Is science worthwhile? Is it a net good for society? At a global level this is an almost philosophical question - how could we possibly appropriately sum the benefits of all scientific advancements against their costs? But, at a smaller scale, our leaders and scientists are constantly balancing the expected benefits of experiments (like new medicines or technologies) against the time, resources and expertise needed to conduct them.

Dr Amanda Parker's research group at the ANU School of Computing develops machine learning methods to optimise scientific outcomes and insights relative to the costs of training improved models or acquiring additional data through experimentation. This transdisciplinary research encompasses the fields of high-performance computing, computational science and applied machine learning.

Prior to joining ANU in 2021 Dr Parker completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the machine learning group at CSIRO's Data61 and graduated with a PhD in Physics from the University of British Columbia. She is an active member of the eResearch and High Performance Computing research communities and has received professional accreditation for her tertiary teaching and supervision as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.