Meet the Speaker – Matias Quiroz

We talk to Dr Matias Quiroz from University of Technology, Sydney about passion, buzz words and the best piece of advice he’s ever received.

1. How do you explain your work and its real-world impact to people outside of the mathematical sciences (think friendly chat at a BBQ)?

I try avoiding using buzz words such as data scientist or AI, but a buzz word that I find works for me is Big Data. I would usually say something along the line ‘I develop methods that can extract information from Big Data faster’. If someone shows further interest I immediately confess I don’t really know what Big Data is; I just use it to make what I do sound more interesting.

2. What drives your interest in this field?

Passion. Without it I would have given up a long time ago.

3. What do you consider your biggest achievement to date?

That I have had the opportunity to mentor and teach other people. Those are the contributions that are most likely to be long lasting.

4. Best piece of advice you’ve received?

You cannot change people around you, but you can change people around you.

5. Rock star scientist, master chef, closet artist, what is something about you that might surprise people?

I discovered my real passion in life after moving to Australia — salsa dancing!

6. Deepening field knowledge and providing a networking platform, why are opportunities such as AMSI Winter School so valuable? What do you hope attendees take from your lectures?

I think it is important to gain insights into problems at the research frontier as an undergraduate. The textbooks and courses will teach you material that has been known for decades and sometimes centuries. This is great to develop a thorough basic knowledge, but a long standing interest in a field will usually result in some kind of research. The AMSI’s summer and winter schools are perfect venues to get these insights. I hope the attendees see how the research in the lectures that I present build upon ideas that are taught in universities. It is all interconnected; you cannot do advanced research if you do not know the foundations.

7. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?

On a month long holiday in Sweden, reunited with my family and friends which I have not been able to see for a long time because of the pandemic.

Dr Matias Quiroz will be presenting the topic Subsampling MCMC – An Approach to Speed Up Subsampling MCMC by Data Subsampling at the 2021 Winter School at Queensland University of Technology from 12-23 July