How it all began
365 days from August 17, I took my baby steps and wrote my "hello world", in Python.
I did this after commencing a paid course from the University of Michigan School of Information, for the Programming for Everyone Specialization with the renowned Clinical Professor Dr. Charles "Chuck" Severance, hosted on Coursera.
My First Documentation in Programming
It was more like my Introduction to programming, rather than a course squarely on Python. I finished that course with a grounded knowledge in how the technology of the day came about, how the internet works, as well as practical applications of what I had learnt.
I finished the Specialization in 3 months, making sure I took my time to learn the following: The basics of programming in Python, Cyber Networking and how the Internet works for developers, SQL and Database Management, API calls for Data Retrieval, and finally, Data Analysis and Visualization with Python.
I really enjoyed it, and finished the Capstone project with a Honors in Data Analysis and Visualization with Python.
The extra significance of finishing in this duration for me, stems from the period in which this fits into...
I started learning programming at the height of the pandemic and 2 months into learning, the EndSARS campaign swept across Nigeria. A historic time indeed.
The EndSARS campaign felt like the road to freedom for many Nigerians my age, most of us took out time to participate in online activism, and others through peaceful civil disobedience, marches, etc. Unfortunately, this quickly turned sour, and it all ended in bloodshed.
By the time the physical campaign for EndSARS ended, 51 civilians, 11 policemen, 7 soldiers had died, We all saw the gory images and videos, when things started going South and it all seemed hijacked.
The 2020 Lekki shooting was the unofficial end of the physical campaign and for most of us, life just went back to "normal" but the cities were in disarray.
Less than a month after EndSARS, I was done with the Python Specialization and my Confidence and Interest in Python peaked. I was at a crossroad. I needed a break, but I also needed to choose a Professional Specialization, if I was going to take programming seriously.
Python Specializations
Image Source: Programming with Mosh
For a while, I decided to focus on what I had done before, I upscaled the python projects that I had previously created and I learnt how to write neat and efficient code, read Coding blogs and took more physical rests.
By New Year, I had renewed energy and I decided to follow the Data Science track and started learning the syntax, semantics and practical use case of python libraries in this regard: Scikit-Learn, NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, Seaborn, Matplotlib, Plotly, etc. for starters. I started practising with Data from Kaggle, The World Bank, Data World, NYC Data, Yfinance, Binance, etc.
Keeping up Pace
By late January, 2021, Virtual classes started in the College of Medicine (Yeah, I'm a Medic).
After leaving school for more than half-a-year, since the beginning of the lockdown in Nigeria, things began looking like they were going back to normal.
I slowed down. First gradually, then when activities in school picked up, it became really stressful to pick up pace like before.
I decided to draft a proper schedule.
Eventually, I found a way to balance things. I maintained my development pace and increased my proficiency in Machine Learning gradually, although this took a lot of effort balancing it with School Work.
I started taking courses in the IBM Data Science Professional track, Stanford Machine Learning and Deep Learning Courses and I took loads of online learning on free platforms (i.e. Freecodecamp, Machine learning centre, Sololearn, Kaggle, etc.) and read blogs on medium, hashnode, etc. with solutions from stackoverflow, geeksforgeeks, w3schools, etc.
By Late February, I started making plans to put myself out there, I felt getting an Internship would really expose me to the pace of the real-world.
I started by searching my email for the GitHub account login details I received, since registering in August 2020. After successfully finding that and logging in, I was able to finally store my developmental milestone codes on the Cloud.
Putting my code on the Cloud, forced me to be structural and organized about how I stored code, and that was my journey into optimized code storing even locally.
By Early March, I was training models and evaluating how best to handle different Real World Data in Machine Learning.
I read codes and blogs on the Machine Learning pipeline process, and on solving human tasks using Data-centric approaches for AI.
I kept practising with datasets on Kaggle, then participated in my First Kaggle Competition.
By Late March, I was accepted to study in the First segment of the Applied Data Science Module at the World Quant University
By April, I joined the Data Science Nigeria's cohort on AI Wednesdays involved in training on the principles and methods of optimized Machine Learning. It ended in a Kaggle Competition.
I started learning HTML and CSS by the side too, as I started preparing to deploy some of my models
By the End of April, I was accepted into a Data Science and Business Analytics Internship with the Graduate Rotational Internship Program (GRIP) Hosted by The Sparks Foundation
My Role Involved the following:
- Designing projects on Exploratory Data Analysis, Data Visualization and Predictive Machine Learning models
- Professional Upgrade of social platforms profiles
- Peer to Peer/Mentee Mentorship
In May, I was shuffling time squarely between completing my Internship projects and School, mind you, I had always found a way to maintain a steady reading culture, usually my weekends and late nights were never free. I was a Powerhouse.
This time around, I had a major exam by the end of the next month, proper planning of my time was essential...
By first week June, I meticulously completed all my project requirements for my Internship Certification at GRIP
I was able to secure a Scholarship to learn Machine Learning with AWS at Udacity. After confirming this, I subsequently devoted all of my time to school.
Twilight
By Second Week in July, I was free!
I started reading up and researching on the best ways to Create a beautiful and engaging Portfolio Webpage, as well as the best methods and platforms for deploying my models.
I ended up using frontend (HTML, CSS) frameworks from HTML5UP due to my working knowledge in these languages, I was able to modify it effectively to my use.
My Deployed Portfolio
My Latest Project
Designed to help augment processes in Healthcare
Now back to August, I'm enjoying the process. I was recently accepted into the comprehensive and intense 4-month Hamoye Data Science Internship Program (HDSC) and I'm about to complete the Kaggle 30 days of Machine Learning Challenge with my 1 year coding anniversary looming around the corner.
In Conclusion, Getting into Data Science has been quite a journey for me, I got into programming as an utter novice, needing a technical skill that could be of value to me during the pandemic.
1 year later, I have ventured into the world of technology with a better and richer understanding of the world around me, and I'm definitely taking things one step at a time, knowing that I am in this for the long game now and I'd have to keep learning along the way... 👨🏽💻