Tara McKeown
Applications Analyst
I work for Alfred H. Knight, who are specialists in the Commodities industry, working with Precious Metals and Minerals. AHK is a competitive private sector company, with a great, hard-working team.
I spend my days supporting our in house IT applications which are used for the extraction and analysis of metals and minerals, globally. Additionally, I'm in the first year of my PhD, researching in the area of AI and Law. Focusing specifically on the current processes and technological developments within the Legal industry to date. The overall aim of my PhD is to analyse the areas of the law that we can automate.
I love problem solving and learning; it's so rewarding helping others to plan and implement changes which affect their day to day role. I'm constantly developing my skill set further and making myself more knowledgeable in as many areas as I'm able to, I like to say I have my fingers stuck in all the pies!
Each day people bring their problems and requirements to me and I analyse, plan and resolve these as efficiently and effectively as possible. I liaise with every team in our IT department to promptly solve issues. There is a lot of variety in what I do each day and who I work with, I'm on several projects as well as working within the operations side. My work doesn't stop after hours either, as I'm doing my PhD part time, my evenings are consumed by reading literature, and self teaching in the areas of AI, Machine Learning and Data Science.
I'm Irish and moved to Liverpool, England almost 6 years ago as an 18 year old. Last year, I graduated with a First Class Honours in my BSc Degree in Computer Science, and have since been working full time and researching Part time. Never once at 18 years old did I think I'd be able to achieve so much!
I'm excited to learn and grow in my specialist area - AI and Law. I'll complete my PhD and continue in Academia, pursuing my dream career of Lecturing in AI and Data Science. I always aim for the stars, so I'd love to publish a book in the near future too!
When I have some free time, I enjoy learning other transferrable skills and completing extra curricular certifications to better myself. I'm a committee member for the Developments in e-Systems Engineering conference series also. Outside of work I love reading, socialising with friends and family and spending time in nature!
Merit can be bought, passion can't!