Mitali Bante received her undergraduate degree in computer science from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology and worked as a software engineer for Fidelity Investments before enrolling in the M.S. in Data Science program at Columbia University.
The 2022 alumna completed internships with TD Securities and Houlihan Lokey while studying for her master’s degree and will join IBM as a data scientist.
Here, Bante shares more about her background and discusses Columbia’s impact on her trajectory.
What helped to pique your interest in data science?
After joining Fidelity Investments as a software engineer in India, I got an opportunity to be a part of the data science bootcamp. This led me to search more about the field and contact people who are already working in the machine learning domain. I did an additional project under Gunjan Narulkar working in artificial intelligence and machine learning research and development, and I was sure that I wanted to pursue my master’s in data science.
Why did you choose to come to Columbia to study data science?
The data science program at Columbia is a well-known program and was on my list from the very beginning. I liked the structure of the program. It had some mandatory courses to build a good foundation and many electives to choose from to help delve deeper in your area of interest. The capstone project is one of the highlights. I worked with Yuval Marton and Asaad Sayeed from Bloomberg on semantic proto-role labeling, a technique to achieve deeper understanding of a given sentence by predicting the presence of some predefined attributes for every entity of a sentence. This project helped me understand how things function in a research environment and gave me an opportunity to apply the neural nets and natural language processing concepts where the performance difference can be seen.
What was your favorite course during the program?
My favorite courses were Natural Language Processing by Daniel Bauer, Applied Machine Learning by Vijay Pappu, and Neural Networks and Deep Learning by Richard Zemel. I liked the course structure and the way that Professor Zemel explained the difficult, but intriguing concepts. Professor Pappu filters out the best required content to understand machine learning concepts. It’s a “must” course to clear the machine learning rounds of your interview process.
What else did you gain during your Columbia experience?
A very talented pool of friends! I truly believe good discussion on top of your self-study helps you gain better understanding and high retention. Connections are a must to accelerate your career path. Being a part of talks and committees that align to your interests introduces you to people who are working in the field in industry and you get to know the firsthand experience from them.
Have you enjoyed living in New York City?
It’s my first time being out of my hometown, and I love New York City for the diversity and ease of access to any interests you may have. I have been trying a wide variety of cuisines recently by visiting different cafes and restaurants. Last year, I got a chance to witness the Halloween parade, July 4th fireworks, Thanksgiving Day parade, and some Christmas activities. I just enjoy the energy that comes up during these events. The touristy places and Broadway shows are also the perfect add-ons!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.