Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon for BBC Ideas: How To Win At Online Dating

What if finding love online was less about luck and more about understanding the science behind the apps? In her latest BBC Ideas video, made in partnership with the Open University, diversity in tech champion Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon brings her trademark clarity to the world of online dating, revealing how data science can meaningfully improve your chances of finding a genuine connection.

A recognised prodigy who passed A-level computing at age 11 and earned a Master's degree from Oxford at 20, Imafidon is uniquely placed to decode what is actually happening beneath the surface of the apps millions of people use every day. Rather than treating dating platforms as mysterious black boxes, she explains how their underlying algorithms work and, crucially, how users can work with them rather than against them.

The video covers a range of practical territory, from making algorithms work in your favour and understanding collaborative filtering, to the importance of timing, the psychology of belief, and how to build a profile that performs. Each tip is grounded not in vague advice but in the kind of analytical thinking that Imafidon has applied throughout her career at the intersection of technology and human behaviour.

It is a characteristically smart and accessible piece of work — taking a topic that can feel overwhelming or dispiriting and reframing it as a problem that, with the right tools and mindset, is entirely solvable. The message is simple: the more you understand the system, the better placed you are to navigate it.

For anyone currently in the online dating trenches, this is required viewing.