Binyam Yilma

Welcome friends!

My name is Binyam Yilma, and I am currently a 2nd year student at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. My study focus is on Biostatistics within Public Health, and Comparative Effectiveness and Outcomes Research.

I love running, cooking, watching good films, chocolate, jazz and Data Science!

This is me!

Data Science & Me

My first ever job was as a dish washer, as a freshman in college. I then worked as caterer, as a server, as well as a cook in a lodge - a (not so) fast food like place in my alma mater. I also worked as a TA, as an RA, and as a summer camp counselor, before finally closing out my college years as a research assistant in a microbiology lab. White coat, gloves, goggles and all that. For 3 years after college, I worked as a research assistant. First, in a biotech lab at Dartmouth College, then at oncology/functional precision medicine lab in Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). Of all these jobs, the most fun was the summer camp counselor position, for obvious reasons. The most satisfying was the one at DFCI - the idea that what I worked on may go on to impact patients lives one day was deeply gratifying. None of these positions, howver, have engaged and challenged me as did my role as a Data Scientist, first at an internship at Roche Pharmaceuticals and then at Medidata Institute. I fell for data science, not because I was immediately good at it (was not) but percisely because it engaged and challenged me the most. And so, here I am, trying to do data science stuff that, hopefully, will be impactful, especially in the healthcare space.  

Anyway, here are some links I find useful as a junior Data Scientist:
1 - The caret package
2 - P8105