THE GRADIENT BOOST

 

                                                        

photo by Thegradientboost

 

My friend being aware of my interest in data science saw a post made by The Gradient Boost on twitter and decided to share it with me. She screen-grabbed  it and sent it to me on Whatsapp. I had not been on twitter for a while so i decided to revive my twitter account and look them up, I saw that it was an online data science school for Africans and they had just started recruiting for the cohort they were about to start which was going to last for about 3-6 months, you'll get trained on everything data science and an intro to machine learning which of course goes for a fee but were going to be giving 3 slots for free if you get selected for a challenge they were putting out. I was so excited and jumped on the offer immediately I worked on the challenge and made my submission a day before the deadline.

Few weeks later, on the stated date The Gradient Boost said they were going to announce the winners, I got an email that I was selected for the training, ohh I was so elated, finally I was going to get some structured learning on my data science journey. I did all the needed registrations and I just couldn't wait for classes to start, I was super excited and yeah classes finally commenced. 

 

 

                                           MY EXPERIENCE SO FAR

 

photo by Hitesh Choudhary at Unsplash

After my registrations, I went through the whole curriculum and decided to set to work immediately, I went through my first notes which was on python, it wasn't new at all, cause I had studied something like that during days of my personal study and in my mind I was like I can totally handle this, nevertheless I went through the notes and took notes and I felt ready to answer the exercises that followed. I went through all the exercises under the introduction to python module just to have a feel of what i will be handling and boy! it looked very strange and tough, I switched off my laptop, I then decided to check it out later this time more in-depth and it was still looking the same, so I decided to go through the notes again and then the exercises again, after some few weeks I could only answer 2 questions and that was only under the control flow and conditions exercises and not under the python module. Ladies and gentlemen it took me one month and few weeks to be able to finish up the control flow and conditions exercises and an exercise on pandas.

Gradient boost has helped me to understand that programming is far beyond knowing the syntax but also knowing how to apply it to solve problems. My personal learning helped me a bit cause I understood almost all the syntax in python and I was already feeling like a guru😈 I didn't know it was far bigger than that, i now understand that using the syntax to solve a problem makes one a good programmer and not just knowing the syntax.

                                                    photo by Clay Banks at Unsplash

 

I enjoyed the visualization part the most using the software Tableau although it came with its own difficulties but it was quite easy to navigate through (at least easier than python😏). We had had a workshop on the use of Tableau and also on data visualization some weeks prior, we were then given a task as thus; 

"you are a data scientist working for the World Health Organization (WHO) as a result of the pandemic, the world is panicking and as a result in a complete lock down. you are given a task to analyze the data and build a story advising the WHO in terms of how they should handle the situation in different countries". We were to look for information in every country and advise on how the situation in every country should be handled

1. We were to identify countries that are hotspots/ high risks

2. Countries that are not highly infected

3. Check for correlation between countries with high Gini index and the number of cases

4. Case trends per country, can either be monthly or daily

5. Countries that are contributing more to the increase in the cases 

6. Countries that are highly impacted i.e. cases vs the population of the country

This was just it for me, so many times I had wondered when I will get to work on a real life project, I didn't know it was sooner than I expected,it was definitely one of my most exciting moments, I jumped to work immediately, went over my notes, the tutorials both on Tableau and data visualization just to make sure I was on the right path, i also did some more reading on concepts i didn't understand fully like Gini index and the like. I encountered some hitches while trying to visualize the data but with persistence and google😄 I was able to find a way through it. so many times I thought I was missing it and it wasn't good enough, I wasn't just confident about my work and I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing especially because there was nothing I could make reference to. After some days I was done (or I felt I was done) and my instructor gave me the option to either make a recording of my work due to bad internet connectivity i was having at that time or make a presentation while the lecture was ongoing, I just knew that even if my internet connectivity was okay I was still going to make a recording cause I didn't have the boldness to make my presentations alongside the others because I didn't think it was good enough so I had planned to make a recording and sneak it up to my instructor and get my feedback later on when no one's watching😀. After finishing up my visualization I went on to start my recording, I tried google meet it didn't work cause I wasn't on a premium version I went on to use zoom and it was recording but it wasn't having a sound, I used a whole day trying to rectify the issue but I just couldn't get a hang on it, boy! i was exhausted, I ended up using my friends phone to make a recording of my presentation. I was able to make my submission the next day cause I couldn't upload it on the said day and time due to poor internet connectivity. I was so downcast afterwards cause i was late on submission and i didn't feel my submission was good enough, the recording of the presentation the other guys had was sent to the group and i deliberately didn't  go through their presentations cause i didn't want to be intimidated.

fast-forward to 3 days later, on a Friday when I usually have my weekend catch up calls (and yeah we usually have this weekend catch up calls every week where you get to speak to your instructor which are the founders of the gradient boost on what you've been working on, the challenges you've encountered, ways they could improve so you could get a better experience...cool right😎), so yeah the instructor called and he was like the mentor who gave us the project will like to speak to me on my submission, that short period between we speaking and he putting me on a call with my mentor, my mind had already wandered, in my mind I imagined him saying "Ritmwa your presentation was so bad and because of that we are laying you off the program to go and pursue some other thing cause data science is not for you, we wish you luck in your future endeavors"(being an introvert is hard work, you can think yourself to death🙍) but the feedback was totally the opposite, first he started by commending my work, he applauded my work far more than I had expected, like see me telling myself off and he was here telling me I had done a great job and he was impressed, most importantly he went on to give me a powerful speech on self doubt and believing in myself, he explained how super important it is for me to believe in myself and on what I'm doing, he said in my presentation i was actually getting it but I wasn't confident in making my presentation and it was as if I wasn't so sure about what I was saying and it boiled down to me doubting myself and my abilities he went on to explain further on how my lack of confidence can affect how people will perceive me and how they will take in information that i am giving out even if I'm saying the right thing. He told me about his former boss and how he was able to overcome his self-doubt, he told me his former boss was promoted to a management position at a big company at a very young age he gave himself the challenge of asking 3 questions at every meeting this alone made him confident and comfortable when it comes to voicing out his opinions and making him a good presenter, this singularly made him excel a lot faster in his career and gave him confidence to make presentations more confidently, he then advised me to follow the same tactics by making sure i ask questions during every class we're having and also practice making presentations, this would help build my confidence and help me do away with self doubt.

This really got to me and after our call that day I promised myself to take his advice and work on my self confidence and yeah I've been working on it. Its so fascinating that The Gradient Boost is not only helping me build my data science skills but also helping me build skills which will go beyond just data science but helping me become the best version of myself.

And yeah about my findings from the visualizations from the Covid-19 task, I'll talk elaborately on it and share the link to my visualizations some other time.