In this Accredian Spotlight interview, we feature Girish Kumar Sahu, AI Data Science Consultant. Girish has over 26+ years of experience in the IT Industry. His insatiable passion for knowledge and upskilling led him to enroll in the PGP Data Science & AI program at Accredian.
In this interview, he shares his Data Science career journey and learning experience at Accredian.
Question 1: What is your current work profile? Walk us through your career journey & what got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Girish: Currently I’m exploring Data Science and AI landscape as a Freelancer with a focus on Accredian term projects, which provide an excellent platform for a deeper understanding of Data Science along with some short-term real-world Data Science projects.
I can say, going through career transformation is almost like a career reboot.
I have overall 26 plus years of experience in the IT industry with the last eight-plus years working at a leadership level in the Telecom context interdomain.
My interest in Data Science and Machine Learning started in December 2020. To get a more hands-on Python-driven/ RD one approach in Data Science and ML, I decided to pursue Accredian Data Science program. Accredian went into the details of explaining me all about their program and its impact on my career.
Question 2: Which program & batch are you a part of at Accredian?
Girish: I’m a part of the PGP-DS&AI with a fellowship – February 2021 batch.
Question 3: What tools and packages in Data Science & ML have you mastered in your Data Science & AI program at Accredian so far?
Girish: Accredian CDF program provided me the opportunity to go deeper into Python-driven approach which also included NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seabourn along with ML algorithms using Sci-kit learn, which is a core framework for ML.
Question 4: What challenges did you face in your Data Science journey? How did you overcome them?
Girish: The major challenge I faced was balancing between my work and study schedule, but weekend classes helped overcome that. Accredian‘s recorded sessions helped me to catch up easily.
Accredian element provides many informative resources like a starter kit to get started with basics and industry sessions which helped clarify doubts.
Question 5: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian and what did you learn from them the most?
Girish: Everyone at Accredian is an expert and has their own style of teaching. If I had to pick one then it would be Sai Charan as he was the first faculty to conduct CDF program which is a core part of Data Science from EDA perspective.
I also interacted with Suchit during a one-on-one career counseling session. I also referred to his recorded sessions which are crisp and clear in explaining the topics.
Question 6: What is the goal of Data Science?
Girish: The goal of Data Science is to help individual institutions or businesses make informed and impactful decisions. Data Science helps prepare and plan for any natural disaster by making accurate predictions and optimizing the usage of resources.
Question 7: In your view, how has Data Science evolved in the last few years?
Girish: There has been tremendous growth as Data generation continues to scale to new heights in cloud computing, digital transformation, and adoption. It will continue to evolve as AI and automation are the way forward to gain efficiency and effectiveness in all forms of life.
Question 8: What are the current trends in Data Science that you are most excited about?
Girish: There are lots of them. But recently I have come across augmented and virtual reality. And as I speak today, Facebook has announced the metaverse. So that’s definitely a good example. Another exciting trend in Data Science is edge computing. It can be a game-changer in agriculture or in remote areas. And then there is the auto ML-driven approach. The whole thing about automation and how you use auto ML to really solve problems.
Question 9: Which are some of the Data Science blogs that you follow?
Girish: I often refer to Kaggle. It’s a great platform for both learning and practicing Data Science projects. I also read on Towards Data Science, Machine Learning Mastery, StackOverflow, and geeks for geeks.
I also have a document of Python and related libraries, as it provides me more details on why I’m using that API, what are the parameters of that API? What are the different options available? And try to read books. I also refer to Accredian YouTube channel.
Question 10: What advice would you give to a Data Science beginner?
Girish: My advice would be to get started with learning Data Science. Because Data Science and AI are the future. Every company is going to be data-driven, irrespective of the business domain – My recommendation would be to go through the free resources available.
Also, register yourself on Kaggle and get a feel of what it involves as it really gives a good overview of what Data Science is all about. Most important is to dedicate at least 30 minutes every day. Once you start understanding concepts, it helps develop your interest further and challenges you to get better at your current job and think like a scientist.
Hope you enjoyed reading this interview. If you want to read more such interesting student stories, check out Accredian Spotlight.
