G'day, I'm Tobin
I'm a PhD student at MIT on a Fulbright Future Scholarship advised by Sandy Pentland in the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab and Connection Science in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.
I work at the intersection of data, privacy, AI, and society. In particular, I'm focused on how communities and individuals can privately and securely share data to extract social-good insights, rebuild social capital, or securely leverage large language models. This takes many forms, from decentralized private data sharing to secure data pooling for communities. I'm optimistic that a decentralized, pluralistic, and composable Web3 & AI future will be great, and I'm working hard to make sure I'm not wrong.
Previously I did research as a data scientist and applied mathematician at The University of Adelaide where my research focused on networks of natural language information flow. I also ran the Bayesian arm of the COVID-19 forecasting for the Australian Federal government and worked as an RA on a variety of projects. Oh and I have a few failed startups from over the years, because you've got to learn somehow.
I care a lot about governance and have a bad habit of agreeing to too many meetings. I have a non-executive role on the board of the MIT bigdata Living Lab in Adelaide and sit on the Graduate Student Council at MIT. I was involved in far too many committees and student organizations throughout my Bachelors, where I was Valedictorian of the graduating class of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering.
Before all that, I grew up in the "Peanut capital of Australia", the agricultural town of Kingaroy, Queensland; but I consider Adelaide my real home. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have something interesting to talk about.
