Taking on a new position or career path requires embracing the unknown and all the excitement and terror that comes with it. For most of us enrolled in the OSU post-bac program, this is no doubt familiar to you.

When I joined the program, I was working as a supervisor in manufacturing at a Biotech company and had no experience in programming. Partway through the degree I was offered a position in research at a Pharma company and it was an opportunity I felt I could not pass up. I had concerns about switching from a job I felt comfortable in to a job with a lot of unknowns while also enrolled in the OSU program. However, I decided to go ahead with the job change anyways and just hoped for the best. As expected, changing jobs did add stress to my life and reduced my free time but, in the end, I gained some valuable experiences that have given me ideas on how I want to apply my CS degree to my future career. One of the things most impressed on me was how much big data, and software to make sense of it all, have progressed in the biotech and pharma industry.

A big part of analyzing big data is now being done with machine learning (ML) and this is what I thought of going into picking a capstone project that involves data mining and processing with ML. Although I do not have prior experience, I am again embracing the unknown to hopefully gain some more valuable experience that will benefit me in the future!