This page is dedicated to the memory of Patrick Lake. Patrick tragically passed away in August 2021 and we celebrate his work and legacy with us here. He was our degree apprentice at ODI Leeds from June 2019 - August 2021. In his short time with us he made an outstanding and long-lasting contribution. Always eager, creative, forward-thinking, resourceful and incredibly bright, with his can-do attitude and friendly demeanour he was an asset to our team and will be very sadly missed by everyone.
Patrick was a data science apprentice at ODI Leeds and, whilst working with ODI Leeds, was studying towards his a BSc in Digital & Technology Solutions (specialising in data analytics) at Manchester Metropolitan University. He successfully completed his first 2 years with a distinction
His main role at ODI Leeds was contributing to our data & innovation projects in a range of capacities - whether that was preparing & analysing data, writing blogs, communicating with sponsors & clients, or even doing some basic web development.
During the Covid-19 Lockdown, Patrick built a bespoke chat room feature to be used to keep the debate and conversations open and flowing during ODILeeds' virtual events. It was named PatChat after its inventor and the name immediately stuck.
This was Patrick's first ever project when he was just helping out as an intern - which quickly led to his next - Flight Emissions and to the conclusion that a degree apprenticeship with ODILeeds was a great step for both him and us :)
Patrick wanted to demonstrate the impact international flights have on the environment, since they are not included in local or national carbon budgets (even though they account for roughly 95% of total aviation emissions). Using open data he built a webpage, developed a tool to visualise and map daily flight emissions from different airports and demonstrate just how big these emissions are.
Patrick was a central part of the team working with Icebreaker One on a major new initiative for the UK & Ireland to support regions and countries in their economic recovery from Covid-19 while accelerating their net-zero carbon emission goals. By this stage in his career, Patrick was an essential part of the team, cleaning data, analysing data, reporting, managing clients, presenting and convening events.
Patrick was a key part of the team that created the DFES visualisation for Northern Powergrid. He was heavily involved in cleaning and analysing Northern Powergrid’s postcode data so that we could create the polygons for the Primary Supply Points. He also did much of the manipulation and extraction of the scenario/parameter data.
Patrick gave up a Saturday of his own time to help the data team open up ODI Leeds to help anyone interested in mapping open data challenges.
During the start of the pandemic Patrick developed a website to act as a central hub for data being used, or published by, members of the Emergent Alliance.
In April 2020 we started creating dashboards and visualisations around COVID-19 at Local Authority level. Over the course of the pandemic, Patrick helped the vital work of regularly curating data from NHS England and the Office of National Statistics.
Patrick wrote and contributed to over 20 blogs - a prolific amount. His writing style was natural, easy to read whilst communicating often detailed technical details.
You can find more work by Patrick on our website.
Patrick's family have suggested donations in lieu of flowers to either: