Michael Nefiodovas
michael at nef dot net dot au
First class honours (7/7 GPA) in Mathematics and Statistics under the Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) degree at the The University of Western Australia.
My dissertation was titled "Inverse Problems in Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics". I conducted this research under the supervision of Professor Lyle Noakes. My research focused on applying aspects of Hodge theory to the inverse problem in Hamiltonian mechanics, we also discuss many inverse problems in the calculus of variations. I developed a new algorithms for solving the inverse problem in Hamiltonian mechanics by applying ideas from Hodge theory.One simple idea for an application of my research: If we observe a collection of timeseries measurements of a system which we believe is governed by a Hamiltonian system, our algorithm can efficiently determine the Hamiltonian function which governs the system, hence allowing us to make future predictions and understand symmetries inherent in our timeseries. This has applications in many areas of science and engineering, such as in the study of fluid dynamics, quantum mechanics, and celestial mechanics.
Research Projects
How to row across the Indian Ocean
2/11/2022
2 years agoIn 2023, two separate attempts are being planned for rowers crossing the Indian Ocean. Working in collaboration with the rower, our goal is to explore how best to navigate the crossing on a day-to-day basis, accounting for forecast currents, wind and wave conditions - and the uncertainty in each input. Stochastic optimal control techniques will be used.
Optimal Staffing in a Classroom
3/5/2022
2 years agoHow many tutors should a university hire to monitor a classrooms over the course of a Semester? I developed a Markov process model of a classroom environment, and used this to explore how the addition of having tutors available on-call could improve operational costs and service quality.
Student Engagement Analysis
23/11/2021
3 years agoWe know student engagement in-class is correlated with higher grades, but do the students know this? I developed an application to automatically analyse and visualise student data. These visualisaions were then used to inform students of their engagement levels, and how they could improve.
Tutoring/Teaching
CITS2211: Discrete Structures
Role: Teaching Assistant (Lab Facilitator)
Term(s): 2022 Semester 2
A first course in discrete mathematics, proofs and theoretical computer science. Topics covered inclued: logic, sets, functions, relations, counting and automata.
Term(s): 2022 Semester 2
A first course in discrete mathematics, proofs and theoretical computer science. Topics covered inclued: logic, sets, functions, relations, counting and automata.
CITS2401: Computer Analysis and Visualisation
Role: Teaching Assistant (Lab Facilitator)
Term(s): 2022 Semester 1, 2022 Semester 2
A course in the scientific applications of Python. Topics covered include: matplotlib, numpy, pandas, data manipulation, many case studies.
Term(s): 2022 Semester 1, 2022 Semester 2
A course in the scientific applications of Python. Topics covered include: matplotlib, numpy, pandas, data manipulation, many case studies.
Major Projects
Coders for Causes
1/1/2020
5 years agoCoders for Causes is the largest software engineering volunteer group in Western Australia. I have now been volunteering with Coders for Causes for nearly 3 years. In 2020 I had the privilege of being elected as the President of the organisation. As president, I was responsible for the organisation of the group, including the organisation of events, the management of the group's finances, client management, and the recruitment of new members.
IndEAA: Streamlining Course Review by Industry Advisory Panels
14/1/2021
4 years agoWhile working at the UWA System Health Lab as research engineer, my colleague and I developed a full-stack web app to streamline the course accreditation process. The app was developed using React, Node.js, Express, and MongoDB. There are plans to expand the scope of the app to include other UWA faculties. Check out the docs here.
Steamhunt
30/5/2019
5 years agoFounded Steamhunt, an online scraping and data-aggregation business. The site has two primary features: A Steam avatar reverse image searcher and a Steam Community Market scraper.
