Anu Shrestha, a Ph.D. Student with an emphasis in Computer Science, is interning this summer remotely for The Climate Corporation located in San Francisco, California as a part of the Data and Analytics Team. The Climate Corporation works to bring innovative solutions to Farmers to record data that reveals insights that optimize their farming practices. “My research focuses on data-driven interpretation and detection of misinformation on the web and social media leveraging social network analysis, machine learning, and deep learning-based approaches.” AgTech is a growing Industry where work priorities shift swiftly and dynamically. As an Intern Data Scientist for the Climate Corporation Anu is currently investigating how people assess the credibility of online information when provided varying granularity of information utilizing machine learning models on social media data.
Even though the work is remote, the interns are still able to interact with one another as well as with company leaders during the weekly ‘Chat and Learn’ sessions where they can discuss the Benchmarking initiative project which Anu has been working on. “This benchmarking model involves validators that range from statistical models to the models that add complexity from machine learning models to neural networks for crop yield prediction leveraging the factors that are responsible for improving production.”
Anu’s internship is helping advance her career, giving her real-life industry experience in data science and machine learning. “It was an awesome feeling when I was able to collaborate and contribute to the team by providing important feedback on the machine learning pipeline.” Anu has gained valuable experience in “multiple team collaboration, communications, and project management along with hands-on experience…[and] technical skills like cloud technologies and agile methodologies.”
Anu found the internship on Linkedin and was called in for a round of 3 interviews by a recruiter. “The first one was a phone interview by [a] University Recruiter about my general background information, including my interest, research field, skills, and prior experiences as well as providing me the background of the company and the nature of the internship. Then, the second interview was about coding challenges and questions from the data science, machine learning, and computer science domain as a part of the technical round. Finally, the last round of the interview was behavioral and problem-solving questions conducted by team members including my supervisor.”
Anu admired the way her team adapted to swift and dynamic shifts in work priorities to align with company goals. It was “inspiring that the team welcomed and considered the ideas and recommendations of each member, as they believed in today’s idea will spawn tomorrow’s product.” Anu believes her valuable experience at The Climate Corporation will help her move forward in the work she is doing with her research team at Boise State.
Anu admired the way her team adapted to swift and dynamic shifts in work priorities to align with company goals. It was “inspiring that the team welcomed and considered the ideas and recommendations of each member, as they believed in today’s idea will spawn tomorrow’s product.” Anu believes her valuable experience at The Climate Corporation will help her move forward in the work she is doing with her research team at Boise State.