Data scientists are one of the most sought professionals across the world. At SkillUp 2021, Dakshinamurthy V Kolluru, president and professor at the International School of Engineering (INSOFE), spoke about career opportunities in the US, Canada and Europe for data scientists.
Mastering data science
To illustrate the importance of a master’s degree to land a lucrative career, Dakshinamurthy presented two reports: One from Kaggle and another from PwC and Business Higher Education Forum. As per the PwC & BHEF report, more than one-third of data science roles in the US require a master’s degree, while Kaggle reported that more than 50% of their data scientists have a master’s degree.
“Kaggle is a model-driven site where someone will take the data, put it there, tells you how to access it and asks you to do it. So, the skill that is tested is how well you run a code which you expect a non-academician to also have.
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“Real-world, on the other hand, is not just model-driven. You need to collect the data by talking and interacting with the people, clean it up and understand the business. While there are excellent free videos, informal education available all over the place – traditional university education has a very important role to play in your success as a data scientist,” Dakshinamurthy said.
Earlier, data scientists were expected to be good at everything. “It can be considered true earlier, when data science was just ‘science’, but today data science has graduated into a technology. And when it becomes a technology, you have to specialise,” said Dakshinamurthy.
Dakshinamurthy outlined the software aspect of data science with four different specialisations.
“Understand your area of interest, hone your computer science skills and add data science skills to that,” said Kolluru.
How INSOFE helps
Dakshinamurthy discussed the educational programme at INSOFE. The programme is modelled as per the needs of the candidates and is divided into three main streams. Separate programmes are available for core engineers, programmers or software engineers and business managers, with separate curriculum for each.
The programme comes with three benefits, including full-fledged degrees, a chance for studying abroad in the USA, Canada and Europe with partner institutes and even work permits. All these programmes can be converted into credits for a full-fledged masters programme. Take, for instance, PGP in data science can be converted into 15 credits of MS courses, explained Dakshinamurthy. He also explained the step-by-step components of their programme:
- Self-learning modules
- Independent Research
- Course credits in India
- Course credits abroad
- Internship
INSOFE’s partners include Case Western Reserve University, USA; University of Strathclyde Glasgow, UK; Rennes School of Business, France; Carleton University, Canada; Walsh College, USA; and SVKM’S NMIMS, Deemed to be University, India.
“INSOFE is vibrant and transformative. Our machine learning engineers are incubating products. AI specialists are pushing the boundaries through applied research. Our thought leading data scientists are engaged with enterprises to help them adopt data science. We enjoy bringing these rich experiences to the classroom to transform students,” said Dakshinamurthy.
