Data Science: Innovating in Medicine and Marketing

Learn about the cases of two students whose professional profile has been strengthened by studying the Master's degrees in Data Science and Business Intelligence at the Galileo University, despite the fact that their undergraduate careers are far from data science.

Data Science and Business Intelligence are two sciences whose demand and interest continues to increase within the industry, since their objective is to improve the decision making of a company to increase profits or reduce costs.

About these areas, the Institute in Operations Research Galileo University offers two Master's degrees:

• Master in Data Science
• Master in Business Intelligence and Analytics 

Increasingly, these programs are attracting the attention of people who are interested in strengthening their professional profiles with specializations in data science, despite the fact that their undergraduate careers are far from areas of study such as calculus, statistics and programming.

We spoke with the doctor and surgeon Juan Pablo Carranza Hurtado, who is studying the Master in Data Science, and the publicist Omar Eduardo Martínez Villeda, who is a student of the Master in Business Intelligence and Analytics, about their experiences in these specializations.

Another article that may interest you: Galileo University forms the first INFORMS Student Chapter in Latin America. 

From medicine to data analysis

Juan Pablo Carranza is a doctor and surgeon, and his profession has taken an important turn. He is currently studying Master in Data Science at Galileo University and works as a data analyst for a company in the United States.

His interest in data science arose during the development of his thesis, in which, together with a group of 45 students, they collected a large amount of information through 2,000 interviews. In this research he learned the value of data management.

“After my graduation as a doctor and surgeon, I found the Master in Data Science from Galileo University. I did not know if they would accept me because I do not have a strong knowledge base in mathematics and statistics, as engineers have, ”recalls Juan Pablo.

"I interviewed him Institute in Operations Researchand they were very honest with me. They told me that the program would be difficult for me, but that it was not impossible to learn, so they recommended courses to be as close as possible to the level of the other students, before starting the first term ”, he adds.

Currently, Juan Pablo works in a company in the United States that is dedicated to Home Improvement. The model for managing the business is focused on technology and automation.

“In my work I make queries to the databases and I maintain the dashboards of the company. In addition, I focus on more structural tasks, focused on data engineering, such as taking the data from a place, such as excel or google sheets in external systems, and integrating them into a single warehouse, and thus, analyzing it ”, he comments.

You have also had the opportunity to implement some computer vision models in your work. 

“The company is focused on putting up wooden fences, and it has different styles. We have a fence style prediction model, using the cell phone. I worked on the part of designing the model, a neural network to solve it. I learned all this in the Master's Degree ”, affirms Juan Pablo. 

His long-term goal is to continue specializing in scientific research, especially in the area of Artificial Intelligence and data science.

“This has a lot of applicability in the field of medicine. I would like to design predictive models for use in hospitals and clinics. I think that what is learned in Master in Data Science it is a basis for what the world will be like in a few years ”, he concludes.

Data intelligence in advertising

In the case of Omar Martínez, trends in his area of work within advertising and marketing motivated him to study the Master in Business Intelligence and Analytics.

“The ecosystem in the quantitative area of marketing has changed. Before it looked something more creative and less scientific, now this topic is immersed in analysis topics such as defining KPIs and metrics, and creating dashboards ”, he comments.

Omar began studying online courses about business intelligence tools, until he found an ad on social media about the Master in Business Intelligence and Analytics Galileo University.

Currently, Omar works for an agency based in Chicago, United States, in which the CEO has the vision of creating specific processes for clients that involve technological advances such as automation and machine learning, among others.

“We have a client who is a pet food brand. This one has the strongest campaign is Display. I used one of the Master's projects, about computer vision, to obtain specific factors and identify types of images that have the best impact on campaigns ”, he shares. 

He has also worked web scraping to keep customers up to date on the sales behavior and positioning of their products and those of the competition.

“I think the world is heading for this type of work, more specialized. I recommend this type of program because especially, when one comes from a different discipline, it adds more value because it not only strengthens the professional profile, it also changes the way of thinking ”, he concludes.

If you are interested in studying a specialization in Data Science or Business Intelligence and Analytics at Galileo University, enter here: Institute in Operations Research.

Text: GES Communication