My DSN Impact Story
by Marvellous Alabi
When I first heard about Data Science Nigeria at school the first quarter of the year, I was like “…well I’m free this weekend, let me check what this DSN meetup of a thing is all about.” And behold the meetup was enlightening, I got interested in Machine Learning in about a week’s time and kept following up with the meet-ups. One of the host of DSN AI+ FUTA, Lawrence Okegbemi, got me hooked with his knowledge in the field of Data Science, he would come up and share with us the visions and the achievements of DSN and the goals or rather plans for those who are interested in ML or Data Science, skills to target and acquire and what to focus on.
DSN communities and their programs are just wonderful, thanks to the help of these programs, workshops, hands-on sessions and tutorials I’ve found myself in this journey of Data Science. My journey into Machine Learning (ML); Introduction to Python and its libraries, Anaconda distribution, getting used to platforms like Kaggle, Zindi.africa and many others are some of the skills I acquired from DSN programmes.
Also during the preparation for the DSN 2020 Bootcamp, the 70 Days teaching was an eye opener, likewise the two pre-bootcamp competitions as well. I got in as an attendee of the bootcamp and the knowledge gained was just too much. Special thanks to Dr. Bayo Adekanmbi and his team for the opportunities they provided us with during the bootcamp. Imagine the live sessions with icons in the field of data, Kirk Borne, Prof. Thomas Diettrich, Eric Sodomka, Dr. Uyi Stewart and many others.
DSN has impacted me with many skills, resources, even things like rational thinking and accountability and also awarded me a certificate of attendance at the just concluded 2020 AI Bootcamp. I sincerely appreciate DSN for everything they’ve done for me and what they still plan on doing for the youths out there, thank you DSN.. My advice to myself and others is for us to go out there and make DSN proud, let us make Nigeria and Africa proud in the field of Data Science.
