Huw Day

Graduated: Mathematics MSc 2019, Mathematics PhD 2023

Current role

Research Associate in Digital Health at the VIVO Hub for Enhanced Independent Living University of Bristol

Please tell us a bit about your career path since graduating from the University.

I think I always knew I wanted to try doing a PhD but in my final year of my masters the two things I enjoyed the most were my research project and the teaching I got to do. I figured a PhD would be more of the same and I didn’t like the idea of getting a job in the “real world” quite yet.

I got really into data ethics during my PhD by attending and later helped run a data ethics discussion group. Through that I was fortunate enough to get an internship as a research associate in machine learning in the school of engineering maths. Between those and my PhD, I was able to land a job as a data scientist at the Jean Golding Institute here at the University.

That role was quite generalist and research adjacent, so it was good to help me get a strong foundation in lots of data science related areas and to expand my network across the University. I missed diving deep into research topics and really took to AI between my pure maths background and working in various data science applications, so I changed jobs to be a postdoc in the school of engineering maths.

Please tell us about your current job role.

The Valuation Office Agency values properties to support taxation and benefits. As a data architect, I design systems to help our workers provide better valuations - at its core, I'm trying to figure out how we can make better use of our own data, and also use third party data sources to support valuation. I support a team of statisticians who use statistical models to try and provide valuations and prioritise work. I have aspirations to be a lecturer in data science. If I can, I really want to stay in Bristol for as long as possible, but we’ll see how things go!

What one piece of advice would you give our current students regarding employability?

Not knowing what you want to do is the norm - LinkedIn is not real life. Jobs are like food, some you have to try before you know if you like them, some you look at and just know aren't for you. Trust your gut and don't be afraid to try things and realise they aren't for you!