I’m creating a new podcast about Data Science called Datacast! The 7th episode is my conversation with Chintan Shah, a data scientist at Avanade UK. Give a listen to learn about his academic studying Underwater Communication, his experience in the oil & gas industry, his transition to data science, and more.
Chintan is a data scientist currently working as advanced analytics manager at Avanade. He did his Ph.D. in Underwater Communication where he developed communication systems for commercial applications. He has over 10 years of R&D experience and has worked in academia, oil & gas and consultancy. He is passionate about data science and delivering projects that help companies derive actionable insights.
Show Notes
(2:07) Chintan talked about his undergraduate education in India at the Dharmsinh Desai University, studying Electronics & Communication.
(2:53) Chintan recalled the most useful knowledge from his undergraduate experience.
(3:42) Chintan explained his decision to pursue a Master degree in Communication and Signal Processing at Newcastle University in the UK.
(5:09) Chintan discussed advanced communication systems knowledge he learned during his Master.
(6:25) Chintan talked about his decision to continue his academic journey with a Ph.D. in Underwater Acoustic Communication at Newcastle University.
(8:15) Chintan went in depth to explain the study of Underwater Acoustic Communication and how it is different from normal communication systems.
(11:45) Chintan discussed his Ph.D. thesis on applying Bayesian theorem for Turbo coding to solve signal processing problems under the water.
(15:00) Chintan elaborated on the benefits of doing a Ph.D. degree.
(19:01) Chintan mentioned the importance of collaboration in the academic community.
(20:18) Chintan talked about his Post-Doc experience at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
(22:00) Chintan discussed his next career step moving back to the UK working as a digital communication engineer at Schlumberger, a big company in the oil and gas industry.
(27:30) Chintan characterize datasets that are particular to oil and gas.
(28:58) Chintan examined the technique of vibration analysis in his work.
(31:23) Chintan next landed a role as a Software Engineer at a company called SmartFocus in London.
(34:52) Chintan mentioned the best resources he used to learn machine learning and data science.
(36:51) Chintan recalled his experience searching for a data science job.
(38:02) Chintan briefly went over the interesting projects that he was involved with at Avanade, his current employer.
(40:34) Chintan talked about his recent transition from a Senior Data Scientist role to a Manager in Advanced Analytics role.
(43:35) Chintan shared his view about the data science community in London.
(44:44) Closing segments.
His Contact Info
His Recommended Resources
Andrew Ng’s Machine Learning Coursera Course
London’s Data Science Festival
Nate Silver’s “The Signal and The Noise”
Charles Wheelan’s “Naked Statistics”
Philip Tetlock’s “Superforecasting”