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Hire Dr. Aqeel P.

Spain

USD 30 /hr

Physical Oceanographer & Data Analyst specialising in turbulence & ocean circulation

Profile Summary

At the European Space Agency, I was tasked with researching relevant literature on a mathematical framework from the 1980s for understanding ocean circulation. My role was to update that framework given the numerous techno- logical advancements in data collection, validation and satellite remote sensing. Prior to me, a non-scientist software engineer had developed a rudimentary soft- ware for implementing the framework. Based on that software and other prior work done on the topic a Journal article was written, however, it was rejected. I was told that I needed to; 1) overhaul the software that was written (in a scientifically sound way). 2) develop machine learning or statistical modelling techniques to asses the uncertainty each dataset had on the final result we re- quired. 3) develop a user interface which would allow for the tool to be used by non-technical staff for research and validation purposes. In carrying out the three aforementioned tasks, I found that the code had a bug in which certain areas of the ocean experienced unrealistic values. This was only identified by looking at the code and its output in a scientific rather than a purely software driven way. Once the bug was found I was ready for the statistical aspect of understanding how uncertainties propagate to the final results we desired. For this, I implemented a Monte Carlo simulation which ran the model for hundreds of instances of each dataset within a set range of uncertainty found through validating the datasets against ground-truths. After this, I implemented a computer vision algorithm which detects patterns in the dataset space and produces maps based on the patterns. The results were unexpected and I was given the option of presenting the work at a scientific congress in Germany. It turned out that the session organ- isers at the congress selected my work as particularly societally relevant and so invited me for a longer presentation with an accompanying article to be pub- lished in their conference proceedings. As such, I had to refine my scientific and technical writing skills to appeal to the interests and needs of the wider scien- tific community. My work paid off with my paper and presentation winning an award for the best paper and presentation by a student, securing future funding and renewing interest for the project. However, it also proved that the work I had done along with the addition of statistical techniques had major societal impact. With the positive feedback from the conference, I set to work on writing a full scientific paper to be published in a high-ranking journal. I found that a lack of statistical analysis of the results and an error in one of the mathematical formulas was the reason for the past rejection of the paper. Once these were addresses (using the Monte Carlo simulation and computer vision approach), I began writing the paper. The journey of writing a full scientific paper required a high level of attention to detail to make sure the analysis, mathematics and implementation were all sound and correctly formulated. It also required that I reflected on the hypotheses and purposes of the study to target the correct journal (which is just as important as the study itself). In the end, the paper was published and the work was a success resulting directly in my PhD. The whole journey taught me numerous skills and the importance of correctly analysing data to prevent biases or incorrect conclusions to be drawn. For that, being critical of my own work was key to ensure a high- level of quality, mathematical and programming rigour to develop statistical techniques and algorithms to extract patterns which truely exist within the datasets.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ☆ Data Collection
• ☆ Earth & Atmospheric Science
• ☆ Oceanography & Marine Science
• ☆ Climate Science
• ☆ Applied Mechanics
• ☆ Fluid Dynamics
• ☆ Statistical Mechanics
• ☆ Thermodynamics
• ☆ Applied Mathematics
• ☆ Mathematical Models
• ☆ Mathematical Optimization
• ☆ Computational Sciences
• ☆ Mathematical Physics
• ☆ Differential Equations
• ☆ Computational Mathematics
• ☆ Data Storage

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Data & AI

Writing Technical Writing, General Proofreading & Editing

Research Feasibility Study, Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review

Data & AI Statistical Analysis, Image Processing, Image Analysis, Algorithm Design-Non ML, Data Visualization, Big Data Analytics, Data Mining, Data Cleaning, Data Processing

Work Experience

Predoctoral Scientist

Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) - Institute of Marine Sciences

December 2023 - May 2024

Visiting Scholar

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

September 2022 - November 2023

Predoctoral Researcher

Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) - Institute of Marine Sciences

September 2019 - August 2023

Young Graduate Trainee

European Space Agency (ESRIN) - Italy

September 2017 - December 2018

Education

PhD in Physical Oceanography

University Polytechnic de Catalunya - Spain

September 2019 - February 2024

MSc in Physical Oceanography

University of Bangor - Wales, United Kingdom

September 2016 - September 2017

BSc (Hons) in Geological Oceanography

University of Bangor - Wales, United Kingdom

September 2011 - June 2015

Certifications

• Certification details not provided.

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Piracha, A., Olmedo, E., Turiel, A., Portabella, M., González-Haro, C.(2023). Using satellite observations of ocean variables to improve estimates of water mass (trans)formation . Frontiers in Marine Science. 10.

Piracha, A., Sabia, R., Klockmann, M., Castaldo, L., Fernández, D.(2019). Satellite-Driven Estimates of Water Mass Formation and Their Spatio-Temporal Evolution . Frontiers in Marine Science. 6.

CONFERENCE PAPER

Piracha, A., Sabia, R., Fernandez-Prieto, D., Klockmann, M., Castaldo, L.(2018). Satellite based estimation of water-mass formation areas and extents . Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. 10784.