Athena Analytics embarked on its start-up journey in 2017, when founder Emily brick returned to Kerry after a stint as a data scientist for the Department of Education in Melbourne, Australia. Emily was delighted to have the opportunity to share this journey with Barry O’Sullivan and Mike Fuller during their ‘Start up Secrets’ Podcast run by the Digital Transformation Lab, which is supported by Cork University Business School.
During the interview, Emily gave a glimpse into how and why Athena was born and what problems the cloud based software solves for secondary schools, mainly in Ireland. She also shared what drives her on a daily basis and how she has recently grown her offering into the UK schools market.
Emily rarely gets the chance to tell people how Athena actually started almost 4 years ago. However, during the podcast she tells us how it all started as a very rough concept in Australia, when as a data scientist, she observed how data was been generated and then presented back to end users. Her business idea, really grew though, when she returned to Ireland and start working with schools as a data scientist consultant. Schools had access to endless amounts of raw data around students but they really wanted a unique way to understand the data and track students’ performance so that ultimately no student gets missed within a busy school system.
Athena was then born, which in a nutshell uses a statistical model to present the data that schools already have about students, in an easier and more useful manner. Athena uses machine learning to take information like aptitude scores and exam results and then creates a baseline score for each student, in each subject area. This baseline represents the students potential and is mainly used by teachers and principals to monitor whether a student is performing below their potential and if additional supports are required. Students can even use it to make more informed decisions on subject choices or career paths.
Huge thanks to Barry & Mike from ‘Start up Secrets’ for featuring Emily Brick on their recent podcast!
