Profile

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Sophia Jones

    • About Me:

      Hi! I’ve been living in Bristol for the last couple of years, and outside of work I love being near water, music and cinema. I am also a very keen beginner at chess!

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      I love all things cinema, particularly sci-fi and queer cinema.At the moment I am training for a half marathon so I spend a lot of time running and rewarding myself with an interesting film afterwards! I am also very into digging for new music and seeing artists live.

    • My pronouns are:

      she/her

    • My Work:

      I research artificial intelligence, with a focus on agents that can change and react to the world around them. These agents are used in self-driving cars, robotics, and loads more new technologies that are changing the way we live our daily lives.

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      The field I work in is called “reinforcement learning”. I  build agents that are rewarded for good behaviour and penalised for bad behaviour; in this way desirable behaviour is reinforced. I am also interested in agents that can explain how and why they behaved in certain ways.

    • My Typical Day:

      I spend most of my day coding and reading papers, or meeting with colleagues I have projects with. I usually work for around 7 hours per day.

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      When I am coding, I use a programming language called Python. My favourite part of the day is discussing new work directions with friends in the lab.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would use the prize money to find interesting coding projects for students who are learning to code, particularly projects with a focus on social good. I think learning to code is much easier when you have a project to focus on.

    CV

    • Education:

      BSc Mathematics (University of Brighton)
      MSc Mathematics (University of Leeds)
      MSc Computer Science (University of Edinburgh)

    • Work History:

      When I was a teenager I worked as a peasant at the castle in my hometown.
      After university I worked for a while as a credit risk analyst, though I did not particularly enjoy it and decided to apply for a masters in computer science
      After my computer science masters I worked as an operations research scientist for a few years in Berlin.

    • Current Job:

      Currently I am a researcher in artificial intelligence as part of my PhD in accountable, responsible, and transparent AI

    • Employer:

      University of Bath

    • My Interview

      • What did you want to be after you left school?

        I had no idea

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        I did get in trouble at school towards the final years, for truancy and lateness

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        I would love to be a gardener

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Talking heads

        What's your favourite food?

        Mapo tofu!

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        A dog, a garden for the dog, to never read a bad book

        How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Happy, curious, friendly

Questions answered by Sophia

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