Following another successful year of the CDRC Retail Masters Dissertation Programme, we are now seeking proposals from businesses for new projects due to commence next spring For more information please visit: www.cdrc.ac.uk/retail-masters/information-for-retailers/

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

2. • The programme gives students the opportunity
undertake their dissertation which solves a
problem set by a industry partner
• 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, where prizes
are offered for 3 dissertations
Summary

3. Sponsors (2012-17)

4. • 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

5. Students (2012-17)

6. The programme offers students a unique
opportunity to apply their skills to real-world
problems and to gain valuable experience
working with commercial datasets
Panel images from left to right: Christian Tonge (2017), Paula White (2017), Neelam Kundi (2017), Ulzhan Bissarinova (2017)

7. Incentives
Grouped words after implementing distributed representation of words,
with the means from Gaussian Mixture Models (Eirini Milaiou, 2016)
• Projects can address important
horizon-scanning questions
• Demonstrable collaboration
with academia
• Exposure to new software,
techniques and perspectives
• Positive implications for
postgraduate student
recruitment

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

9. Academic Conference
All participants involved in the programme are invited
to an annual academic conference
• Speakers include representatives from business,
academia and government
• 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

10. Timeline
January
Projects are
advertised on the
CDRC website
Jan - Apr
The student application process is
open. The CDRC will forward
selected CVs and cover letters.
May - Aug
Research is undertaken either at the students own institution
or on-site with the industry sponsor
September
Dissertations are
submitted to the CDRC
and industrial sponsors
October
Participants are invited to an
Academic conference where
the prizes are awarded

11. • 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

12. Engagement
Step 1
Fill the project proposal form
and email it to
g.lansley@ucl.ac.uk
Step 2
Select a student from a shortlist
of applications forwarded by the
CDRC
Step 3
Hold occasional steering meetings with the selected student
between May and August

13. Work plans
Agree a work plan which
is most suitable with
your team
Off-site data access
Student works from their
university campus
Invite the student to
work from your office
over the Summer
On-site data access
Data can also be stored and
accessed through the CDRC
secure data lab facilities

14. • 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
• The provisional deadline for
proposals is 8 December

15. 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)

16. 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)

17. 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)

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