Student Stories: PhD student Elinor Davies shares her story on LivWISE (Liverpool Women in Science and Engineering).
Elinor features on the University of Liverpool's LivWISE website and she gives an insight into her role at the CDT and an overview of her interests in science and engineering.
My Journey/Introduction
I have always loved Science in all forms. I was lucky enough when growing up to have parents who both had science degrees. This allowed them to provide me scientific answers to many of my childish questions. When I asked things like “Why are leaves green?” my parents would respond by telling me about the Chloroplasts etc. This eventually led to me developing a keen interest in trying to understand the world around me. When I got older and started school, I discovered that I also had a passion for mathematics. This eventually led to me studying physics as I saw physics as a way of using my passion for maths and numbers to describe the world around me.
My school had never covered any programming skills and it wasn’t until my first year studying physics that really discovered programming. However, for me this was a time where I didn’t fall in love with programming quite as quickly as I had with other disciplines. I initially felt a little out of my depth and therefore spent some of my summer break learning the basics. Having got my head around the fundamentals it wasn’t long before I found myself really enjoying the programming parts of my course. I then decided I wanted to develop my skills and applied to study a master’s degree in computer science.
My Project: Fully Bayesian Gaussian Processes for Big Data
I’m a PhD researcher with the Distributed Algorithms CDT, working on a project with my industry partner, Leonardo. When I was searching for a PhD position, I was keen to join a CDT. I wanted to be part of a cohort and to have the opportunity to learn from others’ expertise and to share experiences and results. I wanted to work on this project because I have a background in Physics and computer science. I had developed an interest in data science, in particular, how it could be used to solve real-world problems.
LivWISE Role Models
Elinor features on the LivWISE Role Model's webpage - hear more from Elinor here and discover more LivWISE role models here.
It's great to be part of a community that encourages women to participate in education and research in the field of STEM.
Distributed Algorithms CDT
The Distributed Algorithms CDT at the University of Liverpool engages its students in impactful, cutting-edge and diverse research, allowing them to collaborate and develop their skills within the university’s data science community. Find out more about our work by visiting our website.
Elinor Davies, Cohort 2, DACDT