Heather Riley
Heather is studying a Master of Information Technology.
“I am currently undertaking a Master of Information Technology. Early next year I will be completing my summer internship, which (provided I pass this semester’s exams) will be the final requirement.
“My internship will be focused on generative artificial intelligence, which is a growing and exciting industry.
“I previously completed a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours and a Master of Computer Systems at the University of Auckland.
“I love programming but wanted to move into industry and had a purely academic background. The Master of Information Technology is more industry focused, especially with the opportunity for an internship placement.
I am hoping to get into the industry side of the artificial intelligence world. I would love to eventually work on how human bias can propagate into AI models and how to mitigate that.
“I’m learning about interpreting scientific results and papers, business, modelling and systems, which all relate to the career I want to pursue.
“I’m also taking a business course on the links between climate change and capitalism, and alternatives to capitalism, which ties back into my personal ideology and the punk aspect of my personal culture.
“I identify with the punk community which is very music based but also has focus on certain aesthetics and ideologies. I also identify with the LGBTQIA+ community and during my previous degrees I attended regular meetings with the Rainbow Engineering group, which helped me explore and discover my sexuality.
“I love all the different opportunities available at the University. It was the UoA Karate Club that originally got me into martial arts, which has drastically improved my health and fitness as prior to trying martial arts I had always found exercise to be boring.”