Tēnā koutou katoa
Ko Marikena
Nō Kānata-Wīwī me Potukara ōku tīpuna
Ko Connecticut te whenua tupu
engari
Ko Werengitana te kāinga
Kei Wainuiomata au e noho ana
He senior data scientist me data steward au i Tiakitanga Pūtaiao Aotearoa
Ko DaRocha tōku whānau
Ko Maria tōku ingoa
Ngā mihi maioha
My name is Maria and I am a data scientist , AI/ML specialist, and data steward currently based in Wellington, New Zealand. My passions are: sustainability, social responsibility, climate response, data-driven policy, ecology (biodiversity and conservation), chemistry, and all things mathematical! That may seem a long list of things to be passionate about – but the core of those passions are the same: numbers, people, and the direction of our society.
You can view my projects or publications pages if you’d like to learn more about outcomes from my work in academia.
What about outside of work?
If I’m not behind my desk I’m likely either working on personal projects, perfecting new recipes, reading, or out in nature with my lovely wife. Some of my best reads this year have been: Babel by R. F. Kuang and Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari.
What People I Admire Say
“Big Data processes codify the past. They do not invent the future. Doing that requires moral imagination, and that’s something only humans can provide.”
We have to explicitly embed better values into our algorithms, creating Big Data models that follow our ethical lead. Sometimes that will mean putting fairness ahead of profit.
Cathy O’Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
“Desperation does not breed empathy or clear thinking.”
Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale
“But what is the opposite of fidelity?’ asked Professor Playfair. He was approaching the end of his dialitic; now he needed only to draw it to a close with a punch. ‘Betrayal.
Translation means doing violence upon the original, it means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So, where does that leave us? How can we conclude except by acknowledging that an act of translation is always an act of betrayal?”
R. F. Kuang, Babel
Maria DaRocha 