Aidan Whitfield🔸

Provided support to AIM's New Programs team with research, modelling and report writing.

Within this role, I undertake diverse analyses of large administrative and survey datasets in R to investigate and report on health issues in the ACT. I have identified, catalogued and help to resolve issues within some of the Territory's data holdings. I am also responsible for implementing innovative automation processes to improve the efficiency of the Section's routine reporting. In this role, I have supervised interns from the ANU who have completed research projects with the section.

The Research Training Program is an 11-week, intensive training program for participants to gain hands-on experience producing high-quality, decision-relevant research on cost-effective interventions to improve human and animal welfare.

In this 3-month graduate rotation, I created R scripts to automate the production of ACT General Health Survey reports from survey data and pioneered the use of HTML reports by the Epidemiology Section. The significance of this work was such that I was asked to share it with the Director General of ACT Health. I also collaborated on a project to investigate the geospatial capabilities of ACT Health by consulting experts across the ACTPS.

In this 4-month rotation with the ACT Government's Wellbeing Team, I reviewed the process for evaluating the wellbeing impacts of business cases for the 2022-23 Budget. Through interviews with stakeholders, sentiment analysis of a survey and a systematic analysis of the 200 business cases, I identified key recommendations for how the process could be improved. These recommendations were presented to the Chief Minister's Office in the form of a high-quality briefing document. Within this role, I also assisted with drafting budget documentation, creating data insights packs and managing the agenda and minutes for the ACT Government's Wellbeing Policy and Implementation Working Group.

In this rotation, I worked with another graduate on a project to review government accountability indicators and recommend changes. This involved conducting a rigorous analysis on the existing indicators and consulting with a network of stakeholders and experts to develop practical, evidence-based recommendations. We summarised our findings in a high-quality briefing document and I personally presented the project findings to the ACT Government’s Strategic Board. The success of this project is reflected in the enthusiasm shown by my supervisor, the project sponsor and the Strategic Board for the quality and utility of the final product.

In this role I worked effectively within a small team to conceive, design and conduct clinical experiments measuring the effects of covert attention on the pupillary light reflex. To this end, I synthesised relevant literature and wrote MATLAB scripts to create machine code for generating pupilometric stimuli and analysing the results of the trials. I recruited participants and conducted clinical experiments.

Tutored MEDN2001, an undergraduate medical physiology and pharmacology course, for the ANU Medical School.

In this research-intensive science degree I completed courses in physiology, chemistry, neuroscience and medical science, receiving high distinctions in each. I also completed three undergraduate research projects, conducting laboratory-, computational- and literature-based research. The results from two of these projects went on to be published. In my Honours year, I conducted a clinical research project investigating the utility of subjective perimetry for the early detection of diabetic eye disease. For my thesis on this topic I received First-Class Honours. Over the course of the degree I accrued a number of awards and scholarships for academic excellence.