Internship Experience at NuEra Automotive Solutions - Spring 2021

NuEra Automotive solutions(NEAS) is the software wing of the Net Direct conglomerate companies which include Net Direct Autos, Prioritize Success, NuEra Managed Services & HCR Lifts.

NEAS provide software solutions in the retail automobile industry in an efficacious way so as to create rippling effects, uplifting the industry standards by setting new benchmarks. Our motto is to bring about disruptive changes in the auto buying experience and we are for sure inching towards perfection day by day. I have had the opportunity to be a pioneer member of the analytics team in NEAS since June 2020.

The Experience :

Getting an internship extended to the third term gave me continuity to better understand the complete analytic life cycle. Having fulfilled the circle of 'data' life it is time to say 'Hakuna Matata'. I had the privilege of working in unison with my adept peer Sujeeth Shetty and under the guidance of Murali Kashaboina, a virtuoso leader. I thank them both for making the process so enjoyable, enlightening and empowering.

I entered the most exciting stage of the analytic framework we have been building from almost a year. This term I got to explore the AI/machine learning capabilities to better utilize the colossal amounts of data flowing in from various sources through our data lake into the big data ecosystem. Assembling a Big Data Analytics platform integrating Pentaho, NiFi, Hive, Presto, Superset leveraging AWS cloud services like S3, EMR, Sagemaker etc. sounds overwhelming but is actually exciting. The fundamental requirement of having the right data in the required amount from reliable sources to analyze patterns was the first step. Data ingestion was done using a variety of sources including but not limited to calling APIs, direct ingestion from FTP/SFTP, web scrapping, subscribing to third party services, PDF parsing etc. We did everything we can to get even an ounce of data. Once the data enriched via various means was available, we ran machine learning algorithms to build price prediction and demand forecasting models using tree based models like xgboost, catboost, hierarchical linear regression etc.

I am pretty sure the kind of attention to detail that has been given to the entire process of standing up this magnum opus is going to bring about disruptive changes in the retail sale industry as a whole. The entry of our platform in the retail space very well would announce that we are not here just to make waves but tides rippling towards all realms of the industry.

The Avowal:

I am ecstatic to have had the chance to learn, implement and improve my overall skills. I would like to express my thankfulness towards T J Riley, CEO/Founder for giving such an opportunity and nurturing the need for continuous technological development.

I am thankful to everyone from inter/intra-teams who helped me resolve issues and made this a memorable experience. I appreciate the efforts of Sherry Smith, Mehdi Razvi, Anand Damaraju, Christian Valencia, Romana Rasheed for providing continuous support. The camaraderie we had will be missed. I thank Keith Halbert,Chief Digital Officer, for giving me this opportunity by extending my internship. Finally, to Murali Kashaboina CIO, a true leader never a boss, my mentor, I express my sincere gratitude for inducting me to this team and for providing all-round guidance in the professional sphere of my life. The element of sincerity can be brought to work only when such leaders assume position. It is hard to find such skilled, artful and composed leaders and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work with one.

I would like to thank the professors at the University of Texas at Dallas(UTD), Naveen Jindal School of Management(JSOM) for setting up the stairway to a sound professional future for me and for numerous others by literally shaping the course of the future.

#UTD #UTDITM #UTDJSOM