Summer Seminar Series

 We are proud to announce our summer seminars coming up on

24th June 2024, between 12 and 1pm, Lunchtime session

“What Analytics Tools do Companies Use and What Skills do They Require” 14th August 4.30 to 5.30pm, Early evening session “Motivations and Challenges of Embedding and Delivering Business Analytics in an Accounting Postgraduate Programme”  We do hope you will be able to join us for these highly informative and useful events.  First up our Chair, Dr Christina J Phillips and Ms Zhuoyi Deng MSc

24th June 2024, between 12 and 1pm Brief Description of the Session   Back in 2018 Jia Woh, a student at University of Leeds Business School began a QSteps funded project with Christina. The project was designed to look at ‘What Analytics Tools do Companies Use and What Skills do They Require’ and Jia began this by interviewing 7 company leaders and covering the current literature to develop a questionnaire.   Zoom forward 5 years and the project was given new life with funding from LJMU’s QR fund and a brilliant Masters student called Zhuoyi Deng who worked with Christina to bring the survey up to date and pilot the study. Zhuoyi will present the results of the survey as she analysed them to give valuable information to educators and firms about the skills and tools landscape in analytics. We aim to run the survey on a regular basis so that it is easier for educators to stay current and so that we might map the dynamics of the field.   As an extra twist will we present the survey results in two formats; First as a standard presentation, secondly as a story in the spirit of Dr SMA Moin who presented at BAEF earlier this year.   Profile: Dr Christina J Phillips, Senior Lecturer, is the Chair of the BAEF, a Director/Trustee at the Operational Research Society (ORS) and runs the Analytics Network (@ORS) with an industry based co-chair. She remains highly active in the Problem Structuring Methods interest group (@ORS) which she used to co-chair. She has seen growth in all of these networks and has a passion for spreading the love of analytics/OR/PSMs and Mathematics both in her public and teaching roles. Christina is also an active member of the Health Systems Design Group (@Design Society).   Christina has taught and designed modules at all levels of education from foundation and apprenticeships to Masters and PhD and has held external examiner positions at Swansea and Salford (current) universities. She has a talent for teaching technology and mathematics to non-specialists which led to her receiving the LJMU T&L Rising Star Award in 2022.   Christina’s research focusses on the human centred design of analytics (Human Centric Analytics, HCA) and she publishes on this subject and hosts regular workshops teaching analysts and students how to foster HCA. Her work has been published in both OR and Design publications, she has presented at numerous conferences and invited events, and she has taken part in/led funded projects in sustainable transport and AI for healthcare systems design. She also worked as a Business Analytics Consultant in industry (supply chains and manufacturing), using HCA to foster data driven cultures and company efficiencies.  Zhuoyi Deng is a graduate with a Master's degree in Business Analytics from The University of Manchester and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has a strong background in statistical analysis, data modeling, and business analytics, with hands-on experience using tools like R, Python, Excel, and Tableau. Zhuoyi is passionate about leveraging data to solve real-world problems and is eager to contribute her skills and knowledge. Dr Phillips was Zhuoyi’s supervisor for her dissertation project and they have continued to work together. They are hoping to publish a paper on the survey that is being presented in the near future.

Next up one of our founding members Dr Grigorios Theodosopoulos

14th August 2024, between 4.30 and 5.30pm Brief Description of the Session   Grigorios was one of the founding members of the BAEF back in 2021 and at the time expressed an interest in building this community to help him create an MSc in Accounting that proposed to use Business Analytics/Intelligence for the first time. We are fortunate to host him now as he draw on his experience of designing Brunel’s MSc in Accounting and Business Intelligence, to present how things have worked for students and colleagues, after the programme has been delivered for the first time. We will hear about the “Motivations and Challenges of Embedding and Delivering Business Analytics in an Accounting Postgraduate Programme”   Profile: Grigorios is a Reader (Associate Professor) in accounting and a member of the Accounting and Auditing Research Group at Brunel Business School since 2012. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Certified Management & Business Educator by the Chartered Association of Business Schools, and has been a member of a number of leading national and international organisations promoting research and scholarship in the field. Examples of these include the European Accounting Association, the British Accounting and Finance Association, and the Voluntary Sector Studies Network. In addition to his exposure in diverse educational systems, through studying in three different countries, UK, Finland, and Greece, Grigorios has broad working experience in accounting, commercial auditing, and management within a range of organisational and cultural settings.   During his service as an educator Grigorios has held a number of senior leadership roles including that of the the school’s Director of Student Academic Misconduct, Director of Teaching and Learning, and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. He is currently serving as the Division Lead of the school's Business Accounting Division. As part of his active engagement in upholding and advancing higher education standards across the sector, Grigorios has served as External Examiner in a number of universities with his most recent appointments being with Cranfield University and the University of Hertfordshire. Having a keen interest in advancing pedagogy practice via research, he has published and presented his work in a number of subject specific and generalist conferences and fora.   Grigorios has developed a strong background in accounting for business models research, through relevant publications in highly regarded journals and through the dissemination of his work in a number of leading national and international conferences. His research interests also include work on the role of disruptive technologies in accounting and finance, the links between entrepreneurship and education, sustainability, and forensic accounting. His teaching interests include: creative accounting and forensic accounting, contemporary issues in accounting research, business financial technology, financial reporting and analysis, introductory and not-for-specialists accounting.

To sign up for either/both of these and (if you desire!) future events please go to this Google forms page so that we can add you to the Teams invitation.