Valerie Chan

Solving complex technical and human problems are key to Valerie’s success studying postgraduate Computer Science and as a data scientist.

I decided to study Computer Science and Mathematics because I enjoy grappling with hard problems. I also knew that there would be many opportunities in technology and being comfortable with numbers, algorithms, and programming would help me solve interesting problems in the workplace.

I really enjoyed the research projects that I undertook as part of my Honours and Master’s degrees. Working with incredibly intelligent academics both in Computer Science and other disciplines was a huge learning opportunity and so much fun. The Mathematics and Statistics courses I studied complemented the Computer Science very well. There was some overlap in content that meant that I better understood the fundamentals of the computer science concepts.

I completed several internships during my undergraduate degree. The last one, at Snapper, was a great fit and I continued into the three-year graduate program. Completing internships was a huge part of my being employable and able to find the right job for me. It allowed me time to gain experience and really understand what makes a job enjoyable, motivating, and fulfilling.

As part of my Master’s degree, I was lucky enough to be part of a Science for Technology and Innovation spearhead research project that looked at connecting Māori shareholders with their land. I worked with Dr Marcus Frean and the amazing team at Wai-te-ata Press, learning not just about the computer science applications from Marcus but also about the tikanga and the cultural practices to use when working with Māori data.

I frequently use the skills gained in this project in my current job at Nicholson Consulting, where I am a data scientist. I work with data and people, in particular a lot of work with government and Māori data. I still grapple with hard problems in all sorts of different spaces every day, working collaboratively with many very smart people. Some days I am writing code to go into production, other days I am working with models and algorithms. My company is very flexible and looks out for us all the time and I am often able to work remotely.