Student Stories: Andrew Millard, Cohort 3, Year 2 - BSc to Industry to PhD
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. Read about Andrew's unique journey…
My Journey
I have had a bit of a weird journey to my PhD here at the University of Liverpool. I initially graduated with BSc in Physics from the University of Sussex in 2016. After this I went to into recruitment (specialising in software and machine learning) and realised after a few years I would rather be doing the jobs I was recruiting people into! So back in 2020 I decided that I was going to go back into Education and got my Masters in Complex Systems Modelling from King’s College London in 2021. I loved my Master’s degree and knew I wanted to do my doctorate and found the DA CDT via FindaPhD. I was really concerned about the interview process as I thought I would be at a disadvantage due to coming back to University after 4 years but I was pleasantly surprised by it as Liverpool doesn’t only care about academic experience, hard work and enthusiasm were valued just as high (if not higher) than grades..
My Project
My research involves looking at Bayesian methods that scale well and can be parallelised to take advantage of the computation power we have available when time is limited. In particular I am applying these methods to Bayesian Optimization, Deep Learning and Hierarchical Models. One of the things I love about the CDT is that there is not a set path we have to follow, I am encouraged to come up with my own ideas and applications and see where they go, whilst also having the support of supervisors and colleagues.
My Experience at the CDT
Working at the CDT has been amazing so far. On the research side, we are given autonomy and support in equal measure which means I never get bored. I always have a few things to work on so if I ever get stuck on a task, I can move onto something else and cycle back to it which prevents me ever getting frustrated with the work (time away can sometimes be the best solution to a problem). On the social side, a lot of my colleagues have now become close friends and across the different cohorts people are supportive of each other. The RTSG budget allows us the opportunity to go to some great conferences across the world and we have other funding available for training as well so your opportunities to learn are unlimited. I am always excited to go to work the next day and couldn’t recommend the CDT more to anyone wanting to help further the fields of Data Science.
Distributed Algorithms CDT
The Distributed Algorithms CDT is an Innovative Data Science, AI and Machine Learning Research Centre, aligning PhD students, academics and industrialists to work together to generate novel solutions to tough data science challenges. If you would like to find out more about our programme and would like to talk about becoming an active member of our CDT community, please visit our website or email kelli.cassidy@liverpool.ac.uk.
On the social side, a lot of my colleagues have now become close friends and across the different cohorts people are supportive of each other.