Working in the oil and gas industry for 11 years, Ram Tirth Jha has already worked with data. But what caught his eye in data science are the use of mathematics and the huge career prospects it holds in the future. So, without further ado, he enrolled for the Global Certificate in Data Science & AI (GCDAI) program at Accredian.
In this interview, let’s what he has to say about the impact of data science on oil and gas industry and how his experience has been at Accredian.
Question 1: Which program & batch are you part of at Accredian & tell us more about your current work profile?
Ram: I am part of the Global Certificate in Data Science & AI (GCDAI) program, May 2020 batch. I am working as the lead reservoir engineer at Vedanta Limited. My daily responsibilities include optimizing oil and gas production from the point of sales and that involves storing and analyzing product parameters in the US.
Question 2: Walk us through your career journey & what got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Ram: I have completed my B.Tech in petroleum engineering from IIT Iceland in 2009. Since then I have been working as a petroleum engineer in the Oil and Energy industry. My basic job is to analyze data and based on that make business critical decisions and try to optimize oil and gas production.
My current job role, the persistent gap in data use across industries and a St.Louis based research on data science pulled my interest towards the subject. And, I even saw that data science is the future career to be aspired for.
I am also interested in mathematics and analytical thinking. So, when I saw the data science and machine learning algorithms and found that there’s mathematics behind it as well, I thought I should definitely go for it.
So to secure my future and upgrade my career trajectory, I joined this course at Accredian.
Question 3: What all tools and packages in Data Science & Machine Learning have you mastered in your Data Science & AI program at Accredian?
Ram: I learned Python and its various packages which will be required for the other data science course. I also learned basic machine learning algorithms and maths. I have completed my Capstone project on 10 liter dialysis and that, too, gave me confidence in applying machine learning concepts on real treatments.
Question 4: What were some of the initial challenges when you got started on your Data Science journey and how did you overcome it?
Ram: The main hurdle was the dangling question of where to start, what to study, and what is the optimum way to study. And I think that is a common challenge for any new data science aspirant. So, in that regard, once I joined Accredian, I started to get all the guidance I needed to put everything in place and myself on the right track.
Question 5: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian and what did you learn from him the Most?
Ram: All faculties at Accredian are excellent and at par. There is no comparison of who is the best and who is not. But if you ask what qualities I want to imbibe in myself from these faculties, then I would say the detailed teaching and taskmaster approach that Suchit and Deepesh have.
Question 6: What is the goal of Data Science?
Ram: The goal of data science is to make strategic and effective business decisions based on the data driven insights and maximize business profit.
Question 7: In your view, how has Data Science evolved in the last few years?
Ram: Data Science is a fast evolving field. If you do some search on the topic, you will find that everyday something new is coming up. So it’s a very exciting field and changing a lot. And in recent years, it has evolved a lot. Nowadays technologies like natural language processing, computer vision, AI and big data, are the key components of data science.
Question 8: What are the current trends in Data Science that you are most excited about?
Ram: I’m excited about the prospect of computer vision and natural language processing. I have seen multiple videos on these two branches of data science and I found it is being heavily implemented nowadays. I feel it has more potential to be discovered and leveraged in the future.
Question 9: Which are some of the blogs that you follow?
Ram: After studying at Accredian and going through all its study material and videos, whenever I get time I try to follow two blogs: one is Inlet Labs Blog and second is Towards Data Science. I found the content there to very useful and that supplements my regular course at Accredian.
Question 10: What is your advice to anyone wanting to start a career in Data Science?
Ram: Data science is a very exciting field and it has something to offer to everyone’s interest. I would like to advise any data science aspirant to focus and work hard as there is a lot of scope in this field, now and in the future. If you work methodically, keep going and pick your area of interest in data science, you will definitely succeed.
This was a conversation with one of our GCDAI students – Ram Tirth Jha.
For more such interesting student interviews, check out Accredian Spotlight.
