OCTOBER | Thierry Rakotoarivelo

Tell us about yourself,

I arrived in Australia after completing my Master degree in Computer Science in France. I first worked as an engineer at the Motorola Australia Research Centre (MARC, now closed), where I got a taste of research. It inspired me to start a PhD in cotutelle with the University of New South Wales (UNSW, Australia) and the Institut National Polytechnique of Toulouse (INPT, France). After completing my PhD, I joined NICTA (National ICT Australia) and conducted research in computer networking. I then joined Data61, where my research interests gradually moved to data privacy and confidentiality. I am also a keen scuba diving instructor and teach courses for a local dive shop every now and then. I enjoy taking photos and videos of Sydney’s amazing marine life.

What gets you excited about your work or your projects?

What I like about our work is to see how new ideas are formed in response to problems, how they evolved, get tested, refined and then deployed to solve the original problem. I really enjoy being part of that process and knowing that I helped build some bits of the final solution.

How long have you worked for Data61 and why do you like working here?

I have worked at Data61 since its formation. What I like the most about working at Data61 are the opportunities to collaborate with very talented and nice people and further multidisciplinary teams from across CSIRO.

What is the most valuable thing you've learned while working for Data61?

I have learned many valuable things while working at Data61, it is not easy to pick one as 'the most valuable'. Some examples would be: being a better listener and actively seeking different angles to solve a problem.

What is the most valuable thing you've made to SCS that you're most proud of?

Together with some external partners, I co-developed a project which builds tools to quantify Privacy risks and mitigate them in the Ed-Tech sector. It won 3-year funding from the Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Grants. We are now halfway through the project, and it has delivered some useful tools and insights to our external industry partners. Together with some external partners, I co-developed a project which builds tools to quantify Privacy risks and mitigate them in the Ed-Tech sector. It won 3-year funding from the Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Grants.

What is the one thing you hope people would remember about you?

I would like to leave that for them to decide

Top three professional skills,

1. Data Privacy Risk Quantification
2. Privacy-preserving Technology
3. Applying Research to Real-world Problems