Data Scientist Interview: Yaseen Hussain — Davidson Innovation Center

How did you became a Data Scientist?

Data scientists answer the key question of what to do with the huge amount of information being created and there’s no one description that fits all. It was not a blind journey with no preparation.

My main academic interest in Data Science shifted from Cloud Computing & Networks Security during my Master’s in 1st semester — a lot of that was due to the influence of a professor I had, named Pietro Michiardi, who taught the “Introduction to BigData and its applications” class that spurred my interest in the field.

This was back in 2013 when “Data science” was getting more and more traction. I really enjoyed my first Data Science academic project under him and realized that it was a path that I wanted to continue on. I feel very fortunate to have been able to jump straight from Master’s into a Data scientist career as Intern- especially since I hear of many people taking more circuitous routes to start in the same career as me.

While data science does cover a whole bunch of skills — you don’t have to learn them all at once. Professor suggested a better approach that facilitates more understanding — motivate what you need to learn by real, applied problems that you’re trying to tackle. This way, the task of learning data science from scratch will become more manageable.

Can you talk about your work experiences?

I had a great opportunity to work for 2 years as a Data Scientist for Amadeus (leader in Travel & Tourism Industry) in Hotel/Hospitality Domain. I mainly worked in one of my fields of interest to consistently and proactively explore the newest and most relevant technologies in Sentiment Analysis-Natural Language Processing, Text Analytics and Machine Learning(Recommendation Engine).I was responsible in investigating ideas for new products and services for the Hotel IT and Distribution channels.

Currently working as a Data Scientist in Davidson Consulting for a Telecom Operator on Big Data Monetization.

On the learning part — It was tremendously enjoyable for us to reach out and showcase value of telecom data to different industries like Retail, Advertising, Entertainment, Tourism in drawing insights and building customized analytical applications.

Tell us about your experience in UAE with the Davidson Innovation Center.

In Data Science, You need a team of people that can work together to get something useful out of the raw data. My point is: nobody can be good at everything. It’s a conglomeration of specialists.

Davidson Consulting provided me an excellent opportunity to be part of this ecosystem of specialists in UAE . I had a privilege to work with many business clients for different use-cases which enhanced my knowledge in maturity and leadership skills.

Do you think that enough companies are engaged in data-driven processes?

Data Science has been a very hot topic over the last few years across Europe and the Western world, with the increasing growth of Analytics based startups in San Francisco and London.

Dubai has always been classed as around 2–3 years behind the Western world within the Technology and Digital markets and as a result companies looking to implement Data Science should have a clear understanding of what they want to achieve with their data. There has been many occasions where Data Scientists from strong statistical backgrounds with experience working with Machine Learning methodologies are brought into organizations in the region without any clear guidance on what they are supposed to produce.

I feel companies like Davidson Consulting helps to reduce the non-negligible gap of guidance in recruitment process and developing Data-Driven Strategy.

What do you think about the Data Science scene in Dubai?

Despite Dubai being a bit late to the party, Data Science seems to have arrived and rest assured it is here to stay.

The Smart Dubai initiative to make Dubai happiest city on the earth has Data Science to its core to make it happen.