Huaqing Fang recently joined Amazon as a software engineer after graduating from the M.S. in Data Science program at Columbia University. His undergraduate education as a data science major at the University of Waterloo prepared him for the rigor of a graduate-level education in the discipline.

Here, the 2022 alumnus shares a bit about his new role and his Columbia experience.

Congratulations on your new role with Amazon! What are you currently working on that you can share with us?

My first project will be implementing a system for managing regional traffics. It is very backend and related to big data. However, after building that system, the plan is to run a machine learning model on top of that system. Therefore, it is still data science-related. The interesting part is that I will be building something completely new.

Why did you choose to come to Columbia for your master’s degree?

Columbia’s great reputation, of course! I was also drawn to the capstone project options and New York City overall.

What have you enjoyed about living in New York City? 

Manhattan is a really rigorous city, full of great opportunities, events, food, and museums. I can enjoy all of these while living in close neighborhoods like Long Island City and Jersey City, which would allow me to live a slow-paced lifestyle after work.

What were your favorite courses during the master’s degree program?

Introduction to Databases taught by Donald Ferguson and Neural Networks and Deep Learning taught by Zoran Kostic. Both professors were super helpful and approachable. I have insights into databases and deep learning implementations after taking their courses.

How did your internship at Huawei Cloud change or challenge you? 

This experience really helped me to change my mind to become a developer instead of a data scientist early in my career. Data scientists focus more on business sense, which I think should come from industry experiences. As a new grad, I think coding ability is more important. 

What else did you gain during your Columbia experience?

Alumni resources—especially friends—the opportunity to be taught by the most outstanding professors in the world, and memories.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.