Physics teacher conquers Big Data in Scotland

Thanks to the opportunities and problems that Big Data is capable of solving and creating, there are a lot of talk and assumptions around this area. But in one, all the sources agree: a specialist in big data is the profession of the future. Lisa, a student at the University of the West of Scotland , a Scottish university , shared her story: how she came to this area, what she studies as part of her Master's program and what is interesting about studying in Scotland.

- Lisa, how did you start your journey to a Scottish university and why did you choose this particular faculty?

- Having graduated from a Moscow university in physics and having worked for a year as a teacher in an ordinary Russian school, I decided that my knowledge and experience I have received so far is not enough for life. Moreover, I was always worried about the fact that I did not study everything and there are many areas in which I am completely zero. An area that has always attracted me with its complexity and “incomprehensibility” was programming.

During the year of teaching at school, in my spare time, I began to slowly master the Python programming language, and also began to get involved in artificial intelligence, big data and deep learning. How to make the robot think and perform the simplest tasks - isn't it fun? It seemed to me then that a new technological era was about to come on our heels, but (here is a spoiler!) In fact, no.

Studying abroad is a dream since high school. At the Moscow State University at the Faculty of Physics, it was rather difficult to go abroad for an exchange of at least three terms, or even impossible. For 4 years of study there, I have not heard of such cases. Learning a language is also a dream. As you can see, I am quite a dreamy person. Therefore, of all countries, I brushed off those in which English is not native, but rather left only the UK, the States and Canada.

Searching for information on the Internet and an awareness of the subsequent difficulty in obtaining a US visa, the cost of master's programs led me into a kind of delusion (and it seemed to me that it was quite difficult to get a scholarship to study Russian citizens in America from official articles of the children). Great Britain remained, London is a rather expensive city, but nevertheless I wanted a certain independence and independence. In Scotland, life is much cheaper, and the programs are in no way inferior to English. My university has campuses in Scotland and in England.

- And here you are in the city of Paisley at the University of the West of Scotland ... What does your regular school day look like?

- Surprised, but we study only 3 times a week, for a maximum of 4 hours. Something like this goes like this (don't forget, I am a programmer after all, on other specialties everything is different):

10 am - 12 am - the first lecture, say, Data Mining and Visualization.

Just a lecture on child pornography. Yes, the British love to discuss issues that cause resonance in society, not ashamed.

12 am - 1 pm - lunch time. Alternatively, you can go to the university canteen - eat a sandwich or some hot superfood spicy Indian dish (Indians and Pakistanis left a huge imprint on the national dishes of Scotland, one of them - chicken tikka masala - with just this word my stomach shudders This is a dish of spaaaysi). Well, or run home, which I did, and cheaper and more useful. Fortunately, the university dormitory stands on the perimeter of the campus. My journey to the house takes 1-2 minutes, depending on how much the lecture tired me.

In each lab, there are two monitors behind a desktop, on one you open a task, on the second you program.

1 pm - 3pm - we sit in the laboratory and do some task, a small tutorial is always attached, let's say, a couple of examples and an explanation of how to use a neural network in the R programming language, and then this task itself. We are given a maximum week to send the job. That is, we understand the laboratories with the tutorial, ask if the assistant lecturer needs questions, and then, if we don’t have time to start or complete the task, we take the house and finish it ourselves. As a rule, at the lecture we listen to the introductory part, for which, for example, we need a neural network, we are already using our skills in the laboratory.

- Are there any special features in training specifically in your specialty? Do you have group projects?

- Usually in the Masters of Scotland do not pass exams, but for some reason this rule did not apply to experts on large data. And we had to pass two exams in Data Mining and Visualization, as well as Artificial Intelligence. Basically, we report group projects of just 2-3 people.

Passed exams at a basketball stadium.

The most interesting project in which I was able to participate is the creation of a mobile application, as the final project on the subject of Mobile Networks and Smartphone Application. Having no experience in the Java programming language, as well as experience in a team as such, I gathered a group of 2 excellent programmers (they had a lot of projects submitted) and me. I acted not only as a designer (creating a logo, a general concept), but also as a developer, having programmed (thanks to Google and YouTube) a couple of cool features. This project was not only about how to program, he also taught us to work in a team and listen to each of its members. After all, only 2 weeks we thought what to start doing, facing every time with all sorts of bugs.

- Great experience! The ability to work in a team is a big plus for a future career. But let's go back to the very beginning ... Was it difficult for you to enter a university? What was required of you at all?

- It was necessary to pass one exam - IELTS, at least - 6.0 for each item. From the previous university, in my case from the Physics Department, take 2 recommendations from teachers and write for the university in writing 5 questions (like “Why do you want to study at our university”, “Why Scotland?” ..). Having received the proposal from the university, you need to answer it and pay the deposit, then they send CAS - a piece of paper with which you can go to the British embassy to make a student visa.

Then you can look for scholarships and funds that can pay for some part of the training or all the training (although this is probably more difficult) and send applications. On the page of each fund or organization has all the information and deadlines. In this case, the principle “the more the better”. One organization will refuse, another will agree. Google will help with the search (something like “scottish scholarship for international students”). But again - it is better to do in advance. And yes, there are almost no restrictions on age.

My university.

- These 2 paragraphs seem to be very easy, but behind them lies a large and painstaking work! You're doing fine! Tell me a little about the place where you live now.

- I live in a student dormitory. The hostel itself is located around the perimeter of the university campus, so it takes from 1 to 5 minutes to reach any audience or laboratory. The hostel is an apartment with two rooms, a joint toilet and a kitchen. The rooms are large and quite spacious with a bed, a table, bedside tables, chairs and a wardrobe (I even had my own mini-room under the dressing room - I was just lucky).

My room.

The kitchen is also spacious with a table, chairs, a large kitchen surface and a sofa. By the way, on which friends of my neighbor often stayed for 3-4 days, a sort of Scottish friendship) At a cost, of course, it is more expensive if you look for apartments on the campus rather than outside it, but then there will be a question with neighbors and electricity bills and water.

A photo of my hostel made from a university building.

- What are the prospects after graduation? How do you see your way further?

- I remember when I entered the Moscow State University at the Faculty of Physics above the selection committee hung a poster “The best faculty of the best university in the country”, going around the corner to the selection committee of the VMC (Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics), but about the same poster hung. On the websites of universities that English, that Scottish is almost the same: fast job search, space salaries, etc.

I haven’t found a job yet, or rather I haven’t been involved in the search, as I still have to defend my dissertation (we have three summer months for this, and the defense itself in September. In September last year I started studying, the magistracy lasts 1 year). I want to say that the prospects depend only on you and only in a small percentage of the selected university. Finding a job, writing a thesis, preparing for interviews, internships - these are my plans for the near future.

- Do you plan to return to Russia later?

- You know, probably studying abroad gave me the most important thing - this feeling at home in all parts of our huge planet. And the second is that I have penetrated to everything Russian and I try to support and use Russian technologies and innovations as actively as possible, including Telegram (@Scottish_pie), where I lead my channel about Scotland.

Being young and active, I want to see as many countries as possible and get as much experience in communicating and working with foreigners as possible. Their outlook and worldview change their attitude to life. Behind me, I noticed that I had become much kinder and not so categorical in communicating with people, I try not to “cut one size fits all”.

Do I plan to return to Russia? - Of course, my parents and friends are here; I cannot refuse Russia, in a country where my childhood was, my first love, and many merry situations.

- Well, then, I hope, see you :) Have you noticed that you have become kinder ... Felt some other changes in yourself after 9 months in another country?

- At the moment, it seems to me that some kind of spiritual channel has opened in me, or communication with the Hindus (they are super benevolent!) Influenced me so (all the chakras are aah, joke), or far from my family, where you are left to yourself, being closed and dissatisfied with life is not at all comme il faut. Mom says (heh, wherever without her) that I have become calmer and kinder, and more independent. I did not place great expectations on my personal development, as well as on the super-fast job search — everything is still in a slow, but process. But this is, of course, a colossal experience of being alone in a foreign country and overcoming difficulties, without which no undertaking can do without) But this is already in another article :)

- Yes! Good luck with your thesis and job search! We will wait for the continuation of the story.