MCDS Doctoral Academy

A campus wide multi-disciplinary program for PhD students using data science in their work.

About the program

The MCDS Doctoral Academy aims to bring together a campus wide multi-disciplinary cohort of PhD students (MCDS Doctoral Academy Fellows) to share their research, domain challenges and thoughts around the use, implementation and application of data science in their fields.

The Academy will support the Fellows through peer-learning opportunities, masterclasses, workshops, discussions, opportunities for presentations and more. Such a mixed environment will expose students to different disciplinary perspectives and stimulate the development of new approaches to the ways in which data science is incorporated in research.

The program is ideal for students who:

Enjoy engaging in cross-disciplinary research skills development and desire to build practical skills
Seek to explore ways that data science methodologies can be used and advanced within their research
Appreciate building a community of young researchers who consider data science matters in their field at the University of Melbourne

2023 Doctoral Academy

2023 Academy Applications are now closed.

Join a group of like-minded, interdisciplinary PhD students for sessions and workshops discussing data science in different domains, best practice for interdisciplinary research, ethics, research translation, communications, project scope, careers and more,

Application & information

2023 Doctoral Academy Fellows

Alexander Borowiak
Research: Detectability of Climate Change Signals in Observations and Models
Supervisors: Dr Andrew King, Dr Josephine Brown, and A/Prof Ed Hawkins
School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty of Science
Xindi Fang
Research:
Supervisors:
Faculty
Dorsa Fatourehchi
Research: Human-Building Interaction Model for Energy Use of University Student Accommodation in Melbourne
Supervisors: A/Prof Christhina Candido and A/Prof Hemanta Doloi
School/Faculty: School of Architecture, Building and Planning - Melbourne School of Design
Rena (Wei) Gao
Research: Interaction Matters: Automated Evaluation and Socing of Interactive Ability in Second Language Dialogue
Supervisors: Prof Carsten Roever, Dr Jey Han Lau
Schools/Faculty: School of Languages and Linguistics & School of Computing and Information Systems -Natural Language Processing Group
Deshani Geethika Poddenige
Research:
Supervisors:
School
Faculty
Vaughn Grey
Research:
Supervisors:
Faculty
Jonathan Januar
Research:
Supervisors:
School
Faculty
Benjamin Metha
Research: Galactic Astronomy
Supervisor: Prof Michele Trenti
School of Physics
Faculty of Science
Bipul Neupane
Research: Earth observation and AI for urban building footprint extraction
Supervisors: A/Prof Jagannath Aryal and Prof Abbas Rajabifard
School of Electrical, Mechanical and Infrastructure Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Roben Delos Reyes
Research: Modelling the impact of mass casualty incidents on the provision and utilisation of emergency department services
Supervisors: A/Prof Nic Geard, Dr Daniel Capurro
School/Faculty:
School of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering and IT
Subharthe Samandra
Research:
Supervisors:
Department
Faculty
Mona Taouk
Research: Modelling the transmission and evolution of emerging and re-emerging sexually transmissible pathogens
Supervisors: Deborah Williamson, Ben Howden and George Taiaroa
School/Faculty: Department of Infectious Diseases - Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Isobel Todd
Research: Prenatal, birth and early childhood risk and protective factors for infections in children
Supervisors: Prof David Burgner, Dr Jessica Miller, Prof Lars Henning Pedersen, Dr Maria Magnus
School/Faculty: Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Guannan Yang
Research:
Supervisors:
School
Faculty
Fiona Zhou
Research: The role of motivational factors, coping, and psychological wellbeing on preservice teachers’ commitment to the teaching profession
Supervisors: A/Prof. Gavin Slemp, Prof. Dianne Vella-Brodrick
School/Faculty: Centre for Wellbeing Science, Faculty of Education

2022 Doctoral Academy Fellows

Andrew Brown
Research: Severe convective winds in Australia and their sensitivity to climate change
Supervisor: Prof Todd Lane
School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty of Science
Sagrika Chugh
Research: Developing and benchmarking methods for multi-omics single-cell quantitative trait locus mapping in complex diseases
Supervisors: Dr Davis McCarthy and Dr Heejung Shim
School of Mathematics and Statistics - Biosciences
Faculty of Science
Zheng Fan
Research: A Hierarchical Markov-switching Model for Bull and Bear Markets
Supervisor: Dr Yong Song and A/Prof Ole Maneesoonthorn
Department of Economics
Faculty of Business and Economics
Saoirse Kelleher
Research: Improving practical applications of dynamic occupancy models
Supervisors: Dr Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita and Dr Natalie Briscoe
School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences
Faculty of Science of Science
Thao Le
Research: Explaining the Uncertainty in AI-Assisted Decision Making
Supervisors: Prof Tim Miller, Prof Liz Sonenberg and Dr Ronal Singh
School of Computing and Information Systems
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Kevin Newman
Research: Optimising and Improving Species Detections
Supervisors: Prof Mick McCarthy and Dr Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita
School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences
Faculty of Science
Martin Saint-Jalmes
Research: Using modern Machine Learning for the probabilistic modelling of dementia
Supervisors: Dr Victor Fedyashov, Dr Benjamin Goudey, Dr. Daniel Beck and Dr. Pierrick Bourgeat
Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Faculty of Medicine, Dental and Health Sciences
Prabodi Senevirathna
Research: Quantifying and Mitigating Digital Overdiagnosis
Supervisors: Dr Daniel Capurro and Dr Douglas Pires
School of Computing and Information Systems
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Emily Spackman
Research: Toward better characterisation of restricted and repetitive behaviours in Autistic Youth
Supervisors: Dr Mirko Uljarevic and A/Prof Luke Smillie
Complex Human Data Hub School of Psychological Sciences
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Onur Tumturk
Research: A data-driven model of urban form evolution: quantitative analysis of long-term spatial transformation in the city centres of Melbourne, Barcelona and New York
Supervisors: Prof Justyna Karakiewicz and Dr Fjalar de Haan
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
Hai-Hang Wu
Research: Continual learning by Efficient Neural Network Synthesis
Supervisors: Prof Saman Halgamuge and Prof Denny Oetomo
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Ye Zhang
Research: Risk prediction for metachronous colorectal cancer among colorectal cancer survivors
Supervisors: Prof Mark Jenkins, A/Prof Aung Ko Win, Dr Amalia Karahalios, and Prof Alex Boussioutas
Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Faculty of Medicine, Dental and Health Sciences

2021 Doctoral Academy Fellows

Kamal Akbari
Research: Spatial causal inference analysis
Supervisors: Dr Martin Tomko and Prof Stephan Winter
School of Infrastructure Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Prakrut Chaubal
Research: Non gaussianity and secondary cosmic microwave background anisotropies in the south pole telescope data
Supervisor: Dr Christian L. Reichardt
School of Physics
Faculty of Science
Jean Linis Dinco
Research: Analysis of an ongoing conflict through the lens of media frames
Supervisors: Prof Robert Hassan and Dr Philip Pond
School of Culture and Communication
Faculty of Arts
Elliot Gould
Research: Reproducibility and transparency of model-based research in applied ecology and conservation decision-making
Supervisors: Dr Libby Rumpff, Prof Fiona Fidler, and Dr Hannah Fraser
School of BioSciences
Faculty of Science
Kaitlyn Hammond
Research: Natural disturbance-based models for silviculture in the Victorian Central Highlands
Supervisors: Prof Patrick Baker and A/Prof Craig Nitschke
School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences
Faculty of Science
Vivek Katial
Research: Instance space analysis of quantum optimisation algorithms
Supervisors: Prof Kate Smith-Miles and Dr Charles Hill
School of Mathematics and Statistics
Faculty of Science
Shima Khanehzar
Research: A data driven model of agenda setting in Australian politics
Supervisors: Prof Andrew Turpin and Dr Gosia Mikolajczak
School of Computing and Information Systems
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Sombol Mokhles
Research: An evidence-based approach to climate change experimentation in international city networks
Supervisors: Dr Kathryn Davidson and Prof Michele Acuto
Melbourne School of Design
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
Elle Pattenden
Research: An examination of the motivations underlying, and consequences of, social network dynamics for the resolution of environmental collective action problems, using "gamified" experiments and simulations (agent-based models)
Supervisors: Prof Yoshihisa Kashima and A/Prof Andrew Perfors
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
James Paynter
Research: Time domain gravitational lensing
Supervisor: Prof Rachel Webster
School of Physics
Faculty of Science
Ifrah Saeed
Research: Model-based and Hybrid Multiagent Reinforcement Learning in Internet of Things
Supervisors: Prof Tansu Alpcan and Dr Sarah M. Erfani
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Ann Ann Diana Tay
Research: Exploring embodied values in Singaporean paintings through technical examination and data analysis
Supervisors: Dr Nicole Tse and Prof Robyn Sloggett
Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation
Faculty of Arts
Zhoufeng Ye
Research: Understanding breast cancer risk via an automated measure based on mammographic textural features: Cirrus
Supervisors: Prof John Hopper, Dr Shuai Li, Dr Gillian Dite, and Dr Tuong Linh Nguyen
Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Faculty of Medicine, Dental and Health Sciences