for the FAQs for 2023. (The application also works for a similar programme in Kaiserslauten, Germany.

DSSG helps not-for-profit organisations and government bodies to achieve more with their data by enhancing their services, interventions and outreach, helping fulfil their mission of improving the world and people’s lives.

The programme gives not-for-profit organisations and government bodies unprecedented access to inspiring, top-tier data science talent. This helps build their capacity to use cutting-edge quantitative methods to address societal challenges in areas such as education, health, energy, public safety, transportation and economic development.

At the same time, it provides intensive case-based and supported training to students to create industry-standard data science products in collaboration with government agencies and NGOs, to deliver positive social impact. And it builds a world-wide community of data scientists who care about the social good.

In 2019, the University of Warwick together with the Alan Turing Institute brought DSSG to the UK. The University of Warwick has run it each year since and now preparation is well underway for DSSGx UK 2023, which will be held at the University of Warwick, UK, from 5 June to 25 August.