My Journey: From Mechanical Engineering to Machine Learning.
A brief intro about me: I am a mechanical engineer with 3.5 years of experience in the field of CAE / FEA.
It all started 1 year back when I was having a career-related discussion with one of my friends. At that time, I was preparing for UPSC (it’s an exam which after qualifying all the stages, you get top posts in government services) along with a full-time job.
I was a product design engineer (in the automobile domain) in my last company and slowly I shifted my career towards CAE (my role in current company). CAE is really a fascinating field where you apply real mechanical engineering to find out if the product will fail in given surrounding conditions. You apply a real-world scenario on the part which has been designed by the design department and check if it will fail or not. CAE is a field where you actually apply what you have studied in mechanical engineering (e.g. Heat transfer, random vibrations, Thermodynamics, Fluid mechanics, Strength of materials, etc all you need to apply to do a CAE simulation). Other departments like production or quality don't have real mechanical engineering applications as CAE/FEA has.
Despite all the positive aspects this field has, I was not happy with my career. Since the inception of my career, I always wanted to do something new, something which can really boost up my career. I think, to get success in your career, you have to love what you do. And of course, I was not loving what I was doing; and that is why I was preparing for UPSC; so that I can cope up with my current situation. But one year back, that discussion with my friend changed everything. That was the moment when Machine learning, Data Science, and Artificial intelligence came into the picture. He was a Computer science engineer and was really passionate about coding and programming. He told me that, if you really want to go with technology, you should choose the field of Data science, machine learning, and Artificial intelligence. That was it…..!!!!!
Later I came home and enquired about these topics on the internet, and I was really curious to know more about this field. It was really fascinating for me being from Mechanical background. How a computer program can take decisions, how can it predict things based on past learning, how can it defeat world champions in games; these questions were really fascinating and interesting for me. After a long time, I was enjoying what I was reading. I kept on enquiring about these topics on the internet, discussed with my friends, asked about these topics to my boss (who is really a very helpful person; and I wish everyone gets a boss like him). And finally, after a month, I took the decision. I choose the field of Machine learning over my domain (CAE).
Now the real challenge was, how do I proceed??? I had no prior knowledge of programming and computer science. I was trying to learn something which was not my domain. Somehow I started learning Python. I was not able to understand most of the things, but somehow I continued. To keep things on track, I was parallelly writing the code while reading theory. The same I would like to suggest to anyone who is a beginner in coding. Never rely on theory. Keep applying what you are studying and the output of your code will give you real satisfaction. Sometimes, a beginner may find it difficult to grasp things. My suggestion to them is, don't get stuck there, just move ahead on the next topic; you can come to that topic later. And things are interrelated in programming i.e. you can move ahead if you are not able to understand a certain topic, and you may understand the previous topic with the help of the next topic. It happened with me and it may happen to you. There is a famous saying, “you can’t complete a book if you are stuck on the same page. Just move ahead to the next page and at a later point of time, you can come back to that page”.
Once I felt comfortable (not an expert) with python, I moved to Machine learning. And trust me, things were not easy. I was doing this with a full-time job and without any programming background. For the initial few weeks, I grasped absolutely nothing!!! But I never gave up. I kept on reading books and watching lectures. After 2 months, I was getting an idea of how things work in ML. And that was it!!! I was implementing in code whatever I was studying. Was making notes, was googling every small doubt I had (I still have many).
Now, It was time for me to apply my learnings into practical application. That’s where kaggle came into the picture. I registered for a couple of competitions and successfully did it!!!! This success gave me a lot of confidence and now I can tell, “Yes, I have learned a bit about ML and Data science on my own. Yes, I am a Mechanical engineer who is exploring the world of machine learning and Artificial intelligence”.
Now, I am trying to connect the field of CAE/FEA with Machine learning and AI. Long way to go…!!! A lot more to learn…!!!! I am just a small fish in this ocean who is trying to find its way where big and experienced fishes are dominating!!!!! Thanks for reading.
Edit 1: At the time when I was writing this article, I was still learning data science. After all the hard work and late-night sleep, finally I successfully shifted my career to data science. And It’s been around more than 10 months since I am fully working on AI and Machine learning.
Edit 2 (June 2023): Its been 4 years in AI field now. Worked in companies like Capgemini, EY. Currently in working with Deloitte.
Hit clap if you find this article interesting. Below you can find the link to my other blog which captures how you can start your journey with Machine learning.
