Class of 2020

Previous Degree: Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia
Program: MDS Vancouver, Class of 2020

[During my Master’s of Science in Public Health], in one class, students were instructed to conduct a literature review on a topic related to public health. I don’t exactly remember why I decided to do this, but I chose to write about the challenges and opportunities in the implementation of data science techniques in healthcare. A few days after I submitted the assignment, I attended a Meetup event on the application of machine learning to biomedical imaging and diagnostics. As I sat in the audience listening to the keynote speaker, I realized that I wanted to pursue a career in data science.

About Reiko Okamoto

After completing her Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of UBC, Reiko wanted to study diseases beyond the molecular level so she moved to Sweden to pursue a master’s degree in public health to learn more about the application of epidemiological methods to improve population health. However, it was during her time in Sweden that her interest in data science was sparked. Read Reiko's story.

Previous Degree: Bachelor Degree, Mechanical Engineering from the University of Victoria
Program: MDS Okanagan, Class of 2020

I gained an interest in improving my data collection and analysis techniques through teaching myself how to use Excel VBA. I started to look into how I could further improve my skills and during this search, I found that data science was the field that employed the skills that I was looking to develop. I searched for programs that offered both small class sizes and an accelerated learning path. I quickly discovered that my best option would be to return home and attend UBCO’s MDS program. Now through the program, I have gained the skills and knowledge to apply for entry level data science, data analyst, and machine learning positions.

About Connor Lee

Connor, a native of Vernon, obtained a Bachelor Degree, Mechanical Engineering from the University of Victoria. Having developed a deep appreciation for data collection and analysis techniques, Lee’s desire to improve his technical abilities and love for the Okanagan led him straight to UBCO’s MDS program. Read Connor's story.

Previous Degree: Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Engineering, Covenant University
Prior Experience: Data Analyst, BaverianVine Ltd.
Program: MDS Computational Linguistics, Class of 2020

I saw the MDS-CL program as a typical MDS program but with the cherry on the cake. It offered mostly what the Master of Data Science offers with an additional focus on natural language processing. This was the deciding factor for me. NLP was important for me because a lot of the data I had come across came as free form texts and it was important that I learnt to work with those.

About Chidera Okoma

Chidera holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Engineering from Nigeria’s Covenant University. Prior to joining the MDS CL program, Chidera worked as a data analyst with BaverianVine Ltd., a startup that consulted for the largest Nigerian institutions. It was while working in her role as a data analyst that she saw the impact that data insight had in decision-making. Read Chidera's story.

Previous Degree: Bachelor of Computer Science, Vancouver Island University
Prior Experience: Performance Analyst Co-Op, TELUS
Program: MDS Computational Linguistics, Class of 2020

I was fully committed to finishing my bachelor’s and moving directly into a software position. My senior project in undergrad was a basic machine learning project where I attempted to look at social media metadata over time (number of likes, shares, etc) and try to predict the next most popular musician. This led to an 8-month co-op with TELUS which focused heavily on machine learning and text processing. This changed my perspective and interests from programming for software to programming for data science.

About Ravi Gill

After obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC native Ravi Gill didn’t want to move too far away from home to pursue a master’s degree in data science. Ravi’s 8-month co-op with TELUS changed his interest from software programming to programming for data science.

Read Ravi's story.