ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ANDRIY OLENKO
La Trobe University
We talk to Associate Professor Andriy Olenko about the broad and vast uses of spatial data and what he hopes students will take out of his classes at Summer School 2020.
1. How do you explain your work and its real-world impact to people outside of the mathematical sciences?
My research field is spatial random processes. This is a beautiful area that uses mathematical methods from probability theory, functional analysis and geometry. At the same time it has numerous statistical applications. Spatial data are collected in fields and resolution scales as diverse as molecular sciences, world economics, geosciences and astronomy. Understanding and analysing spatial characteristics and relationships between different locations lend new perspectives in identifying hidden patterns, predicting and decision-making.
2. Best piece of advice you’ve received?
When I was in my first PhD year I had a good lesson from my supervisor. He helped to prepare my first conference presentation. However, when later I approached him with the next conference talk he told: “I showed you once and believe this time you can prepare a great talk on your own”. It was important for understanding that research (and life) requires a lot of independent work with no supervision.
3. Deepening field knowledge and providing a networking platform, why are opportunities such as AMSI Summer School so valuable? What do you hope attendees take from your lectures?
I hope that the students will make good friends and possibly future professional colleagues and collaborators. Spending time together by learning new things helps in developing professional and personal relations. They will find from classmates about teaching at other universities. Hope that my subject will motivate pure maths students to think about possible applications and their role in theoretical developments. Stats students will see how advanced maths is relevant to statistics. All students will practice with real data.
4. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
Back to my early childhood, when all parents and friends were alive.
Associate Professor Andriy Olenko will be presenting the topic Random Fields: Mathematical Theory and Spatial Statistics Applications at the 2020 Summer School at La Trobe University in January
