Emily graduated with a BSc in Biology from the University of Bath in 2020. Following this, she began a Medical Research PhD at the University of East Anglia, investigating the early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. It was during her PhD that Emily developed her passion for data science, through gaining first-hand experience developing a machine learning model to predict early cases of Alzheimer’s disease in the blood. This introduced her to one of the many exciting applications of using big data for public good.

Following this, Emily joined the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA), at the University of Leeds, as a data scientist in 2023 and is currently working in collaboration with the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre.

At the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, Emily is exploring how school absences could be a predictive risk factor for young people becoming Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) in later life across the Bradford region. Unveiling the role of NEET risk factors can help inform interventions to enhance social outcomes in Bradford. This research will be completed using the Connected Bradford platform, which uniquely stores a range of linked public service data.

Emily’s broader research interests include understanding how data science can be used for public good. This encompasses using statistics, machine learning, and big data to tackle societal challenges across a wide range of areas by providing data-driven insights.