Meet A Data Scientist: Dr. Catherine Nelson
Data Circles is excited to present the next entry in our new series, “Meet A Data Scientist!”
“Meet a Data Scientist” is dedicated to recognizing the amazing women powering the Puget Sound area’s data science community, spotlighting their journey into the field, their incredible accomplishments, and the weighty challenges that they faced along the way. This lies at the heart of Data Circles’ mission of inspiring women to enter the data science field by showcasing its many incredible role models.
Do you know any marvelous women in data science? Send us a tip here!
Dr. Catherine Nelson, Senior Data Scientist at SAP Concur Labs, describes how she took a break from geosciences, taught herself data science, and started her first job as a data scientist soon after.
Five years ago, Dr. Catherine Nelson was working as a geoscientist in the oil and gas industry. If someone had told her then that she would have a bright future in the technology sector as a data scientist, she would have probably laughed at them incredulously. Today, she is a senior data scientist at SAP Concur Labs where she enjoys finding new applications of machine learning for the company to use. Moreover, she loves contributing to the data science community by way of organizing events in the local scientific communities, speaking at conferences, and even publishing a book.
Dr. Nelson’s academic journey started across the Atlantic, where she completed her doctorate in Geosciences at Durham University, England. Soon after, Dr. Nelson began working for Cairn Energy as a Geoscientist, where she analyzed geophysical data to find the best places to drill for oil. This experience helped her develop a good intuition about data, and taught her to always ask questions about its lineage, such as “where is the data coming from?”, “what biases exist in the data?”, and “how is the data being collected?” After three years at Cairn, she moved to the United States and started the hunt for an exciting new career.
“If you’re getting started in data science, you don’t need to learn about every topic in the same amount of detail. There’s an overwhelming amount to learn - pick the areas that are most exciting to you!”
Given her experience in data analysis, she decided to transition to data science, but her biggest hurdle was in learning to code as she had always used pre-written software to analyze geoscience data. Never one to shy away from learning something new, Catherine scoured online resources to teach herself how to write programs in Python, taking courses at Udacity which provided her an effective mix of short lectures and worksheets, which suited her learning style.
Being new to the field, she also taught herself machine learning, starting with Andrew Ng’s Stanford course via Coursera. Dr. Nelson claims that simply taking online courses weren’t the most important part of her learning experience, however. She stresses that once she finished an online course, she would immediately start hacking on a project of interest, allowing her to practice and cement her newly-won skills. At the time, she didn’t share her work on LinkedIn or other social media forums, but she has since grown to appreciate the power of doing so. Consequently, she encourages all practitioners to create content around their work to share with the data science community, such as in Medium articles.
After a rigorous period of self-directed learning, Dr. Nelson got her first job as a data scientist at SAP Concur by way of an acquaintance that she met at a Pyladies Meetup in Seattle. Eventually, she moved to her current team of nine at SAP Concur Labs, which includes designers, developers, and data scientists. Together, they evaluate new technologies that can address the needs of business travelers and customers of SAP Concur Labs, testing technologies like Slack, Alexa, and Outlook. Additionally, they experimented with technologies that allow users to upload mileage data directly from their vehicle or calculate the carbon footprint of their business travel. As a result, Dr. Nelson finds enjoyment in her work because she is always learning something new. Further still, her team is encouraged to experiment and is given liberty to fail more often than is typically allowed in traditional engineering teams so as to foster interesting and novel solutions.
“I have met so many wonderful data scientists through local groups like Data Circles, and I’ve learned a ton from them!”
Naturally, Dr. Nelson is actively involved and invested in women-in-technology communities, like the aforementioned PyLadies and Women in Data Science (WiDS). Since she is the only woman on her team, she treasures these communities as they provide an alternative to the often male-dominated tech industry, in addition to giving her a space to connect with other women to discuss challenges in the workplace. Furthermore, Dr. Nelson is especially involved in organizing events for these communities, both as a co-organizer of Pyladies and the WiDS data science conference. Within SAP Concur Labs, she also provides support for prospective women coworkers by advocating changes to the content of job descriptions that are advertised by her team, ensuring that they do not include restrictive criteria demanding a minimum number of years of experience, experience in specific tools, or terms like “rockstar” that are proven to drive women candidates away from these roles.
“The most helpful thing in my career journey has been saying yes to opportunities.”
As Dr. Nelson looks to the near future, she is excited to continue learning about new applications of data science and machine learning in the areas of finance and privacy, but refrains from exhaustively planning her career trajectory so that she has the space to discover new opportunities organically. An example of this is her chance encounter with her co-author, Hannes Hapke, at a conference which led to a productive professional partnership and the aforementioned book due to be published in September 2020. In light of her experiences, Dr. Nelson encourages women in the field to engage in more community events, and to say yes to opportunities, even if these opportunities lie outside their comfort zone.