Redefining Success - Sayan's Journey

We are happy to share our student Sayan's journey of breaking conventional norms! He is pursuing a full-time degree through online courses, which has opened doors to endless possibilities.?

Below are the Excerpts from an Interview with Sayan?

Interviewer:

Hi Sayan, welcome to this session to learn your perspective about the BS Degree in Data Science and Application and the BDM capstone project. Firstly, I would like you to introduce yourself and give us some background about you.?

Sayan:

Hi! Yes, good evening!!!

So my name is Sayan, and I am from Delhi. Currently, I am 20 years old, and I am pursuing the IITM BS in Data Science as my sole degree. So, I started my educational journey at Father Agnel School, New Delhi, near my home. I opted for science in my 12th in which I had covered mathematics and biology. This gave me plenty of career options. In particular, I wanted to do something multidisciplinary involving multiple subjects and combinations. So, after graduating from school, I talked to my career counselor. He suggested that I go for the BS in Data Science and IITM because it is the best Institute in India and covers many different subjects.

That's why I started my journey here; it has been perfect so far. I am currently at the end of my diploma level, and my CGPA is above 9, which indicates that I am doing my subjects successfully. Apart from that, as a hobby, I like teaching a lot and was also a course mentor for Statistics 2 for BS degree 2 terms. Apart from that, I want to explore different things like marine life, cooking, and reading books and novels etc, to pass my time?

Interviewer:

Thank you for that introduction, Sayan. Sayan, how did you learn about this Data Science program??

Sayan:

Yes, so basically, once I completed my 12th in 2021, which was the COVID-hit year, and there was a lot of uncertainty about the board exams whether would happen or not, and they kept on postponing, and suddenly, one day, they got canceled, and I was stuck in a loop. For example, I have been preparing for board exams for a year, and the next day, it is canceled. So I needed to figure out what I should do, and actually, I had a lot of options as well because, as I mentioned earlier, I had opted for Biology and Maths. So I went to a career counselor near my home, and he suggested that I do some new degree and a new domain that would give me a lot of interest and would be different from the conventional routes of engineering or medicine.

So, I learned about the IITM BS degree. First of all, the IITM tag attracted me towards the degree. Secondly, the Data Science and Programming domain was the red hot domain of that time and the growing domain of this time. I wanted to explore things here, and I joined the degree program. I successfully cleared the qualifier in my first attempt, and after that, it's been a smooth sail for almost three years now.

Interviewer:

That's nice. How did your family react when you said you would be pursuing an online program compared to an offline conventional degree? Yes, the IITM tag would have helped, but what was the kind of reaction from them? The first time, you said that you would pursue your full-time degree through an online platform.

Yes, both my parents come from a charming educational heritage, which is multi-generational. So, first of all, they are also from some premium institutes like BHU and IIT Delhi.

So, what my parents first thought after seeing the program was that they also went through the curriculum, of course the IIT Madras name attracted everyone a lot. But, after going through the curriculum and seeing how unique this program is and how it is so new from the initial and conventional things happening worldwide, they were pleased that I chose this path. They have been completely supportive throughout the 3 years I have spent in this degree and encouraged me. When I started the program, this program came with an option: you can do an on-campus degree alongside it. Still, I told my parents that I wanted to devote my full time to this degree only because I wanted to learn everything thoroughly and because this degree, especially at a diploma level, covered many different aspects and other programmes.

It covers programming courses, data science courses, business courses, etc. I wanted to explore all these courses and learn from them. So they were very supportive and happy with my progress in the degree.?

Interviewer:

That's good to hear.?

What about your experience in the program so far? How has the journey been? You said it has been a smooth journey once you finish your qualifiers. But if you can touch upon some of your favorite subjects, some of the subjects where you found them a little tricky, and how was the guidance throughout the program??

Yes. The foundational level, especially the first two terms, was hard for me. For the qualifier for the first four weeks, there was a lot of support through the live sessions, the professors, the discourse forum, etc. But the first two terms were slightly complicated because they were heavy in mathematics, different subjects, and computer science, which I was very new to then. So I had to struggle a bit; I had to put in some effort, and I was feeling low at times, and I had to decide whether I would be able to cope with this or not. But slowly, as I went through the degree, I understood the subjects more. I understood the evaluation scheme and the pattern more.

After I entered the Diploma level, it has been a pleasant journey. I have done all the subjects well. Not only in terms of grades but also the satisfaction I have gotten from studying them.

So, it has been good. And if I want to point out some particular favorite subject, it would be statistics because statistics is something that I have liked for a long time.

I also appreciate how Usha Ma'am and Andrew Sir have especially covered the statistics courses here; it has been excellent. And that even prompted me to teach statistics to my peers in the upcoming terms as a mentor. So those have been my favorite subjects so far.

Apart from that, in this program, interacting with different people like working professionals, retired professionals, and even students of my age or a little older than me, has given me a good experience of how people tackle different situations in their life and how all these other people are in the same boat in the degree and how we are all doing it together. It has been a fantastic journey.

Interviewer:

So, during this course of the project as a part of your diploma degree, you have a BDM capstone project that you have to do, right? How has that experience been, the experience about your project??

Sayan:

Yes. When I first heard about the BDM capstone project, it was an exciting thing because we would go to stores, we would talk to the owners, and encourage them to give their data, their data, to us so that we could analyze it and help them with the skills we have obtained. So, the first challenge all the students doing the project faced was collecting the data.

It is the biggest hurdle. Because we must convince an unknown person to give us their data from their private business and so that we can help them. It took me around 3-4 months to get the data. Once I had my hands on the data, it was a perfect journey because seeing the data and interacting with the owners gave me a sense of how the owners feel. My specific case of the BDM project was at a multi-purpose store near my home.

So, during my interactions with the owner, I understood how he manages his products, inventory, etc. When I solved the project, I applied my knowledge of business, ML, programming, etc., to solve his problems. I could then extract more insights from him and from what, in general, people who are into these small businesses face.

So, it has been an eye-opener for me in many domains and helped me understand these things at a grassroots level even better. At the same time, it has helped me polish the skills I learned in my BDM and ML theory courses. It has helped me polish my skills, showcase that I have learned these concepts well, and can apply them to do something productive.

Interviewer:

Good to know that, Sayan. Sayan, I learned that you have presented a paper and won some awards at this conference. Can you throw some light on that? How did you know about the conference? How did you get into the conference???

Sayan:

So, I finished my BDM project along with the viva in December. After that what happened is, my mother is a faculty, and she is a professor at the Birla Institute of Technology, Mestra. So, my mother keeps attending educational conferences, which are national and international, every year. So, this one conference this year was conducted in Vietnam. So, what they do is, they encourage scholars, mainly PhD graduates and even young scholars. We send them our work, and If they find the research work is actually done at a reasonable level and it throws some insights into the world, they allow us to present the work at their international conference, among the chief guests and all the faculties and dignitaries that attend the meeting and show what we have done. Once I applied my proposal for the BDM project, I had done my BDM project for them because it was very good research work that I have done.

So, when they approved the paper, they assigned me a date of January 17th to deliver the presentation of my project in Vietnam. So, I went to Vietnam this month and on January 17th, I presented my BDM project to all the other delegates who had given the research work. I showed them how, even at a shallow scale level, we can use the knowledge from machine learning, traditional machine learning, traditional business management and programming to solve such high-level problems of business owners which they are facing.

They were pleased to hear about the project that I had done and the insights that I had obtained. I am thrilled to share that I achieved two awards in the project that I presented; one was the Young Achievers Award because I was the only undergraduate student among the 40 delegates at that conference who presented a paper. Secondly, I was also thrilled that I was awarded the Best Presenter Award at that conference by the panel of 4 judges, and I was presented with a certificate and a gold medal.

Overall it has been an excellent experience for me to get the opportunity to do this project. I am thrilled and grateful to Dr. Ashwin and Dr. Aaditya, who have given me so many insights into the project journey so I could have done it successfully. And secondly, presenting it at an international level, opening up to more people, and showing what we can do has also been an eye-opener in all ways. So, in the end, I am happy and grateful to everyone for giving me this opportunity.

Interviewer:

Congratulations on that, Sayan. Lastly, what is your vision, say, post-completion of this course? What is your vision and what do you want to do in the future??

Sayan:

Post-completion of this course, first of all, I want to work in the data science domain because it is exciting because it combines so many different things, and data science is something that is used in every domain.

Even if we talk about the humanities field, we talk about management, we talk about engineering, we talk about anything. So, data science is applicable everywhere. I want to work towards some specific domains and solve problems in those domains, help people facing difficulties, and solve them using data like I did in my BDM project.

Whatever I have done in my BDM project, I want to take it to a more significant level and positively impact society.

Interviewer:

That's very thoughtful and nice to hear, Sayan. Thank you for all the insights you have shared regarding the course and how your journey has been so far.

?? Embrace change, challenge the norm, and let's redefine success together!?

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