Methods Analytics

We’re live from the MA Innovation Hackathon 2025! And this year’s challenge is a big one: Operation STRIDE – the Situational Tracking, Reporting, Intelligence & Data Engine. Our two technical teams are working in parallel to build a full situational awareness & intelligence system from scratch, in two days: 🕹️ Team 1: STRIDE Sim Engine Building a synthetic environment that simulates real-world events — dynamically generating data across domains like transport, weather, environment, health care, emergency services, media, and social sentiment. 🧠 Team 2: STRIDE SA&INT Engine Building the intelligence layer — ingesting those data streams, visualising the situation, and surfacing insights through a real-time dashboard and natural language querying. What’s been incredible to witness is the depth of thinking going into how we simulate reality itself. The team discussions have ranged from how a single emergency triggers ripple effects across open-source and closed-source systems — to how we can structure that chaos as usable data. This is what innovation looks like in practice: 👥 Teams collaborating across disciplines 🧠 Minds aligned on purpose 💡 A focused, creative environment where solving hard problems is the whole point More to come, but for now, it's time to begin the integration! #MAInnovationHackathon2025 #ToSolveForGood

🧪 Today marks the fifth and final day of our “What is the MA Innovation Hackathon?” series — and a reminder of what this week has really been about. Reason #5: It’s how we keep ourselves sharp. How we stay curious. And how we live up to the idea at the heart of everything we do: To Solve. For Good. At Methods Analytics, the Innovation Hackathon is about more than prototypes and pipelines. It’s about building a culture — one where experimentation is encouraged, ideas are shared, and innovation isn’t something you wait for… it’s something you practise. #MAInnovationHackathon2025 #ToSolveForGood

🤝 Collaboration creates momentum. Diversity of thought creates breakthroughs. Why this week’s Hackathon is important to us; Reason #4: It’s about cross-pollination — bringing together people, practices, and perspectives to create something none of us could build alone. Today, the MA Innovation Hackathon 2025 officially kicks off, with our entire technical team in one room — data scientists, engineers, analysts, and architects — all solving side by side. Because the spark happens in the overlap. The breakthroughs come from the mix; That’s innovation in practice. #MAInnovationHackathon2025 #ToSolveForGood

🔬 Innovation needs space to experiment and permission to take risks. Why this weeks Hackthon is important to us; Reason #3: This is the Methods Analytics sandbox: a pause on delivery to make room for something rare - real experimentation. Not everything we build will work. Not everything should. But it’s in the trying that we learn. In the failing that we grow. And in the exploring that we sometimes stumble into something brilliant. That’s innovation in practice. #MAInnovationHackathon2025 #ToSolveForGood

Innovation isn’t about chaos, it’s about curiosity, courage, and clear intent. At Methods Analytics, we don’t just talk about innovation, we practise it. The MA Innovation Hackathon is our chance to do exactly that: to challenge the status quo, explore bold ideas, and stretch what’s deemed possible. It’s not about post-it notes or buzzwords. It’s about building real things that might just shape what comes next. #MAInnovationHackathon2025 #ToSolveForGood

This week, we’re very excited to be running our Methods Analytics Innovation Hackathon 2025! It's a two-day event where our Engineering, Architecture, Data Science & Analytics teams step out of delivery and into discovery. Over the course of this week we'll be sharing five short posts, each containing a simple reason why our Hackathon is important to us. First up: Space to Think Differently. Innovation isn’t an afterthought. It’s embedded into our ways of working. The hackathon is our reset button, time away from client work to pause, breathe, and think beyond the backlog. To solve hard problems, we need the room to imagine new approaches. That’s what this week is all about. #MAInnovationHackathon2025 #ToSolveForGood

It’s been a couple of weeks since our colleague Robecca H. joined hundreds of policy-makers, practitioners and academics at the IAPP AI Governance Global Europe conference in Dublin. She returned energised and with a clear message: ‘AI for good’ must sit at the heart of any strategy - and that the real impact comes when we put people first. Conference highlights: 🔑 Keynote by Niamh Smyth, Ireland’s Minister for Trade, AI & Digital Transformation: Emphasised “AI for good” as a central pillar of Ireland’s AI Strategy - perfectly echoing our own Methods Analytics motto of using data and AI to improve public-sector services. 💡 Human-centric insights from Ombudsman Niall Muldoon: Shared tangible examples of safeguarding children caught between fragmented services - urging us to “stay optimistic” and lean on “patience and persistence” as governance professionals. ➕ Existential optimism from Daniel Susskind: Challenged the doom-and-gloom narrative and asked us instead to embrace the massive potential of AI to uplift people’s lives. Top takeaways for anyone building or governing AI today: 1. Governance as a differentiator, not a drag - streamlined rules unlock innovation. 2. No one-size-fits-all: your framework must flex to your organisation’s unique risks and needs. 3. Back to basics: regularly revisit the core problem you’re solving - benefits and needs analyses are your friend. 4. Holistic collaboration across security, cyber, data, HR and L&D teams is non-negotiable. 5. Data & AI literacy go hand in hand - equipping everyone to turn data into strategic advantage. We’re already weaving these principles into our work with clients in high-security and regulated environments. If you’re grappling with how to govern AI responsibly - or simply want to compare notes - drop us a line below or send a DM. #AI #AIGovernance #PublicSector #DataEthics #AIForGood #MethodsAnalytics

We are really proud to have supported the Home Office with their recent successful trials of AI in the asylum decision making process.   The trials involved 2 tools that were designed to help speed up these processes. The Asylum Case Summarisation (ACS) tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) to summarise asylum interview transcripts, whilst the Asylum Policy Search (APS) tool is an AI search assistant that finds and summarises country policy information.    A recently published evaluation confirmed the potential of both tools to meaningfully improve efficiency and crucially, found they "did not appear to impact negatively or positively on decision quality during piloting". Overall, the evaluation supported the project team's vision that these "tools were designed as an aid for decision-makers to improve efficiency but do not, and cannot, replace any part of the decision-making process."    Our Consulting Lead, Archit Mehra, PhD, led our involvement and had this to say:   💭 "I'm proud to have been part of this work, balancing the potential of AI with its risks to ensure the solution was robustly evaluated and assured for use in a highly impactful area of government."   Rigorous AI assurance underpins adoption, performance, and compliance. This trial confirmed that a fit-for-purpose AI product management framework is fundamental to balancing innovation and risk. We’re actively deploying these principles with clients operating in similar secure environments today. In the weeks ahead, we’ll publish more of our thoughts, experiences, and solutions to support those of you tasked with managing the risk of deploying AI within your organisation. Stay tuned and get in touch if you'd like to discuss more. 🔍 Read the evaluation: https://lnkd.in/e3rkPCnY #ToSolveForGood #AI #AIAssurance #DigitalTransformation

Today, we are remembering the actions of our forebears and the allied Victory of Europe on 8th May 1945. 86 years ago, our country went to war. Six years later and following hard fighting across all fronts, many had paid the ultimate sacrifice. VE Day saw the unconditional surrender of Germany’s armed forces and marked the end of the conflict in Europe. The political, social and economic repercussions of this lethal and devastating war would be felt for years to come. At Methods Analytics, we believe it is important to commemorate the past, celebrate those who served, and thank those surviving veterans for their huge undertakings all those years ago. We will forever by grateful to all who fought for the liberties and freedoms that we enjoy today. We are proud to support our Armed Forces in our mission and our work, and through the hiring of veterans and reservists. On its 80th anniversary, VE Day is as important as ever.

Yesterday we celebrated International Girls in ICT Day! We recognise the vital role women play in driving innovation and progress in the tech industry. Swipe 👉🏼 to peek at some impactful words from the women at ALTEN. 💬 Let's empower more girls to see themselves as the innovators and leaders of tomorrow. #GirlsInICT2025 #WomenInSTEM #TechLeadership