Tabassum’s Introduction

Introduction

Author

Tabassum Zaman

Published

May 17, 2024

This is my favorite part THE INTRODUCTION. The ‘Why’ of this will answer my commitment for DSPG program and gratitude to be able to spend my summer with you all bright minds.

On the first day, while we were having this little personality test for grouping in My Creative Type I got THE ADVENTURER

Although entirely it can’t be true, but part of it is. I am very enthusiastic about learning new things and that definitely feeds my soul, but I also want it ALL, so focus has been a problem in terms of learning. That is why I am here to use this time in a focused why to learn the use of Data and present it ways to influence decision.

My identity

Country

I, Tabassum Zaman, come from a Southasian country named “Bangladesh”. Which has got some amazing stories to tell people about itself to tell the world. But I will keep it short today to be focused on the objective of this blog.

Bangladesh with its surrounding countries

A view of Dhaka city (capital of Bangladesh)

Acamedics

Department: Community and Regional Planning

Program: Masters

Institution: Iowa State University

I completed my undergrad in ‘Urban and Regional Planning’ from my dream university in Bangladesh which was ‘BUET [Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology]’. I have been always interested in the Transportation problem surrounding me, may be because that’s all I saw. But with time as I am exploring more, I am finding my new interested areas in spatial problems like, housing, accessibility. I am hoping to be focused down in a very near future, as I finished up my semester of masters program this Spring 2024.

My Undergrad Convocation from BUET in Urban and Regional Planning

What got me into Data Science

After completing my undergrad I had the opportunity to work in the real world for more than a couple of years, in transportation, health care and commodity industry back home. There I got to know the power of data and story telling. You can influence decision through your stories but it has to be backed by data and presented in a comprehensible format and your one little presentation can really changes lives. I can go on giving a number of examples to show how it has motivated me, but I will stop here, and keep my Focus.

So, my encounter of Data Science is through excel (you can do a lot of stuff there too) and for spatial one if through GIS (Geographic Information System). I know some basics of SQL, R, Python, but not enough to score good in quiz. But I am betting on my time here and the aim is to have the most productive time this summer 2024 and see the result after 10 weeks. I will come back to share the updates!

My Leisure

I do not really have any particular talents apart from the academics one, but apart from sleep and watching tv, I love a good conversation of getting to know new people, good food, some cooking, travelling, a little bit of gardening and reading fictions. Pretty ordinary things!

Concluding with

Skills I value about myself

My motivation to navigate through situations and being proactive. Although this is a soft skill and it has been proven helpful for me over the time. Specially when I look that the growth of myself. I am amazed by me!!!
To mention about hard skill, I am good at analyzing data through excel, spatial data on GIS, presentations through story telling, Data visualization and making dashboards, video editing and writing a little bit.

Skills to learn & improve.

Language R, Data Visualization in Tableau, Working seamlessly with Git
Learning through training and then improvement through practicing with some real data sets/ projects.

Wanted to end with a quote from Roy T. Bennett