Hey there! I am Nelson from Singapore, a student at National University of Singapore (NUS). After an amazing internship at a startup company, I am aspiring to become a solutions architect. I have a keen interest in cloud infrastructure, machine learning and frontend web development, as DevOps, data analytics, software development need to go hand-in-hand to create useful, production-ready technology for businesses to thrive. As a business student, my life purpose is to develop useful applications that can be integrated with operations to create business value.
I strongly believe that students should always strive to learn skills that are not taught in school, as technology is always evolving. That being said, I am grateful for the opportunities that NUS and Residential College 4 have provided for me — a community of learners, connections and resources.
Over the past 2 years, I took part in numerous technology-related competitions ("Hackathons") such as the CIMB 3D Conquest and AWS Build On 2019, as I believe these experiences teach me skills that cannot be learnt in school. Furthermore, I take pride in personal projects, and I am currently learning React to create a fullstack web application as my personal website.
I spent much of my free time learning programming languages and cloud technologies. Here's what I learnt so far!
For the past 2 years, I have had many amazing experiences in NUS. Here is a timeline of my most significant milestones:
I used Python to automate the data analytics pipeline for the Customer Service teams to create the daily report for reporting to senior management for decision making.
I learnt how to write production-ready code for the Spark server using object-oriented programming. As my job involved mainly querying data from Salesforce and writing data to Google Spreadsheets, I am familiar with their API.
Carigos was experimenting with the possibility of automating the process of handling customer enquiries on WhatsApp with the help of a chatbot. I developed and tested several SaaS such as Amazon Lex, Verloop and Snatchbot. I successfully integrated the data pipelines with Airtable, our CRM, with the help of Zapier.
I also experimented with live dashboards with PowerBI and Tableau. I later discovered Metabase after attending a Stashaway Data Science talk, and introduced it to the team at a Brown Bag Session. It was later taken up by the CTO and CPO to track the user metrics by connecting to our Google Analytics account.
My biggest takeaway from this internship was learning about how to tailor a web platform to meet the needs of the operations team. My experience includes observing how customers behave on our website (Inspectlet), conducting User Acceptance Testing, automating workflows (Zapier, Front and Cognito Forms), using Amazon Web Services (devOps), learning about React (frontend), Spring Framework (backend).
My role initially started off as an ad-hoc project. I was tasked to create a predictive analytics model by Associate Professor Jussi Keppo. Eventually, I was hired as a Research Assistant. My work revolves around grading assignments and applying machine learning to econometric models.
I learnt a lot about how theory is put into practice under Professor Jussi, but unfortunately due to privacy requirements I cannot reveal any more.
NUS BACT was my first foray into the realm of data analytics and coding. BACT under Ganesh encouraged independent learning, which suited my style. Peng Seng's resources were extremely helpful in particular, and I was inspired by how much the senior members knew. This experience shaped my learning philosophy, as I believe that you don't need someone to teach you; just someone to point you in the right direction.
I became Secretary/Treasurer for AY18/19, together with President Ting Wei and my fellow RA Alex Leong as Vice-President. Our exco's style was to find the right balance of teaching and "doing" by incorporating teaching sessions, followed by group projects in Semester 2. Although I preferred Ganesh's style, having more guidance helped newer members from being lost.
Being a freshman is tough. New to university and straight out of army, I could not get accustomed to university life. RC4 changed this. My friends at RC4 inspired me to become a better person — to work hard, to socialise more, and participate in events. They are great companions when I feel like a disappointment, and in small achievements.
By living with others, you can see how they live their lives, and in doing so, your beliefs about your own way of living are challenged. When I stayed with my family, I lived in a bubble. Now I know what it is like to truly live a meaningful life.
Besides the tangible benefits, RC4 is a really fun place to be in. The late night suppers, chatting over breakfast/dinner, going out to Clementi after a long week, going to JB. There is never a dull moment.
I will always remember that RC4 is home to me.