“Friends of mine, who were PhD researchers, struggled to get a foothold in their sector. APR.Intern was my ticket into industry.”
Dr Riya Aggarwal
Meet Riya, an applied mathematics postgraduate and senior artificial intelligence (AI) engineer at Canva. An award-winning AI engineer, she believes that she would not be the industry leader she is today without the support of AMSI and APR.Intern.
Riya believes that we shouldn’t see mathematics as ‘just’ a subject, but the foundation of countless career pathways. “Maths is behind every AI task,” she says. “The models are mathematical models. Optimisation, scaling, inference pipelines — all of these involve maths.”
Winter School
Winter School was Riya’s introduction to AMSI, and the event was critical to her development: “It’s easy to get stuck in your own silo and believe that your research is the best in the world,” she says. “Often, you don’t consider what others are doing.” It was an empowering two weeks at the School: “Ideas learned were incorporated into my work. People are doing phenomenal maths research; sometimes you just have to go beyond your supervisor and learn from others.”
Enter APR.Intern
Like many of you, Riya decided during her PhD that she wanted to work at the intersection of industry and academia. This is where APR.Intern stepped in. By facilitating a valuable internship opportunity with Veris, we enabled her to realise her ambition of working in industry. “That can be difficult for many academics in Australia,” she says.
Riya’s internship was a resounding success, so much so that Veris offered her a full-time role. This was the first time she had an opportunity to apply her AI research to industry, an experience that led to her current position at Canva.
Importance of maths
Riya is keen to emphasise the importance of a maths background in gaining employment in the burgeoning AI industry. “If I did not have that foundation, I would’ve struggled to perform in my current role at Canva,” she notes.
She admits that she “never chose mathematics; it just happened to me”, but with enough talent, hard work and support from organisations such as AMSI and its targeted programs, we can secure Australia’s mathematical talent pipeline from school to industry.
With EOFY fast approaching, please consider donating today to support more stories like Riya’s. Your gift will help create more pathways for maths and STEM postgraduate researchers into industry.
What is the AMSI Foundation?
The AMSI Foundation was founded in 2016 to support AMSI’s mission to champion the mathematical sciences for Australia’s advancement. The Foundation offers a tax-deductible way to support participation in AMSI programs.
APR.Intern
APR.Intern, Australia’s national PhD internship program, is a division of The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI). For over 25 years, AMSI has supported and inspired maths and STEM postgraduate students through its advanced education and industry internship programs. APR specialises in facilitating opportunities, transitioning research students from academia to industry.
Help us strengthen this vital career support for the next generation of postgraduate maths and STEM students.
