‘If you study data science, you won’t limit your choice of career in the future’

When Angeline Jayanegara was in school, she loved drawing and dreamt about becoming a fashion designer. After high school, her passion for fashion saw her move from her home country Indonesia to Singapore, to study fashion design. But after graduation, she decided to study more and a completely new field, Data Science, at Aalto University in Finland.

Already as a school kid, Angeline liked mathematics, and in high school, she represented her school in the International Mathematical Olympiad. ‘I like solving problems. Finding solutions to them makes me feel good.’

Now, she is a second-year student in the Aalto University’s Bachelor Program in Data Science. The Aalto data science students obtain the required skills to solve real-world problems using algorithm design, machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistical inference, operations research, and optimization.

Data science is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on the study of scientific methods used to extract knowledge from data and build models that cope with complex problems. It employs techniques and theories drawn from the broad areas of mathematics, statistics, information sciences, and computer science.

Next year when Angeline will start working on her Bachelor’s Project, she hopes to find a project in which she could use data to study fashion or color trends, for example. In the future, she would like to work as a data scientist in the fashion industry. ‘Nowadays, we can find data everywhere, so if you study data science, you won’t limit your choice of career in the future. You can extract data in any field.’

She wants to do also her Master’s at Aalto, in the Master’s Program in Machine Learning, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. ‘It will give me the best foundation to work in data science. The world becomes more and more digitalized and almost an infinite amount of data will be available in the future.’

Finland is a worry-free country for students

During the first one and half years of her studies, Angeline has learned a lot about programming and mathematics. What she likes about Aalto in particular, is the support provided by the teaching staff and fellow students. The free help center Laskutupa helps students taking any mathematics courses at Aalto University. Students can also get additional help for studying programming.

Many types of activities take place on the Otaniemi campus and the facilities for studying are good, too. ‘When you want to study, you can go to any library. The environment is a big plus to me,’ Angeline explains.

Because the university is very international, one can easily make friends with people from across the globe and of different ages. That helps in building your network, Angeline points out.

Initially, she wanted to study in Finland because she had heard that Finland has one of the best education systems in the world and is a safe country to live in. After living in Finland for a couple of years, she still thinks that way.

‘I would recommend studying in Finland because it’s a safe country for teenagers and students, and people are honest. You don’t need to worry as much as in some other countries.’

Angeline currently lives in Helsinki, which means that she frequently travels from Helsinki to Espoo where the Aalto University campus locates. ‘I really like the public transport here. It is very easy to commute to any place in Helsinki, Espoo, or Vantaa.’

If she moved away from Finland, she would miss picking berries and mushrooms in the Finnish forests. The Everyman’s Right guarantees that anyone can do so free of charge. ‘I would also miss the snow and the northern lights in Lapland, and the environment that allows me to be freely who I am.’

Study Data Science at Aalto University! The application period is open from January 7 until January 20, 2021Want to learn more about living and studying in Finland? Read this article!