The ITTs can be really fun. The best part is that each time you participate you come out with a head full of new ideas and knowledge. Truly amazing
Before joining SAMBa, I was studying MMORSE and the University of Warwick. My final year was strongly focused on uncertainty quantification and a niche little field called probabilistic numerics.
With SAMBa my research revolved around machine learning and computer vision methods applied to Psoriatic Arthritis Diagnosis. I worked in an inter disciplinary team spanning mathematical sciences, computer science and Pharmacy and pharmacology. Apart from doing machine learning, I also went twice to Mongolia to help give seminars on R. I also went to Japan in 2017 to join the National Informatics INstitute’s internship program where I worked on image denoising while also finding time to travel around Japan.
I am currently working in the Institute of Mathematical Innovation as a Mathematical Innovation Research Associate. My main responsibilities involve finding creative ways to use mathematics and machine learning to solve problems or assist research in various interdisciplinary settings. In addition to this, I spend my time applying machine learning to medical imaging problems.
Apart from providing me with the opportunity and technical skills to design the project during the June 2016 ITT, I think the soft skills that I got during my various involvement with SAMBa helped me with the people side of things. The project involves talking to various stakeholders who each use a different language to describe the same problem. Being able to turn this into maths while also explaining to people the limits and strengths of the methods used is something that we learned during the ITTs.
Samba is redefining the borders of academic discipline. This can feel daunting at first, but the training and support you receive is more than enough for you to feel comfortable and confident as a young budding researcher.
The ITTs can be really fun. The best part is that each time you participate you come out with a head full of new ideas and knowledge. Truly amazing.
You get a lot of freedom to choose your research area...and there is a wide range of research areas within the department from which to choose
I had the opportunity to get involved in some international training and capacity building activities with international partners and was able to travel to Brazil and Mongolia to share my knowledge of statistical methods and applications, which was really rewarding.
Shortly after joining SAMBa I broke my neck in a bicycle accident. But thanks to the support from the amazing team, I was still able to make a success of my PhD. The SAMBa environment surrounds you with wonderful people and fantastic opportunities.
SAMBa exposes students to a wide range of cutting edge statistical and mathematical research that will be useful to them in their PhD and later career
I was able to use the SAMBa training in statistics, to support training workshops in Mexico and in fact took a break from my PhD to take on a statistics teaching assistant role.
The SAMBa team understands how to efficiently bridge the gap between the abstract world of mathematics and statistics to industrial research
The experience and the skill set acquired during my years in SAMBa helped me develop my academic career in a growing inter and trans disciplinary world.
I found the one-on-one reading courses an incredible opportunity to both learn about a topic in detail, and to get to know a potential area and supervisor before starting my PhD
SAMBa provided a uniquely supportive yet challenging environment, in which one is encouraged to explore their interests and question their limits
Being part of SAMBa is like being part of a little community: everyone is super supportive and there is always someone to talk to if you need it (usually with cake!).
