Many researchers seeking to have a real-world impact through their quantitative and computational skills find fulfilling carers within the diverse and dynamic tech sector.

Spanning mathematical consulting, software development and research and development, our panel will share their experience transitioning to and developing a career in tech through both technical and non-technical roles.

Dr Kieran Kalair, Senior Mathematical Consultant, Smith Institute: As a Senior Mathematical Consultant at Smith Institute, my role is to provide technical leadership, ideas, and approaches to problems across the energy, fast-moving consumer goods, security and telecoms sectors. I did an MSc and DPhil in Mathematics of real-world systems at The University of Warwick, England. My research focused on developing and using novel statistical and mathematical approaches to problems in intelligent transportation applications – asking how can mathematics and statistics improve journeys across roads in the UK? Throughout the past three years at the Smith Institute, I have worked on practical problems involving forecasting, optimization, machine learning & AI, working to take ideas from academia into an industrial setting. I have a keen interest in approaches to explainable AI, modelling under uncertainty, and ongoing developments in machine learning.

Dr Saad Hamid, Machine Learning Research Scientist, Aioi R&D Lab: As a research scientist at Aioi R&D Lab, my role is to devise, architect and implement ML systems that, by modelling risk, address global social challenges such as aging populations, natural disasters, and biodiversity loss. Additionally, I provide support for productionisation of these models in our holdings company, MS&AD Holdings – one of the largest insurance conglomerates in the world. The models are used for risk consulting and insurance pricing, which have the effect of mitigating the modelled risks and, therefore, reducing the social challenges they pose. I did an MEng in Engineering Science (an undergraduate degree with an integrated master’s degree) at the University of Oxford and stayed to do a DPhil in machine learning, during which I developed probabilistic integration techniques for performing inference in several widely used model classes. My current role is my first following my studies, though I did intern at Secondmind, Cambridge as a doctoral placement researcher during my DPhil.

Dr Abdul Ghani, Software Consultant, TNG Technology

Further panellists details will be added very soon