Report from the School of Applied Data Analysis in Tomsk

On November 30 – December 2, a full-time module of the annual School of Applied Data Analysis was held at Tomsk State University. Head of ANR-Lab Daria Maltseva acted as a guest expert and conducted a series of master classes on applied network analysis for participants in the “Science Management” track.

The School of Applied Data Analysis is annually implemented by the Data Diving Academy and Tomsk State University with the support of the University Consortium of Big Data Researchers.

This year, 57 students from 13 universities and organizations took part in the educational event: Tomsk State University, Novgorod State University named after Yaroslav the Wise, Novosibirsk State University of Architecture, Design and Arts, Yaroslavl State University named after P.G. Demidov, Samara National Research University named after Academician S.P. Korolev, Surgut State University, Omsk State Technical University, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Ugra State University, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Perm State National Research University, Legislative Duma of the Tomsk Region, FAU “RosKapStroy”.

The School program included 3 educational tracks:

• Education and Society, where students learned to use data analysis to implement applied educational and social projects;
• The labor market, dedicated to the analysis of vacancies using the RosNavyk service to create relevant and in-demand educational programs;
• Science Management, which aims to use the metadata of scientific articles in scientometric research.

Participants in the School of Applied Data Analysis spent 3 days learning the principles of digital analytics, mastering tools for analyzing textual information and network analysis as part of their research interests, visualizing test data sets, and also working on group projects in mixed teams.


Daria Maltseva, Head of the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research:

“Going to Tomsk is always a joy for me! Not only because this is the city of my husband, a graduate of the Faculty of Sociology of TSU Stas Moiseev, but simply because the city always has very young, lively and powerful energy. When communicating with colleagues from the Laboratory for Applied Big Data Analysis, I am always amazed at how many interesting, important and useful activities they manage to do, and this school is one example of this.

I really liked the format itself: it was quite concise and brief, but the participants managed to immerse themselves in the various proposed topics on data collection and analysis. The most interesting thing is that the children had to immediately apply the acquired knowledge in practice, forming and defending their real research projects. I taught a module on bibliometric network analysis – this is a fairly large area in the field of scientometric research. Colleagues needed to learn how to work in the Pajek program, which was new to them. I guess I’m even a little surprised that we managed to get everything done! The participants were very interested, asked questions and were very happy when they succeeded. It is always very pleasant for a teacher to have interested listeners.

I would like to say a special thank you to the organizers for the comfortable schedule, clear timing and excellent organization of the social part of the school. I believe that events with informal communication are one of the most important parts of any event. I think that it will be difficult for participants to forget the delicious pilaf, the frozen lake with a view of the cedars and pushing out the groove!

I wish all school participants good luck in completing their very different, but equally ambitious and interesting projects!”