Charmi Chokshi — The Unstoppable Curious Mind

Hola! Guys.

We hope you might be waiting for us to release a new interview for 3 weeks now. But, this one is worth the wait. Trust us!

For today’s interview, we have with us our very favorite: Charmi Chokshi — an unstoppable curious mind.

Hiral met her for the first time at the WTM Ahmedabad meetup in 2019 and since then she has inspired her in every possible way. From giving talks in DevFest, MozFest London to becoming the youngest M.L GDE, she is one powerhouse.

Here’s a little about her and her awesomeness in her own words!

Playing with data and predicting possibilities based on it is my passion and passion has helped me marvel at it! From giving tech sessions at the local meetups to delivering tech-talks at global stages, I love to help developers & students who look forward to growing their careers in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

I have worked in the pipeline of the Smart-cities Mission of India in the Deep Learning and Computer Vision domain at the Indian Space Research Organisation. At present, being a Machine Learning Engineer, I am building the Next Generation Document Agent to automate the data entry and paperwork involved in global supply chains for gigabytes of structured and unstructured data​ at Shipmnts.com.

Most recently, I have been recognized as a Google Developers Expert in Machine Learning due to my community contributions and technical expertise in the field.

Awesome, right?

Let’s sneak a little peek of her journey, shall we?

As a child, I have always loved solving math quizzes (remember those come every day in the newspaper?) and reading science posts on how something got invented, how millions of people are using it, and how it is changing the world now! Words like technology, gadget, machine, invention have always been my favorites.

After majoring in science, to move forward in this journey, I joined a BTech course in Information and Communication Technology from Ahmedabad University.

Apart from attending traditional lectures, I did tons of projects starting from making my own electronic piano, Courier Management System, Smart Dustbin, Fit band, participating, and winning the Data Science hackathon.

I did a couple of internships in my summer breaks to actually step out of my college curriculum and to be a part of the real corporate world! Meanwhile, I got introduced to the field of Machine Learning and found it interesting and then couldn’t resist getting my hands dirty.

During my junior year in college, I got an opportunity to facilitate the first pilot of Google’s Machine Learning Crash Course in India and that’s exactly from where the passion of speaking, sharing knowledge, going to the community meetups, writing blogs, to delivering sessions at international stages and becoming one of the youngest GDEs in ML started.

That passion to make a dent in this world is what all of us are looking for. And here you are, full of that passion and purpose! We are so happy and proud to be sharing your story with everyone in the hopes that someone who loves solving intense math problems or loves problem-solving in general would get inspired.

Her inspirations!

A child inside me who wants an answer to every single question out there and a small group of like-minded people around me who would love to see me flying boosts up me every single day.

A curious mind is all it takes to be everything you ever wish to be.

Her vision!

To be happy and satisfied. Period! :P

To do the work I love (or to love the work I do) and excel in it. Furthermore, keep inspiring people around me to come out of their comfort zones and achieve their wildest dreams.

Who or what inspired her to start her journey!

I still remember myself dreaming about galaxies, doing home experiments with a magnet, magnifying glass, electric fan, lights, and whatnot. Working with colorful chemicals in the Chemistry lab at my school, watching TV shows like How it’s Made?, Ultimate Factories, Extreme Engineering, etc., and doing a postmortem of not only out-of-order electronic gadgets of my home but of neighbors’ too! :D

Apart from all of these, I would say, my school and the teachers who taught me heavy subjects like Maths and Science in a fun-loving way have played a huge role in making me a student of science and engineering.

The simple pleasures Charmi enjoys in her life:

Being on a stage, hearing those claps after my every single talk (I miss them a lot in the virtual meetups), getting some thank you notes for helping people in their career, doing craft-work, and of course eating cake, pasta, and lasagna baked by me! :P

Before we sign off, here’s her message to young girls/women trying to achieve their dreams against all odds:

“Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable”

There will be times when you feel like giving up on everything (I feel it, I do, every single day!) but remember Hard Work Pays Off, it may take longer than expected but the reward would be much larger than expected.

Never hesitate to ask for help, put your imposter syndrome aside and let the world know who you are and what you can achieve.

Our key takeaway:

Keep yourself on the toes, find answers, ask questions, never accept the things as they are, always challenge the status quo of everything around you, and be unstoppable! Invest in yourself and yourself, the best investment you’ll ever make. And always, always, push your boundaries, don’t be afraid to that step into the unknown.

That’s a wrap for this week! We will be back next week with another inspirational woman and her journey. Or maybe an inspirations man?👀

Till then let us know your key takeaways from Charmi’s journey in the comment section or tweet to us at @romaamarnani and @hiralthaker12

Writer’s note: This story is written in collaboration with Hiral Thaker.

If you want to share your story with the world, reach out to us at hiralthaker37@gmail.com or romaamarnani@gmail.com! We would love to learn about your story and help you inspire others.

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