USQ GRAD SCORES GOVERNMENT GIG THANKS TO UNI PLACEMENT
WHEN it came to deciding on a degree, University of Southern Queensland graduate Emily Plant chose to go with what she was good at.
Five years later, and with a science honours degree under her belt, Ms Plant has not only excelled but scored a fantastic job.
Ms Plant is one of more than 1000 students marking the end of their studies at celebration ceremonies this week.
Having majored in maths and statistics during her undergraduate degree, Ms Plant found herself drawn to biometrics, the statistical analysis of biological data.
“I chose USQ in part because of how close it was to my family, but also I wanted more face time with lecturers,” Ms Plant said.
“I ended up taking a lot of biology electives, which worked out well.
“Along with the maths and statistics courses, it formed a nice progression.
Under the guidance of Associate Professor Rachel King, Ms Plant chose to study additive regression trees for her honour’s project.
A regression tree is a predictive modelling approach that helps to draw conclusions about an object or data set based on its features.
“I studied two types of additive regression trees, boosted and Bayesian regression trees and then compared them using an ecological data set,” she said.
“During this time, Rachel asked me if I would be interested in doing an industry placement.
“I did five weeks with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, after which they asked me if I would like to work with them.”
On finishing her honour’s degree, Ms Plant was offered a full-time job at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries as a biometrician.
“I now design and analyse experiments, mainly those on crops,” she said.