A Personal Statement

By Kaustuv Majumder

“War is ninety percent information” – Napoleon Bonaparte.

This statement alone depicts the importance of interpreting data in order to
have the competitive edge. This need has transcended to every sphere of
modern society and is now affecting the daily lives of the people. The way in
which Amazon recommends products, Facebook pushes customized
advertisements or Tesla operates self-driven cars draws my attention and
enthusiasm. I am amazed by what today's large volume of data and modern
technology could achieve, helping individual or organization to make
wise decisions, and improving and optimizing the existing process in an
unprecedented way.

Truth be told, aside from the applications referenced above, information driven
investigation has been generally utilized in Marketing, Sales, Human
Resources, Travel, Delivery Coordinations, Risk Management, Healthcare,
Government arrangement and each conceivable industry where information
gets produced. Even the latest image of the black hole was generated by
processing a staggering amount of data collected from different telescopes. As
one might imagine, the use of data science will become more ubiquitous in the
near future. I feel excited about the wide application of data science nowadays
and want to learn how industries are shifting to a more data-driven approach to
address their problems.

Over the past few months I have dedicated a considerable amount of time to
understand the skills and qualities required to be a successful data scientist
and whether I can be a fit to that bucket. Being an Electrical Engineer, I have
an in-depth understanding of mathematics (that includes calculus, algebra,
and geometry to name a few). In fact, almost fifty percent of the course work
was mathematics and its application in analyzing various electrical systems. I
started my professional career in the software industry as a developer and was
fortunate enough to work on a wide range of projects across various
geographical areas. In the span of four years, I have grasped in-depth
knowledge of various computer languages and concepts like Java, relational
database system, data structures, algorithms and their application in building
enterprise level solutions. I truly believe that this blend of my academics and
industrial experience makes me a potent candidate to pursue a Master’s
degree in Data Science.

My professional tenure has truly been the most enriching one. Currently, I am
working at Nomura Research Institute and handling the company’s own
product ISTAR-GV which is a back office solution for brokerage firms. This is
an amazing application that handles very large transaction data during normal
trading hours. Being a member of the development team, I got the opportunity
to work on the data model and the strategies that are being developed to cope
up with the increasing data. My tenure with this organization has really helped
to understand the complexities of present day’s data management.My
previous employment was with Accenture Solutions as a software
developer. Even with this organization, I have completed two important and
fulfilling projects. The first one was about developing a settlement platform for
an US-based investment bank to process the over-the-counter derivative
trades. My tenure in this project gave me the first exposure to financial
technologies and how the banking and financial sector is adopting a more
data-driven model of business.

The next project was with the same organization and was about developing
credit risk engine for a Swiss investment bank. I was responsible to develop
the ETL tool to support their data warehouse and handle all incoming traffics
from the front office. The project was truly of massive scale and was
manipulating about ninety terabytes of data every day to generate statistical
reports.

For my professional accomplishments, commitment to work and performance

at the client location, I was recognized with the Accenture Ace Award. I was
also bestowed with Accenture Omniscient Award for my all round
performance.

I am looking forward to this Master’s program not only to dig deep into the
world of data science, but also to complement my acquired
experience and skills to contribute significantly to the industry. The opportunity
to learn from the great minds of this institution and to be able to share ideas
with the fellow students are acting as a catalyst to my decision. I am
acquainted with some of the notable works that are being carried out on
machine learning, data warehousing and statistical science within this
institution and I truly want to be a proud part of this legacy.

The UK has always led the world in the field of science and technology which
has attracted best minds from across the globe for centuries. This rich heritage,
openness in the society, high human development index and its constructive
role in international affairs make it the best destination for me to pursue higher
education.

I want to study Advanced Computer Science (Data Analytics) MSc from

University of Leeds. In this course I’ll gain knowledge in topics like systems
programming and algorithms, as well as machine learning and knowledge
representation. I’ll also gain knowledge on topics like image analysis or text
analytics, or cloud computing. Studying in University of Leeds, I’ll benefit from
world-class facilities to support my learning. State-of-the-art visual labs
including a powerwall, WorldViz PPT optical tracking system etc are all among
the specialist state-of-art facilities that University of Leeds have within the
School of Computing. In this course I’ll learn modules such as Machine
Learning, Big Data Systems, Data Science and also do one Project.

After completing the course, I wish to work on using machine learning and
statistical analytics on the data generated due to financial transactions and
develop a more comprehensive and predictive business model that will help
the banking and financial institutions to hedge the market risks and achieve a
more sustainable growth.
I think geographical, political and ethnic differences should not restrict a
person from achieving big. In this world of globalization, I wish to channelize
my passion and knowledge to bring about a substantial impact on society as a
whole.