My Hamoye Journey
The 2020 Hamoye internship came at a perfect time in my Data Science journey. I was already quite familiar with the Python programming language, was fairly proficient with Numpy & Pandas, and was just about dipping a toe into the ocean that is Machine Learning. It felt as if the program was designed specifically to take me through the next stage of my aforementioned journey.
The format of the program is quite brilliant, cramming a topic/concept into a couple of weeks. This brought about some intense learning sessions and accelerated the pace at which one would ordinarily learn such concepts. Having the quizzes at the end of each stage, where we worked on mini-projects really cemented the knowledge gained.
The hardest part of the internship was combining it with work and other engagements, as I’m sure was also the case for quite a number of interns. Having such limited time to dedicate to the internship didn’t allow me to enjoy and participate in the internship as much as I wanted to. I would have really loved to be active on the Slack channel, engaging with other interns, exchanging ideas, and helping those who faced roadblocks (this would have helped to cement the things I know even further and also help me learn more as I would definitely come across things I don’t know). Anyways, we move!
I could really only do the bare minimum through the stages; read the lesson notes provided on the Hamoye platform, check other resources to expand and solidify the knowledge gained, then, take the quizzes. I missed quite a number of announcements on the Slack channel, had one or two troubles with the quizzes (e.g. my Stage E quiz being automatically submitted when I was just half-way done, not typing one of the answers in the exact way the platform wanted during the Stage A quiz, an update to the XGBoost library causing me to get a different answer to what was expected, etc.) and failed to register for Stage F.
My biggest regret is my failure to participate in the first 2 Open Source Projects (Stage E and Stage F), this resulted in me drastically dropping down the Leaderboard rankings (to be honest, I had one eye on the Leaderboard, it served as a bit of extra motivation). Looking back, whatever reasons I gave myself for not participating in these OSPs now feel like just mere excuses. I should have just powered through and done what was required. I would like to use this medium to apologize to my Stage E Open Source Project group members (topic: Heart Failure) for my inactivity. I wasn’t automatically added to any group for Stage F and only realized a while later that I had to register due to my inactivity in Stage E’s OSP. Due to other events in my personal life, I just waved it off, thinking I had two more Stages to make up for it, only to be shocked by Hamoye saying that Stage G was the final one. Again, we move!
The Stage G OSP was a nice experience, seeing other people bring in brilliant ideas and execution to the project was both thrilling and humbling (special shout out to all my group members). Our biggest constraint, as usual, was the time we could dedicate, as most members had other engagements (hustle no easy 😭). We were able to put something together that I hope would impress anyone who sees our presentation.
I would like to thank Hamoye for this opportunity to learn so much and interact with brilliant minds. Programs like this add a lot of value to our society, so I believe Hamoye should be extremely proud of what they’ve done. The idea and execution of the internship were top-notch. Once again, THANK YOU HAMOYE!!!
