Introducing a new blog series – just five answers to five quick questions! Thinking about doing a PhD? Find out more about what it’s like as a PhD Student at JIC. Already a PhD? Learn more about what your peers are doing.
Today we have second year student Megan Long talking about her PhD experience!
1. Who are you?
My name is Megan Long. I was born in Scotland and have lived in various locations in and around London as a young child, but I have spent the majority of my life living on the North Norfolk coast. Before starting my PhD I had just completed my masters degree in Physics with Astrophysics at Northumbria university.
2. What is your PhD about?
My PhD looks at using deep learning methods to help make the breeding process for wheat disease resistance quicker and easier. When breeders score for disease they face multiple issues including the presence of multiple diseases at a time and the similarity of symptoms between diseases. I am aiming to create a deep learning model to go on a mobile device as an app, which will classify and quantify the disease present on a given plant from an image.
3. What is your favourite PhD moment so far?
My favourite moment of my PhD so far was coming in one morning and checking some results to find one of my deep learning networks had performed much better than expected and given me results I hadn’t expected to see in my first year.
4. What do you do to switch off from PhD?
I like to mess around with various arts and crafts projects when I get home. Sometimes I do pencil drawings of people and movie characters, sometimes I play with acrylic paints and resin creating coasters and other table-wear.
5. What advice would you give a new PhD student?
It’s normal to have periods where you have no idea what to do next, or where everything appears to be going wrong. These always pass so don’t let them get you down. Work through it and you’ll find the solution.
PhD Profile was concocted by Shannon Woodhouse. If you would like to be featured on PhD Profile, please email or find Shannon on Twitter @shwoodhouse.
Cover Photo: NRP Image Library Yellow rust disease on wheat leaf, Kim Findlay, John Innes Centre, NRP-181