Last year Fiona took the plunge and went back to university after 12 years at home looking after her children. Before starting her family, Fiona was a maths teacher but she was in search of a new direction and data science seemed to fit the bill.
Fiona said:
“It has definitely been an adjustment going back to university after so many years. I have made great friends and was pleasantly surprised to be part of a class of mixed ages. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning new skills and discovering new talents.
“I have always loved pure maths but until last year I really had no idea as to its applications. Now I am using machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve problems!”
After finishing her masters Fiona successfully secured a PhD scholarship at Ulster University so over the next three years she is turning her focus to how we can leverage technology to help care for an ageing population.
“My PhD is looking at how data from video can be used to detect agitation in people with dementia. I am so happy to be doing research which has the potential to improve the lives of older people in society. Before I did my masters I had no idea that real-life problems like this could be solved with matrices!”