What initially made you interested in Data Science?

I was initially exposed to coding as a Computer Science minor in undergrad and then worked as a data analyst upon graduation. Wanting to utilize my coding experience more on the job, I looked into data sciences courses online. I loved the aspects of data science that these scratched the surface of - programmatically pulling insights out of huge amounts of data, developing machine learning pipelines, or creating informative data visualization - and I knew that this was the field I wanted to be in. I sought to go deep into data science (and drastically close my knowledge gap on the math behind it), which brought me to the DSI Master's program at Brown!

What are the most important skills you learned or experiences you had during the program?

While the programming skills and mathematical knowledge I have gained during the program are the necessary building blocks of data science, I think the most valuable part of the experience was learning more generally how to be a successful data scientist. For one, we'll never have the answers to every problem we face, so we must seek relevant information or advice, then understand and properly implement what we find. Also, data science work will often be performed in teams - we gained valuable experience in effective teamwork over the course of the challenging projects we undertook. Lastly, though it may be tempting to go heads-down on your work at times, it's essential to take a big picture view of your projects in order to properly understand their potential impact across a number of audiences.

What was your practicum project and what did you learn from it?

I completed my practicum as a data science intern at a biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA that is developing novel treatments for inflammatory diseases. My project involved using images of psoriasis lesions collected through one of the company's clinical trials to create a machine learning model that will automatically segment lesions from healthy skin. The goal was to provide the company's dermatologists with a tool that will assist them in scoring the severity of psoriasis lesions. I learned that, intuitively, one cannot expect real-world data to be as clean and project parameters to be as clear as they are in academic courses. While this makes the work more challenging, it is far more rewarding to take this kind of project fully from ideation to delivery of a product. 

Is there anything else that you'd like to share about your experience in the program?

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Brown DSI Master's program! Excellent courses, wonderful professors, and many intelligent peers pursuing similar goals. I'd recommend the program to anyone committed to further education in data science.