It’s been a long walk. I came here and suddenly felt the urge to write. I have read some previous posts and shocked with the mistakes and typos. I promise to focus and improve my writing. I am quite sure that it’s getting better and better. But I still have to read and review before posting. At least so you don’t have a hard time or misunderstand my point.
Today I am a research scholar. I am carrying a research project that proposed 4 months ago. I have always dreamed of doing what I am doing today. I wanted to explore on my own. My final year project was my chance to live a dream of growth beyond restrictions. I have been advised not to take a research-based project and not to propose my own topic. I did exactly the opposite. Not because I didn’t care of the advice, though I am stubborn to some point. But I believed that each has a unique experience. Those friends have gotten screwed for some reasons. I don’t think I want to get into their position. But if I have the options to pick my own title so be it.
For the last 7 months before my project, I was spending my time learning new skills. I have taken the python specialization courses. And did a number of pilot testing to test the feasibility of some projects. I know I end up doing something totally different. But without the journey of trying and exploring and testing, I may not be so confident. My interest in text classification and data mining gave me so much fun coding and learning. Among the most interesting and joyful experiences I had were learning to parse texts using python.
After that, I almost hit plateau and couldn’t get comfortable with any of the ideas I was running with. I have decided to read projects from hong kong university and UTAR. They didn’t give me the push I want. After that, I have shifted my attention to Stanford University. I have read most of the projects for the last 3 years. And that was a hit. I got caught by the projects and the variety of problems they counter. And from there I started recognizing the pattern and how the projects were formulated.
One day, I was search and surfing around datasets. And I got drowned with many datasets, but only one got into my head; Tuberculosis dataset. I directly contacted the national Library of medicine and got access to the dataset. Right after that, I knew what I wanted to do and what my project will be. It was crazy and extraordinary move. Rarely a student will propose a research project in this University. Not because nobody can, but because everyone wanna play it safe. Safety wasn’t in my head. How I can be safe if I have learned to do something better and preferred not to ? that wasn’t safety but fear, that’s how I perceived it. I have promised myself to be derived with passion, cause, and love.
I still have 4 months more in my research. I am determined to give it my all and publish my work in a Journal or conference. I will do that on the right time. For now, I have to make sure I produce a good work.
The Voyager 