#197 The Evolving Role Of Human Expertise In Data-Driven Fields, with Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, the Director of the Curtin Institution For Computation

On today’s podcast we have special guest, Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, the Director of the Curtin Institution For Computation, to discuss with us some of the bleeding edge ways that data is being leveraged in the academic space.

For example, a new radio telescope being built in Australia and South Africa will give us new insights into the cosmos. It will also generate 160 terabytes of data per second; an eye-watering amount of data that poses unique challenges about how it’s utilised and managed. As Johnston-Hollitt mentions, where most wisdom says to store all the data collected, in this case, the research teams are better off developing ways to process the data as quickly as possible, and then removing it to make a fresh set of observations.

This understanding of how to best manage and interpret data highlights the ongoing role that data specialists play at a time where automation is taking ever-more amounts of mundane work off the hands of people, Johnston-Hollitt adds. Data automation will achieve three things in workplaces, she says:

1) It will take the drudgery away from roles, allowing professionals to focus on higher-level and more engaging & rewarding work.

2) It will supplement and complement, but not erase, the expertise of humans. Johnston-Hollitt points to how data can be used to support medical diagnosis for less common conditions that a doctor might not see frequently, but ultimately, it’s up to the doctor to make the diagnosis.

3) Data and AI will also result in the creation of new jobs, as people develop more sophisticated algorithms and need people to validate the applications and results.

Hear more detail about all these insights, and more, by tuning in now. Thank you very much to Johnston-Hollitt for guesting on this podcast.

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Read the full podcast summary here.

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