Professor of the University of St. Andrews Delivered a Lecture on Data Organisation

March 20, 2024

On March 20, the National University of Ostroh Academy hosted a lecture, "Organising Data in Spreadsheets: How to Avoid Pitfalls?" as part of the Open University framework.

The speaker was Dr Oleksandr Konovalov, a lecturer at the School of Computer Science at the University of St. Andrews.

Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Candidate of Sciences (Economics), Associate Professor Oleksandr Novoseletskyi addressed the audience with a welcoming speech:

"The lecture was made possible through our cooperation with St. Andrew's University, which is a testament to our shared commitment to raising academic standards and developing international scientific cooperation. Dr Konovalov presented the topic, which seemed very specific and niche at first glance, in an accessible and meaningful way and also highlighted its relevance and importance to everyone who works with data in their professional life. The critical fact was that Mr Konovalov not only shared his theoretical knowledge but also demonstrated practical examples from his own experience, which allowed the participants to understand the material better and motivated them to study the topic further independently.

I sincerely thank Dr Oleksandr Konovalov for contributing to our faculty's academic life. I look forward to further cooperation and knowledge exchange between our two universities."

During the meeting, the students explored best practices for entering and formatting data in spreadsheets; learned how to optimise the arrangement of variables and observations in a spreadsheet; trained how to recognise and solve common spreadsheet formatting problems; studied quality control methods of identifying errors in spreadsheets and limiting the input of incorrect data; and discovered how to save spreadsheet data in compatible file formats.

"Ostroh Academy is our partner in the programme of sister universities, so we came up with the idea to hold such a seminar because there is much talk about cooperation and integration of Ukrainian scientists into international scientific networks, about open science and publication of articles and data. It will be useful for students to learn how to store data efficiently from the beginning to avoid mistakes and problems and spend less time processing it later. It can help students save time and avoid mistakes and problems in their work, as well as when they collaborate with others,"

In addition, the speaker reviewed 12 simple rules for organising data in spreadsheets and focused on the principles that can be applied to any of them.

At the end of the meeting, a discussion was held, and every participant had a chance to ask the speaker questions and receive their answers.

It is worth noting that the University of St. Andrews is the oldest in Scotland and the third-oldest in the UK, following the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. It was founded in 1410 in the university town of St Andrews on the North Sea coast. About 10,000 students study in the modern university, and mainly humanities and social sciences are taught.