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<title>Manchester Statistical Society</title>
<link>https://manstatsoc.org/</link>
<description>News, meetings and study-group updates.</description>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: May 2026 Part1]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/06/22/ai-study-group-may-2026-part-2/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/06/22/ai-study-group-may-2026-part-2/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 14:07:01 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Chronicles from the Al Ecosystem By Adrian Quayle 19th May 2026 Adrian briefly introduced his background and career in management consulting in IT and business processes including his involvement in management system standards. After working across the UK and internationally for many years, he has been focusing on Manc]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: May 2026 Part2]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/06/22/ai-study-group-may-2026-part-1/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/06/22/ai-study-group-may-2026-part-1/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 13:54:58 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Al: Friend or Foe? By Jennifer Williams 19th May 2026 Jennifer Williams, Managing Director of Secarma, discussed how artificial intelligence is transforming penetration testing (pentesting) and cyber security while arguing that human expertise remains essential. Drawing on her experience as a former penetration tester,]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: April 2026]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/05/09/ai-study-group-april-2026/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/05/09/ai-study-group-april-2026/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 09 May 2026 16:25:19 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[AI Augmentation: What Actually Works for Businesses, by Tom Brandwood, Chief Technology Officer for Traverse Automation MSS AI Study Group Meeting on 21st April 2026 Tom Brandwood, Chief Technology Officer at Traverse Automation, delivers a detailed and pragmatic overview of artificial intelligence, grounded in his com]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: March 2026]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/05/09/ai-study-group-march-2026/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/05/09/ai-study-group-march-2026/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 09 May 2026 16:20:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Building Reliable Agentic Systems: Lessons from the Front Lines of Data Engineering, by Julian Wiffen, Chief of AI and Data Science – Matillion Julian’s talk, “Building Reliable Agentic Systems: Lessons from the Front Lines of Data Engineering,” presents a practical, experience-driven view of how agentic AI is transfor]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: February 2026]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/05/09/ai-study-group-february-2026/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/05/09/ai-study-group-february-2026/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 09 May 2026 16:14:47 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Building with Generative AI: The Tricks and Tips You Need to Avoid Common Pitfalls Ian Massingham Ian introduces his background in cloud computing, starting at AWS in 2013 and witnessing its rapid European growth. After roles at MongoDB and a data startup, he joined early-stage Griptape. Initially focused on building a]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[From Discovery to Application: Exploring Graphene with the Manchester Statistical Society]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/03/28/from-discovery-to-application-exploring-graphene-with-the-manchester-statistical-society/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/03/28/from-discovery-to-application-exploring-graphene-with-the-manchester-statistical-society/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:41:17 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[This week I attended another event hosted by the Manchester Statistical Society, this time featuring a talk by Professor Coskun Kocabas from The University of Manchester. His talk focused on graphene and the development of intelligent materials. Professor Kocabas explained how Graphene was first discovered in Mancheste]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[Seeing the World Through Data: My Evening with Lord O’Neill and the Manchester Statistical Society]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/02/18/seeing-the-world-through-data-my-evening-with-lord-oneill-and-the-manchester-statistical-society/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/02/18/seeing-the-world-through-data-my-evening-with-lord-oneill-and-the-manchester-statistical-society/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:08:09 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The following is a blog written by a visiting student, documenting her first time at the society. Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a talk and dinner hosted by the Manchester Statistical Society. The evening’s speaker, Lord Jim O’Neill, delivered an interesting talk on global economic shifts, regional developm]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: January 2026]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/01/17/ai-study-group-january-2026/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/01/17/ai-study-group-january-2026/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 17 Jan 2026 03:10:36 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[AI Transformation in the Real World: What I’ve Learned Leading at Scale Rebecca Fox At our January 2026 meeting, the MSS AI Study Group welcomed Rebecca Fox, an experienced technology and transformation leader with over two decades at executive level across large, global organisations. Drawing on her time leading compl]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: December 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/01/13/ai-study-group-december-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2026/01/13/ai-study-group-december-2025/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2026 02:08:41 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[MSS AI Study Group Meeting on 16 December 2025 Practical Frameworks for Industrial AI by Dr Jack Saunders In Practical Frameworks for Industrial AI, Dr Jack Saunders, Technical Director at Trident Intelligent Solutions, presents a pragmatic, outcome-focused approach to delivering AI in complex and regulated environment]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: November 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/12/02/ai-study-group-november-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/12/02/ai-study-group-november-2025/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 02 Dec 2025 18:56:41 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[MSS AI Study Group Meeting on 18 November 2025 Part 1. Dr. Guy Marshall introduces HAILIE Summary Dr. Guy Marshall sets the scene by explaining why HAILIE (the Housing AI Leadership and Implementation Exchange) was created: to give housing professionals a no-sales forum to move beyond hype and work together on the prac]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: October 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/11/15/ai-study-group-october-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/11/15/ai-study-group-october-2025/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 15 Nov 2025 19:13:04 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Date: 21 October 2025Speaker: Gospel UcheRole: Marketing Lead and Web3/AI StrategistTalk Title: Unlocking Potential in an AI & Web3-Driven World Overview Gospel Uche explored how artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3 technologies can be combined to create transparent, participatory, trust-driven ecosystems. He describe]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[Safeguarding Policy]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/10/22/safeguarding-policy/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/10/22/safeguarding-policy/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:17:11 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Safeguarding Policy Download]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: September 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/10/14/ai-study-group-september-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/10/14/ai-study-group-september-2025/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2025 08:29:26 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Dr. Nishanthi Abeynayae, Senior Lecturer in Statistics and Data Science, Mr. Chiranjeewa Atapattu, Senior Lecturer in Hospitality and Business Technology, and Dr. Xia Cui, Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering, presented results of their research, supported by Sir Harry Campion’s Fund. Summary of the Paper:“Machine L]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: August 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/08/29/ai-study-group-august-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/08/29/ai-study-group-august-2025/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2025 10:56:15 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[MSS AI Study Group Meeting on 19th August 2025 Summary of “AI – The Good, the Bad and the Useful!” by Professor Alan Gillies Professor Alan Gillies’s talk examines the evolution, applications, risks, and management of artificial intelligence (AI), drawing on decades of academic and professional experience. He begins by]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: July 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/07/21/ai-study-group-july-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/07/21/ai-study-group-july-2025/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:33:23 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[From Hype to Help & Everything In Between: Embedding AI into Real World Work- Place Benefit, by Robert Fawcett – Executive Technology Leader | Human CTO | Strategic Transformation Partner Summary This talk addresses the real-world challenges of AI adoption in workplaces, arguing that AI often fails not because of poor ]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: June 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/07/20/1381/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/07/20/1381/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 20 Jul 2025 16:51:47 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[A frontier AI researcher presents an urgent warning about coming systems. Making History Normandale began with a call to the history of Manchester Statistical Society, created during the industrial revolution during a time of technological upheaval and societal change. We are not just statisticians, but ‘statists’, com]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[MSS Picnic: June 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/06/25/mss-picnic-june-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/06/25/mss-picnic-june-2025/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2025 19:19:08 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Despite the drizzle that rolled in over Heaton Park, spirits were high as members of the Manchester Statistical Society gathered for our now-annual summer picnic: A relaxed and gently thought-provoking occasion made all the more memorable by guest speaker David Blood, Chair of the Friends of Heaton Hall. Sheltering und]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AGM Report: May 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/06/25/agm-report-may-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/06/25/agm-report-may-2025/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:47:36 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[On May 13, members of the Manchester Statistical Society gathered at the Manchester Tennis and Racquet Club for this year’s Annual General Meeting, a warm and collegial occasion reflecting both the enduring legacy and forward momentum of one of the UK’s oldest learned societies. After strawberries and cream, the meetin]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: May 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/06/25/ai-study-group-may-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/06/25/ai-study-group-may-2025/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:38:09 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Summary of “Generative AI: A Tale of Two Case Studies” by Farooq Ansari Farooq Ansari’s talk explores practical insights and key learnings from two real-world generative AI projects, examining both the promise and pitfalls of implementing generative AI in business contexts. It presents a structured, experience-based gu]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: April 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/06/22/ai-study-group-april-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/06/22/ai-study-group-april-2025/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 Jun 2025 05:12:09 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Summary of “Organisational Readiness for AI Adoption” by Subrahmaniam Krishnan-Harihara Subrahmaniam Krishnan-Harihara’s talk on “Organisational Readiness for AI Adoption” explores the often challenging journey organisations face when integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into their operations. Drawing ]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: March 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/05/12/ai-study-group-march-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/05/12/ai-study-group-march-2025/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2025 18:03:33 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[MSS AI Study Group meeting on 18 March 2025 Summary of “Translating the Machine – The Use of AI in Medical Retina” by Professor Tariq Aslam Professor Tariq Aslam, a leading figure in ophthalmology and technology research, explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the subspecialty of medical retina—concerned ]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[Ordinary Meeting: March 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/03/17/ordinary-meeting-march-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/03/17/ordinary-meeting-march-2025/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 17 Mar 2025 13:42:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Caroline Jay’s engaging talk explored how we use data in decision-making and why human perception often skews our interpretation of it. She highlighted how we systematically underestimate correlations in data visualizations and demonstrated how simple design tweaks—such as adjusting opacity and size—can improve accurac]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[Radical Statistics]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/03/03/radical-statistics/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/03/03/radical-statistics/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:03:13 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Half a dozen MSS members attended the RadStats conference held in Manchester on 1st March. As RadStats was celebrating it’s 50th anniversary, it felt fitting to share some of MSS’s own history. Guy Marshall (webmaster) devised a short presentation and delivered this. Thanks to our resident historian Chris O’Brien for f]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: February 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/02/25/ai-study-group-february-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/02/25/ai-study-group-february-2025/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Feb 2025 17:33:34 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[On February 18th, MSS AI Study Group hosted Ghulam Jilani, CEO of Tiksom Limited, who helps companies unlock the potential of AI. Ghulam, in his talk titled “AI-Powered Business Growth: A Cross-Industry Revolution”, explored the transformative impact of AI across various sectors. AI in Key Industries: AI Business Growt]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: January 2025]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/02/09/ai-study-group-january-2025/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/02/09/ai-study-group-january-2025/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 09 Feb 2025 13:23:27 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Dr David Hoyle’s presentation at the MSS AI Study Group Meeting in January 2025 focused on the concept of demand modelling in grocery retail, explaining its significance and the methods used to forecast sales. The presentation highlighted the importance of analytics in grocery retail, emphasizing that the business mode]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: December 2024]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/01/02/ai-study-group-december-2024/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/01/02/ai-study-group-december-2024/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Jan 2025 14:04:04 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[MSS AI Study Group Meeting on 17 December 2024 “AI and Satellite Data: Harnessing the power of satellite imagery”, by Ian Pattison, CEO, Neural River The talk, “AI and Satellite Data: Harnessing the Power of Satellite Imagery,” was a journey into the fascinating world of remote sensing and spatial imagery. It revealed ]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: November 2024]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/01/02/ai-study-group-november-2024/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2025/01/02/ai-study-group-november-2024/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Jan 2025 14:01:01 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Our very own Krystyna Ambroch and Guy Marshall spoke this month about their work in progress, a Campion grant project on the topic of Analysis of public reviews of housing providers in Manchester, using Natural Language Processing AI . More can be seen about the Campion grants here. Attendees had a first presentation o]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: October 2024]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2024/12/23/collaborating-with-communities-on-the-use-of-automated-decision-making-by-julian-tait/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2024/12/23/collaborating-with-communities-on-the-use-of-automated-decision-making-by-julian-tait/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:38:40 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[On 15th October 2024, the MSS AI Study Group had the opportunity to learn from our special guest-speaker. Mr. Julian Tait, the Chief Executive at Open Data Manchester CIC, about the development of principles for collaboration with residents on the use of Automated Decision-Making systems.The talk focussed on the need f]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: September 2024]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2024/10/17/ai-study-group-september-2024/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2024/10/17/ai-study-group-september-2024/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 17 Oct 2024 16:05:28 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Our guest, Dr Batista-Navarro, specialist in Text Mining at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester introduced us to her team’s research on increasing the conscious choice of high-carbon food substitutes in everyday culinary decisions of the UK population, in order significantly to reduce the]]></description></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[AI Study Group: August 2024]]></title><link>https://manstatsoc.org/2024/08/28/ai-study-group-august-2024/</link><guid>https://manstatsoc.org/2024/08/28/ai-study-group-august-2024/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 05:45:15 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Roger Mitchell treated us to an hour’s talk about AI and how IP and copyright is impacted. The engaging talk was necessarily wide-ranging, and generated a lot of discussion. There were a few main points I took away: Nothing in this summary (or indeed in the talk) should be taken as legal advice!]]></description></item>
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