---
# System prepended metadata

title: The Turing Way Practitioners Hub - Kick Off call (27 June 2023)
tags: [Practitioners Hub]

---


:::info
==**If you are new to HackMD**, please read this short guide: [https://hackmd.io/@turingway/hackmd-guide](https://hackmd.io/@turingway/hackmd-guide)== (right click, open in a new window)

- **Code of conduct**: [Please take a moment to read this](https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/the-turing-way/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) 
- **Join Zoom Meeting**
https://turing-uk.zoom.us/j/99448423769?pwd=NkkzZ3JjL2J3R3BJRmFHcVFtWm45dz09
    * **Meeting ID**: 994 4842 3769
    * **Passcode**: 429581
:::

*We are delighted to welcome The first Practitioners Hub cohort!*

**Useful Resources**

- [Slidedeck - will be sparsely used](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1n1aeOsdPNDrsats2gyCM8CmKJ8IHCeKB/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114633135312903865689&rtpof=true&sd=true)

Previously shared:
- [Priming document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n4n7-5FhAuf5fAOZ5VB8h1VbyZBHwzx6gZw6jzrq87Y/edit#heading=h.qqcosfgcdlg5)
- [Introductory Slidedeck](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uVmDE_v8PTKOgunZSM8PwsfrPlRj5sYf/edit#slide=id.p1)

## Agenda

| Time | Topic | Lead by |
| -------- | -------- | -------- |
10:30 - 10:35 (5 min)| Check-in / Code of conduct / HackMD icebreaker| Alex
10:35 - 10:40 (5 min) | Welcome, explaining who is in the room | Kirstie
10:40 - 10:45 (5 min) | Experts in Residence presentation  |Lucy Stephenson: British Antarctic Survey
10:45 - 10:50 (5 min) | Expert in Residence presentation  | Raphael Sonabend: Genomics England |
10:50 - 10:55 (5 min) | Expert in Residence presentation  |Rowan Hemsi: Office for National Statistics |
| 10:55 - 10:58  (3 min) | Expert in Residence presentation | Stephen Haben: Energy Systems Catapult (video) (Stewart) |
| 10:58 - 11:00  (2 min) | Expert in Residence presentation | Wenjia Tang: Digihaul (video) |
11:00 - 11:10 (10 min) | BridgeAI and Skills team | Vera Matser |
11:10 - 11:15 (5 min)| BREAK |
11:15 - 11:45 (30 min)|Breakout rooms: What support can the Experts in Residence provide for each other as a cohort? What external support do you need? | Malvika to explain:  4 mins description of the shared document, 2 x 8 min conversations, 10 mins reflections on notes |
11:45 - 12:00 (15 min)| Next steps as EiR for The Turing Way Practitioners Hub | Malvika |


## Check-in and icebreaker 

**Name + Pronouns + Organisation/affiliation + If you could change one thing about data science practices/culture to better, what would it be? + an optional emoji ([emoji cheatsheet](https://github.com/ikatyang/emoji-cheat-sheet/blob/master/README.md))**

* Kirstie + she/her + Turing Institute + my current focus is on data access - I wish there were standardised templates for access to data - having every organisation use their own different contracts and data transfer agreements is so painfully NON interoperable! + :sunflower: 
* Lucy + she/her + British Antarctic Survey + I would change culture of publishing to place more value on data products vs associated publications (would increase amount of people wanting to make data open access)
* Cami + they/them+ The Alan Turing Institute + I would embed responsible research and innovation practices as standard accross AI indistry development.
* Alex + she/her + Turing Institute + I would like to ncourage more and better collaboration
* Jen + she/her + Turing + more rights and protections for data subjects and data creators
* Malvika Sharan + she/her + I would like to normalise the considerations for access(ibility) and equity from community perspectives in all data science policy and implemention frameworks. + 💪
* Rowan Hemsi + they/them + Office for National Statistics + I would like a greater focus on reflection and evaluation to make sure we maximise the value of everything we do and learn from previous mistakes (and successes!)
* Vera + she/her + The Alan Turing Institute + I would like to see skills building and human capacity building integrated (and properly resourced!!) in all new projects 
* Shane + He/Him + The Alan Turing Institute
* Stephen + 
* Raphael + They/He + Genomics England + I'd like to see an active move from equality (e.g., a passive code of conduct) to equity (e.g., practically welcoming people to OS projects and onboarding them)
* 

## Experts in Residence presentation (20 min)
Each Expert in Residence will give a short presentation (max 5-mins) about themselves with the following information:
- **About you**: Share a brief introduction about you, highlighting some of your interests/work where you apply and promote data science best practices
- **Your goals within The Practitioners Hub**: a summary of what you mentioned in the Onboarding form (let me know if you'd like me to send them to you)

### Questions for Experts in Residence:

* [Lucy](https://www.bas.ac.uk/profile/lustep/): https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/icenet/
    * Understanding barriers to adopting The Turing Way
* Rowan: Quality assurance of code for analysis and research: https://best-practice-and-impact.github.io/qa-of-code-guidance/intro.html
    * Transferring learnings of The Turing Way in govt projects
* Raphael: Link23 - https://www.link23.world/ - equitable engagement of volunteers in making health equity possible
    * Links between Turing and The Turing Way -- templating that in Genomics England + Links23
* Stephen: https://es.catapult.org.uk/, 
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## Bridge AI and Skills team presentation

Questions:

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:coffee: Break (5 min)

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## Breakout rooms (20 min)

**What support can the Experts in Residence provide for each other as a cohort? (8 min)**

### Group 1

* Rowan: There are many early adoptors, and now we are trying to engage them in embedding the practices in different projects.
    * Challenges also exist around old IT system that we are trying to get around.
    * There are a lot of work going on and we are seeing a lot of them, but we have a long way to go.
    * We have done some survey and qual work on systemic level adoption, we see that there are teams that are doing really well and some are not. Some are much further ahead and some are not. None of the department stands out yet.
    * We are tackling the problem of lack of standardisation.
* Raphael: Lots of technical, grant making and open source experience before joining GE. 
    * Teams are so disparate 
    * Have worked with govt funded orgs, and also budget management.
    * Can't hire consultants but can have intern, that is an issue from sustainability perspective
    * ONS and Turing+Turing Way - always comes up in many conversations in GE (and WT before)


### Group 2
* Being exposed to different groups with a diverse set of challenges that can provide support to each other
* test the assumptions that each sector has and combine the values from them
* skills management in different levels of the organisation: 2 kind of sets, the technical and non-technical one - there's a lot of miscommunication about the sets and would be interesting to contrast this in different sectors. Check the bridge between these two sides. 
* Project design and communication, how do project start and how we can decrease the gap between each side. 
* Compare and contrast the challenges each org has
* Case studies: linking it with the rest of the cohort
* Case studies: raise our own opinion (as opposed to sector opinions) about each best practices

**What other support (external consultant, expert, training, services) you might need? (8 min)**

### Group 1
* Wenjia: They want to showcase that DS and AI can do/ demonstrate the power of the latest technology. In their industry, when there is a shipment, chances are they send an email or pick up a form. Its not as digitised as say, retail. Team has to go to system to manually log in information. The industry data literacy level doesnt support adoption, this presents a risk of human error. One option is having a conversational AI tool for costumers. 
* Stephen: Energy sector less mature than other sectors. Some types of AI tools are more widely adopted than others. ATI can help with translation of technical concepts. Designing trials, giving people confidence in using tools. The second area of support is demonstrating the value of these tools. Support in advocacy would also be useful, advocacy for open ways of working, and showcasing academic work that can support the wider sector in making thinga more open, perhaps with case studies with our help. 
* Raphael: Key challenge is an initiative within a big government body. Big question of building something from scratch in an open environment. They could learn from the initiatives within turing. because there are many overlaps. 
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### Group 2
* Tricky as they don't know what will be available yet. 
* Training: consultancy for project design, possible where we struggle the most 
* Advice on how to open up the conversations when everyone is so busy
* Advice on building self-sustaining communitties, including having people who are creating tools with overlaps, how to make them aware that they are creating the same
* support in where to start when a project is up and going, how you assess them to became open, without burding them
* Version control and reproducible code, is useful: BAS might need it urgently
* What they think is a technical problem is normally a managerial problem, cultural/best practices issue
* Managing larger projects - how to design larger projects. When there are more than 3-4 poeple working on a project
* How to get higher-up support from the organisation to encourage Open - the people on the top are onboard but sometimes project lead struggle to follow on 

**Insights and Reflections** (10 min)
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## Next steps as EiR for The Turing Way Practitioners Hub

Questions about the next steps:

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### Useful links

* Welcome Page: [the-turing-way.start.page/](https://the-turing-way.start.page/)
* The Turing Way GitHub repository: github.com/alan-turing-institute/the-turing-way
* Join us on Slack: tinyurl.com/jointuringwayslack
* Join the mailing list: tinyletter.com/TuringWay
* Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/turingway
* Follow us on Fosstodon: fosstodon.org/turingway