Jia Xuan Koh
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Summary
Data Scientist with experience in computer vision, anomaly detection, text analytics for private companies. Previously was a Data Engineer building data pipelines for government agencies. Successfully transitioned from Chemical Engineering field into Data with a government supported training program, and knew way too little knowledge of programming/data after graduation so it was luck + hard work... Funnily, still actively applying domain knowledge of chem engineering at work, cant run away from my destiny I guess!
P.S. Not sure what Im doing sometimes, back then I was very lost in finding a right career but I guess things worked out for me? Hope it does for you too, let me know if you have any questions via messages here or LinkedIn!
[Update: Apologies in advance for slow/no reply, I try my best but Ive been busy with masters lately + received multiple requests for ML0004, if there are any burning questions I can answer via text]
Featured Skills
Work Experience
Data Scientist Jun 2020 - Present
Yokogawa Singapore
Data Engineer Oct 2018 - Apr 2020
DXC Technology Singapore
SAS BIA Program Oct 2018 - Jan 2019
SAS BIA Program Singapore4 month training program by IMDA to learn about SAS software, with 6 months of attachment
Education
OMSCS (Computer Science) Aug 2023 - Present
Georgia Tech United StatesPart time online masters
chemical engineering (Chemical Engineering) Aug 2014 - Aug 2018
Nanyang Technological University SingaporeOther Skills
Q&A with Jia Xuan Koh
What was the most significant event that made you the way you are now?
Firstly, I searched for NTU emails in desperation to join the data industry, and voila there was this government training program. Secondly, the HR wanted to schedule an interview with me but didnt tell me that there was a deadline for the intake, so feeling strange there was no updates, I decided to call back the HR one of the days to check. To my horror, that day was the last day of accepting new candidates and I didnt have a job yet. I pleaded for an interview and took a cab down to interview, the rest is absolute history.
Sometimes you just need a lucky break to make it in life... believe in yourself and your abilities, and keep trying
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- Posted 3 years ago
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What do you do to keep up with the current issues and trends in your field?
I dont. Just kidding, typically I read papers and articles from Google Search related to my problem at work, usually it gives me a lot of inspiration! But I dont specifically try to hard to catch up on every domain as it is too time consuming..
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- Posted 3 years ago
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If you were a college student again, what would you do differently to prepare you for your field?
1. Study basics of Python data processing libraries (numpy, pandas, matplotlib, seaborn)
2. Take a basic computer science + basic machine learning course in university
3. Study more machine learning theory via online courses and hack your way with some personal projects to understand how to process data properly and train/test the models.
4. Apply as hard as possible to any data internships. Real world experience allows you to learn more than personal projects
5. Apply for data science competitions in school and beyond (e.g. Kaggle), and hackathons. If possible, expand knowledge to beyond data and also know some software development
6. Cry after graduation as you realize how hard the interviews are and intense the competition is. Keep trying till you make it, just get one leg inside this data industry! Doesnt matter whether it is Data Scientist, Analyst, Engineer, Software Dev, Business Analyst etc. It helps so much to be learning IN THE JOB
7. If you find yourself hating Steps 1-6, then perhaps this industry isnt for you because the learning never ends! (either you feel excited or horrified at this)
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- Posted 3 years ago
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What achievements in your career are you most proud of?
Developing an end to end computer vision application myself from nothingness with the algorithm (deep learning + traditional CV), user friendly web app, API, user login and data storage without any prior experience in CV/web development, lots of trial and error :)
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- Posted 3 years ago
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Is there something you wish you'd known starting out in your field? Or is there something you wish you had done differently starting out?
Study Python and do lots of data internship, competition is intense
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- Posted 3 years ago
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What achievements in your career are you most proud of?
Surviving in this field and being able to create impact with algorithms, applications and machine learning models
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- Posted 3 years ago
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What is the biggest challenge that you face in this field?
It can be difficult to get into the data industry as an engineer or with little technical experience. The key is to study the essentials and get any role in the data industry first. As one specializes into specific fields of data, focus on accumulating more skills in that direction and keep on applying for better opportunities and practicing for interviews!
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- Posted 3 years ago
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What are the tools or technology that you enjoy using for your work?
I use mainly Python, open source libraries and Excel for my work now. Anything goes as long as the data science problem is solved!
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- Posted 3 years ago
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What is your personal goal in your profession?
