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What's your background?
Amar Srivastava
edited

I thought it might be interesting to get a feel of Quantopian community member's backgrounds. Do you have a background in data science? Finance? Engineering? Literature?

I'm a recent graduate -- I got my bachelor's in Chemical Engineering and Mathematics in December 2018. I fell in love with data science my senior year when, during my design project, I was able to use basic EDA and optimization tools in tandem with chemical simulations to sift through thousands of data points while a lot of my class mates were trying to gauge trends from 20-50 data points. It felt a lot like that scene in Star Wars where Emperor Palpatine shot lightning bolts and screamed "unlimited power!"

Statistics itself is such a beautiful discipline. The universe is in such chaos. Its turbulent and tumultuous. You decide to go to the store on Wednesday, and you meet the love of your life. You decide to go to the store on Tuesday, and, enroute, you get struck by a drunk driver. Statisticians have taken on the seemingly impossible task of hammering and nailing a wooden framework to ocean water -- to attach comprehension to the incomprehensible -- but, over the years, they sometimes hit solid ground. And, when they do, our collective humanity is propelled forward.

That's just exciting, to say the least.

So what brings you here?

3 responses
Kyle M

I just finished up my bachelor's in Chemical Engineering. Glad to see there's others with similar backgrounds around here!

In high school I learned to program through Minecraft mods and phone apps, and this transitioned into a love for data science as I went through research labs and internships.

I don't have a background in mathematics or stastics beyond what was required in my curriculum, so do you have any suggestions of good resources to learn from?

Amar Srivastava

Kyle,

I think with a bachelors in ChE you have more than enough of a base to pick up the basics of machine learning and modeling really easily. Honestly one of the best resources I use for data science is datacamp.com. Its only like $30 a month, and I've honestly learned as much as I did while doing my ChE/Math degree in university

Kyle M

I took a few programming and data science courses during my undergrad years, so I'm fairly familiar with machine learning applications (not necessarily the theory) and other modeling techniques. However, I think it would be beneficial to understand more advanced statistics and modeling concepts. I'll look into datacamp and other sites to find an intermediate level modeling course. Thanks!

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