This document calls for industry sponsors for a masters student research program run through University College London and the CDRC. It provides information on the program, including that students conduct research projects for sponsor companies using retail or consumer data, and present their findings at an academic conference where cash prizes are awarded. Sponsor responsibilities and benefits are outlined, and examples of previous successful industry-student partnerships and sponsor feedback are provided. Industry representatives are invited to propose research topics and select a student.

1. Call for Sponsors
Guy Lansley
University College London
g.lansley@ucl.ac.uk
@GuyLansley

2. • The programme gives companies the
opportunity to invite a masters student to
undertake a research project for them
• Students usually carry out the research at their
universities with the support of their university
supervisors
• Students and supervisors will be invited to an
academic conference in October 2017
• The completed dissertations are entered into a
cash prize competition (£500, £250 & 250)
funded by the CDRC
Summary

3. Sponsors (2012-16)

4. Students (2012-16)

5. • Sponsor companies delegate one member of
staff to act as an industry supervisor for the
student to correspond with
• Sponsors will be required to select an
appropriate student from a small number of
applicants forwarded by the CDRC
• Students and their industry supervisors usually
hold a small number progress meetings during
the research phase
• Sponsors are asked to provide the student with
a £500 bursary, and also fund travel expenses
upon successful project completion
Industry Sponsors

6. • Sponsor
• Projects may address important horizon-
scanning questions
• High impact case studies for universities
• Positive implications for postgraduate
student recruitment
• Student
• A unique opportunity to work with an
industrial partner
• First hand research experience in applied
problem-solving
• (Often) an opportunity to work with private
retail data
Incentives

7. • Industry representatives are invited to
propose research topics for prospective
students to undertake for them
• All projects must involve data on
consumers or the retail sector
• This can include open source data
• Guidance and submission instructions
can be found on the CDRC website
www.cdrc.ac.uk/retail-masters
Topics

8. Academic research can explore
• New Data
• New Techniques
• New Problems
Research Opportunities
Grouped words after implementing distributed representation of words,
with the means from Gaussian Mixture Models (Eirini Milaiou, 2016)

9. Outputs
Short examples of previous projects are available online
www.cdrc.ac.uk/retail-masters/archive

10. Academic Conference
All participants involved in the programme are invited
to an annual academic conference
• The conference is attended by a mixture of business
representatives and academics
• The focus of the event is consumer data
• Students present posters of their research
• The three cash prizes are awarded
The Demographics Users Group Conference 2016
The Royal Society, London

11. Projects proposed by industry
representatives
Projects advertised to Masters students on
the CDRC website
Industry representatives meet with
candidates to select an appropriate student
Research takes place
Dissertations are submitted
Conference
Timeline for 2017
Dec 2016
Jan 2017
Jan - Apr
May - Aug
Sep 2017
Oct 2017

12. • Visit www.cdrc.ac.uk/retail-masters and read the
Information for Retailers page
• You can also download a short project proposal
form from the webpage
To participate
A network graph showing the Bluetooth passenger flows
between bus stops (Daniel Stockdale, 2016)
• Projects should be problem
focused and involve either
retail data or data
pertaining to consumers
• Deadline for project
proposals is Friday 9
December 2016

13. To participate
Step 1
Think of a project a
Masters student could
help you with
Step 2
Fill the project proposal
form and email it to
g.lansley@ucl.ac.uk
Step 3
Review the CVs and cover letters
from selected student applicants
forwarded by the CDRC
Step 4
Arrange a meeting with
the best student(s) to
select a candidate
Step 5
Hold occasional steering
meetings with the selected
student between May and
August

14. Boots: Senior Portfolio Analyst, Space and Location Planning
"Had a good time working with the student. He was particularly good at
taking on board not only the overall research objective, but also my
specific requirement that he deliver us a working algorithm that we could
use and develop further (which he has done)! He kept in regular
communication throughout, and was confident to question and challenge
when necessary. Have to say he's also very entertaining“
Tesco: Community Plan Manager, Tesco.com
"I would definitely say the relationship has been very useful.
For my own project, it was very productive to have a dedicated researcher
to do the legwork and bring academic rigour and investigative ability to
the knotty and overwritten realm of making a business case for green.
The partnership also had the benefits of educating the student in the
corporate world and the different needs and drivers within that arena. A
win-win for both sides."
Feedback(1)

15. Local Data Company: Director
"Working with the UCL student was a great experience. The student took
responsibility for the project and required minimal supervision. The project
was completed to a high standard and clearly illustrated the capabilities of
the LDC datasets. The work covered a variety of key business issues and
the recommendations and results will be valuable pieces of insight.”
Sainsbury’s: Senior GIS Analyst, Property Insight & Analysis
"We had a great experience working with our student, who had a
fantastically professional approach and achieved a huge amount in a few
short months, with an instantly useable Classification that we have
implemented in many of our tools and analysis, and came to present the
work to the team.
The other great aspect of the project was that she taught us a lot too!”
Feedback(2)

16. E.ON Energy: Senior CRM marketing analyst. Customer insight and
Experience
"For me personally it was a great experience to get to work with such a
strong candidate with clear direction on what they wished to do and the
drive to own and deliver it. A clear and well delivered piece of work.
The work undertaken covered a number of key issues and the insight
produced will be valuable to the organisation.”
Feedback(3)

17. • Three-tier Data
Access
• Secure Facilities
• Trusted
Researchers
• Governance
• Safe resultswww.cdrc.ac.uk
www.cdrc.ac.uk/retail-masters/information-for-retailers