BS in Health Data Science Student
Major(s): Health Data Science and Informatics
Kyle Harris, a health data science student at the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, completed a data science internship with ClusterTruck, a one-of-a-kind delivery restaurant that delivers restaurant-quality food to people wherever they are.
He discovered this opportunity through an internship-pairing company called Xtern. The company matches students with the fastest-growing tech companies for a unique, immersive experience.
"I was really looking for new career opportunities to put my education to use," Kyle said. "I have learned so many great things through the Health Data Science program [and] was ecstatic to put that knowledge to use in a business setting."
At ClusterTruck, Kyle used analytical skills to conduct exploratory data analysis, looking for key insights that affect business decisions. He monitored the performance of existing machine learning models to ensure accurate predictions, and helped with the organization's day-to-day business intelligence needs through query and/or dashboard development.
Many of the skills he used during the internship were a direct result of the courses he'd taken in the HDS program.
"The programming and statistical methods I learned in the first two health data science classes impressed my employers," Kyle said. "Even in the first few weeks, I was surprised at how many techniques I could apply at my internship that I obtained from my first two classes."
The hackathons hosted within the HDS program have also helped Kyle, opening his eyes to many tools and exciting technologies that he now uses day-to-day. While he had much to offer his team at ClusterTruck, he believes the internship also gave him something in return.
"I believe my internship has given me so many things. When starting the internship, I was only vaguely familiar with the programming languages SQL and python. (By the end), I was able to evaluate a machine learning model that was built in python."
Kyle enjoyed gaining experience with python as it was something on his list of things to learn. Additionally, he gained so much experience with SQL that he can now write SQL queries that allow him to extract the exact type of data needed for any given analysis.
"ClusterTruck has further confirmed my aspirations and excitement to pursue the path of being a great data scientist."
To learn more about Kyle's internship, watch a short video about his experience.