Cohort 7 Student Spotlight: Meet Chong
Chong Geng spent time studying in China, Australia, and the UK before deciding to pursue an MS in Data Science. Continue reading to learn more about his journey from the oil industry!
Tell us about your background
My background is in geoscience. My undergraduate degree was in Petroleum Engineering, and I completed my PhD in Applied Geophysics in the UK. My PhD project was about utilizing data driven proxy models to optimize oil field management. I learned and used regression models and neural networks, and realized that machine learning was something that I wanted to pursue.
What led you to SF?
After I made a decision that I wanted to pursue an MS in Data Science, I was considering which city and which country I could get working experience in as well, not only study. I found it very hard to find a job as a foreign student from a non-EU country. This program has a great reputation and the practicum is such a big selling point because you come out with a year of experience essentially. San Francisco itself is also great; there are so many tech-driven people and companies. At Meetups you get to talk to these inspiring people who are all trying to do something innovative.
What do you like about the MSDS Program?
My favorite part of the program is the balance. I like that we don’t just focus on the statistics or programming or math or the business side; there is a lot of overlap. Based on the integration of multi-sided knowledge, students can easily keep the big picture of data science in mind and gather end-to-end understanding.
How do you want to use Data Science?
There is so much you can do with Data Science. I’m really interested in recommendation systems. I think this is a mature technique which has been used mainly in the Internet industry. Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are all using recommenders. However, I think this technique can be adopted and applied in more fields, such as education and healthcare. In those domains, personally tailored content is essential, but currently they are implemented manually. I hope to contribute to automate these workflows by applying data science techniques I’m learning from this program.
Do you have any hobbies?
I like cooking and inviting people to my flat to share a meal. I also like cycling. I used to cycle, but not in San Francisco, because there are so many hills.
