BS (Data Science)
Even those who have a proclivity for science can fall short of crossing the boundary of entrance examinations. Kshitij Maheshwari was one such student, falling back to taking admission in a BTech in Electrical Engineering at Zakir Hussain College of Engineering. However, by the end of his first year, he knew pursuing a career in this direction would be difficult. As such, his love for sports would change it. As a sports aficionado, he would spend time on online platforms, reading articles and writing them. One day, he came across an advertisement featuring Ravichandran Ashwin discussing how data is an integral part of sport and lifestyle, not just in players, fitness and games, but also in the extensive backend.
Here is where he found the IIT Madras BS Degree in Data Science and Applications. He took his time researching the curriculum, trying to parallelize sports, which he hadn’t been able to continue due to injuries.
Once that connection clicked, it became his strongest motivator to enroll into the degree.
The start was shaky however, dealing with both degrees and their subjects was a considerable time-investment. However, nearly halfway through his sophomore year, he sat down and had an honest discussion with himself and decided to pursue the BS Degree as his central core; the subjects, the projects, the quality of pedagogy attracted him more than the other curriculum did. His hardships came from programming as it wasn’t his strongest background while subjects like Mathematics and Statistics piqued his interest more.
By the time his Electrical Engineering degree was completed, he had begun to give greater importance to his Data Science studies. It was around this time that he applied for a TA-ship and stayed on campus for eight months. This period of time was invaluable. Here is where he found some of his best friends, a small family 2000 Kilometers away from home. These people shaped him professionally, personally and changed much of his life. The responsibility that comes with being a TA and coming so far from home added that sense of independence.
He was also there for Paradox’22, it was where he met his seniors who introduced him to this new and diverse curriculum and added to his experience.He took part in several events, winning some of them, and the connections he made eventually encouraged him to apply for professional roles.
He has also explored NPTEL courses, having taken “Data Mining” and “Discrete Maths”, both of which aligned with his work, and he earned gold medals in each. It was an interesting experience. Currently, he works as a Data Scientist at Scaler, an AI-driven company. After completing his Degree, he plans to partake in the Aerospace Degree, not as a career-direction, but to satiate his interest and love for the subjects therein. Other than that, he wishes to continue his current work and expand his skillset with grit, determination and discipline.
Having served as a secretary, he has had the opportunity to interact with many of his juniors, to whom he offers straightforward advice; the curriculum is genuinely beneficial and continues to evolve with industry needs.
There will be times when it becomes difficult to keep up, but that is precisely when one needs to persevere and embrace the harder route to reach the top 10%, or even the top 1%.
His advice is simple: keep learning, keep implementing, and eventually the journey will lead somewhere worth looking back on with pride.
~written by Krishneal Dutta
