Bring more young scientists into the space of influencing change via their skills and interests
We're building CADA: a network of STEM students and practitioners that has real-world impact.
CADA is a place to put your quant research and coding skills into practice in ways that can influence wider society, alongside your studies or job. You will meet like-minded people, encounter exciting new ideas, build things and have a platform for changing the public debate.
Produce useful research and resources for wider movements for equality and action on climate
Connect young scientists with progressive employers and movements to put their skills to use after graduation
Introduce those students going into the tech sector to relevant trade unions so that they are aware of their rights at work
CADA will be a social network and a collaborative working group for STEM students alongside their studies. It will allow them to get involved in interesting, impactful projects, build networks of friends and collaborators, and develop their employment options with progressive organisations.
Congregate
We will bring STEM and data science students and academics together at local and national scales, online and in-person.
Augment
Some outputs will bolster specific, existing initiatives for good, others will be useful resources to augment many different actors (e.g. climate research, poverty-related data creation). All research outputs and prototypes will be made publicly available and open-source.
Develop
The network will be set up so as to encourage creativity in scientific practice and thought. It will also be a community where individuals will develop their skills together, as well as their political understanding.
Action
We’re going to build prototypes and tools for progressive causes. Research outputs from the network will be put out online for free via a dedicated virtual resource (including code, data sources and so on). Network members will have access to Autonomy’s communications expertise and networks – in order to optimise impact.
What kind of thing will we be doing?
We will be working in-person via things such as hackathons, as well as online spaces. In terms of research themes, we see CADA coalescing around set missions or problem areas. These will be established together, based on shared interests and competencies, but examples of themes include:
- Inequality:
We’ll investigate disparities in income, wealth, health and environment using data science and computational models, aiming to expose systemic inequalities and propose actionable remedies.
- Economic Planning:
Our focus is to integrate mathematics, economics, and engineering to reimagine sustainable and fair economic systems. We’ll explore how technology and sustainable practices can foster a more equitable future.
- ABM for Good (Agent-Based Modeling):
Using Agent-Based Modeling, we’ll simulate social and economic policies, observing emergent behaviors and potential outcomes to shape equitable and sustainable strategies.
- Large Language Models (LLMs):
We aim to harness the potential of Large Language Models to generate insights that aid progressive policy-making and advocacy, emphasizing their ethical and responsible use.
- Climate Change:
Combining various scientific disciplines, we’ll conduct research and develop tools to understand and mitigate climate change, accounting for physical, socioeconomic, and political dimensions.
Are you an academic or STEM graduate who is no longer studying?
You can be involved in CADA too! Email cada@autonomy.work with an expression of interest or fill in the form linked below.
This is just the beginning for CADA. We have plans for:
- Opportunities to work with leading researchers in academia and beyond
- Events where you will hear from politicians and theorists about the key challenges that face us today
- CADA’s own open source, online code and working papers repository from which you will draw from, and contribute to
- Annual conferences for the network
- Presentations to peers and interested parties
- Drinks events with progressive employers from the world of policy, climate advocacy and other progressive areas.
- Other social events, film clubs, reading groups, etc.
CADA is organised, convened and supported by Autonomy. You will have the chance to work with our team of data and policy specialists and utilise our bespoke computational systems, as part of specific projects.
Lukas is a specialist in stochastic processes, large deviations theory and statistical physics – holding a PhD from Cambridge University. He is the Director of the Autonomy Data Unit (ADU).
Luiz is a quantitative economist versed in heterodox and mainstream theories. With the Autonomy Data Unit (ADU), he assesses work relations through micro and macroeconomic modelling in multiregional and multisectoral scenarios.
Sonia holds a PhD in mathematics from Maynooth University. Her research specialises in geometry and discrete optimization, which informs her work with the ADU on database manipulation and data visualisation.
Sean has experience as an ML Solutions Engineer in corporate and start-up environments and has worked closely with organisations such as Bellingcat and the Strelka Institute. He is part of Autonomy’s Data Unit and will be exploring the potential of AI for progressive change.
Will is Autonomy’s Director. He holds a PhD in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Brighton and with Helen Hester is currently writing Post-Work (Bloomsbury 2023).