Aakanksha Joshi was a standout M.S. in data science student at Columbia. She led the student council, assisted with the DSI Scholars Program, and received Data Science Student Leadership Award when she graduated in 2019. Today, Joshi is a member of IBM’s Data Science and AI Elite Team. This global team of data science and artificial intelligence experts offers its clients guidance, skills, tools, and a proven method to place artificial intelligence projects on an accelerated track. Here, she discusses her work at IBM and offers academic and career advice to current students. 

Tell us about your role at IBM.

I work with clients to address some of their biggest business challenges using data science and machine learning-driven solutions. I do this by using some of the best IBM offerings in the data and AI space, such as Cloud Pak for Data, and building machine learning and deep learning models by combining both open source packages and IBM’s proprietary services such as AutoAI. We start our engagement with clients by understanding their current pain points and thinking through solutions that will help the client team address those points in the most impactful and meaningful way. We then work alongside them to implement and operationalize those solutions. In the past, I’ve worked on use cases related to time-series forecasting and natural language processing, but given the nature of my work, these horizons are ever expanding.

Which data science skills do you use most for your work?

At the most fundamental level, I use data preparation, machine learning, deep learning and data visualization. Within each of these, a lot of what I use depends on the use case I’m working on—it’s the same fundamentals that are applicable to a lot of use cases. For example, long short-term memory neural networks can be applied to solve problems in both time-series forecasting and natural language processing. To be honest, the skill I think I’ve been using the most is the ability to constantly learn new concepts. Data science is a continuously evolving field and I always want to help my clients get as close to the state-of-the-art as possible. My team’s culture is conducive to that, which is why within one year I was able to file my first patent application and to get a Data Scientist Level 1 – Experienced Data Scientist Certification from both IBM and the Open Group. That goes to demonstrate the industry experience I’ve gained. The concepts I learned at the Data Science Institute helped me have a strong foundation that I am building upon every day.

How exactly did DSI help you build your foundation? 

I can’t even begin to explain how much! DSI honed my skills in not just the theory and application of data science concepts, but gave me multiple opportunities to contribute to my community and step up to take on more responsibility beyond my academics—whether it was leading the DSI Student Council or working with Tian Zheng on DSI initiatives such as the Summer Scholars Program, or the Data Science Bootcamp for the Obama Scholars at Columbia. DSI’s administration put its faith in me and helped me expand my horizons beyond what I could’ve imagined. I translate all of that experience everyday as I grow as a professional in the industry. I recently, for instance, led the development of an Industry Accelerator for Demand Planning. I’m also the tech lead on a client engagement, and I’ve presented at multiple prestigious conferences like the EURO Conference 2019 and IBM’s flagship annual conference THINK 2020. I can’t thank the DSI community and administration enough for giving me the space to grow and for reinforcing my belief that my thoughts and opinions matter. All of the skills I honed and the experiences I had at DSI can actually help me make a difference in society. 

What were the highlights of the DSI student experience for you? 

Once I was sitting in the DSI lounge at around 9 a.m. and someone from the DSI staff saw me and said, “You’re just like us—you live here!” If that doesn’t define my relationship with DSI, I don’t know what does. But fun anecdote aside, receiving the Data Science Student Leadership Award upon graduation was the highlight of my time at DSI. Getting that recognition from the Institute perfectly capped the 18 months I spent at DSI continuously engaging, learning, and evolving. 
 

Do you have any advice for current students? 

Think beyond your curriculum and participate in things that happen around the campus; you never know what you might learn. Try to read more about key challenges that our field is facing nowadays—issues, for example, like bias in data and machine learning models. Find causes that resonate with you, and then think and care about those causes deeply. Try to create awareness in your community if you can. This way you take DSI’s #DataforGood motto with yourself wherever you go next! The future is in our hands and we need to make sure we handle it responsibly.

Any advice for students looking for jobs in this job market?

First of all, don’t panic. All the recent reports indicate that while there are some industries facing slowdowns, there are also some industries still going strong. Make a list of companies in those industries, find opportunities, and apply. Second, since there are now fewer opportunities and more candidates, you need to think of ways to stand out. DSI has a great program and that will definitely add value to your application. If you want to take yourself even beyond that, though, I suggest you revisit your school projects and view them from a business perspective. It’s awesome if you’ve built a model with 95 percent accuracy, but so have a lot of others. If, however, you can explain how using the results of that model will help the businesses that want to use it, your applications and interviews will stand out. You can find opportunities at IBM on the IBM Careers website. Good luck! Also, please feel free to connect with me over LinkedIn and reach out in case you have questions. I’d be happy to help you however I can!

— Robert Florida