Celebrating A Year With Hamoye

Conversation With Zalihat Mohammed

Time really does speed by. It’s one year since our first set of recruits at Hamoye AI Labs first crossed paths with us. They all were participants in the 2020 Hamoye Data Science Internship program that started last July. The past year has been quite an exciting journey with them and to celebrate their anniversary, we decided to book them a tour around Memory Lane, come with us.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I am Mohammed Zalihat Oyarazi, the Lead Data Scientist at Hamoye AI labs. I am passionate about technology and building cutting-edge machine learning solutions and products.

Has Hamoye been impactful in defining who you are right now?

Yes

In what way(s)?

My communication, leadership, and coding skills have been greatly improved.

How has it been working at Hamoye AI labs?

The experience has been awesome, although it has been a little bit challenging.

Describe the past year in a word.

Fun

What do you do at Hamoye AI labs?

I lead the data science team at Hamoye AI labs.

What is your favourite aspect of working at Hamoye AI Labs?

The flexibility that comes with working from home.

You have interacted with almost all the divisions in Hamoye, how do you think your role translates into fulfilling Hamoye’s mission?

Great. My teammates are eager to work and are very fun to be around.

You have interacted with almost all the divisions in Hamoye, how do you think your role translates into fulfilling Hamoye’s mission?

One of the missions of Hamoye AI labs is to build world-class data scientists, and one of my job descriptions is to mentor our interns, help them resolve blockers, and also organise code review sessions for them.

What quality would you say made you employable at Hamoye AI labs?

I really don’t know what the quality was, to be honest. I guess it was the zeal to learn.

What improvements or growths have you made since you joined the team?

Time management, because I have to meet deadlines and it is especially difficult to manage time when you work remotely. My interpersonal skill too is better than it was, I can now communicate and interact with people efficiently.

Would you still have chosen Hamoye internships if you could go back in time?

Yes, I would.

How would you describe your time as an Hamoye intern, would you say you were adequately prepared to be a data scientist?

The internship was well structured and I learnt a lot of new concepts, most of those concepts and tools I use daily to solve real-world problems and projects at the AI labs.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Well, I’m really excited by this position at Hamoye AI labs because, in five years, I’d like to be seen as someone with deep expertise in machine learning, and I know that’s something that I’ll have an opportunity to do here.

A word of advice to upcoming data scientists?

Never stop learning.