Events
Whether you're studying with us, or a company looking for talented students, our events and activities will help you make the most of Q-Step at Manchester.
One of the highlights of the Q-Step year is our Celebratory Conference. This event showcases and celebrates the work of our interns, with poster displays (see student stories), keynotes from groundbreaking quantitative researchers, and The University of Manchester Q-Step Three Minute Presentations. See below for information about the events that we've hosted in the past.
Data4All Conference: Empowering Data Skills for the Future
- Date: Wednesday, 20 November 2024
- Location: Manchester Museum, University of Manchester
The Data4All conference was an insightful day dedicated to learning about data skills and celebrating the Q-Step 2024 fellows. This day was filled with data workshops, talks from industry professionals, Q&As, and networking opportunities.
The day began with workshops to help participants enhance their data skills and understand their importance. Dr. Tatjana Kecojevic, social statistics lecturer, provided an introductory demonstration of R Studio, and Niyati Somani, data analyst, delivered an informative presentation on using GitHub.
Next, Tiffany Sprague from the United Nations Development Programme gave a wonderful talk about her career journey and the role of data in her work. She emphasized how developing her data skills added value to her career and introduced the STEM4ALL platform, which promotes the participation of women and girls in data and STEM fields.
Following this, Professor Jackie Carter presented the Q-Step 2024 booklet, which highlights the experiences of this year’s data fellows during their placements. She also provided insights into the Q-Step data fellowships, sharing valuable information with prospective applicants and attendees. This was followed by three-minute presentations from data fellows Ella Parr, Amber Freeman, Tharani Ponnamperuma, Aufa Syahrizal, and Daniel Galloway, who shared their fellowship experiences and key learnings.
To close the event, we had a panel discussion titled Bridging Academia and Industry: The Role of Data Skills in Shaping Future Careers. Our fantastic panelists included Joana Andrade from Doublestruck, Peter Fisher from Channel 4, Tegan Massey from The Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Will Phillips from Greater Manchester Combined Authority and April Shipley from Ada. They discussed the value of data in their professional careers and answered questions from the audience.
The event finished with an open networking session accompanied by tea and cakes.
Thank you to everyone who participated and made this event a success!
Data fellows: Past, present, and future
- Date: Thursday, 23 March 2023
- Location: Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester
This event celebrated the amazing achievements of the 2022 Data Fellows and for the first time brought everyone together. The day started off with an engaging welcome by Professor Jackie Carter which discussed the importance of social science students becoming involved in STEM subjects.
Jackie then invited some guest speakers to discuss their pathways to the roles that they're in now and how their data skills are useful in their day-to-day work. Thank you to our guest speakers - Martin from The Ditchley Foundation, Otilia from Bloomberg, Ruth from the University of Liverpool, and Jim from the Department of Work and Pensions - who took the time out of their days to share with our students.
We then had our 3MP's where 5 students spoke about their experience of being a Data Fellow and shared the key things that they all learnt during their time at their host organisations. A big thank you and well done to the students who took part in this.
Next up was the poster session, an opportunity to network, have some tea and cake, and look at the posters that our students had created about their time as a data fellow. Congratulations to Hannah Hutt who's poster was voted the best by the judges and a big well done to Leila Pelier and Ines Mackenzie-Hardy whose posters were also highly commended.
The event ended with a Q and A for prospective Data Fellows to find out more about the application process
Thank you to everyone who came and helped make this brilliant event a success.
Data fellows day
- Date: Wednesday, 6 April 2022
- Location: Samuel Alexander Building, The University of Manchester
Thanks to everyone who attended the data fellows day on Wednesday, 6 April 2022. It was a fantastic opportunity to hear from all the organisations that support the data fellows programme, our incredible alumni, and prospective applicants.
Leading up to our first activity, we displayed all the posters created by 2021 data fellows, which highlighted the work that they did during their internships. This was a great way both to recognise the successes of the earlier cohort and supply information on the potential style and content of internships for applicants.
We then invited guests to the lecture theatre to hear from our panellists. We were grateful to have representatives from several our partner organisations to answer student questions and emphasise the mutual benefits of the Q-Step internships for organisations and students. Many thanks to Martin Smith from the Ditchley Foundation, Marek Musiol from HMPPS, Julia Kasmire from UKDS, Alle Bloom and Julija Loginovic for your contributions to the event – it was great to hear from all of you!
Next up there was an opportunity for everyone to break for coffee and cake, and chat about the internships. It was great to see all our alumni discussing the process of applications, interviews and progressing through their placement with 2022 applicants. Hearing how positive the experience has been for all placed, and how instrumental it has been for many in their career progression, was wonderful.
We then had the opportunity to hear from four Data Fellows graduates. Each had three minutes to explain their internship, and comment on the work that they produced. All these presentations were fantastic, and a great insight into the important work done. Many thanks to Amelia Burnham, Julia de Miguel Velazquez, Iulia-Claudia Bragin, and Oliver Erturk for presenting.
The event was a great success – we’re very excited to hear what our 2022 Data Fellows will be getting up to in their future internships.
Social science by numbers
- Date: Wednesday, 13 November 2019
- Location: Samuel Alexander Building, The University of Manchester
This event by The University of Manchester Q-Step Centre was a celebration of the achievements of our 34 interns who completed summer placements in 2019.
Kicking off the event, Q-Step lecturers Dr Marta Cantijoch Cunill, Dr Lisa Williams, Dr Patrycja Strycharczuk and Dr Dharmi Kapadia presented their latest research in 3 Minute Presentations (3MPs). Following that, we had keynote talks from Q-Step alumni Klara Valentova and Hannah Watts. The event concluded with our 34 interns displaying their work through professional posters, and 8 interns gave 3MPs about their internship experience.
The posters and presentations were judged independently, and we are delighted to announce our winners:
- Best presentation (judged by the panel): Anna Guzenkova
- Best presentation (judged by the audience): Isaac Hance
- Best poster: Lauren Armstrong
- Highly commended posters: Benjamin Murphy and Elise Alstad
Congratulations to everyone who took part, and all our excellent presenters:
- Jose Vinaixia Kinnear;
- Isaac Hance;
- Sami Bashir;
- Philippe Larsson;
- Ebun Osobu;
- Anna Guzenkova; and
- Nora Chabach.
The 39 Q-Steps
- Date: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
- Location: Samuel Alexander Building, The University of Manchester
This event by The University of Manchester Q-Step Centre was a celebration of the success of the 39 Q-Step summer internships in 2018.
Following keynote talks from Michelle McDowell (Harding Centre for Risk Literacy) and Tom Forth (ODI Leeds), our 39 interns displayed their work through professional posters, and nine interns gave three-minute-presentations about their time on placement.
The posters and presentations were judged independently, and we are delighted to announce our winners:
- Best presentation (judged by the panel): Klara Valentova
- Best presentation (judged by the audience): Amber Quraishi
- Best poster: Lydia Wilson
- Highly commended posters: Carmel Galvin
- Posters with special mention: Mahroz Azmat, Cormac Hier Harron, Amber Quraishi and Joshua Wakeford
Congratulations to everyone who took part, and all our fantastic presentees:
- Emma Mallett;
- Grace Desouza;
- Julija Loginovic;
- Mia Gair;
- Charlotte Wong;
- Patrick Young.
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