DARA Big Data Welcomes Our New Students!
It’s the start of a new academic year in the UK and DARA Big Data is welcoming two new students to its cohort. Both students will be studying at the University of Manchester.
Chelmis Thiong’o is from a small village at the Kirinyaga-Embu counties border in Kenya. She will be studying a Masters in Health Sciences with Dr Andrew Green, looking at the usage of radiomics in cervical cancer treatment. Radiomics is a method that extracts a large number of features from radiographic medical images using data-characterisation algorithms. Chelmis says that she chose to study this because it encompasses both health and data science, areas she feels passionately about; ‘Having data manipulation and machine learning skills at this time when so much data is produced every second is very important. What's even better is using these skills to improve existing health practices, especially in cancer treatment.’
Chelmis has previously studied Microprocessor Technology and Instrumentation at the University of Nairobi and specialised in Industrial Electronics. She also co-founded Sign-IO, a company that invented smart gloves which can convert sign language movements into audio speech using Bluetooth. Sign-IO was shortlisted in 2019 for the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering's Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation programme.
Chelmis Thiong'o
Princy Ranaivomanana is from Madagascar’s capital city, Antananarivo, which has a population of about 5 million people and is overlooked by the royal palace on a high hill above the city. He will be studying a Masters in Astrophysics with Prof Ben Stappers. He will be exploring machine learning and radio astronomy, aiming to develop a generative model to provide sifting and classification routines on a huge scale to fit the SKA telescope.
This project is a perfect fit both for his own interests and for his native country; ‘Madagascar is an SKA partner country and will need highly skilled radio astronomers prior to the completion of what will be the biggest radio telescope ever built. This new type of telescope will require a new type of astronomer, one who is familiar with big data and has experience handling it. This is a great opportunity for me to build up my skills and expertise in data science and astronomy.’
Princy Ranaivomanana
Both of them are looking forward to the research experience they will gain, and to connecting with our growing network of DARA Big Data and DARA project students. DARA Big Data hopes that they will very much enjoy their studies and will produce some fascinating research!
