Meet Elen Shaw, Senior Data Scientist at Owlstone Medical

At Owlstone Medical the problems we are trying to solve are enormously difficult, but our people are our greatest asset. To enable our progress, we’ve fostered a dynamic working environment that allows our talented and dedicated multidisciplinary team to flourish.?

For this interview, we spoke to Elen Shaw, one of our Senior Data Scientists. Elen joined Owlstone in 2020 and has since been involved in developing machine learning solutions to some of the toughest questions we’re trying to answer as a company. She works across a number of areas, contributing to our wider mission to bring novel diagnostic breath tests into the clinic.?

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your career up to this point??

I graduated in 2017 with a Master’s degree in Chemistry and no idea what I wanted to do. On a whim, I applied for a technology graduate scheme at a multinational corporation and (to my surprise) I was offered the role. A task in my first placement involved copying data from one spreadsheet to another, and I quickly decided that there must be a better way of doing things. I started learning Python, and while I’m certain that first task took far longer to program than it would have done by hand, I had found a new skill that I enjoyed!?

For my final graduate placement, I joined a data engineering team where I had the freedom to research and implement machine learning methods to predict system faults. Although it was interesting, I found the application quite abstract and far-removed from the core aims of the company. I also missed being in a scientific environment. I joined Owlstone because I wanted to apply the skills I learned on my graduate scheme to data I was interested in, and in a company with a mission I could get behind.??

Outside of work I enjoy rock climbing, and I spend my weekends climbing and hiking, or kayaking down Cambridgeshire’s beautiful rivers.?

What is your current role at Owlstone Medical and how does your work support the company’s mission??

As a senior data scientist, I develop machine learning solutions to solve problems. I work with a wide range of colleagues including chemists, systems engineers, electronic engineers, software developers and project managers. The variety is one of the things I enjoy most about my role!?

The work we do contributes to Owlstone’s research and development of volatile organic compounds (VOC) sensor technologies. These sensors output signals or spectra and my team is tasked with converting these outputs to information that can be interpreted by a clinician. In one project, this involves mapping a sensor output to the concentration of a particular biomarker, accounting for all the environmental conditions and interferents that could influence the behaviour of the sensor.? In another, we use deep learning to identify which chemicals are present. These models are deployed onto sensor devices to provide accurate information at the point of care.?

When I’m not actively developing machine learning models, I work closely with systems engineers and chemists to design experiments or analyse the effect of hardware changes. Models will only ever be as good as the data used to train them, so we need to ensure we collect high quality data that answers the specific questions at hand.?

What motivates you to get up and come to work in the morning?????

For me to stay motivated I need to be interested in the data I’m analysing, and I need to feel like I’m having a meaningful impact. At Owlstone, I understand exactly how my work contributes to the company’s goals, and how it helps improve people’s health and wellbeing.??

Most of the data I see on a day-to-day basis relates to VOCs and other chemicals. Although you definitely don’t need a chemistry degree to be a Data Scientist at Owlstone, I really enjoy having that deeper understanding of where my data comes from and what it means on a molecular level. Every project is completely different and comes with its own challenges and unique solutions. There is always something new to learn and the diversity of projects mean I have many opportunities to try out new methods.?

How has Owlstone supported your career progression in the two years you’ve been here???

I joined Owlstone in March 2020, barely two weeks before the first national lockdown for Covid-19. Despite the challenging circumstances, the whole team made me feel incredibly welcome and my line manager has always supported me. When I first started I was tasked with small analyses to help me understand the data. Over time I was given more challenging tasks that had greater impact, and I had opportunities to present to customers and influence the direction of projects. I was given a lot of responsibility quite soon after joining, but that was never a problem as everyone at Owlstone wants you to succeed and is very willing to share knowledge or offer a helping hand.?

Earlier this year, I was promoted to Senior Data Scientist. As well as leading algorithm development, one of my responsibilities is to train junior team members – I hope to offer them the same support? I received from my team when I first joined.?

What advice would you give someone who was considering a career in Data Science??

A data scientist needs a lot of different skills – programming, statistics, machine learning, data visualisation, data interpretation and many more – but for me the most important qualities in a data scientist are curiosity and tenacity. I frequently find myself asking “why is my data doing that?!” and uncover unexpected trends by digging into the data. This means I need to really care about the data I’m analysing and be engaged and interested in what it means and the impact it has. My advice for someone considering a data science career is to find data that you’re interested in, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time with it!?

If you’d like to join Elen and the rest of our talented team and help us save 100,000 lives and $1.5B in healthcare spending, then keep an eye on our current vacancies.?