Poojith is the first student to complete this innovative new data science degree based in the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems on the Magee campus.
Hailing from Tirupathi in South Eastern India, Poojith made the move to Derry/Londonderry to follow his passion for data science. As an applied research course, Poojith came to Ulster with an idea to create an eCommerce web application more suitable for small or mid-level shops.
Poojith enjoyed his time at Magee, making new friends and learning new skills,
“I had an excellent experience at Ulster. Both the university and the local community are very supportive of international students. On my first few days I didn’t know anything about this new culture and society but I was made to feel at home straight away. The faculty are friendly and always very supportive which really increased my confidence in my ability. I want to mention Dr Jim Harkin and Dr Shirin Dora for their support, encouragement and patience. They were always there to listen to my ideas and provide feedback.”
Coping with the pandemic whilst being so far from home was difficult, but with the support of his family and friends in India and Derry he was able to complete his Master’s degree,
“I would like to thank my friends and family who supported me throughout my studies, especially my parents who always believed that I could achieve my goals. Last month my dad sadly passed away due to Covid 19. My mom, Pummy and my best friend Murali have supported me a lot during this hard time.”
For his applied research project Poojith developed a web application (Intelligent Total Energy Management in Dairying) end to end by using asp.net MVC, Razor page's and SQL Server, agile methodology and applied machine learning algorithms on the datasets.
After graduation Poojith will be staying in Northern Ireland having secured a full-stack developer role with the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).
“I’m really excited to start my new job at AFBI. In the interview, I gave a demo about my final year project, explained the core functionality and how it would be helpful in the real world. For me, that’s what data science is all about, taking research and thinking about how we can apply it in real world settings. I would thoroughly recommend this course to prospective students seeking to make a difference through research.”