By 
Lecturer, Computing Science and Mathematics
School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling
http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~sbr/
Tel: +44 (0) 1786 46 7462 sbr@cs.stir.ac.uk
I participated in the
2016 Scottish Crucible after seeing a colleague’s enthusiasm for the programme.
The experience was intense but very rewarding and I highly recommend it to
other early career researchers. The parts on engaging with media was
particularly interesting for me and helped me reach a whole new audience: I
have since been able to write a few articles, one of which was picked up by
Scientific American, reaching over 30k readers.
My research is in optimisation and machine learning, and I have conventionally
worked in application areas very close to computing and engineering. Crucible
certainly opened me up to working with disciplines quite unlike my own.
Following the programme, I was privileged to lead a team comprising an artist,
a psychologist and a neuroscientist looking at using optimisation methods to
better understand how groups of people associate sounds with particular places
and their moods. The project has produced some fascinating results and we are
currently exploring where to go next. It really wouldn’t have happened without
Crucible.
I’ve also been bolder in reaching out to other disciplines. In early 2016, I
led a team spanning Computing, Maths, Environmental Science, Arts and Social
Science in a “Dragon’s Den” event at Stirling. Our team were awarded £220k to
explore ways of analysing social networks, geographies and big data
technologies to promote equality, inclusion and fairness. As well as rewarding
research, these experiences have also been crucial in my career development, in
particular they were highlighted by the panel in my recent appointment as a
Lecturer. I’m now excited for the next steps with my new network!
