Subhashree Hazra
Featuring Subhashree Hazra for our Saturday Shoutout Initiative. Read on to hear her views on being a Pythonista, winning Hackathons including Smart India Hackathon thrice, and being a woman in tech.
What technical domain are you interested in and why?
Back in late 2017 while one day I was scrolling through my youtube feed where I watched how Google’s AlphaZero taught itself to play chess within four hours. Not only did AlphaZero play chess, but the novice learner also beat the champion chess program in its 2017 100-game matchup. It made a mark in my mind about how artificial intelligence will be an integral part of the digital transformation in the next coming decade. But, the stepping stone to this domain was Data Analytics on which I started working from the late second year of my college. Data -The fuel for artificial Intelligence. Though, a lot is being aided and written about AI platforms. However, I believe a lot more work is needed on data that fuels AI.
When did you first use python and how did you find it better than other programming languages?
The Zen of Python says that explicit is better than implicit, simple is better than complex, the complex is better than complicated, flat is better than nested, sparse is better than dense, readability counts! Concluding:
If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
And hence, I started sailing on the sea of data analytics and Machine Learning on the boat of Python
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- Do wonders writing less and meaningful code and procrastinate😜*
How has python helped you in different hackathons?
A general-purpose language used across different domains and the way it molds itself into different stacks, from any web application to underlying machine learning models.
Python indeed is a good choice for any hackathon. If you know Python really well, then you can build almost anything with it.
How would you compare your experience in your 1st hackathon to the most recent one you participated in?
Success, it feels overrated at times. The part I believe that’s more important should be the process and 100 failures behind it. Though my first hackathon, Smart India Hackathon Software Edition 2019 was a win, deep down I knew that I missed it as an individual. The success of the team, but a self failure. Realization and self-assessment are very important in life at each and every step. Thankfully, the next hack in the list was in a 4-month gap and I wanted to turn myself a 180 degree the next time. Learning is steady, mistakes are still there, but there is a sense of satisfaction, especially in the ones I have participated in and won it recently (example SIH 2020) because there’s some genuine contribution from my side and some great takeaways in the form of knowledge and experience. After all, it’s all about challenging yourself to perform a task out of your comfort zone.
What do you aspire to do in tech? Which women in tech do you look up to?
Aspiration is about deliberately bringing technology into your own life or the lives of others, and not just using it because it’s there. When you’re ‘passionate’ about something, you should share it with others and a difference in each other’s lives. That’s my aspiration.
I’ll be honest, I look up to people irrespective of gender because technology isn’t bound by it. Inspiration, I won’t say it’s just one person, moreover people I get to learn every day.
Tell us about one cool project that you made using python?
This is a tough one, okay, the one in making is the coolest one I can think of, because of the appreciation it has got from the pioneers of the community it belongs to. Last year, when Kaggle’s Quora Question Pair competition took over, I along with an ex-colleague, decided to use it in a different way, and solve certain challenges in the field of education, using deep learning and natural language processing.
Lately, last year I got selected as one of the Google Machine Learning Facilitators amongst 80 others across India, and by the end, got into the top 20 amongst them where I got a chance to show a glimpse of my project. It was highly appreciated by the panelist of Google ML experts.
What do you think is the main problem for the low participation of women in tech? How would you improve the participation or any suggestions are there for the same?
I would like to answer this on behalf of the ones I know in person and based on all of our experiences, the gender gap in tech is more due to the male dominance in numbers.
Even if a woman comes up with skills and ideas, there is a great chance, she would feel inferior in front of her male colleagues. This can be an underestimation to herself which might lead her to leave the field. It gets awkward to bond in an all-men team at times. Criticism, social barriers, ignorance, and lack of proper mentoring are the other major reasons. I was subjected to it for being called as a placeholder when it came to the mandatory female participant in SIH.
The support system, a strong ground to grow on, being nurtured by friends, community, workplace, etc. is very important for improvement in female participation. Women should have the option to pursue whatever she wants. It feels great that the perspective is changing, with so many women-in-tech communities around, we have more support systems than before.
What is your main “drive” that keeps you making progress?
Grow while others grow along with you.
I like to communicate. Communication brings collaboration which brings learning followed by experience. And ultimately, it’s all about giving away the learning and sharing the experience. If even 10% of it becomes helpful and brings a change in someone’s life or brings some betterment out there, I guess, that’s some progress being made. Life is beautiful when you try to support the people you are surrounded with.
While interviewing for PyLadies Chennai, I had all these thoughts in my mind, that if a small chunk of my story motivates someone out there, then I have done my job.
What advice would you give to yourself when you started out in college?
I came to college with a blank slate and an empty mind. The rest of the happenings, I would call it maybe an accident or destiny. All I wanted to experience was whatever life brings it to me. Mostly, putting myself out of my comfort zone and learning something. Let’s not be serious, it doesn’t always mean to learn something productive, you can plan how to bunk classes and night outs too….LOL XD. I became quite good at that too, lately.
What advice do you have for acing hackathons?
Hackathons, a fancy word to describe some hours dedicated to innovation and new ideas testing, are exciting. The rush to get a minimum viable product(MVP) working in the given time, creating a full-fledged product from scratch — is amazing and involves a lot of learning and fun. If you are looking to participate in a hackathon, I hope some of these might be useful for you!
- Dare to risk it: There’s always a first time, so nothing to be afraid of. Fake it till you make it.
- Team Play: form a team that will work together until the idea comes to fruition, facilitating interaction, and fostering creative collisions.
- Get an Idea: Research a lot. Let it be the ones organizing the hackathon, the problem statements, on the product idea you have, other technology-related stuff, even about the panel of judges too.
- Tech for the hack: It’s not necessary that you should be aware of everything that’s required. If time allows you to learn a new technology/language and use it for your MVP, and you feel that the language/framework would be more suited than others, go for it. Otherwise, it is probably best to stick to what you are most comfortable with when faced with a time constraint.
- The showdown: Hackathons require you to make a presentation/pitch to the judges. Do not underestimate the importance of having a good pitch. Having a good pitch is nearly as important as having a good MVP. Take care of the time limit for the presentation, make sure you are able to comfortably cover all points and demo in the allotted time, be sure to plan well.
