Calum Hand

University of Bath · Bath · BA2 7AY · calumhand94@hotmail.com

I am a PhD student within the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies at the University of Bath. I research the use of machine learning and other applied statistical methods to dramatically enhance the research and development pipeline of materials science.

I intentionally chose my supervisory team to consist of a range of disciplines including: both chemical and software engineers, applied mathematicians, and computer scientists. This ensures that the code bases I develop as part of my PhD are both theoretically rigorous and novel, and built according to best industry practises.

Please feel free to take a look at my LinkedIn, GitHub, or even download my CV using the links below!


Skills

Machine Learning & Datascience
  • Scikit-learn
  • Numpy
  • Pandas
  • SQL
  • Chemformatics {RDKit, DeepChem}
  • Jupyter Lab
  • Plotting {Matplotlib, Seaborn}
Programming & Development
  • Python {OOP, Scripting}
  • C++
  • Linux
  • Version Control {git}
  • Continuous Integration {Testing, Travis, Full documentation}
  • Package Management {Conda, venv}
  • Editors {Pycharm, Atom, ipython}
Teamwork & Interpersonal
  • Presenting research and technical findings to non specialist audiences
  • Working with high profile clients to achieve their goals
  • Working well under pressure within challenging environments
  • Excelling within teams of driven members

Professional Experience

Account Team Member

RIMES Technologies
  • Initially hired as part of a global team of analysts. Daily tasks included: being first point of contact for all of RIMES'300 clients; efficiently analysing anomalies within client’s data; and identifying and fixing errors within RIMES' in house coding language
  • Received a rigorous training program teaching me how to use RIMES' in house data analysis tools and develop a strong, working knowledge of financial data
  • Due to my proficiency in problem solving, knowledge of the RIMES tools and experience with clients, I was promoted to the account team of RIMES largest client after only six months
  • This promotion allowed me to work on the more technical and challenging problems being faced by the client including working on the development and implementation of their new data feed system, the largest single project RIMES had undertaken in their company history
  • An ability to prioritise tasks and often work on multiple issues at once has been a key skill I have developed while at RIMES
September 2017 - September 2018

Development Experience

Significant Contributions

  • Over 1.5 years of scientific programming and data analysis experience
  • Significant refactoring and modularisation of in house code during Intense three week collaboration with the mathematics department on novel material screening approaches
  • Currently assisting development of novel code base for Azure cloud servers to conduct large scale material screenings
  • Have worked with remote, linux, HPC systems for monte carlo simulations
  • Routinely help colleagues with programming / data analysis queries
September 2019 - Ongoing

Personal Projects

  • mtgindex : Engineering and conglomeration of the popular mtgjson dataset to perform financial benchmark assessment of prices
  • mlscratch : Implementing machine learning algorithms in numpy to continue personal development in this area
  • vigenere cypher : Command line tool to easily read and write journal entries encrypted with the vigenere cipher
  • ir assignment : Command line tool to help chemists assign the results of Infra Red spectroscopy
January 2018 - Ongoing

Other

  • Member of the teaching team for University research software skills course including: Python programming (including OOP), data analysis, version control, and continuous integration
  • Attended the 2019 HPC Autumn Academy at Cambridge University, a 2 week course on writing efficient and parallel C++ code for distributed systems
  • Have completed AndrewNG's Machine Learning course on coursera, implementing the discussed algorithms in python using base libraries
September 2018 - Ongoing

Research Experience

PhD · Chemical Engineering

Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (University of Bath)
  • I am pursuing a PhD which combines Monte Carlo simulation and novel machine learning techniques to develop software tools for large scale material screenings
  • The machine learning algorithms being developed use data collected from the Monte Carlo simulation of porous materials with gas adsorbates and allow for "in situ" understanding of the ideal adsorbent properties
  • This EPSRC funded PhD is supervised by members of the Chemical Engineering, Mathematics departments and a University of Bath Research Software Engineer
  • Future work currently looks at the packaging of the algorithm into a tool which is made available to the scientific community with appropriate best practises and development of other computational tools to facilitate porous materials research
  • More select Monte Carlo simulations will also continue to be conducted as part of this PhD either as validation or further investigation of novel discoveries
September 2019 - Currently

MRes Research Project

University of Bath
  • Conducted an 8 month research project, performing proof of concept studies on a novel machine learning algorithm to streamline high throughput, Monte Carlo screenings
  • The core skills developed during this project were: working with python day to day (particularly the anaconda package management, matplotlib, numpy, pandas, and sklearn libraries), and running Monte Carlo simulations of porous materials on a HPC Linux system
  • Additionally, this work allowed me to develop my scientific programming skills; work within a HPC Linux system; bash scripting, and data visualisation
  • The result of this work was a proof of concept study which allowed for the "real time" analysis of 69,000 porous structures, resulting in the top 100 performing materials to be identified after assessing only 0.65 % of all the structures by Monte Carlo simulation
September 2018 - September 2018

MRes Research Project

Imperial College London
  • Conducted an intensive, year-long, independent research project, where I successfully demonstrated biorenewable materials could be utilised as a synthetic precursor for solar cells
  • This research made use of DFT calculations and novel synthetic strategies to investigate and synthesise target materials
  • I was given a high degree of autonomy while conducting this research requiring me to develop solutions to large and small problems daily, develop multiple research plans to the research target and fully plan my work well in advance to ensure all required materials were in stock
September 2016 - September 2017

BSc Research Project

University of St Andrews
  • The results of this project were published in conjunction with other group research: Org. Biomol. Chem., 2016, 14, 10023 - 10030 , using organic synthesis to valorise biorenewable aromatic feedstocks for fine chemical production
  • Tenacious work ethic was developed throughout the project in order to keep to deadlines and ensure a high standard of research was conducted
September 2015 - April 2016

Work Experience

Outreach & Office Volunteer

The Big Issue
  • Travelled extensively within the West of Scotland in order to help and build relationships with street vendors about problems they were experiencing relating to their work, and offering support to vendors who had experienced abuse or been victim to violent crime
  • Assisted with the sale of magazines to vendors, allocating vending pitches for the week and ensuring records were maintained and up to date
July 2016 - September 2016

Alpine Tower Staff & Counsellor

YMCA Camp Silver Beach (Virgina USA)
  • Worked as part of a 13-member team running the climbing activities on camp where we were given full autonomy
  • We were responsible for setting up and maintaining all equipment used on the tower and zipline every day and making sure all equipment was safe to be used
  • Expected to be autonomous in our day to day work caring for over 120 campers a week
May 2015 - August 2015

Education

The University of Bath · Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies

MRes · Sustainable Chemical Technologies · Distinction
  • Received the Abel & Imray prize for best research project
  • As the CSCT is a doctoral training centre, I have taken advantage of the numerous workshops and skills courses available including (but not limited to): Project management; A week long course on "Product Commercialisation"; A two day training course on "Design of Experiment" by Catalysis Consulting; A day long workshop on patents and other intellectual property; A two week training school in HPC computing at Cambridge, and other software development micro courses
  • Lecture courses were also undertaken, each focussing on a separate element of sustainability including engineering, industrial catalysis, and life cycle analysis
September 2018 - September 2019

Imperial College London

MRes · Green Chemistry, Energy and the Environment · Distinction
  • Awarded first prize for a group research project examining the future of India's energy production and consumption over the next 50 years.
September 2016 - September 2017

University of St Andrews

BSc · Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry · 2.1
  • Conducted a 4 year undergraduate degree in organic chemistry at an internationally renowned university
September 2012 - June 2016

Further Learning

  • Attended an internationally recognised 2 week course on molecular simulation in Amsterdam (2020)
  • Participated in a 2 day course on Experimental Design given by "Catalysis Consulting"
  • A day long workshop on the fundamentals of intellectual property given by "Abel & Imray" patent attorneys
  • Have received a total of 2 weeks training from "Science Made Simple" on how to engage with memebers of the public about scientific research
  • Received an intense day long workshop on effective project management and workflows at the start of my PhD
Ongoing

Other Interests & Achievements

  • "Race 2 Budapest" Charity Hitchhike Logistics Officer (2015)
  • University of St Andrews Jujitsu Club Treasurer & Equipment Officer (2013-2015)
  • Scottish Institute for Enterprise Get "Enterprising" National winner (2015)
  • "Race 2 Berlin" charity hitchhike race from Glasgow to Berlin (2014)
  • Bouldering & Rock Climbing (a long long time)
  • Training in numerous martial arts {Jujitsu, KravMaga, Systema, Taekwondo, Kickbxing}
  • Enjoying all the films I can get my hands on
  • Playing bass guitar