How I uncovered my interest in machine learning with an online training and got an internship at DRDO
About the author: Samuel Varkey, a final year B.Tech student from Karunya Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, took the Data Science training from Internshala and discovered his inclination towards machine learning.
At the end of my third year in college, I realised that I had not done any certification course due to being preoccupied with extracurricular activities. So I decided to take an online training during summers to enhance my CV. At the same time, I was also looking for internships and came across Internshala Trainings while browsing through their internships platform. Although many training intrigued me, I decided to go with Data Science training because I was not interested in core programming. I would like to explore management studies in the future, and I thought that data science could help me with that.
The training was conducted by Analytics Vidhya which is one of the leading data science communities in India. The beginner-friendly nature of the training helped me stay on track. The instructors taught with great attention to detail and any doubts that I had were cleared on a forum. There was also an option to send our queries directly to the instructor who would answer them promptly. This fostered a great student-teacher relationship even though it was an online interaction.
The module that I found most interesting was machine learning. It was my first introduction to machine learning, and I was hooked onto it instantly. I was particularly fascinated by how we can make predictions using machine learning. I was keen on learning more, so I selected Machine Learning and Deep Learning as my electives in the next semester. I also took up IoT to complement these elective courses so that I could have a firm understanding of this field. Later in the semester, one of my teachers asked me if I would be interested in doing a machine learning internship at DRDO, and I replied yes. She forwarded my resume to the concerned department, and I was selected for an internship at The Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) which is a laboratory at DRDO.
At DRDO, I was working on two datasets along with other interns. The first dataset had 6 features, and we had to work on reducing it to 3 features. Each feature represented a sensor on the aircraft, and it would have been a herculean task for a scientist to focus on all of them. To simplify, we had to make the devices more efficient by reducing the amount of data storage being used without compromising on the output. The second dataset was a more challenging one because it had 68 features, and we had to reduce it to the lowest number possible. We managed to bring it down to 2 features while maintaining an accuracy of 96%. All of this was as confidential as it sounds. We weren’t even allowed to carry any electronic devices inside the campus!
While working at DRDO, I was able to work with brilliant scientists and got an overview of the defence agency of our country. My firm understanding of machine learning basics lead me towards this experience, and I am grateful to Analytics Vidhya and Internshala Trainings for introducing me to the world of data science.
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