IIT Madras BS in Data Science Programme’s Post

Transcript

Hello everyone, today we have with us Arush Agrawal who is a student of IMS degree and he recently was a national winner of Teratech AI Hackathon. Today we'll have a conversation with him, get to know his journey of ITM BS degree or give a brief introduction about yourself. Hi everyone, I am Arusha Agarwal, I am a diploma student here at IITM MBBS degree program. I'm also doing a B.Tech in computer science engineering offline. I'm currently interning at Aspire. As a business intelligence intern so doing a lot of data analytic stuff from what I've learned at IIT Madras. I recently participated in a Teratech AI hackathon which Bhargavi shared with you guys. So I'll give you a brief about the hackathon. So that hackathon was hosted by the People Tech Group, which is an MNC based in United States of America. So what the problem statement that they gave us was that we had to give solutions to increase the revenue for farmers in Northern India and Northeastern India. So I took specifically Paddy farmers in Northern India. And developed an AI model to help them increase their revenue. That is amazing to hear Arush, that you are actually implementing what you're learning and trying to make it more hands on and solution based. How is the journey of ITBS been? So far so good. So basically a lot of content is already available on the Internet. You can just go around have do as many courses as you want for free and do many YouTube videos but they don't really help a lot until unless you are truly. Regular with it and truly devoted to it. Right. What what the IIT Madras program helped me in was that it gave me a structured curriculum in very niche technologies. So a lot of technologies that I've learned over here are actually not totally available on the Internet. So for example, I'm learning geospatial analysis, I'm learning LMS. So not a lot of content is available as of yet. Even if there is, it's just some sponsored videos from XYZ companies. Yeah, in that sense, IIT Madras has helped me. But also the given me a structure to study, so we have our quizzes every month. So you are actually forced to study stuff. Yeah. So that definitely helps. How is the experience for you of managing ITM BS with your offline degree? Yeah. So it Madras degree is very flexible. So there's no specific timelines that you have to watch a class at this particular time itself. I finish up with my college at around 3-4 in the evening and then I come back home, watch the videos, submit the assignments. Every week I'm ready for the quiz. So it's totally flexible on how you want to learn. You can skip some parts if you want, but totally against it. You should learn it totally, Yeah. How did you first of all come to know about the opportunity? And when you came to know about that, how was your approach towards going through the process or the journey of it? What I suggest to everyone is that maintain your LinkedIn profile very well. So what happens with that? One of my connections actually posted this opportunity that their company is hosting XYZ hackathon and people should participate in it. So I got to know about this hackathon specifically from LinkedIn. Ohh. Another thing that another platform that people can use is Unstop. I saw that this competition was also listed on Unstop where we had to register for it. So it has a lot of opportunities and people regardless of their colleges or degree scan participate in various of competitions. Ohh regarding my approach for it. Uh, so. Uh, my first step was to analyze the problem statement. Well, hmm. And so it was on increasing revenue for farmers in northern India, specifically Paddy farmers. So I did a lot of research around what are their pain points, what is happening? What are the after effects of this Paddy farming. So in New Delhi, specifically where I'm situated, there's a problem wherein the farmers burn the stubble, which causes a lot of pollution. So in my approach, I also added. The solution for that stubble, yeah, therein that stubble could be converted into carbon credits. So carbon economy is coming up very soon in India. So that would help them a lot. So that way I approach the situation. That is really great to hear. Arush for the item MBBS degree. How has the journey been till now? First of all, whatever mill, AI and data science programs I have seen online, maybe they might might be boot camps, they might be courses. They do not teach everything from the beginning. So what IIT Madras. Provider plus that they start from the very basics they teach you computational thinking they teach you the math and starts behind mill I I think I have been in the degree for more than a year and I still haven't started coding ML models yet I'm just learning the math behind it OK so I think that's a very important part in learning ML because anybody can code ML models since a lot of new frameworks are coming up and frameworks are getting easier day by day right understand the math behind it and the intuition behind these. What else is more necessary to apply them in real life, right? Don't just learn theory, try to apply that theory wherever you can. IIT Madras has a good team support, so talk to the TAS there might be more knowledgeable and they may help you in getting events like this. They may also help you in making ML models as such and participating in competitions. Another thing, if you're doing an offline degree, definitely go to your teachers. They actually help a lot and this competition was probably more. Successful because I had support from my teachers in offline degree. In IIT Madras case, you can definitely talk to their tasks. They'll surely provide you the equal level of support that I got from my offline degree, right? Uh, furthermore, uh, what I can say, just just participate in whatever activity you can because even if you don't win, you'll get to learn from others presentations, other models. So that definitely helps. Of course, of course, it's very true. Like either you win or you learn or you are at the diploma level. So what are your plans ahead? OK, my plans ahead is to just get into data science as a Courier. Right now. My job profile is in data analytics. So a big leap ahead. There's data engineering to cross. This data science to get into. So we'll be definitely utilizing the resources of this degree to get into that area. For the past one year, two years, I've been seeing that it's only for Masters and PhD. This year specifically, I saw that even Sony and Bosch for that matter, have opened up their openings for bachelors students as well. Yes. So going ahead, opportunities are definitely going to increase. And as the air is coming up, you are the ones who will be building the AIS as data scientists. So that definitely helps. Absolutely. Very, very true. It is of course a very booming field and in the coming time it will definitely be on the rise. So of course, it is worth, you know, learning data science, AI and such related skills. Of course, for the students who are currently in the BS degree, do have any suggestions on how to go through the courses? OK, so very honestly, I have not been a very great student of ITT Madras. OK, so since I'm too involved in other things, so migrates have not been too great, but one thing I could suggest is that definitely go through the tutorial. Sections that BTS provide yeah and the revision sessions, those definitely help you get good marks in the quizzes and the end term examinations OK and submit assignments on time. Those are the things that get to the marks at I team BS. We have a lot of societies, we have clubs, we have our offline fest. That is paradox. So were you a part of any of these? I'm part of the Kaziranga House where I get to meet a lot of people in and around Delhi NCR. So they club people around you into groups so. Have I have had good conversations with the people there, the heads of the house? So all good there. Haven't had a chance to visit Paradox yet. OK, but definitely will be visiting next year when I get my diploma. Would be any suggestion that you would like to give to the students watching this video? OK, so my only suggestion is that just don't go towards academics and grades. Yeah, get into a lot of other things. So I've been a part of a lot of extracurricular activities, which has helped me in the confidence to probably talk to you as well today. So this all does not come only from academics. You have to talk to a lot of people, participate in activities. Yeah. So if you just go towards rote learning, you're gonna end up nowhere, of course. Definitely try a lot of things, explore maybe. Explorer parts in data science as well, which haven't been touched yet. Yeah. So that's my only suggestion. So thank you so much, Arush, and we wish you more success in the future and a very happy learning journey. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Very grateful to talk to my peers.