Back in February, I received an email from my university’s campaigns team. They’d heard that I’d had an “interesting career path” (History BA to Computing PhD is certainly that!), and wondered if I would be interested in talking about my experience of coming back to university for postgraduate study. I decided to challenge myself (socially … More My strange career path: an interview
I recently gave my first talk at a conference. This was only a couple of weeks after I had attended my first conference and presented my first poster. Yet somehow here I was, giving a half-hour talk to a room full of neurologists on “AI in Neurology”. It wasn’t quite as intimidating as it might … More A Talk at the Beach
When I was writing essays at school and university, I always began by defining my terms. This was no great hardship – I find words and etymology terribly interesting. It also served me well. There is a reason that it is a staple of essay-writers everywhere: through definitions, key issues and points of contention come … More What (On Earth) is AI?
I don’t feel qualified to speak about anything. This is a problem in writing blog posts, in doing a degree, in having human interactions! I have no confidence in my thoughts or in my voice. I remember even at school, when the teacher asked a question, I would always wait and look around the classroom … More Putting the I in Imposter
What has happened in the sixteen months between posts on this blog? Well, globally (it refuses to be ignored): a pandemic. As I write, it is exactly a year since I watched Boris Johnson’s 8 o’clock announcement of the first UK lockdown on my phone in the bath. My husband and I have been working … More Between Then and Now
It’s dizzyingly strange to be a student again, 5 years after I first graduated. I am older (not a lot wiser), and in the interim I have got married and bought a house. I joke that nowadays while many of my fellow students are out enjoying the nightlife, I am returning to my house in … More On the Origin of Data Science
I get asked a lot what I’m studying at university. When I reply with “data science”, I have come to expect a momentary flicker of panic on the person’s face before they reply with “oh right!”. It’s an encounter that will be familiar to anyone who has done a degree in something outside of National … More Defining Data Science
Hello world! You may recognise this greeting as the traditional first output of a new computer programme. It also serves nicely as the opening line of a new blog, especially one which will be concerned with coding, computing… and the world. To be clear – I am not a computer programme. My name is Megan … More Hello World
Cryptic Meg 