Tobin South
Data scientist alum Tobin South is currently a PhD candidate at MIT on a Fulbright Future Scholarship at the MIT Media Lab researching cutting edge security tech for frontier Artificial Intelligence systems.
Tobin’s interest was initially sparked by YouTube science and maths creators, who showed a young Tobin what was exciting about the world, and introduced him to the science used to understand it. That interest grew into a passion for math and computer science inspired by first year lectures and tutors from his Bachelor’s degree at The University of Adelaide.
Excelling in his studies, Tobin was Valedictorian of Bachelor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Mathematics and Statistics, and won the Deans Medal for Outstanding Thesis for his Master of Philosophy in Data Science. Tobin went on to win a coveted place as a PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a Fulbright Future Scholarship.
“MIT is a place where the smartest people from all over the world come together to solve big problems. Adelaide prepared me well, but the density of intelligence is unreal here. It truly gives me a sense that I can work on the hardest problems with the best people in the world.”
Tobin is currently working across MIT and in collaboration with some of the largest tech companies on understanding security and privacy for the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He’s working on incredibly exciting research that sits at the intersection of AI, cryptography, software design, and policy. Tobin says, “If ChatGPT is going to run our lives and companies, we want to be very confident it’s not being hacked or manipulated.” His passion in this field has clearly grown, as he speaks of the “current wave of technology, with AI and the use of deep computation across all fields of research, will fundamentally alter the world's future. Words cannot describe how exciting it is to be one of the people contributing to something that will alter the direction of humanity. It gets me out of bed every day excited.”
Recently presenting his work at the World Economic Forum in Davos — to world leaders who saw and appreciated the need for Tobin’s research — was the proudest moment of his career so far. Balancing this with also taking a day off to ski the Alps with a Swiss friend is a perfect example of Tobin’s values: living a life full of interesting ideas, meaningful conversations, and lots of fun. This admirable ethos has stemmed from advice he received while at The University of Adelaide from his advisor Professor Lewis Mitchell to “work hard on interesting problems, ideally with your friends.”
“Work hard on interesting problems, ideally with your friends.”Professor Lewis Mitchell, The University of Adelaide
Tobin has lived this sentiment with many dear friends from his cohort, but also friends from those younger than him that he has mentored, and those older who have mentored him to where he is today. In his experience, university connections can be more than just those within your cohort if you are open to it. Tobin is proving this, and further extending the university experience for many, in a program that he’s been running with The University of Adelaide for three years. He takes on students from undergraduate programs to be interns with him at MIT, working on exciting problems and helping them figure out what they want from their future. He’s brought some of them over to MIT to network and share their ideas far and wide.
His advice to those considering a career in research is to “Find a topic that feels really cool and really important. If others think something matters and you enjoy it, you’ll have no trouble finding and solving important problems.”