Eavesdrop On Experts

"I’m a mathematician by training but lately, I’ve started to become very interested in how mathematics can help us trust algorithms," says Kate Smith-Miles, professor of Applied Mathematics and Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers. “Algorithms are everywhere, and how we can trust them is becoming a really pressing issue. The good news is that mathematics and statistics offer some really valuable tools for us to be able to develop this trust.” Professor Smith-Miles’ research quest to stress-test optimisation algorithms has led to a large collection of intricate and beautiful 2D images, contour plots of mathematical functions that have been mathematically generated to create challenging landscapes. “The research took a direction where we’re trying to deliberately generate diverse problems, unique problems [to test the algorithms]”, Professor Smith-Miles says. “It turns out, we were able to visualise them as beautiful 2D images. We had so many, that it turned into a ne