Tobin South
Data scientist alum Tobin South is currently a PhD candidate at MIT on a Fulbright Future Scholarship at the MIT Media Lab researching cutting edge security tech for frontier Artificial Intelligence systems.
Tobin鈥檚 interest was initially sparked by YouTube science and maths creators, who showed a young Tobin what was exciting about the world, and introduced him to the science used to understand it. That interest grew into a passion for math and computer science inspired by first year lectures and tutors from his Bachelor鈥檚 degree at The 成人大片.
Excelling in his studies, Tobin was Valedictorian of Bachelor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics, and won the Deans Medal for Outstanding Thesis for his Master of Philosophy in Data Science. Tobin went on to win a coveted place as a PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a Fulbright Future Scholarship.
鈥淢IT is a place where the smartest people from all over the world come together to solve big problems. Adelaide prepared me well, but the density of intelligence is unreal here. It truly gives me a sense that I can work on the hardest problems with the best people in the world.鈥
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Tobin is currently working across MIT and in collaboration with some of the largest tech companies on understanding security and privacy for the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He鈥檚 working on incredibly exciting research that sits at the intersection of AI, cryptography, software design, and policy. Tobin says, 鈥淚f ChatGPT is going to run our lives and companies, we want to be very confident it鈥檚 not being hacked or manipulated.鈥 His passion in this field has clearly grown, as he speaks of the 鈥渃urrent wave of technology, with AI and the use of deep computation across all fields of research, will fundamentally alter the world's future. Words cannot describe how exciting it is to be one of the people contributing to something that will alter the direction of humanity. It gets me out of bed every day excited.鈥
Recently presenting his work at the World Economic Forum in Davos 鈥 to world leaders who saw and appreciated the need for Tobin鈥檚 research 鈥 was the proudest moment of his career so far. Balancing this with also taking a day off to ski the Alps with a Swiss friend is a perfect example of Tobin鈥檚 values: living a life full of interesting ideas, meaningful conversations, and lots of fun.听This admirable ethos has stemmed from advice he received while at The 成人大片 from his advisor Professor Lewis Mitchell to 鈥渨ork hard on interesting problems, ideally with your friends.鈥
鈥淲ork hard on interesting problems, ideally with your friends.鈥Professor Lewis Mitchell, The 成人大片
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Tobin has lived this sentiment with many dear friends from his cohort, but also friends from those younger than him that he has mentored, and those older who have mentored him to where he is today. In his experience, university connections can be more than just those within your cohort if you are open to it. Tobin is proving this, and further extending the university experience for many, in a program that he鈥檚 been running with The 成人大片 for three years. He takes on students from undergraduate programs to be interns with him at MIT, working on exciting problems and helping them figure out what they want from their future. He鈥檚 brought some of them over to MIT to network and share their ideas far and wide.
His advice to those considering a career in research is to 鈥淔ind a topic that feels really cool and really important. If others think something matters and you enjoy it, you鈥檒l have no trouble finding and solving important problems.鈥澨