With over 16 years of experience in developing diverse security and verification systems, Ashok Kumar Patnam first got interested in data science when he came across neural networks and AI. Wanting to dive deeper into these concepts, he enrolled for the Global Certificate in Data Science & AI (GCDAI) program at Accredian.
In this article, let’s see how he plans to implement his newly acquired data science skills at work and how his learning experience has been at Accredian.
Question 1: Which program & batch are you part of at Accredian & tell us more about your current work profile?
Ashok: I am part of the Global Certificate in Data Science & AI (GCDAI) program, May 2020 batch. I have a total of 16 years of experience. Currently, I am working as the product manager at SutiSoft. Initially I worked with Apollo Micro Systems for three years. There I worked on different technologies like VB database design and built a device driver development. I was involved in divestiture for PC cards used for data acquisition.
Question 2: Walk us through your career journey & what got you interested in Data Science & Machine Learning?
Ashok: I have 16 years of experience in software development, microsystems, Windows’ flavors or editions, and Linux OS versions. I have worked on projects related to defense and security products like fingerprint, smart card and signature authentication systems development. When I was involved in the development of signature authentication systems, I came across the concepts of neural networks and artificial intelligence. And, this got me interested in data science and machine learning.
Question 3: What all tools and packages in Data Science & Machine Learning have you mastered in your Data Science & AI program at Accredian so far?
Ashok: I have learned Embolden function, NumPy, Scikit-Learn, and EDA data profiling so far. I also learned different algorithms like decision tree and random forest. I have even implemented logistic regression in my current project in the office.
Question 4: What are some initial challenges when you got started on your Data Science journey, and how did you overcome them?
Ashok: Initially I faced several challenges in handling the categorical features in machine learning, one-hot encoder, and label encoding. But gradually I overcame those issues and now I am quite fluent in them, including statistics and data cleaning.
Question 5: Who is your favorite faculty at Accredian, and what did you learn from him the Most?
Ashok: I feel all the faculties at Accredian are extremely knowledgeable in their own field. Each of them have their own teaching methods to make us understand Data Science in detail and I appreciate all of their efforts.
Question 6: What is the goal of Data Science?
Ashok: The main goal of Data Science is to construct a means for extracting business-focused insights from data. This requires understanding how value and information flow in a business and how to use that understanding to identify business opportunities.
Question 7: What are the current trends in Data Science that you are most excited about?
Ashok: I’m excited to learn CNN, convolution neural networks and deep learning, and I am enthusiastic about memory computing.
This was a conversation with one of our GCDAI students – Ashok Kumar Patnam.
For more such interesting student interviews, check out Accredian Spotlight.
