Welcome, everyone! I’m Amanda, and I’m excited that you’ve discovered my capstone blog. Currently, I’m located in Denver, CO, sharing my space with two adorable dogs – Poppy, my 3-year-old Sesame Shiba Inu, and Lily, an 8-year-old Chihuahua Yorkie who holds the title of the tiniest 4-pound wonder.
Originally from Houston, TX, my educational journey took me to Oklahoma, where I spent a decade shaping my academic and personal experiences, working as a Data Scientist in Oklahoma City. Presently, I’m a Data Scientist for a Healthcare Supply Chain Company based in Denver.
How I got into Data Science took a unique turn from my original career path. With an initial undergraduate degree in Petroleum Engineering and a subsequent Master’s in the same field, market conditions led me to make a pivotal decision and switch careers. A twist of fate, and a little bit of luck on thesis project assignment, guided me to pursue another Master’s, this time in Data Science and Analytics. Little did I know that this decision would help me discover my passion for coding and programming. My thesis journey involved crafting a custom Convolutional Neural Network for segmenting Scanning Electron Microscope images – an exploration that further deepened my appreciation for the intricacies of data science and machine learning.
My programming journey started during my first undergraduate degree in a required class called Numerical Methods, where we delved into VBA and it’s applications to industry. Honestly, I hated it; in fact, it made me dislike programming and I wanted to avoid anything programming related. However, my perception took a delightful turn when I pursued a minor in mathematics. A fantastic statistics professor introduced me to programming in R, sparking my interest in statistics and statistical programming. Since that initial encounter with R, I’ve progressed to building complete web applications using the Shiny package in my professional work.
After I started my first job as a Data Scientist, I felt I was lacking the skills to be a successful Data Scientist. This realization led me to the decision of pursuing another degree, ultimately bringing me to OSU where I am currently in my last quarter. The knowledge gained throughout this experience has been invaluable, and I’m eagerly anticipating the showcase of my hard work in this class.
I hope you enjoyed my journey. If you have any questions about AI/ML and Data Science please feel free to ask me any questions you might have, I’m happy to help.
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