{"id":100,"date":"2020-01-20T15:00:30","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/?p=100"},"modified":"2020-02-12T10:57:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T10:57:24","slug":"every-stor-i-has-a-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/2020\/01\/20\/every-stor-i-has-a-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Every STOR-i has a beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hello world! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Welcome to my blog! I have just started my second term here in ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ so in my very first post I wanted to talk a bit about my STOR-i experience so far: both with regards to academic life but also the extra-curricular experiences STOR-i has provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was officially inducted into the MRes programme in late September as part of a welcome day. The main purpose of this day was for us to meet the rest of our cohort as well as the rest of the STOR-i family. After a tour of the facilities we were each allocated a locker, a shiny new laptop and a first year PhD student as a mentor. We were also given a talk explaining some of the changes to the programme since last year which involved restructuring several of the modules which we would be starting in the following week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before starting these modules however we were taken on a two day team building trip to the Lake District along with the first year PhDs. During this trip we enjoyed a variety of different activities ranging from creating golf courses from upcycled materials to yacht sailing. For each of these activities we were split into different groups and so by the end of our time in the Lake District we had been able to get to know everyone pretty well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"874\" height=\"289\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/01\/AwayDayWindermere.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-102\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/01\/AwayDayWindermere.jpg 874w, https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/01\/AwayDayWindermere-300x99.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/01\/AwayDayWindermere-768x254.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 874px) 100vw, 874px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The programme then proceeded with five weeks of lectures. Our four taught modules were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Probability and Stochastic Processes<\/li><li>Inference and Modelling<\/li><li>Stochastic Simulation<\/li><li>Deterministic Optimisation<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These were quite fast paced and provided a solid foundation of knowledge that we could build on throughout the rest of the term. Each of us had our own strengths and weaknesses but were able to pool our collective experiences to support each other through the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next four weeks of term were taken up by a series of contemporary topic sprints. At the beginning of each week we were given a lecture introducing us to a new area within statistics or operational research. We then divided into groups and spent the next few day delving deeper into that area with the goal of reporting back at the end of the week in the form of group presentations. The four topic areas were Decision Theory, Changepoint Detection, Markov chain Monte Carlo and Stochastic Optimisation. In the final week of term we were tasked with producing an individual report on one of these topic areas. My report focused on Markov chain Monte Carlo and in particular a method which uses approximation to reduce the computational cost of an existing algorithm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to our assessed modules we also had the opportunity to learn about what the PhD students were doing. This was done both informally, by talking to them during breaks, lunchtimes and outside of working hours, but also more formally in weekly Forums where the PhDs student took turns to present their research. These talks were usually be followed either by tea, coffee and biscuits or, in the build up to Christmas, the STOR-i Bake-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To celebrate the end of term we were all invited out for a\nmeal and drinks with the PhD students and members of staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since arriving back for my second term I have attended the\nannual STOR-i conference which I will talk about in my next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello world! Welcome to my blog! I have just started my second term here in ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ so in my very first post I wanted to talk a bit about my STOR-i experience so far: both with regards to academic life but also the extra-curricular experiences STOR-i has provided. I was officially inducted into the MRes &#8230; <a title=\"Every STOR-i has a beginning\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/2020\/01\/20\/every-stor-i-has-a-beginning\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Every STOR-i has a beginning\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mresyear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/edward-mellor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}