We’ve started a new blog series ResChat @ ResPlat, chatting to members of our community about their research and tools they use to work smarter not harder.
Our first interviewee is Wendy. Wendy is in her first year of her PhD here at the University of Melbourne.
What is your PhD researching?
I am looking at climate change and how it is affecting the phenology of grape vines & composition of grapes.
This research will hopefully help with short term planning for yearly vineyard operations and long term planning for where vines might be planted and which varieties to plant given the changes in weather and climate we are experiencing and will continue to experience.
How did you choose this research topic?
Formerly I worked in the Wine production industry in Victoria. Being part of that industry, we did see a lot of changes in phenology timing, such as earlier flowering and harvest and I was interested in exploring that more.
What tool do use in your research?
I’ve been using MATLAB. Firstly, I’ve learnt the basics especially in formatting and structuring my data. Now, I’m slowly learning to use the modelling components such as graphs to examine the data and try to find trends. Later, I’m hoping to expand my skill set to include Machine learning to further explore the data.
Why did you choose MATLAB?
For me it started with the Research Bazaar. My supervisor highly recommended it, so I went. For me it was a massive eye opener as to all the various techniques for handling data that were available as well as finding out which one will work for me. I met Doruk and he provided an overview of the Matlab tool, I attended his session and then came to the trainings.
I was looking for tools that had intuitive ways to crunch the data & do it more efficiently. I don’t want to spend all my time doing unnecessary laborious & repetitive parts & instead focus on the analysis and thinking around the data.
Similarly in my research there is so much data to work through! For example, a vineyard manager observesand records when vines go through the stages of phenology, and the vineyard weather station records the weather. These recordings are taken every 15 mins every day of the year. I’ve got 18 years of data, can you imagine how much data that is! I then want to relate the weather data to the observed phenology stages.
Yes, I could use a spreadsheet, but MATLAB is just so much more efficient & effective. I can work with and across several large datasets, perform calculations and create graphs I need, for example matching phenology dates & weather data and eventually build models to predict future phenology changes It has reduced my workload by a factor of six at least.
Would you recommend our services?
At first I was nearly in tears. Now I’m excited! I can’t imagine how I would’ve managed without Resplat and would certainly recommend!
You do first feel so overwhelmed, but Research Community Coordinator Doruk was so great at teaching & very patient, taking it in steps, it made everything easy.
I’ve learnt so much from the training and it’s great to have meetups where you can get help with your own problems. The community atmosphere is fantastic also, giving encouragement and meeting other people who you can also workshop your problems with you.
Thank you ResPlat!
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