With the advancement in technology and how connected we are to the internet at all times, I have always found myself wondering if our phones actually listen to our conversations and it makes me paranoid. Or is it just a mere coincidence that you are a victim of targeted ads based on how you were just having a conversation about a particular topic with your friend the other day? I believe each one of us has at one point in time thought that they are being watched or Google and Facebook are listening to them without triggering ‘Okay, Google’ or ‘Hey, Siri’ and it is hands down eerie how those ads pop up on your phone.
I am intrigued to apply to Western University for a Masters in Computer Science as it will provide me with an excellent opportunity to enhance my knowledge in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence with its internationally recognized program, which in turn would help me in achieving my career goals of working in a Data Science and Al related field. Also, I have chosen Western University because of how perfectly its courses align with my interests. I absolutely love the flexibility of the program which would allow me to select the courses according to my chosen area of specialization under the guidance of exemplary faculty at Western.
The expected date of my graduation in Bachelors of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering is June 2020. The undergraduate courses I took, such as Object Oriented Programming, Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms, Operating Systems, DBMS, Data Warehousing and Data Mining, and Artificial Intelligence, have only made my foundation strong and made me realize that I want to expand my knowledge and apply for MS in Computer Science. Due to this developed interest, I have worked on a few projects to get a hands-on experience in order to advance my knowledge and skills. In the third year of college, I participated in a hackathon on my campus which required us to use Machine Learning and I was a total dilettante at that time.
However, my team members did have a little knowledge about it and so we decided to use R and I still found a way to contribute by learning RShiny to communicate our findings. At this point, I found myself allured to the world of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Subsequently, when I had a course on Data Warehousing and Data Mining I studied about data, knowledge and the various Machine Learning Algorithms. It was the most interesting course I undertook and algorithms were never this fun and engrossing. Thus, it was clearer to me than ever before about the direction I needed to go in.
Furthermore, I began to learn and code by taking different courses on ML. A course which was extremely significant and helped me learn was Machine Learning A-Z, a hands-on Python and R in Data Science. Additionally, I have participated in various workshops such as Machine Learning and Data Science, Cyber Security and Forensics out of curiosity to learn about the different techniques used. Then, I participated in another hackathon where my team and I were one of the top 12 teams. We worked on a website project based on Mental Health because we believe in giving equal importance to having a healthy mind and moving towards removing the stigmas attached to mental illness.
The final year minor project undertaken by me and my peers ‘Minimizing Churn Rate Through Analysis of Financial Habits’ where we would use deep learning (Al) and perform data exploration and visualization and compare different algorithms. It is amazing to see the limitless possibilities that exist in this world, just waiting to be explored and solved. From classification and prediction to Deepfakes and Deep dreaming.
Apart from this, being an International student, it would prove to be a great opportunity to study overseas to experience diversity, culture and grow my network and consequently work towards meeting my career goals. With a graduate degree from Western University which provides state-of-the-art facilities in addition to how liberal it is by not limiting students to one particular field and allows cross collaboration with other departments is really remarkable.
