In this Accredian Spotlight interview, we feature Saranya Dass who is a Business Analyst at TCS. Her insatiable passion for knowledge and upskilling led her to enroll in the Global Certificate for Data Science program at Accredian.
Question 1: Which program & batch are you part of at Accredian & tell us more about your current work profile?
Saranya: I am a part of the GCD program, 2021. I am currently working at TCS as a Business analyst, looking into Risk and Security management. I also look after a team of analysts who are strongly involved in handling BCP, risk, Crisis management, etc.
Question 2: What got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Saranya: After doing an MBA in Operations and Systems, and working at TCS for sometime, I always wanted to get exposure to new and emerging tech. Being an engineering graduate, the desire to always be able to code and do something that excites me was there.
Looking at a few videos and blogs, I realised that I could use Data Science and my business knowledge to solve a lot of problems. I enrolled myself in Accredian’s course and there was no looking back.
Question 3: What tools and packages in Data Science & Machine Learning have you mastered at Accredian so far?
Saranya: I have completed up to ML Intermediate and have covered Python, and its libraries such as Numpy, pandas, Matplotlob, Seaborn, Sckikitlearn, Sweetviz, dtale and many more.
The tools used were Jupyter notebook and Google colab. I have also explored building and deploying ML solutions on Azure.
Question 4: What challenges did you face when you started your Data Science journey and how did you overcome it?
Saranya: Some of the initial challenges were to start coding after a significant period of time. It was something I had to force myself to do in the beginning, as I was trying to get to the core Data Visualisation and Machine Learning too fast in the journey.
But with Sai’s patient and motivating approach to cover Data Science Fundamentals, Statistics, Python and also clearing each and every doubt we had, helped me a lot.
Question 5: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian and what did you learn from them?
Saranya: My favourite faculty till now has been Saicharan. His way and approach to teaching has been really impressive and has helped us master the basics really well.
Question 6: What is the goal of Data Science?
Saranya: To explore, sort and analyse Mega Data from various sources in order to take advantage of them and reach conclusions to optimize business processes or for decision support.
Question 7: How has Data Science evolved in the last few years?
Saranya: Data Science and Big Data, which started with statistics and statistical models deeply embedded within the field of Data Science have, for the past five to six years, evolved to include concepts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
Question 8: What current trends in Data Science are you most excited about?
Saranya: Usage of neural networks, deep learning to solve problems in the field of Medical Sciences is something that excites me the most. I also love how supply chains are being optimised using IOT and Machine learning is used to predict failures in machines.
Question 9: Which Data Science blogs do you follow?
Saranya: I follow a few LinkedIn groups on Data Science. The DataScienceShow podcast, “Towards Data Science” on Medium, YouTube playlists by Khistij, etc.
Question 10: What is your advice to a Data Science beginner?
Saranya: To be patient with the basics and learn them thoroughly starting from Statistics and Python. Then moving on to EDA and starting to do real life projects is the way to go. Building a DS portfolio and hosting them on Github will be of immense help too.
Hope you enjoyed reading this interview. If you want to read more such interesting student stories, check out Accredian Spotlight.
