Sajan Rai

Innovation and Creativity Produce Pipelines to Data Science Success

By: Emily Lewis

As data science evolves to process larger and more complex information, traditional methods become less effective. Solving big data challenges requires innovation and creativity.

“The Data and Information Management Program (DAIM) helped me comprehend some novel methods, algorithms, and processes of conducting data/text mining,” explained graduating DAIM student, Sajan Rai. “It also has helped me in information organization and retrieval, and information search behaviors in data-intensive environments such as social media. Analyzing big data sets from Twitter, New York Taxi, US Aviation and other sources while deriving meaningful facts and figures about the data was my favorite aspect of the program.”

Using Python and Apache Spark, Sajan developed several data pipelines to ingest, transform, analyze, and visualize data enabling automated systems and business users to take action. “The professors in the DAIM program assisted with the latest big data tools and technologies to develop an ETL process, make an analysis out of it, and visualize that data,” said Sajan. “I am really proud to be a part of this program; DAIM has prepared me for my future career.”

“With the knowledge and experience I have gained here; I think I am ready to compete in the real world,” stated Sajan.

As Sajan transitioned to a new school, a new program, and a new culture, he appreciated the support and hospitality he received from the University community, especially the professors. His experience magnifies the welcoming nature of Radford’s campus that enhances students’ educational process. “The feeling of being home away from home is what I enjoyed most about the campus,” he stated. “I found diversity in the culture, which I believe plays a vital role in luring a lot of international students.”

Sajan is grateful for many experiences at Radford that prepared him to thrive in new positions and adapt to technical and cultural challenges. “I am going to miss Radford and am proud to be a Highlander,” he said.

With graduation in sight, Sajan is searching for opportunities in data science. “I am a data enthusiast and I see myself working with huge data sets, cleaning the data all the time, analyzing the data and creating meaningful results,” he stated. “I look forward to seeing myself as a Data Engineer or a Data Scientist in the future.”