About me — Clément Delteil
An engineer in search of meaning and genuine beauty
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Hi, everyone. I’m Clément :)
I wonder how among all the choices of articles at your disposal you ended up here, but if you are here you might as well enjoy it, let me tell you my story 😉.
As you may have already noticed, that’s me in the picture above but, this is a version of me much too close to the current one, let’s go back in time to understand how I got there.
Childhood 🎅
Please don’t judge the size of my cheeks, I have always loved to eat and sometimes a little too much 😇. I grew up in a small village in France surrounded by my parents. I am an only child, so I learned to take care of myself or to go bother my cousins to play with me.
I have no particular anecdotes about this part of my life (mostly because I can’t remember everything 😑). I have always played sports, whether it was soccer, tennis, handball, table tennis, etc. I had a normal education from elementary to middle school, I was a very good student in school but sometimes a little talkative… In high school, I followed a scientific curriculum!
High School 🎓
Between middle school and high school, one of my English teachers pushed me to join a “European class”. For non-French readers, this is a kind of option in high school that allows you to have extra English hours in a separate group. This is partly where I met my best friends. I was in a group that pushed each other up, which was really good.
Along with my studies, at that time I was playing a lot of video games, which is probably what brought me closer to computer science for my graduate studies.
Engineering School 🎓
After high school, I went directly to an engineering school: the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM). There, I experienced many, many, many things, believe me. For example, I was able to travel abroad and perfect my English!
Slovenia 🌅
I studied for 6 months in Slovenia at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (FAMNIT). I met great humans and learned some very important Slovene words such as :
- Hello : Dober Dan
- I don’t speak Slovene : Ne govorim Slovensko
- Do you speak English ? : Govoriš angleško?
More seriously, living abroad for 6 months when you’re 19 and interacting with people your age from all over the world makes you grow as a person. I can only recommend it to anyone hesitant to travel abroad. Go out and explore the world to understand that the world does not only revolve around you.
While there I made friend with one of my professors, a PhD student, Jordan Deja (👋 if you’re passing by). It was him later that allowed me to come back to live in Slovenia 👀.
Slovenia 2 🌄
After returning from my university exchange, I continued my studies in France, in computer science for 1 year, and then came the time to find an internship as an Assistant Engineer.
This is where Jordan appears again, while talking one day, he invited me to come back to Slovenia to work this time in his laboratory (HICUP lab) with other PhD students and researchers.
It’s hard to know where life will lead us after certain choices, but one thing is sure, this choice was the right one for me.
During the next 6 months, I was able to work with competent and very nice people. It was during this period that I started to work on NLP and Data Science problems. My supervisor, Marko Tkalcic, gave me a lot of freedom in choosing my projects and gave me access to some of the courses he was teaching at the university. This freedom allowed me to explore different things and understand the potential of data science. So, when I came back from that internship I decided to major in data science.
Canada 🍁
Yes, I know one more trip.
My engineering school has signed double degree partnerships with different universities around the world. This allows us to finish our French degree and get a second degree by doing only one year of studies at the host university.
And here I am today in a Master in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Québec at Chicoutimi (UQAC) for 1 year. As I write these lines, I’m coming to the end of my exchange, I have only 2 months left, it goes by so fast… Soon an adult…
Me as a person
Speaking of adults, I’ve told you about my academic and personal journey, but who am I really?
I’m fond of many things in life, starting with art 🎨
The photo below shows me confidently (no) posing near an Art Object sign at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
That’s what I meant by “Engineer in search of meaning and genuine beauty”. I find this meaning when I see the wonders of which Man is capable. This often involves visiting museums, cathedrals, or buildings with a soul and a history.
I also spend a lot of time reading 📖…
This year I challenged myself to read one book a week. I was frustrated with always telling myself that I didn’t have time to read when I was simply NOT making the time to do so. By setting this pace for myself and making this challenge public, I am trying to put all the odds in my favor to succeed!
On top of that, since I spend a lot of time on social media, like many people my age, my attention span has been drastically reduced. Reading regularly allows you to regain control of your attention, I recommend it!
As far as my reading is concerned, I try to cultivate myself by reading classic literature and I alternate with more recent books. You can follow my challenge on my website. I’m thinking about opening a second Medium account where I’ll publish the reviews of my readings. (I already do it on Instagram if you’re interested).
Besides that, I like dogs 🐾
I enjoy taking nice pictures of landscapes, artwork, buildings, and dogs. I attempt to capture the beauty of the moment ✨.
Speaking of beauty, here is one of my favorite pictures. This cute dog was enjoying the sun and I took advantage of his plenitude to take a picture of him 📸.
I lied 🙇♂️
I actually spend most of my time at the gym.
This is going to sound cliché (I discreetly slip in French words), but I live by the Latin adage “Mens sana in corpore sano”. I run, read, lift weights, and sometimes yes, I sit in front of my computer. These activities help me stay focused on my projects and my life!
Writing Journey
As you probably understood by reading this introduction, I write on this account mainly about Data Science and Computer Science.
When I started this activity a few months ago, I didn’t think I would spend so much time on it today. Both from a personal and professional point of view it is very rewarding.
Personally, I discovered and met many authors in my niche or outside it every day. By reading their article, I take the time to appreciate their work and the hours sometimes spent in front their keyboard.
Professionally, in my field which is computer science, our interlocutors are not always people who know about this field. It is therefore crucial to be able to popularize the information so that it is understandable by all.
Also, it allowed me to write articles on my personal projects, but also on topics that I would not have treated without being on Medium.
Wanna keep in touch ?
If you liked my personal story, if it resonated with you or simply if you have a question don’t hesitate to write me a comment, it’s always a pleasure to answer it 🤗.
If you are not interested in computer-related articles (which I can understand perfectly), since I haven’t created my second account for book reviews yet, I can invite you to follow me on the social network of your choice:
Thanks for reading 💚.
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