Dr Lauren Ansell

Lecturer in Mathematical Sciences

Highlights

An R script written by Dr Lauren Ansell has been shortlisted in the “Best Application of Innovative Digital Tools or Emerging Technology on a Brownfield Project” category of the Brownfield Awards 2022, with entries coming from industry professionals nationwide.

The R function, entitled “SiteSamplingGrid”, automatically generates grids of the size defined by the user and selects sample points within the grid for the measuring of pollutants in soils to assess spatially distributed contamination. The automation of selecting sample points benefits the process of measuring pollutants by the removal of bias that is introduced by manual placement of the grid and selection of sample locations.

This project was supported by the ERDF funded Environmental Futures and Big Data Impact Lab and was created for the South West engineering consultancy John Grimes Partnership Ltd who submitted the script for the award.

Qualifications

Academic qualifications:

• PhD in Mathematical Sciences, School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics , University of Plymouth, 2019
• BSc in Mathematics, University of Plymouth, 2009

Professional membership

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Teaching interests

I currently teach on both the first and second year of the undergraduate Mathematics courses and on the MSc in Data Science and Business Analytics. I am also the module lead for the module "Engineering Mathematics and Statistics" ran on the second year as core for the Electronic and Robotics Engineering students. 

Research interests

My research interests line in the area of multivariate data modelling and the use of non traditional forms of data from sources, such as Twitter, to create prediction models with a focus on environmental and marine settings. 

Recent Projects

• Big data analysis of e-bike movement in Exeter
• Automation of sample point locations for soil sampling using R
• Marine transport feasibility study for Plymouth  
• Analysis of vessel movements in the port of Plymouth to predict electric energy demand from battery powered boats

My research activities also include the creation of interactive, live data visualisations, apps and dashboards which can be deployed on the web, an example of which can be found online.

Other research

Big Data group

Centre for Mathematical Sciences

Sustainable Earth Institute

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

Current research Students:

• K Jagoda: Methodological challenges in dealing with missing data when carrying out research using electronic health (co-supervisor)
  
• M Bibani: Multivariate Survival Modelling using Copulas (co-supervisor)

Grants & contracts

Externally funded projects:

04/07/2022 – 30/06/2023, Enterprise Solutions, Dynamic Plant-Pollinator Interaction Database Tool , £19,507 ; PI

01/04/2022 – 30/06/2022, Plymouth City Council, Marine Transport Planning, £25,000;  PI

Other academic activities

Conference talks given

• MeLL Launch event 2022 - presentation given, title 'Predicting the energy demand from electric vessels in Plymouth'
• Sustainable Earth 2021: Climate Emergency - the race to net zero- presentation given, title: ‘Social Media Integration of Flood Data’
• Research Festival 2021: Robotics, Data Science, and Physics: the foundation of future economic growth presentation given, title: ‘Social Media Integration of Flood Data’
• ProGeo 2020- presentation given, title: ‘Statistical method for soil pollutant measurements’
• 2018 LPHYS18- invited talk, title: ‘Relativistic charge motion in laser fields’
• 2017 Christmas Meeting of the High Power Laser Community- presentation given, title: ‘Relativistic charge dynamics in Laser Fields’
• 2016 Christmas Meeting of the High Power Laser Community- Poster presented, title: ‘Beams, Charges and their Symmetries’
• 2015 Christmas Meeting of the High Power Laser Community- Poster presented, title: ‘Relativistic charge dynamics in Electromagnetic Fields’