My name is Zeinab Bakhtiarinoodeh and I am a senior data scientist at TomTom. On my daily job I leverage machine learning and mathematical modelling to turn data into a story that helps my colleagues to make better data-driven decisions.
I have born and raised in Tehran, Iran. As a kid, I always wanted to become an astronaut. I was crazy about the sky and stars. I could sit for hours staring at the sky. Once I saw a documentary on TV showing how astronauts live in the space station. Even thinking about floating around weightless made me throw up, so I gave up to be an astronaut. But I never gave up understanding the universe and that’s the reason I fell in love with Mathematics. Mathematics is all about intuition and creative thinking, a tool to explain the universe. My role model was Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman who won the Fields medal, the most prestigious award in the field of mathematics. I knew her when I was in high school and she was my hero, a successful female Mathematician. I wanted to become like her. I studied Mathematics and got Master degree in Pure Mathematics from University of Tehran, Iran.
In the fall of 2014, I set off to France to seek my fortune. I got admitted for a Ph.D. position in Computer Science and Logic. A new exciting journey started! It was not always rainbows and sunshines. It was new culture, new country and an entire new world in front of me to discover. It was scary and sometimes I was thinking I am not smart enough to cross the finish line. Then I realised no matter how fast or slow I’m progressing, by writing my Ph.D. thesis I am writing my FUTURE! That was so exciting and helped me to stay motivated till the end.
Towards the end of my Ph.D. I noticed I am enjoying doing research but it is not satisfactory enough. I wanted to feel like my research is really contributing to the wider world. I started to take online courses, read articles and understand better what I am actually looking for. Then I had the “Huh” moment: “I want to be a Data Scientist and not only a scientist”.
Data Science is a field of understanding data, turning data into a story, a remarkable insight. Here at TomTom I have the opportunity of making contributions to real life challenges by exploring data and apply Mathematics and Machine Learning. Data Scientists are superheroes, extracting insights from data to help businesses to make better decision and get closer to their customers. Well, who doesn’t want to be a superhero? 🙂
Zeinab Bakhtiari 