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Get to know your Data Science & Machine Learning Instructor

Xccelerate HK
July 28, 2021

Here's what it takes to be a Data Science instructor - Satyajit Pattnaik

“I love being an educator and being part of a community that is passionate about what they are doing and learning.” - Satyajit Pattnaik - Head of Data Science

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Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I have over 10 years of experience working in Data Science and analytics across different industry verticals - including telecommunications, cybersecurity, insurance, e-commerce and financial services. In that time I have been privileged to attend several international conferences as either a keynote speaker or as a discussion panelist. This experience has helped to build my passion for community and sharing and thus I have developed around 20 ‘data’ communities with members from around the world that communicate and support each other over different mediums including WhatsApp, Telegram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

From the experience building communities, I discovered my passion for teaching and building knowledge in others. So I developed my own YouTube channel with 11,000+ subscribers dedicated to topics related to the data science niches that I am most interested in. From here I developed a relationship with many EdTech companies from around the world and participated as a part-time Data Science instructor across platforms such as UpGrad, Great Lakes, Edureka, SkillAnalytica, BeingDatum and iNeuron.

Why us? Why do you choose to work at Xccelerate?

Well, both my parents are teachers, and teaching is something that is in my blood. I have a real passion for educating people. In the past, I have worked part-time in my spare time to pursue this passion. Xccelerate has given me the opportunity to really dedicate myself to this passion. It also helped that after my first discussion with Lavine, where he laid out the vision he has for the company, I loved it and knew I had to be part of the Xccelerate journey.

What excites you the most about your job?

I love being an educator and being part of a community that is passionate about what they are doing and learning. Add to that, I love working in Machine Learning and AI and I see so much potential for the application of both to an EdTech environment like Xccelerate. At Xccelerate I see the opportunity to merge my passion for teaching and Data Science into something very valuable for our student community and for the company as it expands and needs to adopt newer technology into our work practices.

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Take us through what a student can expect if they were to experience Data Science & Machine Learning bootcamp

It is really simple, and something that differentiates us from the on-line learning and self-study platforms out there. Students that undertake the Full Time Data Science Bootcamp will learn how to apply the knowledge they gain to real-world situations.

Often students will undertake learning journeys that don't teach them how to converge the topics taught with real-world unstructured problems. With purely instructor-led programs and courses, students learn the syntax but don't get to explore the problem definition to understand the why and what they are building in the course. A critical element to success in the real world is understanding the business need and exploring and defining the problem statement that we are trying to solve. At Xccelerate we make this a fundamental part of the learning journey.

In the Full-time Data Science program, students will not only get to understand various concepts of Data Science and Analytics, they will also come to understand what the next steps are in applying this knowledge to a real-world situation.

Four key elements are important to achieving this:

  • Problem Statement Understanding: People should know what business problem they are solving and why.
  • Data Exploration: What the data is telling you
  • Model Building: Preparing Predictive models
  • Model Deployment: Productionizing the model
  • The combination of these, coupled with industry project partnership experience, makes an Xccelerate graduate stand out from the crowd.


    Read Also: 2021 Career Guide: Data Science & Machine Learning in Hong Kong


    Who or what inspires you the most in your life’s journey?

    Various people have made different impacts, and it would be unfair to name one person alone. These include:

    • Parents who helped me inherit their traits, including my passion for teaching.
    • My wife, who was supportive in all that I do, and had a major impact on my journey because it all started after my marriage.
    • Various mentors, authors, teachers who provided guidance in different areas of my life.
    • Other influencers on social media including Linkedin, youtube who share their passion and provide answers and guidance, and their personal time in putting it all together.

    To all of the amazing people above, I am truly indebted, Thank You!


    What's it like to be a Data Science student at our Bootcamp

    Alex didn't see himself working at his previous job industry for long term and decided to take a chance on learning Data Science. Learn more about his journey with Xccelerate - read his story!


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