About My Motivation to Study Data Sciences

I’ve always listened to what my instincts said and now that I look in retrospect, I am glad that I did so. My choice of Information Technology (IT) as major for undergraduate studies in 2014 was more of an impulse than through a well thought about career plan. However, as semesters went by I started enjoying IT not only as a subject of study but also as a future career. While I enjoyed most of the IT related subjects, particularly subjects like Database Management, Data Mining and Business Analytics have started holding my interest and attention immensely. This interest is now turned into a desire to dig deeper into Data Sciences. I believe that pursuing a Master degree in Data Sciences will be the right step to achieve my goal.

Right from my childhood, I had this natural interest towards mathematics. Adding to this, quantitative and analytical abilities have always been my strengths. These abilities combined with my academic excellence have benefited me to obtain an admission into VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, one of the top three colleges in the city of Hyderabad. I took Information Technology as the major course of study for my Bachelor’s degree. A well-organized and exhaustive curriculum combined with experienced professors, have made sure that I got a great understanding of the fundamentals of the logical, statistical, and scientific principles, emphasizing computing and information processing. Furthermore, the practical learning techniques implemented in our college have helped me in grasping the fundamentals of core subjects in my stream viz., Data mining, Advanced Business Analytics, Database Management Systems, Object Oriented Programming, Design and Analysis of Algorithms etc. Through my college years, I chose electives like Software Testing, Computer Forensics, Cloud Computing, Robotics which helped me in acquiring skills outside the realm of the curriculum.

During the sixth semester of my undergraduate studies, I worked on a capstone project entitled “Finance Data Project”. In this project, we have focused on exploratory data analysis and visualization of stock prices of various banks and how they have progressed throughout the financial crisis all the way to early 2016. Additionally, as part of my major project in the final semester of my course, I along with three of my classmates have built a clinical decision support system for the diagnosis of diabetes. This project is also related to data analysis and prediction. This decision support system will be assisting the doctors in accurately predicting the risk of diabetes attack for a particular patient by analyzing his symptoms. The project enabled me to understand team dynamics and to appreciate the importance of collaboration and seamless project execution. This work stood out as one of the top projects in our college and also got a special appreciation from the Principal. Furthermore, we have communicated with Indian Citation Index (ICI) for a publication of a research paper, which is currently under review. The two projects I have worked on during my undergraduate studies gave me a practical insight into data analytics and I was captivated by its potential. The experience I gained by applying my knowledge into the project was fulfilling. I have also completed a three-month internship program at Xtramilesoft during the final semester of my course. At Xtramilesoft, I have worked as a database engineer in the data migration field. This internship program gave me an opportunity to have a real-time experience of working in an IT company.

Along with excelling in academics, I proved my mettle as multitasking performer. I have actively participated in various extracurricular activities in and out of our college. I have attended many workshops and seminars during my course of study which benefited me in expanding my knowledge in various fields. I also took part in organizing events during our college’s technical and cultural fests which aided me in improving my ability to merge and interact with diverse group of people. Adding to this, I was also captain of the college’s cricket team and represented our college in many Inter-College sports tournaments. Being the captain of the team helped me in honing my skills as a leader.