{"id":31235,"date":"2020-12-23T07:11:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T12:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/?p=31235"},"modified":"2024-03-06T16:30:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T21:30:54","slug":"machine-learning-my-journey-to-the-predictive-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/machine-learning-my-journey-to-the-predictive-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Machine Learning: My Journey to the Predictive World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Centric India\u2019s Ruchika Gupta shares her journey from Netflix fan wondering about her recommendations list to competitive machine learning (ML) team member.<\/h2>\n
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Hello, and welcome to my machine learning<\/a> (ML) journey. In this blog post, I will walk you through my process of becoming part of a team of ML enthusiasts competing at Centric Consulting\u2019s 2020 Expedition: Data<\/a> event.<\/p>\n

By sharing how I started, the effort my team and I put into learning ML, and the challenges we faced along the way, I hope to inspire you to take the first steps toward starting your own ML journey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A software engineer by education, I currently work as a data integration (DI) tester for Centric India<\/a>. Previously, I was a mainframe developer. My recent interest in the new and emerging field of ML comes from my firm belief that you deserve a career and a life you love and enjoy \u2014 and I love and enjoy ML.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why Machine Learning?<\/h2>\n

I have always been fascinated by technology\u2019s extensive growth and possibilities. It has allowed us to travel from a belief that \u201cNo one knows tomorrow\u201d to \u201cYes, we can predict tomorrow,\u201d because, in some ways, we can almost predict the future.<\/p>\n

Predictive analytics have found widespread applications in things we take for granted every day, such as weather forecasting, growth prediction of stocks, financial modeling and sales forecasting. But what sparked my interest is something even more familiar: Netflix. I became fascinated by ML because I wanted to know more about how Netflix determined which movies to recommend to me.<\/p>\n

Introduction to Machine Learning<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s begin by breaking down what machine learning is and how it will shape tomorrow.<\/p>\n

ML is the most popular technique for classifying information to help people make decisions. ML algorithms train over instances, or examples, through which the cases learn from past experiences and analyze historical data.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Without explicit programming, machine learning technology uses learning algorithms to organize enormous amounts of data into information and services based on certain instructions and rules. Unlike traditional programming, ML programs \u2013 not people — create the rules by learning algorithms. But, as my Centric India colleague Amanpreet Singh has noted, ML cannot work without a lot of human thought first.<\/p>\n

Where Did My Journey Begin?<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe starting point of all achievement is desire.\u201d \u2014 Napoleon Hill<\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes the best way to start something new is to, well, start.<\/p>\n

In January 2019, my peers and I engaged in various learning initiatives as part of a Center of Excellence (COE) program. During one of the team meetings, the group leaders asked for volunteers to learn ML and become Microsoft ML certified.<\/p>\n

I, along with my colleagues Seema Bansal and Mehani Hakim, raised our hands. In no time, we received approval and sealed our fate for the next six-to-eight months. This is how I joined two wonderful learning partners, and we became a team of three musketeers.<\/p>\n

While signing up for the initiative was easy, moving forward required a lot of dedication, focused efforts and time. It was particularly challenging for us because of our existing personal and professional commitments.<\/p>\n

We started by enrolling ourselves in the EDX Data Science Machine Learning course, recommended by one of our colleagues.<\/strong> The course contains 11 modules, and as a part of our training, we explored topics such as Azure Machine Learning Studio, Power BI reporting, various research methods, and mathematical formulae and algorithms.<\/p>\n

One by one, we completed all the modules, took our exams and earned our certificates. These were the stepping-stone towards the final Microsoft certification in ML, which required us to complete a small project.<\/p>\n

Many times, my morale slipped because of my other priorities. But with motivation from each other and some collaborative efforts, the three of us succeeded, earning our certifications by September 2019. Our efforts yielded the desired result, and we were thrilled and proud.<\/p>\n

Time for Some Hands-On Experience<\/h3>\n

We developed a thorough understanding of the relevant concepts, and now it was time for us to work on a live project. However, we didn\u2019t have any available projects, and it seemed like we would have to wait for some time before anything developed for our ML work. And after only a month, we realized none of us wanted to lose touch with ML, so we decided to practice coding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best platform we came across for coding was Kaggle. We picked up a couple of problem cases and tried to code ourselves using Python in Jupyter Notebook. This work helped us gain a practical understanding of various ML concepts we had studied in our certification courses.<\/p>\n

The Journey to Expedition: Data<\/h2>\n

The start of 2020 presented an exciting opportunity for machine learning that we knew would make our journey even richer with new learning and adventure.<\/p>\n

The opportunity was an internal event called Expedition: Data, taking place in the U.S. at our annual spring meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. As soon as we learned about it at one of our COE sessions, our hearts skipped a beat. Expedition: Data incorporates different challenges related to data visualization and ML. This would be our chance to shine, so Seema, Mehani and I signed up. Later two other members, Shiv Mohan and Akshat Kulshrestha, joined our team. Each member brought a different skill set:<\/strong><\/p>\n