Why we started Big Data at Berkeley
By Melissa Wong and Smruthi Balajee
What even is data science?
Buzzwords like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data analytics are tossed around in nearly every LinkedIn profile, job application, and set of ‘Skills’ on one’s resume. Yet, when asked what data science is, the same students who boast their “passion for artificial intelligence and machine learning” would likely answer,
“Uhh I don’t know… something related to computer science? The study of graphs??”
Our Data Science Journey
As brand new high school graduates, we were no different. We were both accepted into UC Berkeley’s College of Letters and Sciences, meaning we had the opportunity to pursue any major that the college offered. Knowing nothing about data science at the time, we both decided to select the Computer Science major. After all, we wanted to go into the field of technology and thought that CS was our only viable option.
Little did we know that in the fall of 2018, the data science major at UC Berkeley was approved in response to “intense student, faculty, and industry demand for graduates equipped to propel knowledge to action in a world transformed by the digitization of everything.” There were options out there that we hadn’t known about until entering college!
UC Berkeley’s introductory course, Data 8: An Introduction to Data Science, changed everything. Over one semester we learned everything from rigorous statistical concepts to programming fundamentals.
Most importantly, we learned how to combine tools from both statistics and computer science to effectively think like data scientists. In just a couple of months, we discovered a passion for the field of data science and realized that we wanted more opportunities to apply what we learned in class to real-world industry projects. After Data 8, it was hard not to wonder about the head start we could have gotten in planning our careers, had we known about this rich and interdisciplinary subject before entering college. The sheer lack of data science specific education programs in high schools was shocking to us. After realizing that no other student organizations on the UC Berkeley campus targeted both our goals of high school education and college consulting, we decided to take the leap of faith and create a new club.
In January of 2019, we launched Big Data at Berkeley, UC Berkeley’s premiere data science organization. Our organization is dedicated to helping our community by offering educational workshops to local high schoolers and consulting services to local startups. Our 8-week bootcamp teaches high schoolers fundamental data science skills through hands-on assignments and lessons, while our consulting projects offer startups or local companies low-cost data consulting to discover key insights about their operations.
Our Education Committee
Run by our VP of Education, Danyal Shahroz
Part of the goal of Big Data at Berkeley was to expose young students to the fundamentals of data science, so that they have the knowledge and background to consider it as a viable and exciting career option. With data science becoming such a popular major at UC Berkeley and colleges around the world, students need to be educated at an earlier age. This is why we worked with experienced education and data science majors to create a curriculum — derived from the college-level Data 8 course — that relays advanced concepts in novel ways. By making our lessons interdisciplinary, engaging, and informative, we hope to equip young students with the tools they will need to think like data scientists!
There are thousands of nationwide organizations that place an emphasis on educating children about computer science, however there are little-to-none that teach them the basics of data science. We aim to bring Bay Area students together to learn the fundamentals of data science, giving them a headstart in this data-driven world. With our Big Data Bootcamp, we created the data science program that we wished we had access to in high school.
After our first very successful Fall 2019 Big Data Bootcamp — with over one hundred applicants for only twenty spots — we quickly realized that there is a lot of demand for our course. This is extremely exciting, as it proved to us that high school students are very eager to learn about data science. We have already expanded our resources and staff to accommodate more interested students by opening up two extra sessions for the Spring 2020 semester. Our education committee is currently hard at work preparing for our spring bootcamp by honing our curriculum and developing new interactive activities for the students.
Our Projects Committee
Run by our VP of Consulting, Aurum Kathuria
Big Data at Berkeley’s consulting division is dedicated to providing startup leaders with advanced analytics and machine learning models to guide critical decisions and accelerate growth. Our consultants use and analyze data to find trends and build models that help businesses make better business decisions, as they provide real-time insights on consumers’ changing behaviors and suggested actions. For the Fall 2019 semester, our projects team worked with the incentive management company Perkville to analyze the impact of their incentive programs on customer referrals and help their clients better understand the factors that affect customer churn. We also worked with Aumni, a legal firm, to analyze various startup funding rounds and identify interesting trends across VC funds and rounds. Next semester, our project committee is excited to continue intensive and engaging technical work on data analytics projects, both old and new!
The Future of Big Data at Berkeley
Creating this club was a long shot. We didn’t know if we would attract applicants to our bootcamp or club, or if we could find a team as passionate about our mission as we were. These potential obstacles only strengthened our resolve to make Big Data at Berkeley a successful and impactful organization. Through hard work and a lot of trial and error, we are gradually growing into our role as Co-Presidents of an up-and-coming tech consulting and education outreach organization. We are so excited to see what the future holds for Big Data at Berkeley and the lasting effect our club will have on both our community and the new, evolving field of data science.
Here’s to inspiring the next generation of data scientists!
