A strong foundation lays the way for great career success, and that foundation can be built at Georgia State.
Sonam Dawani, M.S.A. Data Science and Analytics (2021), studied with a concentration in Big Data and Machine Learning to build her own strong foundation. With a bachelor's degree from Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, she was drawn to Georgia State’s Data Science program for its thorough coursework.
“I was really fascinated by the curriculum which Georgia State had,” Dawani said. “It was not only the basics or only the advanced. It was a combination of the fundamental subjects, like fundamentals of data science, and still also the advanced subjects, like deep learning and advanced machine learning.”
During her time at Georgia State, Dawani completed projects in the Data Mining Lab using various softwares and providing opportunities to develop her skills. Of the projects she participated in, her MS project using a dataset from NASA was the most impactful.
In collaboration with other graduate students and PhD students, Dawani had the task of predicting solar flares based on NASA’s data. To do so, she evaluated which software would be most helpful, utilizing TensorFlow and PyTorch to create a data pipeline for edge and object detection.
She succeeded at projects like this with the guidance of Dr. Azim Ahmadzadeh and the encouragement of Dr. Rafal Angryk, founding director of the Big Data and Machine Learning M.S. program.
“He was the head of the program, but he was also so down to earth,” Dawani said. “You could just go and talk to him about your issues. And he also taught the fundamentals of data science class, which was very helpful.”
Post-Degree
After two years at Georgia State and a summer internship, Dawani set off to pursue her career with the foundation she needed for success. First, she worked at EY as a Senior Data Analytics Consultant.
Now, Dawani is a Data Engineer at Paramount+. Georgia State’s strong alumni network was the reason she found out about the position.
“While I was transitioning to Paramount+, one of my peers, an alumni from the same program, referred me to this position,” she said. “So [Georgia State’s] alumni network is also helpful to get into companies.”
In her role, Dawani evaluates data in the streaming division. Paramount+ subscriber data includes what movies, TV shows and games are being streamed, as well as individual viewing habits of users.
“You have so much data to evaluate and insights to provide to leadership so that they can make a proper decision on how to move forward,” Dawani said.
Balancing the data evaluation needs and analyzing important subscriber trends can be rigorous, but Dawani is inspired by the challenges.
“Although I'm more toward data engineering at the moment, if something comes toward data science, I'm not ever afraid – I'm actually excited,” Dawani said. “I know I can do it because the fundamentals are so clear.”
Lasting Impact
Looking back on her experience at Georgia State, Dawani recognizes how much confidence her education gave her.
In her first day at EY, she identified a process which previously took her department several days to complete and found a way to automate it.
“I was so excited,” Dawani said. “I automated before even asking them, I just did it. And I presented that to them. It was using Python and what I learned at Georgia State.”
“It was quite a wonderful feeling and gave a good impression of me at the start of my career.”
What’s Next?
Are you looking to solidify a foundation for a successful career? Contact Georgia State Online’s enrollment specialists at [email protected] to learn more about opportunities and consider visiting campus for Panther Preview.