A talk to the Sixth Form Students about what it is like to study for a PhD and about social media research.

1. Life after High Storrs
School
Wasim Ahmed (wahmed1@sheffield.ac.uk)
(Twitter: @was3210)
High Storrs School
Alumni Event
10th October 2016, Sheffield

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About me
• PhD student, Information School, University of
Sheffield.
• Research Associate, Management School,
University of Sheffield.
• Teaching Assistant: Data Analysis, Data Mining
& Visualization, and E-business and E-
commerce (MSc level)

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Undergraduate degree
• Left High Storrs with three A-Levels: AAB
(Psychology, Philosophy, ICT)
• Started an undergraduate degree: Physics with
a Foundation Year (changed course)
• Switched to Philosophy within the first week and
graduated with a solid 2:1

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Masters degree
• Started an MSc in Information Systems
immediately after my undergraduate degree
• Wrote an Msc dissertation in the Health
Informatics Research group with a distinction
mark
• Worked as a Research Assistant drafting
journal articles in the research group.

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PhD Research
• Started a PhD in the Health Informatics
Research Group in Sept 2014.
• Aim of topic to gain a better
understanding of content shared on
social media platforms such as Twitter
during infectious disease outbreaks

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Role as Research Associate
• Working part time as a Research
Associate with the Management School
and Information School
• Looking at the use of Twitter during
major flood events: analysing data, and
using data science skills

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Role as Teaching Assistant
• 3 main modules:
• Data Analysis: Statistics and SPSS
• E-business and E-commerce
• Data Mining and Visualisation: Machine
Learning and Weka
• Tasks include answering student
queries, running lectures, group
tutorials, and marking work

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Notable Achievements:

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Notable Achievements:

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Notable Achievements:

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Notable Achievements:
• Featured in Doctoral Times
Newsletter, and twice in the
White Rose DTC Newsletter
for attracting media attention
• Worked on a project for the
University of Sheffield looking
at their Twitter account
• Regular contributor to the
London School for Economics
and Political Sciences (LSE)
Impact Blog

12. Questions?