PhD

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PhD Student Ongoing

I am a PhD student in Computer Science at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. I moved to Pōneke Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand in August 2024. My degrees are:

  • MA (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh
  • MSc Language and Communications Technology (with a specialization in Computational Linguistics) from Saarland University

To contact me, email: richard.littauer at ecs.vuw.ac.nz or richard at this website.

I actively publish and work in several different areas:

  • ornithology, avian bird flu, and community science
  • taxonomic nomenclature
  • using open source to further open science
  • linguistics

A full list of my work is given below.

My Thesis

Building Tools for Community Science Datasets to Model Bird Populations and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Aotearoa New Zealand

Supervisors

Kris Bubendorfer, Markus Lukzac-Roesch

Proposal Abstract

Community science platforms have enabled the creation of global observational datasets which afford unprecedented insights into natural biodiversity. The heterogeneous nature of the data presents significant challenges for standardisation, quality assurance, quality control, and workflow management.

The goal of my research is:

  • to build tools that enable researchers to use these datasets with higher degrees of certainty;
  • to develop workflows to allow for standardised, reproducible processing of the data;
  • to use case studies that offer meaningful insights into how community science can be used to understand epidemiology and population demographics;
  • to use this to inform public policy.

I focus, in particular, on bird populations in Aoteaora New Zealand and Oceania, and on predicting the oncoming significant threat posed by Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

Societies

I try to be active in various academic societies. I’d be happy to talk to you about anything to do with:

  • BirdsNZ
  • Wellington Botanical Society
  • Royal Society Te Apārangi
  • SNAP
  • Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington Student Association
  • IEEE
  • The Carpentries
  • Entomological Society of New Zealand
  • Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain (ULAB)
  • Linguistics Society of America (LSA)

Talks

I frequently give talks about my work. You can find my most recent presentations here.

My Publications

See everything I’ve published or presented during my PhD, or my full list of publications.