Through the career stories of ANNT's friends and members, we want to offer insight into the wide range of possible career paths and broaden the vision of STEM professions. This time we bring you the story of ANNT member Dr Aida Branković. Among her many achievements, we highlight last year's selection as a finalist for the Global Australian Awards in the Global Talent category, and we congratulate her once again.
“I currently work as a researcher and lead machine learning activities at the Australian e-Health Research Centre within Australia's national science agency (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)). I work on developing algorithms that aim to help clinical staff make better and faster decisions. I am also an adjunct researcher at the University of Queensland. This job involves reading scientific papers, analysing and processing data, developing new ideas and implementing them, and mentoring – from bachelor's students to postdoctoral researchers. There is also the part of the job I find less interesting, which involves meetings and writing grant applications, scientific papers and reports. What I particularly like about my current position is that all the research projects are driven by solving existing challenges through innovative science and technology. This type of work calls for multidisciplinarity more than expertise in a narrow field. Before this position, I worked on developing algorithms for a new diagnostic technology for stroke detection at the University of Queensland. During that period I often spent time in the laboratory. The thought that the algorithm we are building could help doctors improve patient treatment, or even save someone's life through a timely response, gives the work meaning, and with it motivation. The most exciting part of research for me is the clinical testing of an algorithm's validity and capabilities.
The key skills for this job are a command of various artificial intelligence concepts, programming skills and knowledge of statistics. It is an advantage to know other areas of mathematics as well, to be creative and free to think outside the box, and to be able to grasp different aspects of problems and solutions. From this point, a career can go in several directions, such as continuing a research career at an institute or in the R&D department of a large company, an academic career that would involve teaching at a university alongside research, or moving into industry and taking on engineering work or management roles. As for machine control and artificial intelligence and their future in medical applications, a lot depends on the specific problem they are intended for. However, what they all have in common is the need to solve problems related to access to, and the protection and privacy of, patient data, as well as interoperability.
I finished the First Gymnasium and the Secondary Music School in Sarajevo, and studied at the Department of Automatic Control and Electronics at the University of Sarajevo – Faculty of Electrical Engineering. I chose this faculty at the urging of my physics teacher, who convinced me that I would have better employment prospects and that, besides, “electrical engineering is applied physics”, as she used to tell me. Nevertheless, I would encourage secondary school students to study what they love and what genuinely interests them. If I were enrolling at university again, my choice would be physics, because the opportunities are not limited to physics alone. The Faculty of Electrical Engineering gave me a good foundation of knowledge and a broad education, but I think it would not be a bad idea for the master's curriculum to be more narrowly specialised, and perhaps to consider separating automatic control and electronics. It would also be good if opportunities to gain knowledge in other fields, including those beyond the scope of one's home faculty, were made available through elective courses.
I earned my doctorate at the Polytechnic University of Milan. Encouraged by older colleagues, I applied to the call for doctoral studies on the university's website. It was the university I wanted, but it was not the only one I applied to. It was necessary to fill in an application, write a research project proposal and a motivation letter, and enclose two letters of recommendation. Writing the research proposal was made easier by the fact that I managed to get in touch with a professor whose research interested me and who, with a few suggestions, helped me build on the initial idea I had. When the results came out I was very happy, because I had been accepted with a full scholarship awarded by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research. The scholarship was on a par with an engineer's starting salary in Italy, enough to cover living costs while also allowing me to save a little. It also included tuition fees and a certain amount that made it possible to attend conferences or obtain resources needed for research.
Today there are many more opportunities than 12 years ago. There are also many more of our people in positions at very good universities around the world, which I think can make finding a doctoral position easier in various ways, from advice to collaboration. For those considering a doctorate or a research career, I think it is a good idea to do an academic internship or a research project, which can also be online. I think it is an advantage when applying if you can get in touch with the professor you are interested in and under whose supervision you would like to do research. To those who decide to apply for a doctorate, I would advise applying for positions for which they have enough prior knowledge to help them write a decent research proposal, one that demonstrates that they are a strong candidate who will be productive. Applying well is a slow process, and to increase the chance of a positive outcome, an application should not be generic. Applying for several positions will also increase the chances of success. My last but no less important piece of advice is that applicants should not lose heart in the event of a negative outcome, but be patient and persistent until they reach their goal.”
