Hello! I am a final-year PhD student in the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics at Monash University, supervised primarily by Susan Wei. Before starting my PhD, I worked as a data scientist at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development in Western Australia—a role I continue part-time. Prior to that, I completed my undergraduate and MPhil studies at the University of Western Australia.

Research Interests

Despite the name of my department, my research focuses on methodologies in Bayesian statistics and deep learning. In simple terms, I develop AI and machine learning tools that turn data into trustworthy insights.

Generalised Bayes

Most statistical analyses begin with assumptions about the data, and sometimes those assumptions are simply wrong. When that happens, the conclusions can be misleading. My research explores ways to make inference more robust, using methods such as loss-based inference (blog) and predictive Bayes inference (review).

Tabular foundation models

Prediction on numerical data has long been dominated by traditional machine learning methods (e.g. random forests), until the introduction of TabPFN—a tabular foundation model that enables plug-and-play prediction without task-specific training or tuning. I am interested in making these models more reliable (i.e. better calibrated in their uncertainty) and exploring their practical applications.

Singular Learning Theory (SLT)

SLT is a framework for understanding how and why deep learning works. It combines Bayesian statistics with algebraic geometry to study complex models like neural networks. My work focuses on integrating SLT tools into modern deep learning workflows. For an accessible introduction, see this article and this resource.

Education

PhD in Statistics (2022–2025)
University of Melbourne, then Monash University (from late 2024)
Full scholarship. Fred Knight Scholar. Moved to Monash with my primary supervisor.

MPhil in Statistics (2017–2019)
The University of Western Australia
Full scholarship. Dean’s List (top 5% of thesis).

BSc (Honours) in Engineering & Mathematics (2013–2017)
The University of Western Australia
Final-year GPA 7/7.

Professional Experience

Data Scientist | Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia (2019–2025)
Worked on agricultural experiment data. Part-time from 2022. Current maintainer of Flowerpower.

Tutor | The University of Western Australia (2016–2022)
Taught experiment design and statistical machine learning.

Contacts

I am currently on the job market for applied work and welcome any opportunities. Feel free to get in touch! My email address starts with kenyon.ng and ends with monash.edu.

Miscellaneous

My surname, “Ng,” is pronounced ung, without a vowel sound. It is the Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) pronunciation of 黄, which means yellow in English.
I am making this website as simple as possible.
I developed a tool to predict cereal flowering dates as part of my role at DPIRD.

Last updated: 15 Oct 2025