“I am 40. I’m married and I have a 6-year-old son. I have been working as an IT manager and computer teacher for about 15 years. I studied pure maths and computer software engineering.”
I was born and raised in Iran, and as you may know, Iran is an Islamic country, and academies for boys and girls are separated based on gender from primary school. I have been working as a computer science teacher in girls’ schools. My passion has always been to improve girls’ ability to work with computers and know about the latest information technology trends to be more powerful and effective in society. I often searched for the newest programs for teaching computer science. I was a pioneer in my country to participate in global computer science events with my female students from primary and high school.
Also, I have always been passionately improving my knowledge, and one of the most exciting trends in my field is Data Science, Machine learning, and Artificial intelligence. I am a big fan of science-fiction movies and have curiosity and imagination about future technologies, particularly data trends.
I found how crucial data is, especially during Covid Pandemic. How we collect data, how we store data, and how we use data is one of the key factors in recent years! We can improve our quality of life by using data in many fields, in business, medicine, making vaccines, etc. Even by using data, we can predict our future which makes us capable of having better plans to increase people’s quality of life!
The UK universities are always some of the best in the world. After searching for Data Science courses in the UK, I found an effective bursary in some UK universities dedicated to women. It could help me as an international student to reach my dream!
That was so hard to relocate to the UK during the Covid pandemic, but I was very determined, and my family supported me and accompanied me.
Relocating and learning about the new country’s bureaucracy and culture were my first challenges. But I had great support from UWE, and teaching time table starting with block-zero was a brilliant decision. There I could know tutors, modules, and especially my classmates!
I was confused about assignments and the exams in the first semester, but the teaching teams were supportive!
My favourite module was the Interdisciplinary Group Project, in which we worked on real projects in a team, learning and practising team working skills using Agile methodology. That included practising our learned skills in other modules such as python, statistics, business intelligence, visualisation, machine learning, and even how to present our findings for stakeholders.
Currently, I am in the final part of my dissertation, and I am happy to say that I love data science! I follow with enthusiasm the latest articles, findings, and approaches.
My dissertation subject is around predicting inventory demand in supply chain purchases using machine learning. It is a real-world project for an ERP company in my home country, Iran. The pilot store is an online and in-store book shop, and the data collected is for more than three years.
After graduation, I would like to be a leader, especially for women passionate about new technologies in computer science fields. I am so passionate about continuing my education to a PhD in data science and doing some research, especially in the field of mental health (as our project in the IGP module), medicine and psychology, and general health!
If you are a woman who is passionate about working with data and want to play a significant role in the future world, do not hesitate and try your chance to win the scholarship and enjoy your fantastic journey in the MSc Data Science at UWE!