Data Science Careers: What after XII

Madhup Kumar (Batch of 1995)

Madhup Kumar (Class of 1995, Xth) addressed the Adda session on the topic of Data Science Careers: what after XII on the 7th of August, 2021. The idea of the talk was to share career options with the young participants who are fascinated by the field of Data Science and are looking to build a career in this field.

Madhup is a B. Tech graduate from IIT Kharagpur with an extensive experience of working as a data scientist. He has worked with reputed multinationals such as Oracle and IBM during the course of his career.

The talk began with a brief history of the field of Data Science tracing its very genesis into the methodologies quite similar to that of the natural sciences. The speaker argued that in terms of the methodology, Data Science relies heavily on hypothesis testing and is quite experimental. The idea is to find ideal solutions to the problem being posed and eliminate options which do not fit the experiment. It is also important that the rules and assumptions are minimised in the quest for actual solution to the problem being posed.

One of the key challenges of data science is having to deal with large data sets and at times the intangible psychological elements which are not always measurable with the tools at hand.  Madhup argued that in a way Data Science is essentially an extension of logical reasoning, something which we encounter not only in exams but also in real life.

The idea of Data Science is embedded in reasoning with Data. The talk then  went on to explore the linkages between Data Science and Machine Learning and how the two complement each other. In addition, the importance of statistical significance in finding solutions to the problems was also pointed out.

The talk also explored the various specialisations of Data Science and its interdisciplinary implications. In terms of its career facets, the role of someone like a Business Analyst was also dealt with in detail. Other career options such as that of a Data Engineer or a Machine Learning Scientist were explored. 

The session was well received by participants who were looking to build a career in the field of Data Science. A lot of questions were asked by the participants and dealt with by the speaker. The talk ended with a vote of thanks to Madhup on behalf of the Praktani family.