Graduate Spotlight: Imke Botha

The QUT Centre for Data Science is celebrating its graduates. Meet Imke Botha who just celebrated her graduation with a PhD!

What was your PhD in?

My PhD was in computational Bayesian statistics, and specifically focused on new inference/calibration methods for intractable likelihood models. These are models with components that cannot be computed directly, or only at great computational cost. My research aimed to develop more efficient and automated algorithms for fitting these models.

How did you come to do a PhD on this? Did things change along the way?

My PhD followed directly from my Masters research. For my Masters, I developed new inference methods for a very specific type of intractable likelihood model, one that can be applied to repeated measurements of multiple individuals/subjects over time. The class of methods I worked with had some particularly frustrating drawbacks, and lessening (or eliminating) those drawbacks was the motivation for my PhD research. The course of my PhD veered somewhat from the original plan, but it stayed in the general vicinity.

How was your PhD journey?  Any surprises?

At various times, my PhD was rewarding, challenging, exciting and frustrating, but never boring (with the except of marking). I wouldn’t say any of it was particularly surprising, but I definitely learned a great deal over that time. I was fortunate to have really great supervisors and collaborators along the way.

Did you do anything else at QUT besides your PhD?

I was able to do some tutoring throughout my PhD, and enjoyed that quite a bit. I started a couple of weeks before the COVID-19 lockdown, so I got the full experience of in-person teaching, to everything online, to the hybrid system that followed. I also attended a number of conferences, virtually and in person, two of which were held on-campus at QUT. I was also fortunate enough to (virtually) attend a training course held by the University of Linköping, and the AMSI winter school on data science.

How was your experience with the Data Science Centre?

The Centre for Data Science at QUT has been amazing. It is a very active and supportive group, and it has been a great help in furthering my research and my academic career as a whole.

What’s next – or what are you doing now?

I’m currently doing a postdoc at the University of Melbourne, and my research is focused on improving estimates of antimalarial drug resistance. It’s a great follow up to my PhD as I’m getting experience on the modelling side of things, I still get to work on inference methods, and it has a concrete and immediate application.

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