“My advice to the learners in analytics is to start early, start now, choose the right path and the right guiding masters like Great learning”, says Meghana Doddamane, an alumnus of Great Learning’s PGP Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Course. Read further to learn more about her journey.
I am Meghana Doddamane, a B.com graduate from Bangalore University with over 13 years of experience in data analytics in the IT industry. I have mostly worked in the sales domain as a project manager in my tenure. It was during my journey as a project manager I got an opportunity to work on projects related to data science, and that is when my interest grew towards machine learning and artificial intelligence. Also, my research and studies in this field prominently showed that AI/ML is relevant in the present tech world, and also the scope for it is high in the future.
As a project manager, while I was handling a project with regards to the regression model in my company, I realized it is not enough to just know the surface level of data science, but in-depth, there is much more to it. This was when I decided to join a course, and a friend of mine suggested Great learning. I didn’t have to think twice before joining as I knew this was what I wanted, and also, my friend, who is an alumnus of Great learning, vouched for the coaching that was provided in the institute and how it landed him in a better job.
Initially, I found it extremely difficult to understand how the whole machine learning or artificial intelligence worked or even how the coding language is to be learned, but guidance from the professors, fellow classmates, mentors, and even the program managers made it easy for me. There is a proper guideline and a path already set and given to us, and with an ample amount of support from the faculty, we can definitely benefit. In all, what matters the most is dedication throughout the course till the end of it.
To be honest, there are phases where the students are tested to know their caliber, and one such phase is when we have to work on a capstone project. This can be marked as the last stepping stone and also a crucial one to reach the finish line of our course. In the capstone project, a group is formed, and we have to decide on our own topic. The challenge begins from here. Each one of them will have different ideas and have different expertise, and it becomes a task to firstly narrow down on one topic.
We (the team) brainstormed on ideas each of us had and figured out where the interest or the strengths of each of us lies and, most importantly, which topic would stand out in our resumes. We concluded on a topic called eye-tracking mainly because we could find the data required, the possibility to finish within deadline and it seemed relevant to seek attention in the job market or also because most of us in our team were almost either good at or had an interest in deep learning and computer vision. To be precise, eye tracking is basically capturing or observing the movements, position, or fixation of the eye while gazing at the computer, mobile, or any such device.
This project, though, initially seemed doable; as we started exploring and building the model, the real problem kicked in, in terms of understanding a few calculations, technicalities, model building, and it seemed time-consuming. We felt like we had come to a standstill. However, here is where the mentors come in as saviors. Mentors are already well-versed and working in industries that have real-life experience and are highly knowledgeable. Our mentor, from the start when we chose the topic to the point where we had got stuck, explained how exactly to solve the problem and suggested workarounds even to resolve the technical issues of the model running or even how to manage the tasks within the deadline, guided us throughout until we finished the capstone.
In the end, the capstone project is a blessing in disguise. Many of us may feel why should we go about it, only to understand that eventually, this is more like preparing us to compete in the real-life world, with real problems and how we can overcome the same. After completing the capstone, my takeaway has been that I have become more confident and knowledgeable in both machine learning and AI and how to handle the challenges that may come along. In terms of how this has helped me in my organization, instead of me learning from the data science team, now I’m able to not only suggest ideas to the data science team but guide them and deliver the results to clients.
My advice to the learners in analytics is to start early, start now, choose the right path and the right guiding masters like Great learning, live your dreams and achieve what you want.
